Ideal Wagons in Dodge City

If you have the Ideal Dodge City set, here's a chance to see what the three different Ideal wagons look like when paired with the streetfront. These were all sized to the 40mm-45mm range and are smaller than let's say, Marx or MPC. Unfortunately Ideal only made a small number of figures in limited poses to match so you'd either have to search out other brands for 45mm figures or just say to heck with it and pull out your Marx 54mm figures and play. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

U.S. Metal Toy Stagecoach Bank with 2-Horse Hitch (Unmarked)

Here's a nice U.S. Metal Toy Stagecoach that was made as a coin bank, but is has no "U.S. Metal Toy" hallmark. One has to wonder why they bothered to put a slit in the roof with no means of getting the money out except to shake it or disassemble it! Like yesterday's stagecoach, this has a plastic hitch and horses, but only has a 4-horse team. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The Toy House No. 406 Buckboard REDUX - Built-up

I broke down and bought a mint-in-bag Toy House Buckboard for the sole purpose of assembling it. Overall, it's as good as any other of the similar sized wagons out there. I only had one small disappointment - my package, though still mint - included two wagon drivers instead on one driver and one riding shotgun (no biggie because I did see that guy in my stash of figures). The toy was photographed as it came out of the bag. It measures 10 1/4" (26.03cm) L x 3 3/8" (8.57cm) W x 2 3/8"(6.03cm) H (to top of wagon seat back). Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The front wheels are a different color than the rear wheels. I looked at my other bagged examples and they're all like that.

This bag had two drivers. One of the figures should have been a guy riding shotgun.

Size Matters - A Look At Some Of Those Small Toys We Had As Kids

They were cheap. They were everywhere.And they were fun. I've featured toys made by Giant Plastics Corp (aka Giant of Hong Kong) before but let's look at a few pieces from other comapnies that just sort found their way to the house :-) These may have been Giant clones or totally different sculpts but back in the day they could be found in grocery stores, drug stores, 5-&-Dime stores - you name it. They were cheap rack toys out of Hong Kong and even kids whose parents didn't have a lot of disposable income had a chance to get some of these. Of course, here we are some 50+ years later and prices have gone through the roof for some of these while others are still reasonably priced.

Westerns! I loved watching Westerns on TV as a kid so it's no wonder I had a lot of Old West themed toys. Okay, that being said I didn't actually have any of these pictured here today but they still bring back the memories and flavor of a time gone by. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Frontier Coach and Wagon (Hong Kong)

This bag with Stagecoach stapled to card appears to be a clone of a Giant Plastics product

These would be 1/72 scale NOT HO scale which is 1/87 and much smaller!

Hong Kong Frontier Set with Fort Cheyenne

The name 'Fort Cheyenne' was used on numerous Western fort toys and playsets back in the day. This is among the smaller versions

(These would be 1/72 scale NOT HO scale which is 1/87 and much smaller!)

Lucky Clover Toys Set No. 6648H Fort Frontier Assault

yet another Fort Cheyenne

(These would be 1/72 scale NOT HO scale which is 1/87 and much smaller!)

Here's a lot of loose Lido wagons I picked up some months back

This picture of Lido's western style wagons courtesy of Kent Owen Sprecher on his excellent website Toy Soldier HQ (see sidebar on right)

Here's a larger soft-shell carry-all I featured in the early days of the blog. Just another example of a Fort Cheyenne toy

Keystone No. 823 Shooting Frontier Set - Pt 1

I came across  this set a couple of years and thought it was so cool. As someone who grew up in the '50s and '60s the nostalgic pull of Cowboys & Indians themed toys was too strong for me and I bit the bullet to get the set. I guess it was the really nice graphics or perhaps a nearly complete set with a fort, cowboys, Indians, desperado's, ranch hands, stagecoach, and covered wagon but it sure did appeal to me at the time. The set is missing it's small rifle which apparently shot 'harmless' projectiles at the figures - this is after all a shooting game, a very popular type of toy back in the day. The pieces are all either solid wood or laminated wood with colorful lithography - a hallmark of Keystone toys of the '50s of which I have several.

The set consists of:

-1 rifle w/'ammo' (missing in my sample)

-Stockade with mountain backdrop

-2 'L' shaped stockade walls

-Small mountain backdrop

-Stagecoach

-Covered Wagon

-6 Indians w/bases

-9 Cowboys/Cavalry/Ranchers w/bases

Okay, we'll let the photos do most of the talking from here on out. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The stockade/mountain piece measures 23" (58.42cm) W x 11 1/2" (29.21cm) H

Both terrain pieces have ledges on the rear to hold set pieces

Notice the red 'M' on the back side. Many of the pieces are marked like this and I believe it was some well meaning mother (or maybe even the young lad who's set this was) marking ownership of the toys. Who owned this set? Mikey? Marvin? Matt?

The small terrain piece measures 11 1/2" (29.21cm) W x 4 1/2" (11.43cm) H

There are two long sections and two short section that combine into 'L' shaped stockade walls

The figures are all lithographed front and back and slip on to half-round bases allowing them to stand on their own or on the ledges in the rear of the terrain pieces.

The figures are quite tall, the Cavalryman on horse back w/guidon (top row, far left) measures 5 1/2" (13.97cm) H

My set came with a small wood cabin but I don't believe it's original to the set, however I did use it in the photos because it looks 'right' when displayed with all the other pieces.