Monday, October 22, 2012

The Baby Bat aka the Bat Kite



Growing up in the seventies, we referred to the "Baby Bat" as a Batkite. I once socked a kid in the gut for calling it a "Baby Bat", and he deserved it! The Baby Bat was not a "Baby" kite. It was great in strong winds and easy to get to tip over making roaring dive bombs. It was definitely my favorite in 25-35 mph Santa Ana winds!


My collection includes a number of these. The earliest I have is a 1964-66 gem. As far as I can tell, Gayla made just a few changes to this kite throughout the Sixties and into the seventies. The earliest ones have red sticker eyes with the pupil being shaped like a football. These were later replaced with circular eyes. The Hang Card changed as well. The top of the card on the 1964 is cut to match the outline of the printed design. On the back is the date 1964. This cutaway design is abandoned soon after as can be seen by some of the examples I have included at the bottom of the page. One more change is made to this Hang Card in 1969/1970. The words "World Altitude Record Kites 33,531'"  are written on the Hang Card from this time and later. The reason for this is that a kite flying team from Gary Indiana High used a Gayla Kite train to set the kite altitude record in 1969. This is a key in identifying manufacturing years for kites with the black and red ink Hang Cards.  This same Hang Card is used until at least 1971.


To the right is an example of a 1971-73 bat, This was the first time the "bloodshot" was added to the eye stickers.  As you can see, this one has Fluorescent yellow eyes. I recall these eyes were also printed using red ink. Year identification is possible due to the expiration date on the special offer(June 30, 1973). At this time, the kite is still manufactured using a vinyl like plastic material with a hard plastic keel  grommet for attaching the line. However, this would be the last year of this design. I don't own a sample of a bat kite made during the 1973/1974 era, but I do have some other models from that year, and they all have a paper keel reinforcement for the line attachment and use a thinner Mylar like plastic. I have seen one on ebay and it had different eyes as well. The eyes were larger than in '72, but they did not spell Gayla in the eye veins, like they do for all of the models made after 1975. This same hang card is used through the end of 1974.

From 1975 through the early 90's, the Hang Card you see to the right is used. This kite is kind of an odd ball one in that the keel sticker is marked 1973, yet the Hang Card reads 1975. My guess is that there was an overproduction of these stickers and some were used right on through 1975. Either that or Gayla Co. really didn't care that the same template was being used to print the stickers years after the date on the sticker had passed. This could also be the reason why every Hang Card  manufactured from 1975 on has the year 1975 printed on it. However, there are still some ways to tell the difference between a '75-'81 Baby Bat and one from the later years. The first way to tell is by the length of the wing span. At some point after 1981, Gayla reduced the wing span to 42" on all of the entry level Delta kites. As you can see, this one says 4 ft. Another way to help identify the year is by examining the keel sticker. The words "Baby Bat" and a year are written on the keel until at least 1977. Near the bottom of this page, I posted an example of a post 1981 keel sticker. Personally. I view these 42" wing span kites as inferior and much less desirable than the 70's and before models. These kites were made of an inferior quality, which explains why the eye sticker glue fails over time. The one cool thing that Gayla did do with these later year kites was to use a broader range of colors for the keels. The only keel colors I can recall used before '77 were yellow and white. They also used different colors for the actual kite as well.  Here is a link to an example with  yellow eyes. These were used for the production of a red Baby Bat.

I will try my best to rank Baby Bats in terms of desirability and rarity. Obviously, this is very subjective.
1. The rarest Baby Bat is the 1973 with none Gayla Eyes. I have seen just one of these pop up on ebay over the last 3 years
2. 1971 - 1973.  These are my favorites as these were the first kites I flew. I loved the loud flapping these thicker rubbery kites made in high winds.
3. Pre to 1964. Not sure how long they produced these in the packaging with the  1964 date. I have seen more than one come up for auction over the last few years.
4. 1975-1981
5. 1965-1971, with Black and Red Hang Card.
6. 1982 and later. Unless it is a non black bat, I can't see paying more than $6 for one of these.

There may have been some produced before 1964. I have seen an example of a larger version of this kite called "The Bat" which was sold in a box. That kite recently sold for $225! If you have any more information to share, please do. All of my info comes from memory and recent observations.  Thanks for reading!

My next blog will cover Sky Spies and Sky Raiders!

Post 1980 Baby Bat

Yellow Eyes, 1970-72 Baby Bat

'65-69 Bat
1970-72 Baby Bat

A Colony of Bats!


Back of  a 1975 Baby Bat

1965-69 Baby Bat

18 comments:

  1. And I thought I was obsessed with theses things! You"ve got me beat. I was a kid in the 60's & 70's and I remember the boxed version called "The Bat." The Baby Bat was always my favorite until the early 70's when the Super Bat came out. Check out my You Tube video of the Super Bat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0xsa1AhACM

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  2. Hi Miguel, I do remember the Super Bat, it along with the Acrobat, Firebird, the Demon and Invader never graced my local 5 and dime. Those were $2-$3 kites! They just wouldn't stock 'em. The first time I saw any of those premium Gayla kites was in the toy dept of May Company back around '74. Man, I miss those days. My kids think I am an insane person when I start talking about kite flying and battling. They just don't get it!

