CIRCUS TIME: A Bit More On Toy Circus Tents

I was really hoping that this thread would be further along by now but a big snag has hit: I don't have room! There's several toy tents waiting in the wings to be assembled but now I need something to at least put them on for photography purpose. One of them will need approximately 24" x 36" to set up but there's no room for that out in The Cave at the moment. So here's what I thought we could do - look at what I do have and then figure out something else to post. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Marx Super Circus Tent and Banner Line

Marx did an excellent job of encapsulating the essence of the Big Top in it's wonderful playset from the early 1950's. In real life those two sets of banners you see flanking the Big Top would actually be placed in front of a separate tent. Together they would form the 'banner line' and would act as a preview of  the human oddities (aka 'Freak Show') that could be seen in there.

Marx's Big Top measures 25" (63.5cm) L x 10" (25.4cm) W x 9" (22.86cm) H

My photos of the Super Circus set appeared in Playset Magazine Issue No. 64

Coca-Cola Circus Cutout Reproduction (1997)

The original was first made in 1932 is much smaller than the repo. I love the repos for its larger size and its ability to be shoe-horned into even the smallest of spaces

Here we see an original placed on top of the repo for size comparison

This tent measures 14" (35.56cm) W x 2 7/8" (7.30cm) D overall

Hand-made Tents

These of course are too small to stage a Big Top performance in but they make excellent ancillary tents

Mattel Circus Playset

This is a work in progress. I broke this out not too long ago so that I could photograph the tent and all eleven circus acts that were a part of the overall offering (I'll explain that when the time comes). However, this was yet another snag I hit. You see, the separate circus acts require assembly and quite frankly, they're not going together as easily as I'd hoped with a bit of ill-fitting parts to contend with. Stay tuned for more progress.

Preiser No. 30645 HO Scale Krone Circus Tent

While I have been concentrating on tents compatible with Lionel or K-Line 3-rail O-gauge electric trains (1/43 - 1/50 scale or so),HO scale has a huge presence in the miniature circus world as well

(photos culled from eBay)

 (480X160mm)

CIRCUS TIME: My Brief Foray Into HO Scale Circus Modeling - Pt 4 Large Preiser Circus Tent

I mentioned in a previous post that at one time I had the large Preiser circus tent No 30645. Normally I don't like re-posting photos culled from anywhere on the Internet- (but I'll do it to support a story line if need be) but I never took photos of my old tent. I found these photos on fleaBay and will post them here as an example of what I'm talking about. First, the tent is round in the European tradition (American tents tend to be oval to accommodate two or three rings) . Secondly, this tent set is blue  with a red seat insert - mine was white with a red seat insert. Thirdly, being a vacu-formed toy these tents are easily damaged. I got rid of my tent because, although I had bought it new in Germany, the thing was warped and eventually got cracks in it! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

CIRCUS TIME: My Brief Foray Into HO Scale Circus Modeling - Pt 3 Small Preiser Circus Tent

I promise, after just a couple more posts of HO scale stuff I'll start in with circus wagons and other things! Here is an interesting little tent from Preiser that can be used as a small side tent to perhaps hold circus animals, maybe a pony ride for the kiddies, or even a tent used to sell souvenirs - whatever. Although I had opened the bag many years ago the tent never was assembled and is still sitting out in The Cave. Enjoy! Opa Fritz! 

CIRCUS TIME: My Brief Foray Into HO Scale Circus Modeling - Pt 2 Preiser Figures

This post may seem like more of a big catalog page of figures but these are what I still have from my buying spree back in the late '80s/'90s. While there were plenty of HO scale circus figures to be had, Preiser only made a few wagons. Other HO scale wagons were available from different manufacturers but at the time I was simply unaware of them. 

I'm glad I took these photos as it jogged my memory somewhat. It's apparent that many (if not most) of these figures were bought while I was still stationed in Zweibrücken, Germany. My two main sources in Sunny Zwei were: mostly Modellbahnstübchen Gerhard Cleeman (basically a 'trains only' hobby shop) and probably some from Passage Schreiner (an all-purpose hobby shop). The sets below are in no particular order - it's how they ended up being photographed as they were being pulled out of the box!

Enjoy! Opa Fritz