RARE!! Con-Cor 1:87 Blue Bird School Bus

Made from ABS plastic, the mirrors are in the box

The Blue Bird Corporation (originally known as the Blue Bird Body Company) is an American bus manufacturer headquartered in Fort Valley, Georgia. Best known for its production of school buses, the company has also manufactured a wide variety of other bus types, including transit buses, motorhomes, and specialty vehicles such as mobile libraries and mobile police command centers. Currently, Blue Bird concentrates its product lineup on school and activity buses and specialty vehicle derivatives.

Blue Bird Body Company was founded in 1932 in Fort Valley, Georgia, as A.L. Luce closed his automobile dealership to concentrate exclusively on bus production. Remaining under family control into the early 1990s, Blue Bird changed hands several times in the 2000s; in February 2015, it became a publicly owned company (with previous owner Cerberus Capital Management holding a 58% share).

By 1980, Blue Bird would become the largest school bus manufacturer in the United States, with over 20 times the yearly sales of only two decades prior. Despite the added presence of Blue Bird, as a whole, the segment of school bus manufacturing was in turmoil; many of the early 1960s predictions of the Luce brothers had largely come true. No longer supplemented by the baby-boom generation, student populations began to level off in the early 1980s, with the school bus manufacturing segment becoming saturated. From 1979 to 1982, three of the six largest school bus manufacturers—Carpenter, Superior, and Ward—would file for bankruptcy.

To preserve sales, in 1984, Blue Bird began the use of financing for bus acquisitions. The strategy proved successful, with sales increasing further in the mid-1980s; as the highest-selling bus manufacturer, nearly one out of every three new school buses was a Blue Bird.

While the 1980s would prove successful for Blue Bird in school bus production, the company saw mixed results in other segments. After 10 years of weak sales, the Blue Bird City Bird was discontinued in 1986. Despite volatile sales in recreational vehicles, the Wanderlodge remained successful, accounting for nearly 1 in 5 Blue Bird vehicles sold. To better compete with more modern designs, Blue Bird began to differentiate the Wanderlodge from the All American school bus with several exterior restylings in the late 1980s. In 1988 a 102 in (259.1 cm) wide version of the Wanderlodge was introduced—wider than the school bus bodies. The final Wanderlodge to share a body and chassis with the All American was produced in 1990.

During the end of the 1980s, the Blue Bird product line saw several changes. While the company had offered a rear-engine All American since 1961, in 1988, Blue Bird introduced its first rear-engine All American with a company-sourced chassis. As a running change during 1989 production, a new generation of the All American was introduced for the first time since 1957. Alongside a redesigned driver's compartment, the All American received a new powertrain lineup.