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Thursday, May 31, 2018

TRAIN TIME: A Bad Day in Marxville - Pt 1 Johnny's Police Train and An Idea for A Photo Shoot

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men right? Well, I had fully planned on clearing off the train table (what I've been calling the 'New Layout' the past 18 months or so) so that I could start photographing some of my playsets.  The layout was populated with cardboard buildings from Built-Rite and others.


It was a nice set-up and I enjoyed it but it always meant to be a temporary set-up anyway, so  a couple of weeks ago I cleared nearly everything off and this is what it looked like. The loop of track was still there as well as the Built-Right city background.


Yup, I was ready for other things, until...

...until I had an on-line chat with a fellow Marx train enthusiast. I told him about a custom Police train made by Johnny Thompson (owner/moderator of the facebook 'Marx_trains' group) and my friend wanted to see pics of it....

...with the table cleared it occurred to me that I had a fairly clean canvas to work with for another display. So I decided to take out buildings that haven't been on the layout before and put together a whole new display with an entirely different, and somewhat unexpected theme. To see what I did, stay tuned for new installments, but first here's a look at the custom Police train Johnny made. This was his first ever custom train made from essentially junkers and I enjoyed running it. It has some nice features on it that make it a toy a kid of any age would love playing with. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina


A repainted Marx No. 591 Engine

What do you do with a tender that many would throw away because it was in such bad shape?
Re-paint


An overlay was affixed to the top to give the impression of litho


The scratch-&-dent flats we're re-purposed hauling Police gear. Love this Mad Max-ish truck! 



The prisoner transport car with removable light and sound module


An Air Hogs R/C helicopter. Unfortunately the batteries in this no longer held a charge so I couldn't fly it over the City in Chaos as planned


An armored car for the S.W.A.T. Team



Repainted junker caboose


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Britains 54mm 1st Series Foot Knight No. 696 1971

Here's the last of the six figures from Britains 1st Series Foot Knights produced in 1971. As my own collection of Britains has grown slowly over the years, I've really come to appreciate the detailing and fine sculpting of their figures. Back in '71 when these came out I was already into HO scale model railroading and simply don't remember these in toy or hobby stores. But I do know that here in the States, pre-painted miniature figures were sparse and the only ones that come to mind were Marx's 'Warriors of The World' series of plastic figures. I have a few of those in my collection as well but, being plastic, they're prone to breakage. It's understandable then why the Britains figures became to so popular with youngsters. I hope to be able to bring more photo essays of Britains Medieval figures here to Toys and Stuff in the future. We'll be switching gears yet again here tomorrow as we look at some play time on my O-gauge train layout. 'Til then - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina















Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Safari Knight vs. Tudor Mint Large Gothic Dragon: Fun With Photoshop Pt 6

Okay folks, here's the last of the Safari Knight vs. Tudor Mint Dragon shots. One of these years I'll to break out some of my other large dragons and knights play with but I think this will hold us all for a while. Hope you liked this little series. As always - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina




Monday, May 28, 2018

Britains 54mm 1st Series Foot Knight No. 695 1971

Here's the fifth of six Series 1 Foot Knights from Britains produced back in 1971. After having been to numerous castles in Germany and having seen more than one suit of armor on display, it always amazes me at just how much strength and stamina it must have taken to wear these in battle and wield those heavy weapons! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina













Saturday, May 26, 2018

Britains 54mm 1st Series Foot Knight No. 694 1971

Okay all you Britains experts out there, I'm sure you've already spotted the big faux pas in these photos. Here's the scenario: I buy a bunch of these figures and start photographing them. "They look nice" I think to myself. Happy with my measly efforts I put them away to be played with at a later date when I have some more 'me' time (all this was back in June of last year mind you). A few weeks ago I posted the pics in one of my facebook groups and one observant reader says something to the effect that the figure looks great - even with that Old West American Indian spear! DOH! Oh crap! LOL I never even noticed, and not having any of Britains Old West figures with all their accouterments I just didn't catch it. Since then I've been involved in other projects so haven't had the 'oomph' to re-photograph any of my goofs but hopefully I can make amends before too long. For what it's worth I still hope you - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina