Payton Job Lot

I didn't think there'd be a toy post for a while, but this job lot of Payton Western toys just came in the other day. The lot had different colored teepee's than what's currently in the collection plus there are two walls to the Payton cabin in colors I don't yet have - bright blue. Now the hunt is on for the remaining pieces in those colors! Fences are always nice and this lot had enough to make a five-sided corral. Only two of the four horses were suitable for all those rider figures unless the riders are hot-glued to the horse. I'll try to knock out some photos of those teepee's this week. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Cavalry Outpost Fort Shambles Attack

Ten days ago I posted a job lot of Western toys I got off of fleaBay. It consisted of a fort in very used condition - which I call 'Fort Shambles' - and a bunch of 60mm Cowboys and Indians by Gulliver (recasts of Atlantic figures). Back then I said that as soon as better photos were taken they'd be posted here, so I took out my scenicked board and backdrop and had a little fun the other day. The board isn't very large, so big expansive shots aren't possible, but it's still fun to mess with. In addition to the toys in the job lot, I added a Wal-Mart covered wagon, and the figures from my Ideal 'Dodge City' playset to add a bit more oomph to the affair. Hope you enjoy this little play time readers! Opa Fritz

Ideal Dodge City Playset

With all these Ideal Western wagons I've been posting it seems only appropriate to post the Ideal Dodge City playset that makes a perfect backdrop for them. Ideal had made a series of forts that came in header bags. Some of them were The Alamo. a Marine Corps base, Fort Pitt, Fort Laramie, Valley Forge, Knights and Castle, and of course this Dodge City (which technically is not a fort) and perhaps others. I have The Alamo, Knights and Castle, and this Dodge City set. 

The sets were originally issued in header bags, then later in blister packs and contained a gate, two tin-litho walls, a few accessories, and about 10-12 figures. The two walls in each set would be identical with different scenes on the front and back, and designed to connect to the plastic gate piece. They're meant to be bent in the middle so as to form an enclosure however, as this set is a town not a fort, I chose not to bend them, but rather keep them straight to resemble a streetfront. The 'gate' in this set is a combination hotel/jail and measures 6" (15.24cm) W x 5" (12.7cm) H x 1 1/4" (3.17cm) D. The walls measure 10" (25.4cm) W x 2 1/2" (6.35cm) H. The figures are 54mm and I believe my set is complete with all of the original poses and horses. The accessories are minimal: hitching post, water trough, water pump. Enjoy! Opa Fitz

Quite frankly. I'm not happy with the way these photos turned out. I'll have to pick a time that's relatively comfortable so that I can go out in The Cave and do a better setup.

Here's a few of the Ideal wagons that have been blogged recently to show how they fit in with the streetfront

Fort Shambles : Auburn, MPC, Gulliver

The other day I posted the Auburn hard plastic log cabin. That cabin was a part of the set pictured here, basically a job lot or put-together fort from various manufacturers. The only reason I bought this was that I had recognized the Auburn cabin and wanted it for the collection, but once the lot found its way out to The Cave, and despite the condition issues of the fort, I really liked the set. The fort gate and walls are probably MPC knock-offs vs. original MPC, and the figures are all 'Gulliver' - a company I'm totally unfamiliar with. As stated, there are condition issues with the wall pieces and the gate doors are broken off of their thin plastic hinges, but with a little work the whole thing assembles into a nice little outpost. The walls are 6 1/2" W x 3 1/2"H and the figures are all 65mm - perfect for the Auburn cabin. The lot included:

-7 Cavalrymen (2 mounted)

-5 Indians (2 mounted)

-one extra horse 

-7 wall pieces

-1 gate

-1 barricade

-1 cabin

There was no insert for the fort name above the gate so I have no clue as to how it was sold or who made or sold it, but I'm calling it 'FORT SHAMBLES" due to its condition! :-) 

The Cave has been too warm to do much of anything in it, and this photo shoot was kind of quick and dirty. Hopefully I can put this all together on one of my scenicked bases soon and provide some better photos. Until then - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Keystone (?) Cardboard Western Village and Figures - Pt 7 Figure Group 2

Sooo, been working on a project all day - figured I'd better try and keep up with this latest series. Here's the second of four figure groups that came with my Keystone cabins. Well, actually three figure groups and then all the bases that went with them Enjoy! Opa Fritz

ELMAR #9139 The Wagons West Playset

Sometime last year I latched on to this cheap rack toy offering from ELMAR. In my mind I thought the pieces would be smaller - something akin to 1/72 or HO scale similar to Giant of Hong Kong. Instead, these pieces are oddly sized with the figures being ca30mm. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Job Lots: Buried Treasure or Piles of Junk?

I like buying what are referred to as either 'job lots' or simply 'lots' on fleaBay. There are definitely pros and cons to doing this but keeping the 'cons' down to a minimum helps ease the purchase. 

The first rule I follow is to look at the photos of the sale and see if there's at least one thing in the lot I can actually use and that hasn't come up for sale on its own. In this way the lots can sometimes be diamonds in the rough. Remember all those MPC Western buildings posted here on the blog this year? Most of those completed buildings were the result of several job lot purchases which had the individual parts (and a couple of those buildings were a real bear to find out in the wild). By buying lots I was able to acquire a complete MPC Western Town. Remember that MPC didn't put all those buildings together in one big playset. They were sold a building or two at a time either in playsets or header bag sets and they made changes to their line-up over the years resulting in some major variations.

Secondly: be prepared for a lot of sorting. Often times the lot is big and there's a ton of stuff to sort through. Not only that, but if you really want to know who made the unidentified/unmarked toys in the lot, be prepared to follow-up with research.

Third: Now that everything's sorted and you're comfortable with what you have, be prepared to get rid of the junk you don't want. Me personally, I don't care if I give things to the thrift shop, the neighborhood kids, sell (for cheap) on facebook, or just put it on fleaBay. Getting rid of excess has to happen, although I have to admit, this last part takes the longest for me to do LOL

Here's  a couple of examples that have cropped up this year. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

This lot of MPC ringhands provided me with all eight Pirate poses and all four Jungle poses in a variety of colors. 

There were a couple of poses in particular I was wanting from this group, plus I needed those accessories shown at the bottom of the photo

Notice those four brown walls to a cabin on the far left? This lot had the Payton cabin walls, while another lot had a roof! I won't post pics of all the MPC lots I've gotten this past year but this gives you a hint of how I hunt down parts

Here are several lots purchased over the past couple of years, waiting for me to get off my keester and sort through

I'll be following up on this post with some cool photos I took utilizing some of the stuff I found in these lots