Matchbox Sky Busters

The Matchbox Sky Busters are a range of die-cast model aircraft produced under the Matchbox brand, initially by Lesney Products and later by Mattel.

The earlier Sky Busters were produced in 1973 from London, England. During the 1970s, Skybusters competed against Dyna-Flytes, produced by San Diego based Zee Toys.

Skybusters combined military and commercial aircraft models at their earlier stage. The United States Air Force, Air France, Federal Express, Lufthansa and QX Express were among the first brands to advertise with Skybusters. Some of the first Skybusters released were Learjet, Airbus A300, Boeing 747 and Corsair AD7 airplanes.

In 1976, the Skybusters line returned, at a time when the die cast airplanes market was largely dominated by Dyna-Flytes. The brand kept coming on and off the market until the 2000s, when Mattel decided to release the models each year. Currently, American Airlines, UPS, British Airways, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa and DHL are the only airline companies under contract with Skybusters (currently Delta Air Lines and United Airlines do not have a contract with Matchbox since the takeover of Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines, respectively), but jetliners are also released under fictional airline names, such as Matchbox Airlines (also called MBX Airways).