Mold 3
LI'L BEAVER FLYING SAUCER (LBFS1)
LBFS1 attributes include: The ® symbol is missing after the word Frisbee. The names of the planets appear for the first time on the front cover of a Flying Saucer. Planets are only in all 3,4 and 5 mold Flying Saucers. The second-to-bottom line of the bottom script reads: Wham-O (Canada) LTD Toronto and the bottom line reads pat.pend. On Flying Saucers, the word Flying Saucer on the front and the first line of the bottom script (PLAY CATCH – INVENT GAMES) are always written in the same font. Lines 2–6 are all written in the same font. In LBFS1, these are written in the same font as all other Flying Saucers and Regulars made with 3 Mold. The attributes of the Mold 3 font are: The letter G has a foot, which is not found on other molds. The crossbar on the letter A is at the bottom. And the letter E has a short crossbar in the middle of the letter. There is no mold number on the bottom of the disc.The plastic feels stiffer than the discs made in the USA by Wham-O.
Wham-O Mfg. Co. filed for trademark registration of the Frisbee on July 28, 1958. The word "Frisbee" was registered as a Wham-O trademark on May 26, 1959. Since the ® symbol was still missing after the unregistered Frisbee name and the bottom of the disc is marked "Pat. Pend.", the LBFS1 mold must have been manufactured at the time mentioned above. WFS1 and LBFS1 are the only Flying Saucers produced at that time. For example, 2 Mold Flying Saucers were produced later.
Date Introduced: late 1958 or early 1959
LBFS1 is very rare. As of March 2026, we only know of three Flying Saucers in existence. We call it the Li'l Beaver Flying Saucer (LBFS1). But you could also call it the Wham-O Canada Flying Saucer (WCFS1) or the Irwin Toys Flying Saucer (ITFS1). One of the three found is in the original bag. When comparing the bags to the Pluto Platter bags, the same bag was in use in the USA in 1961. The only differences are that the cardboard bag seal has the text Wham-O (Canada) Ltd, Toronto, Ont. And on the back of the bag it says Wham-O (Canada) Limited, Toronto 16, Canada. In the table below, the top horizontal row contains the Pluto Platter packages. The middle row is the Flying Saucer packages. And the bottom row is the first Regular packages.
Where is the LBFS1 made?
We cannot say for sure whether the LBFS1 was made in the USA or Canada. At this time, the evidence strongly points to Canada.
1 The plastic of the disc is very different from the one used by Wham-O in the USA. And the disc is significantly more durable than the WFS1 made at the same time. The WFS1 failed precisely because the disc rim and the entire disc became too thin. The discs break far too easily, for example when hitting a tree or even when caught.
2 Neither Flying Saucer (WFS1 and LBFS1) has a Mold marking. If both Flying Saucers had been made by Wham-O in the USA, then one of these Flying Saucers should have become Mold 2.
3 The disc and the bag are marked Wham-O Canada (Toronto). Although it does not say that it was made in Canada.
4 Licensed manufacturers have always had a habit of changing the original Frisbee mold slightly. Li'l Beaver has added the Planets of Pluto Platter to the front of the Flying Saucer. Later, Berwick from England added the old Flying Saucer text to the front of the Regular mold. SSF from Germany and Farusa from Denmark replaced the Wham-O text with the words Standard and Farusa.
LBFS1 IS THE FIRST VERSION OF MOLD 3
The Flying Saucer quickly became a hit with the youth. Since the first Flying Saucer mold (WFS1) failed, Wham-O was in dire need of more molds quickly. In 1959, it produced a new Flying Saucer mold, the WFS2. Since the LBFS1 mold was probably in Canada at the time, it also had to be shipped to Wham-O in the USA in 1959. When the mold arrived in the USA, Wham-O made changes to it and gave it the number 3. The first Flying Saucer made in the USA using the LBFS1 mold is the WFS3.
The LBFS1 mold has been modified 6 times since its production. 3 different versions of Flying Saucers have been made: LBFS1, WFS3 and WFS11. In 1966, Wham-O transformed Flying Saucers into Regular Frisbees. There have been 3 different versions of Regulars made with Mold 3. Regular Pat Pend. Mold 3, Regular Mold 3 (1968) and Regular Mold 3 (1970). In addition to that, Regular Pat Pend. Mold 3 has been made another version where the mold flaws have been fixed.
All other versions of the LBFS1 mold have the mold number 3 visible. So it is easier to use the mold name: Mold 3.
The table below shows what changes have occurred in the mold.
