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Wacky Western Set

What do Cochise and Erik the Red have in common?


In the hobby of collecting plastic toy soldiers, I have encountered some unusual items.  Common are anachronistic pieces which are somehow out-of-sync with history.  This is no surprise, since I often encounter the same in the train hobby.  We have a long list of "neverwas" trains which never existed in the real world.

In toy soldiering, there are occasional "neverwas" troops.  Vikings in plate armor, Civil War soldiers with bolt action rifles, etc. , etc.  It happens.  There are times when an anachronism goes that extra mile.  The set featured here, though it has some of the best accessories scene, has a few figures that just defy history.  Read on and enjoy.

It looks like your better Wild West playsets, with great accessories.  And considering it's sold in a clear plastic bucket, it is.  But there is something weird about this set.

Indians with...swords!  The yellow figure and the green on in the right rear are wielding Viking-type broadswords. The blue man in font has a bolo machete, a type indigenous to the Phillipines.  

Sword-and- bolo-wielding Indians notwithstanding ,the fence and wagon are some of the best-made accessories I've seen in a long time.  The canoes are pretty good, too.

In the lower left, look for the blue cowboy with the snub-nosed revolver!

Those campfires, drying skins and weapons on easels are fine accessories.  You don't often find such things in anything less than a Marx playset, yet here they are packed in with sword-wielding Indians and crudely-detailed cowboys.  Note the cowboy in the bottom center with a snub-nosed revolver, by the way.  This set is worth the price, just for the accessories.  


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