COMMENT TIME JAN 1989
References
We have received word from several collectors concerning a person using their name as a reference. When people the check with the listed reference, they are discovering that the supposed reference did not give permission to be used as a reference and further more would never allow his or her name to be used by that person as a reference.
If some submit s a reference to you, you should immediately verify if that person who provided the reference has permission to do so. If the reference is unknown to you, then please check with other collector to see if they are familiar with the party and can check for you.
FROGMAN
The Ideal frogman and boat that we are offering is slightly different from the original in that it contains an extra frogman that was never issued. It is that of a frogman swimming. It was probably not issued due to production problems. The present owner has found a way to overcome that problem.
There were very few skin diver figures ever made. Marx did one to sell with the fish collection. Palmer made a very crude oversized one. Add those two with the hard hat Ideal diver and you have the entire undersea diver figures ever made in the US.
1989 MFCA DATE AND LOCATION CHANGE:
The MFCA is moving from Widner to Villanova, PA. The show will be nearer the King of Prussia and Valley Forge. The dates will be May 19 and May 20.
POPE PAUL VI FIGUE
On my vacation, I had a chance to see the figure made by Marx of Pope Paul the Sixth. The figure is 60 and is made of white hard plastic. This is one more example of undocumented figures that Marx made. Another is the pioneer woman carrying two buckets and the pioneer settler, chopping with an axe. These went as far as being made into molds. Another example is a female slave made for the Ben Hur set. It was produced and is pictured in the Sears catalog. However it never made it into the actual playset. A final variation is the Mark McCain (Rifleman) figure. He was designed holding a rifle, but the rifle was removed for the version included in the set.
TOY FAIR
Next month is the Toy Fair in NYC and we will be there to see the new toy releases for 1989. Naturally we will be on the lookout for any new releases in plastic figures. There were rumors of both Britain’s and Esci making changes to their lines and this will be the place to see if it s true. We will let you know what we see there. One thing to mention is that what we see, will be prototypes or proposals. And we shall list them as such. It should be an interesting show.
INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE LIST
Reissue Pioneer Group….10 figures including the never released pioneer woman carrying the two buckets on a yoke and the pioneer chopping wood wearing a tricorne hat…..5.00
Ideal Frogman and Boat Reissues…Test shots contain frogman, one man sub, a boat to carry the sub and a ships pilot. Various colors……..15.00
Skyscraper Playset……Largest tin litho building ever made. 16 figures, 2 cars and working elevators. Mint in box set……..950.00
Metal Castings of the Fallen Horse and Rider……The detail is excellent and comes painted either CSA Gray on a gray horse or Union Blue on a black horse. The paint used makes them look like plastic figures….15.00
Desert Fox playset box….very good condition…35.00
Atlantic 1/32 Hitler and the SS……Mint in the box……….100.00
Marx HO Western Town……..missing the stagecoach. Everything else is there….225.00
Marx HO Battleground….incomplete set. Box and playmat are good………150.00
MY COMMENTS
The first section was about a party that roamed up in the northern part of Pennsylvania. He was known for bad deals. He would misrepresent things such as offer a Marx character figure for a very cheap price and when you would get it the figure would be damaged and you complain. He would reply what did you expect for the price. This party was telling people he had been refered to them by another collector. I put this up in the most neutral statement I could for legal reasons. The offending party called me and tried to rip me up and down. I told to pound sand and hung up. I never heard from him again. My friend John used to see him at flea markets, but has not seen him in awhile.
The Ideal frogman and boat was one of the Ideal molds that Glencoe Models got. I do not know if they still own the mold or not. I should have mention that Palmer had a couple of divers in their set. I was thinking of just the hard hat diver at the time. For some strange reason I put a MPC BAR with the Ideal diver as child.
I can not remember where I was shown the Pope Paul figure. I have to look for my journals to see if there are any other notes. Rick Koch was the owner of the Mark McCain and Ben Hur Female slave. Rick sold off both of the figures on Ebay. If you look at the first year that Sears sold the Ben Hur playset you will see the female slave. I have no idea why it was pulled. Maybe in the Marx records there is an answer.
The Alantic Hitler sets is one of the easiest to find of the Altantic Political sets. The reason is when dealers got their sets because of the sensitive nature and laws it was thrown in the store rooms to be found years later. I had one dealer over at Plastic Warrior show from Belgium offering me to sell pieces of the set for years. Starlux did a Hitler figure which they had to pull due to complains from parents.
In Germany, it is illegal to display Nazi regalia and symbols. At the first German Plastic Toy show I spotted a metal figure with a Nazi flag. I informed my friend about it and the dealer covered it up. I also remember from first German show there was a strict requirement on aisle width. They had a German fire marshall actually measure the width with a ruler!
MFCA was at Villanova for one year. The story was the gym were it was held got damaged so they moved. Two things I remember from that show was getting some Mokarex figures in line and getting more Spanish plastic from a person who had sold them to me at a show earlier in the year