Wham-O Flying Saucer 3 (WFS3) Mold 3
When the first change was made to the mold (WFS3), the last two lines had to be changed in the backend script. With the change, the font used in the last two lines is no longer the same (different font, font size and bold). At the same time, the left margin alignment was also changed so that line 5 no longer starts at the same point as lines 2–4. The text in lines 5-6 changed: WHAM-O MFG.CO.SAN GABRIEL.CALIF. and DES.PAT.183626. There is a space after the word Wham-O but there is no space in the other places. Also in 4 Mold the last two lines are written in the same way. Whereas in 1,2 and 5 molds there is a space between the words. The mold number 3 was added to the mold instead of the disc mold number. A small ® symbol was added to the mold after the word Frisbee. It is therefore slightly different from the one in mold 2. The Mold 3 ® symbol has the letter R partially on top of the circle at the top of the circle. Other special features of the mold were retained, e.g. the same font as in mold 3.
Date Introduced: 1959
The picture shows the differences in the small ® mark (Mold 2 and Mold 3).
(Note! the picture shows that the line across the letter E is in the middle in 3 molds and clearly higher in 2 molds.)
Identical to the Type-E WPP packaging which has the word "Frisbee" in blue outlined type with ® to the right (first time)—angled above a solid, blank, parallel yellow bar with no "Pluto Platter" name on it. Probably in 1963. -Phil Kennedy
So far, WFS2 and WFS3 discs have been found in these packages.
Probably in 1963, Flying Saucers were packaged in plastic bags with cardboard bag closures.
So far, only WFS3 discs have been found in either package.
The WFBM Station, Indianapolis, Promotional label and sticker, which were introduced July 1, 1963. So far, only WFS3 discs have been found.
Wham-O Flying Saucer 11 (WFS11) Mold 3
The next change (WFS11) DES. PAT. 183626 was hidden under the esker. I believe this was immediately after January 11, 1965, when Wham-O filed the patent application. The same change was made to 2 molds at the same time. In mold 5 des. pat. was removed by fading the text, but it is visible when the disc is turned to the light. No changes were made to 4 molds.
Date Introduced: 1965
Wham-O Regular 3 pat. pend. Mold 3
In 1966, Wham-O changed the Flying Saucers to Regulars. The front of the disc was significantly changed. The planets, portholes, Flying Saucer text, and four rings were removed. Inner and outer Flying Rings were added. In 3 molds, there are 12 Inner and 31 Outer Flying Rings.The texts Wham-O and Frisbee were enlarged and the font was changed. The ® symbol after the word Frisbee was also changed. Flying Saucer molds can be identified by the ® symbol, just like regular molds. Each Regular has a unique ® symbol. In mold 3, the loop of the letter R is oblong.
The text PAT PEND was carelessly added to the last line of the script on the bottom of the disc, above esker.
When WFS11 was changed to Regular, the appearance of the number 3 at the bottom of the disc was also changed and it became smaller.
There are two different versions of 3 Mold Pat.Pend. Regular. The first version has only a few mold flaws. The mold flaws are located at the bottom of the disc and can already be found in the WFS3 style. The second version has a lot of mold flaws. The mold was probably damaged in 1967. There is a separate picture of the mold flows. In it, the yellow and red markings are the mold's original mold flaws and only the yellow ones are new mold flaws.
Date Introduced: 1966
The picture shows a table that can be used to identify pat. pend Regulars from each other using only the ® symbol.
The next change was in 1968, because Wham-O received the patent on December 26, 1967. The © symbol and the year 1966 were added at the beginning of line 5. 1966 is the year when production of Regular products began. In line 6, esker and the text pat pend were removed and it was changed to: U.S. PAT. NO. 3,359,678. There is a large space between the letters U.S.. Line 5, the year 1966, and line 6, the US patent number are written in the same font. It is only slightly different from the rest of line 5, the letters in the last part of line 5 are slightly thicker.
If you look at the bottom two lines of bottomscript, you will notice a "white space." On line 5, the space begins after the "W" in WHAM-O and ends with the "A" in CALIF. On the bottom line, the space begins with the "U.S." after the last period and ends after patent number 7. This "white space" is the space where text has been removed during the mold's changes. On line 5, it read Wham-O (Canada) ltd. Toronto, and on line 6, it read Pat. Pend, which was replaced by Des.Pat, which was replaced by esker. The space is exactly the right size.
All mold flaws on the bottom of the disc were fixed.
Wham-O Regular Wham-O® Frisbee®, Sport Games TM Script, Mold 3
The last change to the mold occurred in 1972. In the front, the word Wham-O was followed by ®.
Sport Games Script was added to the bottom of disc.
This version is also found with the Pay 'N Pak label.
Date Introduced: 1972
The mold, which was probably originally made in Canada, went through a total of 6 different versions. The mold was in use for about 15 years. —Sami Loukko