The all white ski or winter-themed playsets are hard to come by complete, so when this became available you know it had to join the collection. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
This box would also have served as a counter display, and those holes in the base allowed the contents to be tied down
About as complete a set as you'll get with all those small hard to find accessories. The figures are the first series ringhands which were initially designed for farm and construction playsets. Then MPC pressed them into military service and their poses didn't really work out that well. Also, the weapons just didn't fit well with these. However, the set still retains a lot of play value with those rocket launchers and ski gear and command tent.
A few weeks back I got to thinking of different scenarios I could place my dragons in. It came to mind that the diorama base built for my spaceships is really nothing more than a mountain or mountain side. Given that, I set up this Mojo Fire dragon and photographed him at a few different angles. Then, using Photoshop, I placed a Las Vegas sunset photo taken by Bettina in the background. I came up with several photos I liked which will appear in separate posts. Hope you Enjoy! as well. Opa Fritz
I got this MPC 'set' in a couple of years ago. It was soldas a set but without the box. Those Chinook outline helo's are hard enough to come by but the folding cardboard field hospital is nearly impossible to come across. The set had a Jeep, 7 ringhand figures, two cots, and a medical bag. This may have been a 'put together' set having pieces from disparate playsets, OR it may be an actual set put out by MPC. I have yet to find it in any of my catalog references, but then MPC's prodigious output meant it could very well have been an actual set. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
MPC made these helicopter's with or without winches. This one has no winch. I do like how they made a loading hatch on top of the fuselage so kids could load up the copter with G.I.'s and gear.
Alright, so maybe I don't actually play with the dragons, but at my age, getting on the computer and piddling around with Photoshop counts as 'play' LOL. This dragon was posted waaay back in Oct 2019. (hmmm, Oct 2019 - Pre-COVID, seems like an eternity now!) Anywho, I was going through my photos this past month to see if any could be freshened up somehow. Having always wanted to build a cave for my beasties I settled on just adding the dragon to a tunnel pic I already had. Good 'nuff - Enjoy! Opa Fritz
Well, like I said the other day, even though blogging has slowed down some, the collecting and playing continue. Here's a set that joined the collection just a couple of weeks ago and it turns out the seller also knows noted Triang SpaceX guru Paul Vreede mentioned multiple times on this blog! As a fatter-of-mact Paul and I both came upon the auction at close to the same time and he gave me the heads up (reminder actually cuz my memory sucks LOL). Fortunately there were no other bidders and now it's here for me to share with you. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
Not toys, but a little 'Humor in Uniform' Turkey Day story:
A little Thanskgiving memory:
It was 1978 at George AFB, Victorville, CA and my first Thanksgiving away from home. I was in the chow hall (yeah, I know, they prefer 'dining facility') - okay where was I? - oh yeah, I was in the chow hall with several friends for Thanksgiving dinner. One of them was 'Dan' (don't remember his last name). Dan was a tall, lanky type - a runner. He used to tell us a story about how him and a friend went into a McDonald's and ordered 25 Big Macs and how he ate 15 of them! Okay, you know the type - tall tales and fun stories. We used to go along with him and quite frankly just not really believe him.
Until...
...that Thanksgiving day. We sat and watched him get plate after plate full of food, along with a dessert, and a drink. SEVEN FULL COURSES LATER he was full!!!
After that, we believed his "15 Big Mac's" story! LOL
There's some things I've been actively collecting (or at least trying to) but haven't gotten around to blogging yet. If you'll remember, a large part of last year's posts were devoted to the Multiple Toymakers series of Golden Astronaut toys, made under license through Triang of the UK. The toys were changed somewhat by Multiple for American consumption, which may have been a name change or a color change, but essentially they were Triang's toys. This frame card or tray fram card Security Copter happened to find its way into my collection afew months back and is now finally getting chance to be featured. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
Welll, even though I haven't been doing much blogging I have been totally busy with trains and toys. As a recap to recent activity, here's what I've been up to. For Veteran's Day (Remembrance Day in the UK) I pulled out a '50s era Marx Army Train bought back in the '90s and not run for about 15-20 years! It got some lube and a little dusting, and it ran like a champ. New for this year were engines and rolling stock devoted to the U.S. Air Force (USAF only consists are something not seen too often in the toy train world). It appears that none of the train manufacturer's actually produced a USAF set, however they made lots of USAF-centric rolling stock. The biggest problem I'm having now as a collector is latching on to one of MTH's large USAF diesel switchers - they are hard to find and pricey when they do become available. So in the meantime, a Lionel re-make of their small Postwar USAF Minuteman diesel switcher had to do, but because it's such a small unit, only a few cars at a time were hooked up to it to reduce strain on the motor. Okay, 'til next time - Enjoy! Opa Fritz
I bought this set back in the '90s and haven't run it for probably 20 years. It worked like a champ!
These depressed center flatcars with misisle launchers are hard to find intact. usually the launch mechanism or figure are missing. On this one, the launch mechanism is missing and a previous owner had replaced the original figure
This year's parade was small but well attended by the citizenry. There is an Auburn halftrack, Processed Plastic tank, armored car and Jeep w/cannon, and an armored car from an unknown maker. To round things out there are ambulances from Processed Plastic and Renwal waiting on the sidelines just in case...
Lionel makes it's first appearance in military form on my layout. I've never had Lionel military trains until now and chose to focus on USAF equipment. K-Line, Menard's, and MTH round out the compliment of Air Force rolling stock
Lionel Postwar celebration U.S. Air Force Minuteman diesel switcher - a modern era re-make of a Postwar classic
K-Line hopper
Lionel modern era re-make of the classic exploding boxcar
Lionel flatcar with cruise missile
MTH Air Force caboose
Menard's flatcar with rocket fuel container
Menard's jet fuel tank car
Menard's droopy missile car
These are non-functional missiles
Just one of several different USAF consists I ran
As luck would have it this set became available and I snatched it up. It has an intact caboose (the one in my older set had a broken chimney), a two-load flatcar, and an intact missile launch car. It was missing one silver missile but I bought a replacement on fleaBay
