Matchbox – PK-5 (40005) – Dassault-Breguet/Dornier Alpha Jet “Patrouille de France”

Description:

Dassault-Breguet/Dornier Alpha Jet
“Patrouille de France”

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a French-German Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet advanced trainer and light attack aircraft developed in the 70s.

Original Matchbox kit tooled in 1972. Initially, the kit was just named Dornier-Dassault Alpha Jet, but in the 1982 release, and despite the kit kept its code number PK-5, the kit was upgraded with new decals (including one marking for Patrouille de France), new parts and new box layout. In the next release, 1991, Patrouille de France title was introduced in the top box.

The two initial releases, sharing the box art below, in 1972 and 1973 also had differences in decal sheet, the original one, had two markings, one German and one French for the trainer prototype, but in 1973 decal sheet was updated, changing the German marking.

From 1982 to 1991 the decal sheet still included one German and one French marking, but they were totally different to the previous decals and introduced the French Aerobatic team decal.

The kit was released one more time in 1992, again changing decals but also updating code number, see 40053. It was released also under AMT brand, but never by Revell, who decided to use first Fujimi kit for the same topic and later Heller kit.