MPC '70s Era Covered Wagon with Cardboard Cover

It didn't take long for my MPC wagon collection to go into 'super bloom' mode and before I knew it there were a gazillion different variations hanging out in The Cave! Sometimes the body or wheels of the wagon would be different colors or sometimes MPC just placed different covers on its wagons. During the 1970s MPC/Multiple/Miner started adding more and more cardboard pieces like printed figures and accessories to its sets. This wagon came in a Fort Frontier set I posted not too long ago, and has a cardboard cover instead of the older style plastic one. The cardboard cover is nice and has a lot more color and details that the plastic covers and while it has the potential for looking more realistic, that look can be ruined if the person placing the cover on the wagon doesn't do it right. Case in point: the cover on my wagon has more of a folded look than a nice curved look! That curvature would mimic the canvass cover being applied over the curved wooden bows on the wagon. Anywho, one of these days I'll do a post showing all my different wagons so that you can see what goes into collecting these things. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Courtesy: https://oregontrailcenter.org/the-wagon

The MPC Covered Wagon

I scanned the cover so that you can print one out on cardstock

MPC Supply Wagon

 A very few days after I started this blog back in 2014, I posted this nice MPC 'PRAIRIE SCHOONER':

The follow-up to this post just never happened, but over the years a few more wagons happened to make their way down the Chisholm Trail to Ed's Cave (after a few detours of course) so we can go ahead and post them now. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Today we'll look at the 'SUPPLY WAGON'. It is of course the exact same thing as the 'PRAIRIE SCHOONER' only the wagon cover/tarp says something else.  And all of these wagons were marketed without tops as 'buckboards', so MPC got a lot of use out of the same basic tooling. MPC wagons (covered or not) were made to accept either the early peg-butt drivers, or the later slot butt drivers. 

I always refer to these as being made by MPC, but you may see them being sold as 'Multiple Plastics', 'Multiple Toymakers, 'or 'Miner Industries'. Pretty much all the same bag of nuts.

MP115 Slot Butt & MP132 Peg Butt figures

WARNING: You risk breaking your wagons when trying to force these figures onto the seats!

If, when attempting to place these, you encounter resistance - STOP!

Don't ruin the wagon. Instead do this:

Peg butt: either file or whittle down the peg sticking down from the peg butt figure, and/or enlarge the hole in the seat

Slot butt: carve the slot out more in the slot butt figure so that it can slip over the tab on the seat, and/or carve excess plastic around the round tab sticking up front the seat (you'll notice it has a small lip at the top which can be carved down)

These drivers are extremely common - it's better to carve into these than ruin a wagon.

MPC made 1-horse and 2-horse hitches. The 1-horse hitch is the most common.

Either the lettering has been rubbed off on this side, or there never was any.