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  3. Man, do I love these freakin' kites! Those were good times. The Baby Bat and the Sky Raider were my gotos back in the day.

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  4. We had a build a kite fly a kite day at church yesterday and I repeatedly reminisced about my Gayla Batwing Kites I flew in the 70's with my paw paw. We did finally get our handmade kite in the air, but it was a much larger challenge than I wanted my 5 & 7 year old to go through.

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  5. Hello Jack,
    My name is Jackie and I have been looking to communicate with somebody like you for a while. I also am a Gayla Kite fan especially the Baby Bat of the 70's
    I have had m own wonderful experiences and memories of this kite. Some of it, if what was told to me was true, could have gotten me in a hell of a lot of trouble back in the 70's with a certain Air Force base near where I grew up. That story I would be willing to tell you later if you wish.
    The question I would like to pose to you is this. I remember mine which I got one Easter weekend back in 1978. What was odd was the kite I got was a Baby Bat but the only difference was this, It looked more like a black Sky Spy. It had the eyes already on the kite with no stickers I needed to put on it. What was on the tag was exactly what I got. I also remember the eyes being bigger than the ones that were on the sticker pack that is provided in the package when you get the kite.
    The question I have is did I get a kite that was extremely limited or it a possibility that I did have to put stickers on but I do not remember doing so. So what I wanted to know is did this kite ever exist?

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    1. Hey Jackie, there is a black sky spy for sale on ebay right now.

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  6. Hi Jackie, What you had was a Black Sky Spy....I know because I had one about the same time...I wrote about it in my January of 2013 post....I have not seen one come up on ebay in the last 5 years....I would be very interested to see how much it would sell for...

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    1. Hey guys,
      I bought the black sky spy on eBay, I paid $81 plus $6 dollars shipping and Handling. I had one when I was a kid until my older brother took it up at least a half a mile on a windy day and the string broke.

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    2. Yeah, I was close to pushing that price, but I recently decided it's time to let go of my collection. I was a little shocked it went for less than a hundred. Especially, when that 1967 Sky Raider went for over $110 just a few days before. I have a '64 Sky Raider that looks just like that one. I am going to sell all of my Kites except for one. The Blue Keeled 72' Sky Spy...it was my first kite as a kid and I just can't let it go...

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  7. i have over 40 gaylas in my collection and still looking for some certain other models.....

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    1. Hi,
      I have a Gayla Invader Model 130 from 1964. Still in the original box. Has been flown. Do you have any interest in this? If so please email me at dangould04@yahoo.com
      Thanks

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  8. Great memories!!! For whatever reason, I seemed to have a real problem with kites as a kid. That is, they just didn't seem to want to fly or if they did they ended-up taking a nosedive and ended up in splinters. But that all changed when I got my first Gayla Baby Bat in the summer of '69. That thing flew like nothing else and if it did crash I was usually just able put everything back together and try it again! I probably had a dozen of these babies and they never failed to make me smile. I remember getting these babies so high, I could barely see them. Frequently the string would break so I bought a huge roll of fishing line and they flew even higher!! Simpler times. :^)

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  9. I just acquired The Bat 66" along with The Invader 48" today, both in VERY old boxes, B E A U T I F U L... Woot woot!!

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  12. Dear sir, I am a little younger than you, born in ‘73. I owned several Gayla kites growing up in Indianapolis. However, I have a particular kite that was my favorite and I don’t know if it’s Gayla or another brand. Are you aware of a “bat shaped” kite that was blue on the left and orange on the right, if it came with decals, I never applied them. I’ll never forget the evening it met its demise.

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  13. Hi Kite lovers,
    I have a Gayla Invader Keel Guided Model 130 from 1964. With the original box. It's pink and black. I remember flying it when I was a kid and there is still mud on it from sometime in the 60s. I found it in the garage attic when cleaning out my dad's house. Is there anyone out there with an interest in this? you could reply to me at dangould04@yahoo.com.

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  14. I have an interest in the altitude record. I had interesting email conversations with Brian Ivkovich, one of the high school students that flew the train of 19 Gayla bat kites. I hold the Guinness World Record for the altitude of a single kite which my team achieved in 2014, flying a 12 square metre DT delta to 16,009 ft above ground level. Guinness no longer recognizes the flight in 1969 to a claimed 33,000+ feet as a valid record, although it did appear in their early 70's record books. It not in the GWR database. The kites were released by cutting the line and so by not returning the kites to the launch point by winding the line in, negated the effort. The American Kitefliers Association has incorporated this rule into their kite record criteria. The flight was a good effort by the Gary Indiana high school students but releasing 15 miles of nylon fishing line into the country side is environmental vandalism. In addition to not retrieving the kites, the altitude was estimated using flawed assumptions and methods. Good effort boys but no gold star I'm sorry to say.

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