Greg Liska’s Request More Figures to Look At, I start with a request for an item from Greg Liska for one of our fellow collectors. Next, I am trying to catch up with some more new releases from Russia plus much more.
Greg Liska’s Request More MPC Patrol Boat
Greg Liska made this request to me.
Do you know of anyone with an MPC Patrol Boat for sale? Mike Raines is looking for one. It needs to be in good condition (Not mint or perfect) and can be missing a few items off of it. His big issue is brittleness. It can’t be brittle. That’s a tough one for MPC stuff.
Greg added this about Mike.
He’s not doing well. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 5 years ago. The meds only work so-so on him and he also developed neuropathy from the knees down. As a result, he’s taken a few falls. In the latest incident, he broke his hand in 2 places. He can’t drive anymore, either. I pick him up to go to shows and try to see him once a month. If this boat surfaces, it’ll be a nice morale boost for him.
Do they recast any of the parts that went on it? Finding an affordable incomplete one would do. Also; where could I see some pics of a mint specimen? Can you help?
New Russian Figures
We have several figure sets from Tithon. The first one is Fighting Monks a five-figure set.
The next one is Ivar the Boneless. Ivar was a Viking Leader who may had a physical disability. This is a fantastic piece.
The name of this set is Basmachi. The Baschi which means bandit or robbers was a Central European uprising against the Russian government.
Tithon has WWild West Heroes a five-figure set
Chelovechek(Little Big Man) a six-figure set titled No Vikings Bronze Age
Please note we show these figures as reference only as your country may have restrictions of trade with Russia.
How Am I doing?
I am doing fine. I am right now waiting for a procedure for my Ab Fib. It got delayed because my new Medicare company could not find me. I signed up with another company but I had to wait until February 1st for the new plan to start. I am hoping the procedure will allow to do my plans for the year.
No interest in any from Russia
Will see into Greg request.
That Western set; Billy the Kid upper left, Hickock and Calamity Jane ottom row left ? The other two have got me stumped.
May God bless you sir !
I will pray for your recovery .
Michael
Thank you for your kind words and thoughts.
Other two: Doc Holiday and Jeremiah Johnson?
Paul, yep, insurance companies are a royal pain, have had my fill of them recently as well. More power to you! As far as Greg Liska’s request on the MPC PT Boat, there is a guy on ebay with an MPC Plastic Fireboats listing with 3 boats, one is very similar to the PT Boat with machine guns but in red, item# is 315124915007. Hope this helps. Stay healthy and keep up the great work on this site. Thanks, Tim Connelly
As per the western set… I believe the beareded guy is John “Liver Eater” Johnson… if you google him, you’ll find a photo of him in that exact pose. He is wearing a hat, but there is another hatlesss photo of him that matches the figure’s head.
I think the bottom right guy might be Wyatt Earp.
Gary, I agree the bearded guy is Johnson. We visited his grave in Cody, Wyoming some years back. You might be right on the bottom right being Wyatt Earp, considering the pistols. He reminded me of Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday from “Tombstone.”
I agree anout ” Johnson ” thoughtvthatpose looked famliar.. The other one ” Wyatt “,could be ?
Wayne, you are correct– it appears to be Doc Holliday. It is likely based on the Val Kilmer version. Funny how the makers did such an authentic job on real-lfe gunslingers ‘n’ mountain men, but then used a stylized Hollywood version for that figure. I’m sure they just googled images and found ones that looked “American West” to them.
The reason I did not recognize it as Doc Holliday is because the real Doc was pretty gaunt and suffered from TB. Plus he had a way more vigorous ‘stache than Val Kilmer’s dandy look. Holliday briefly practiced dentistry here in Denison (North of Dallas). The city even has an annual “Doc Holliday Festival”.
Cool that you got to visit Johnson’s grave in Cody.
I agree the Western characters (except the Kilmer example) are based on historical photos, which is great for authenticity. The sculptor needs to go one step further and depict these same characters in more active shooting poses, rather than posing for photographers.
Gary and TD, the “Doc” figure threw me too. As you say the others are pretty historically correct. The giveaway for me was the pistol behind his back – “Let’s dance, Johnny Ringo.”
