Wellll, in a classic example of putting the cart before the horse, I posted what could best be described as Part 1 back on 7 March in the post titled MPC Western Street Front. Since then I've been taking a bunch of photos of my MPC job lots and now have enough material to make a mini-series on their Western buildings.
There were two competing venues for toy Western Towns back in the day: tin-litho and plastic and both offered their own advantages and disadvantages. While Marx was the preeminent leader of tin-litho buildings (although a smattering of tin came from other manufacturers), MPC was the king of plastic.
Marx Silver City Streetfront included as part of Lone Ranger playsets
Marx made several streetfronts and the one above was made with different signage depending on whether the playset was for The Lone Ranger or Roy Rogers. They also made what is called the "Jailside' streetfront wherein the far left portion of the building was sans awning and lithographed for a jail.
This smaller sized tin-litho streetfront was used in Gunsmoke and Tales of Wells Fargo sets
These were gorgeous, bright, colorful, highly detailed tin buildings but once assembled, they weren't easily portable - no taking your playset to Aunt Sally's to pass the time away while visiting. (BTW I had an aunt and uncle who had a Marx Fort Apache playset at their house that I could play with whenever we visited). Tin-litho buildings also tended to rust over time if not cared for properly.
MPC on the other hand went plastic. Their buildings were lighter and some were made to be easily taken apart so that junior could readily transport his toys to Aunt Sally's for playtime. So, let's backtrack a tad bit and show you what we posted a couple of weeks ago:
This streetfront didn't need to be taken apart being all one piece (except for the railing above the saloon door)
***UPDATE 23 Mar 2023***
I changed the designation from 'version 1' to 'version 2' as this style was apparently a later design of MPC basic Western town buildings.
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And now. let's take a look at today's post: the MPC cabin that I'm calling 'version 2'. MPC made a couple of different types of cabin but quite honestly, I don't know which was produced first. Anywho, this is the first one I have with photos finished and ready to post.
This soft plastic building utilizes tab-&-slot construction and is generally easy to take apart. Unfortunately - as you can see in the photos - the tabs have a tendency to break off over the years if not handled properly. I had to assemble this from parts that came in a couple of job lots and one of the walls is a mismatched color. It measures 5 1/2" (13.97cm) W x 3 1/4" (8.25cm) D x 4 3/8" (11.11cm) H overall.
The doors on these buildings were a part of the front wall casting and held in place by sliver-thin pieces of plastic which inevitably broke after use. The result is missing doors on most buildings.
The tabs are broken off on one side, but the top tabs on this wall are enough to hold it all together
Do you see that little tab-like thing sticking up on the roof just behind the façade? That was meant to hold flagpoles
MPC 60mm ringhand shown here for size
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