MPC Teepee's (or Tipi's) - Another Variation

Soooo, you get a set in you like and it has cool accessories - in this case an MPC playset which had teepees in it. Then you get in another set and it too has the same accessory but there's a variation! THEN you get some more stuff in and fine yet another variation, and so on! Whooppee LOL This is both fun and frustrating for collector's. There are no really good reference materials to show every variation and it's fairly safe to assume more will be found over time. So, as I like to say, the hunt is on!.

Here's what happened. I bought one of MPC's many Fort Frontier sets and it had a couple of teepees with yellow frames and a white-&-red cover. Then I got another set with a black frame and  white-&-red cover. Then I got a set with a paper teepee. Then a job lot of MPC odds-&-ends came in and the teepee in the lot had a brown frame with yellow-&-red cover and it had the top piece missing from all the other tents accumulated to-date! Cool! Let's take a look at the latest variation. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

That top, which represents where all the poles would meet and cross on the real thing, is a separate piece and usually missing

Different color frames, different color covers. 

The paper teepee.

MPC Teepees

So I'm out in The Cave taking photos and my mind starts to wander. Not unusual, but it usually means more work for me when it comes up with ideas for photo shoots. My MPC toys have been in the limelight again as I go through boxes and discover stuff. Being a big fan of MPC (or Multiple Toymakers or Miner Industries), a lot of their toys have sort of wandered into The Cave over the years and I get to noticing things. Like the teepees. Their first teepees consisted of a soft plastic frame over which a printed and cut vinyl sheet was stretched. Later teepees were cardboard pieces bent into shape and assembled via a tab-&-slot design. The later teepees were a product of the '70s when MPC started offering a lot of their detail pieces in cardboard vs. plastic. On the one hand, printed cardboard allowed for more colorful, realistic designs. On the other hand it was less durable and not always easy to bend into a nicely rounded shape, such as needed for covered wagon tops. Too often you ended up with an unsightly crease in the cardboard. Anywho, let's take a look at MPC's teepees. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The frames are soft plastic and I have them in yellow and black.

They're 5" (12.70cm) H (if the frame is nice and straight) x 4 1/4" (10.79cm) diameter at the base

Shown here with one of MPC's 45mm figures

I did not disassemble this to scan as I was afraid of the cardboard cracking and coming apart - therefore photos were taken all around

It's 5 1/2" (13.97cm) H