I think action poses would be great, too. I loved the old Marx character figures but it always frustrated me they were just standing there doing nothing. I might have given Abe a rifle, at least (LOL).
We found Johnson’s grave almost by accident. We were staying in Cody for several days, did a dog-leg trip to Yellowstone and Whitewater Rafting on the Shoshone (we had three of our boys with us). Anyway, the folks at the hotel told us of a great locally owned restaurant that served a pretty good steak and eggs breakfast at a good price. We were eating breakfast and talking about some of the points of interest when our waitress told us Jeremiah Johnson was buried in the cemetery across the road.
My sons and I love the movie so it was a no-brainer to check it and the old west village out.
Did you have the liver dish at the the restaurant…? (Hadda ask…:) )
Did you have the liver dish at the restaurant…? (Hadda ask… 🙂 )
We-er-avoided it. There was a great pan fried steak. Being from the Southeast it was a pleasant surprise that it was so good. The rest of the breakfast was great, too.
Ivan the Boneless was a,Danish leader modern medical research points to his suffering from Spina Bifida
He was carried around by two housewares but he also had a,wheeled carriage that he used.
I learnt about him while working as a costumer on TV series about Vikings
I hadn’t heard that explanation before. Thanks for sharing it, Peter.
Should have been Housecarls. Damn predictive text !
Yes, Peter, it is very interesting History that I didn’t know. Too bad this maker is producing such great sets/figs at a time when the world is in such dissarray.
There is probably a documentary or a movie about Ivan the Boneless. What a great subject to explore. He must have had charisma and a sense of elan to inspire the troops.
Backing up a little bit- – I don’t have the MPC boat that Greg Liska is looking for, but I have several of those figures. They are originals, but I’m thinking MPC cranked ’em out for many of its sets.
BTW– Greg has posted many nice conversions over the years. So if he has some more, I think it would be nice to see them.
MPC was notorious for using the same molds in different colors in their sets – particularly their ring hands. I have the same guys in several different colors, they just came with different accessory sprues depending whether they were scientists, astronauts, firemen, or policemen. I think I even saw an ebay auction where there were these same guys in blue and gray with ACW accessories. That surprised me, because my MPC ACW guys were always the bearded guys – in tan they filled my “Daniel Boone Boonesboro” set (with suitable yellow pioneer sprues and coonskin hats). It wasn’t Fort Apache, but I had a ball with it anyway. Great memories.
Speaking of which, Louis Marx got the most out of his molds, too – but I’m not thinking it was quite as much as MPC. JMO
MPCs were my Gun Crews especially after I would lose the little accessories in the Back Yard.Also the ones wearing the Trench Coat,Stiff Collar jacket and the Jack Boot figures were Warsaw Pact POWs captured by my Marx GI’s,poor guys were always getting Butt Stroked by that Marx GI with overhead rifle.
I did the same thing with my MPC guys – great artillerymen.
Just to clarify, Ivan is the Russian version of ‘John’.
“Ivar” was Scandinavian and presumed to not be Christian so his name would not mean ‘John’.
Wayne’s post jogged my memory- – I had that MPC Dan’l Boone playset. The box was thin cardboard- – white with brown and yellow artwork (the artwork was more exciting than the set, lol).
The figures were brown and the weapons/hats/accessories were yellow. None of the pieces really fit the figures, but it was still fun for a six year-old kid in Texas. I still have quite a few of those muskets and coonskin hats.
I also had those ACW sets that were ill-fitting as well.
As per Brian’s post, I usually gave up on making the hats and weapons fit the ACW MPC figures and setteled for them as being disarmed prisoners in my set-ups.
My neighbor had a Marx Battle of the Blue & Gray set, so his soldiers always took my guys into custody.
BTW- if you order the re-cast/re-pops of the MPC weapons sprue…if you have a good ‘n’ sharp razor blade and some ‘liquid courage’, you can trim the rifles down to fit most 54mm figures.
Stad if Greg is still looking for an MPC Patrol Boat for Mike, I just happened to see Ebay Item No. 285706219217 tonight. It’s a little pricey as this one looks to be MIB or close to it. Just thought I would pass this on.
JJ