MPC Buckboard - Blue with Red Wheels - The REAL Colors of An Old West Wagon?

My mother used to say, "You learn something new every day." Well, at my age there's some long dry spells and some days are kind of a blur of non-learning blah-ness, but this past couple of days has been interesting. I posted a couple of photos of this early MPC Buckboard in blue SP with red wheels in a couple of my fb groups.  In one of them, a member pointed out that these were the colors used by the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Hmmm - really? 

That led me down a rabbit's hole of Web searches and I have found out some very interesting details. If indeed blue wagons were used by the U.S. Army, it's not because of any standardization program in use by the military, but rather, that's how they were purchased from the wagon makers! Just as we've become so used to automobiles coming in bright colors, it appears that wagons were sold in bright colors as well - at least in blue, perhaps green as well. This was a big surprise to me because as I try to remember back on all those Western TV shows and movies I watched as a kid, I simply don't recall wagons being anything more than either unpainted and weathered wood or perhaps varnished - no colors! Then I came across an on-line article by the National Park Service, Wagons on The Emigrant Trails and nearly every wagon pictured in that article was painted in what I'm surmising as period-correct color schemes.

Courtesy NPS

This all makes sense now and also ties-in with the circus toys and models which I spent nearly all last year blogging. Those bright, gaudy, ornate circus wagons we so much enjoy today originated from none other than the wagon makers of their day. Studebaker, Sullivan and Eagle, Beggs Wagon Co., and others, all made wagons for the circuses and those wagons were anything but untreated or plain varnished wood. They were bright and colorful and so it stands to reason that wagon makers would offer their products for every day sale in bright colors as well. It also goes to show that in spite of what old B&W photos or movies may lead us to believe, it was a very colorful world back in the day! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Early MPC Wagon 

What defines it as 'early' is the use of the slot butt driver (slot butt's came out before the peg butts).