Chutes Away by Gabriel - Sam's Toybox

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The Chutes Away Game is a very cool toy that is completely mechanical. Wind up the revolving target base, look through the view finder and try to drop the parachutes into the landing holes in the target. Made by Gabriel, it is item number 27330, dated 1978. Below the original version of the toy is the much more rare Night Rescue version, item number 20331 dated 1979. There is a small light on the bottom of the plane used to illuminate part of the landing field and the plane is a jet instead of a prop.

While not nearly as cool as Chutes Away, lots of parachutes and parachute toys are still available today--my favorite of which is probably the remote control paraglider by Outrageous International.


The game comes in a tremendously sturdy box. Mine is in pretty good physical shape with various creases and paper tears. The graphic is exceptional and the rest of the box is a bit faded.


The toy itself. I had to open the game to access the clockwork windup mechanism that spins the target field. A shot of WD-40 and it works just fine. The plane doesn't seem to reach the outside of the target field so no chance of dropping the chutes into those holes. Will fix it later if I can.


The control panel contains the "stick" to move the plane back and forth, the drop lever to release the chutes, and an on/off lever to stop and start the target. The chutes hang from the back of the plane and drop pretty well though the crosshairs are off by a bit and you have to wait until the target is passed to hit it. My toy came with nine chutes, only eight seem to fit on the plane at a time, and there are 10 target holes.

Chutes Away Night Rescue Plane and Chutes

Name:	Chutes Away
Manufacturer:	Gabriel
Vintage:	1978, 1979
Obtained:	From eBay.
Other Links:	Retroland's Chutes Away page Parachute Toys from Amazon.com
Look for it:	Search eBay Auctions - Current Search eBay Auctions - Completed

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Contact me: Sam Cancilla, sam@samstoybox.com.

Last Modified: August 15, 2007