PIRATES: MPC 60mm Pirate Ringhands - Pt 2

I tell ya what - I have a hard time gettin' anything done when the grand baby is home from school 😄

There was no school the past couple of days due to staff development day and then parent-teacher conference and she's been on me to set up the Halloween display - which I'll probably start blogging next week.

So anywho, here's the second and last installment of the MPC ringhand Pirates posed with the accessories that come with them. I only have two of the four opposing Red Coat poses and none of the original accessories for them so until the day comes when I can put together a set for photographing we'll need to be content with just the Pirates. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

MPC only made four poses for their ringhand Pirates but they included everything needed to bury the treasure such as a treasure chest, pick, and shovel. The catch is: none of the poses really lend themselves well to wielding a pick & shovel unless as a weapon.

Same pose as above but with a shovel

PIRATES: MPC Pirate with Firing Cannon Job Lot

With each job lot large or small, I was able to add original MPC items I didn't already have. This terrific set had a nice figure with original hat, and  holding a belaying pin whilst guarding his treasure chest. But the real gem is the firing naval cannon which still had two rounds. It was common for MPC cannon's to come with round shots as well as shells. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

While a cannon such as this might be found on a pirate ship, MPC's ship's are a bit too small to accommodate it nicely

The barrel elevates but I didn't take photos of it in a raised position

PIRATES: MPC Pirates 2nd Lot of 25 Figures and Accessories

I bought this job lot of original MPC Pirate ringhands for two reasons: it was cheap and it had a bunch of the Pirate accessories. MPC only made four Pirate ringhand poses so after a while it doesn't serve much of a purpose buying tons of figures. The trick is in finding lots that are heavy on accessories and light on figures so the emphasis is on finding the accessories now. In this lot there's one or two each of flag's, shovel's, pick axe's, cutlasses, and belaying pins. It's missing hats, cat-o-nine tails, and the treasure chest so the hunt is till on. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

PIRATES: MPC 60mm Ringhand Pirate Repo's - Available Colors

Speaking of MPC repo Pirate colors, these are the colors that I'm aware of. The first four sets pictured below were bought directly from Kent Owen Sprecher of Toy Soldier HQ (see link in sidebar to the right). The green set is an older release from The Hobby Bunker. However, they're readily available from fleaBay sellers as well. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

PIRATES: MPC Small Pirate Ship - CTS Repo

Playing with Pirate's is a fool's mission if you don't have a boat to go with them. I mean, the two go hand-in-hand, you simply cannot be a Pirate without a boat - it defines what they are. There are a number of really good options out there for equipping your fleet, but this whole thing began for me when wanting to flesh out my MPC collection, so trying to latch on to an MPC Pirate boat was essential. My pals in the facebook groups helped to acquaint me with the kind of stuff MPC made back in the day.

It seems MPC made two different Pirate boats: a large one, and a small one, and if you count the small skiff or dinghy that came with these, you got yourself three! Original MPC boats are bit hard to find - but not impossible as I'll show in future posts. In the meantime I went to a couple of on-line hobby shops and found the two sets of small boats featured here today at Classic Toy Soldiers (CTS). I have been dealing with CTS for many years now and am more than satisfied with their product line and their toys and playset items have been featured on the blog quite a few times. CTS offers the boats in two sets:

-Boat with sails only.

-Boat with sails, small skiff, set of repo ringhand figures with accessories.

This was a great way to see what would've been offered by MPC back in the day. The only difference was in the colors. I really like the brown color of the repos. The originals were done in bright cartoon colors popular for that era of toymaking, but the brown is more realistic. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

These small boats measure: 10" (25.4cm) L x 3 1/2" (8.89cm) W and is 2 1/4" (5.71cm) H to top of stern railing or 7 1/2" (19.05cm) H to top of mast

Repo figures are made in blue, silver, red, white, and green. Other colors may be available but those are the ones I'm aware of

The nice thing about these repo sprues is that you can see all the accessories that were once available. MPC's line of Pirate was nice but not all that extensive.

"Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main..."