I had one of those, flew great, though a bit unpredictable... Coolest toy of my childhood, by far! Longest flight I had was about 15 minutes - flew about 1/4 mile away and landed in a field. I miss it.

Also around that time Mattel came out with tow-line park flyer foam gliders shaped like hawks. One was called ZOAR, remember that one?

Oh man! I feel like i just entered a time warp! Yes, at one time I had both the Superstar and the Zorr flying eagle. Superstar-a free flight airplane that did paterns in flight with control disk that moved the rudder. Mattel was so far ahead of it's time with toys like that. As the years went by I'm surprised no one picked up the idea, or that Mattel didn't re-issue it in production. They just don't make toys like that anymore.

I had Zoar too! I haven't been able to find anyone who even remembers it existed until coming to this site. Glad I'm not delusional (or at least not as much as I thought).

Yup - I was looking for info Zoar online for years. No one ever wrote about it. What a cool toy that was. Last year I saw someone selling one. It had photos of the box and everything. I grabbed the images off and kept them. Great stuff!

What great memories of the start of my passion for model planes. My brother and I both got Super Stars for Christmas in the early 70s. The ones with the little disc that controlled the flight path. I was younger than my brother and broke mine before we had a chance to maiden it. But we took my brothers to the town High School and flew it one time. It landed on the roof of the school and my father would not attempt to retrieve it. I would love to find one. I would probably pay stupid money for one

I also had a Super Star. Charged it with a lantern battery. Flew it without the disk,trimed for free flight. Also had a Zoar Eagle,tow up with a line whish I had this stuff now with the micro RC available. If available contact charleyetown@aol.com

So funny I stumbled upon this site. Was just thinking about it. When I was 10 I to had one of these. It was great, first flight in 20 mph winds, see ya later! Never found it but went on to RC and become commercial pilot! Awesome toy for it's time!

i owned the airplane too,..it flew so good,it flew out of sight, never found again! had the car too,it was relly cool toy, it had foam wheels ran off the same princple as the plane , by a disk,..it was one of the coolest toys i owned in the 70's

I had a Superstar too. The cam system never did work on mine so it was a true random free flight model (I trimmed it to go around in circles). I flew this plane a whole summer almost every day and repaired it dozens of times. It flew best without the landing gear and when I was lucky enough for it to catch a thermal, it would go pretty high(75-100 feet high). Eventually the bateries no longer held charge and it was to patched-up / heavy to fly.. It got me started in a lifetime hobby of flying model airplanes, I still do it regularly.

Back in the early 1970's I also had Zorr the flying eagle and the Superstar car. The car ran great. I would take it o my jr. high school parking lot and make many runs with it. After time the tires wore down and the battery would no longer work but I got alot of fun out of it. The Zorr flying eagle was very cool. Sometimes I had trouble getting it to take off but I had it setting on a small dirt hill in the park next to my house and the claws would catch the dirt and the clip would pop off. Using a small peice of smooth wood for a take off strip worked great. Once in the air it would really fly. If if flew high enough the gusts of wind would catch it and take it on a long flight. Not sure exactly what became of it. I think I lost it to a flight into a bunch of trees. I was good at repairing my toys but eventually zorr was to far gone to repair so I moved on to other gliders and flying toys. I did purchase and build one of the balsa wood models that would take a .049 engine and you flew it on a hand held line. I tried it a couple times and left it at my friends who built all kinds of remote planes. They took it out one day and were flying it in front of their house when the flight line snapped and the plane flew over their house and out of sight. Now I have a couple Zorr's. One MIB sealed and the other unused but has minor damage and missing the right half of the body. I really want to display one so if I do not find a donor Zorr soon I will most likely open the sealed box just to borrow the body part for display. Mattel made some very cool stuff in the early 70's.

I still have my Super Star car (with the discs)unfortunately the tires are long since gone and even have an extra motor from the remains of my Super Star plane crash, It was a great toy. I should find a collector some where and sell it since all it's doing is sitting in a box

Yes the Superstar items were great! I also owned an item which was based on the same rechargeable system with a 6 volt lantern battery but it was a "Motorcycle" that once charged would run on its own. This was early 1970's. I would really like to find out more info. regarding this toy. I think I had seen one on Ebay over the last few years. I am almost positive that it was called "Road Hog" or "The Road Hog". Every search I do brings up the RRRumblers Road Hog. This item may have only been produced for a short time. It was pretty cool but did not perform as well as the superstar car & Airplanes. Hoping to locate one somewhere.

i wish they would do a remake of it i would but a dozen of them best plane i ever had as a kid to the guy who still has one i'd buy it in a heartbeat

I owned a super star plane too, mine caught a thermal and it flew so hjgh, it basilly flew away!never seen again!they were pretty cool!

Ohhh man...favorite toy of my childhood! 1974 - coolest looking plane ever. Mine had some kind of defect where the motor never worked. I guess store return policies weren't so great back then, or else I was too impatient, so I just tossed it around and taped a string to the wing and flew it like a makeshift control-line flyer until it wore out. SO bummed they made it for only a short time; the flight disk system was really clever!

BEST TOY EVER, they should bring it back. The first ones didn’t have the parachute or streamers and retailed for about $10 – $12. We flew in a treeless park in Williamsville (Buffalo) NY, and occasionally at the SUNYAB campus, or Akron State Park; the cam discs that programmed rudder movements were cool, but if you didn’t insert one the rudder defaulted to a gentle right circle. The thing would occasionally end up in one of the tall trees in a surrounding neighborhood, whereupon my dad would attach a large steel nut to a length of twine, loop it over the branch, and yank until the plane fell free. The plane was remarkably tough (it was pretty light), you could buy replacement wings if the originals couldn’t be taped any more, but eventually the NiCads would wear out. I couldn’t sleep the night before my next birthday when I (correctly) guessed I’d be receiving a replacement. Can you imagine how great this would be if they DID bring it back with new battery tech?

The Mattel Superstar was my favorite when I was 11 or 12. The cams would direct the flight pattern in ovals, figure 8s, and release streamers and a parachutist! I flew it in the High School baseball field. Like other comments, the Superstar had one last Hurrah! I had it in a figure 8 pattern and it just kept climbing, about twice the height of a telephone pole! Then it just floated off in to the houses behind the school. We went looking for it and found it in someones front yard. It never took another charge! Too bad!

From 1973, Mattel Superstar came with four flight-plan discs, two streamers and one parachutist. On the original box, I always questioned Mattel's claim of the power cells being "long life." After about twelve charges, it wouldn't charge anymore. Some of the concepts of this toy were taken from the failed Hot Bird line Mattel sold two years prior.

Holy cow what a blast. I had the Superstar Sky Riser that did not have the cam. You trimmed it with bendable foil elevator and rudder trim tabs. When trimmed for a circle it ground looped on takeoff a lot but the thing was OK hand launched. I flew the snot of it until it had so much 5 minute epoxy it was a brick. Then i pulled the motor and made an airboat from a piece of foam. I've been doing RC everything for 40 years and it all started with Cox and Mattel. Thank God for the 70's.

Helping go through things from a friends father's belongings from storage units after his death, we can across an un-opened original Superstar! I freaked out soon as I saw it. I told him about having one back in the day that I got for my birthday. I had mine for quite some time before it finely quit. Because of this plane, a friend and I modified my Cox P-51 Mustang control line plane to try to free fly like the Superstar. Of course, it failed miserably. I agree with the previous comments that it would be so cool if Mattel could bring it back with the new battery technology. I hope I can keep myself from opening the box to see if it works or not.