Ranches & other wild west buildings

I'm aware that this is an animal toy forum, so will limit the items I post here, mostly, to those with an animal connection.

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However, I'm pushing the animal connection to the limit with my first wild west building, because it is my only pre-war, 1930s, wild west building, 'Cow Town Jail', but hey, maybe some of the desperados locked up within were cattle rustlers, and that's animal related isn't it?   

A very crude toy, manufacturer unknown, possibly Peacock Toys, but lower grade than the buildings I know were made by them.

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This ranch (ranches have cows   ) might also be by Peacock, and was probably made circa 1950-55. The figures are early, also say 1955-58 plastic by Cherilea.

Next up are two ranches (variations, hence front and side views) and a western town street, all by ELF Toys of Shipston-on-Stour, Worcestershire, probably circa 1958-62.

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Now the first version of ELF's western town streets - basically a crude long box inside. 2nd version had partitions inside, 3rd version had an opening back and a wire cage jail cell, and 4th version lost the store on the right.

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I have a 2nd & 3rd version, but won't post them unless people want to see them, as it is a little off the site's animals theme.

A recent purchase, a very 'bargain basement' western street, just a frontage. I haven't tried yet, but it might fit inside one of the ELF western forts to be posted shortly.

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I included this cowboy, by Lone*Star, circa 1960, because I thought he looked like he might have been drinking rather too much wild west 'whisky', a.k.a. near lethal moonshine  

Now two items by Pennine Toys, Manchester area, circa 1960, a ranch and a western town street.

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Now a couple of wild west town blacksmith's shops (who shoe horses, so animal related) from about 1970. The first one was made by Hanse of Denmark.

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2nd one was made by Oehme & Sohne in the DDR (former East Germany)

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I have more Oehme & Sohne western town buildings, but won't post them until I get some feedback about whether they will be regarded as too off (animal) topic. Ditto regarding my western forts, US Cavalry, for the use of.

They are fabulous ! Fascinating ! WoW !   
Amazing that they have survived so many years !

And even one from a Danish brand !   I never heard about them   

How I would love to play with them ..in a very, very careful way, of course   

An enormously impressive collection, I would LOVE to see more    

In case you do not think they belong here, there is the "Other collections and hobbies". I can move the topic there if you want ... 

SUSANNE wrote:

They are fabulous ! Fascinating ! WoW !   
Amazing that they have survived so many years !

And even one from a Danish brand !   I never heard about them   

How I would love to play with them ..in a very, very careful way, of course   

An enormously impressive collection, I would LOVE to see more    

In case you do not think they belong here, there is the "Other collections and hobbies". I can move the topic there if you want ... 

Perhaps best to leave them here for a few days, so members who looked at the zoo buildings easily find them, and then move this thread, and then I'll add more wild west items to it next week.

What a beautiful collection! As Susanne mentioned, if you're worried about a non-connection to animals, you can post it in the "Other collections and hobbies" board. It is a joy to see your buildings, they are very, very nice!

DaveScriv wrote:

SUSANNE wrote:

They are fabulous ! Fascinating ! WoW !   
Amazing that they have survived so many years !

And even one from a Danish brand !   I never heard about them   

How I would love to play with them ..in a very, very careful way, of course   

An enormously impressive collection, I would LOVE to see more    

In case you do not think they belong here, there is the "Other collections and hobbies". I can move the topic there if you want ... 

Perhaps best to leave them here for a few days, so members who looked at the zoo buildings easily find them, and then move this thread, and then I'll add more wild west items to it next week.

Perfect !!! I think they are fine here

If you're happy with them here, I'll carry on and add some more.

DaveScriv wrote:

If you're happy with them here, I'll carry on and add some more.

GREAT    

Nice!  

To continue then, first with some more by Oehme & Sohne from the DDR in the 1970s. The doors etc., of these buildings are scaled for bigger than Britains figures, obviously intended for 60mm to 70mm German and other European made figures, and with export markets in mind, US Dimestore figures. As I only really collect UK made vintage figures, all I have to go with them are the larger scale plastic western figures by Cherilea and Crescent.
The overall size of O&S buildings isn't very big though, as is often the case with toy buildings of all kinds, designers incorporate 'compressed reality' into a lot of them. What in reality would be small structures, say a farm pig sty or hen house, can be represented in reasonably true scale, but the further you go up the real life size of buildings, the more designers had to make inventive compromises to represent them in toy form. The most extreme examples are toy medieval castles. Someone calculated that an accurate, to Britains 1:32 scale model of Windsor Castle would need to be about 10 metres long! This is why most of them have almost two dimensional buildings, with doors to nowhere, sometimes with printed 'interiors'. Like the Tardis, "bigger on the inside"   

Enough of toy buildings general philosophy, and back to O&S wild west with a town street + original box:

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Town Hall + original box

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City Bank + original box

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Look-out Tower & General Store

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Western Town Post Office

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Western Town School

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(With the occasional reported attempts to teach creationism in US schools, some might say education in the US hasn't progressed much since wild west times.    )

Fort Apache +original box

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Fort River, with Crescent plastic US Cavalry

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I love the general store.

Now for two, rather crude (hey, they were toys!) items by Raytel of Pershore, Worcestershire, England, probably circa 1955-60.

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Now a couple of German made wooden wild west buildings by Elastolin, with some lead UK made cowboys by Britains & Crescent.

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Back to ELF Toys, with their 1st version Fort Dallas. I had one of these when I was a kid, about 1960, but it went to a jumble sale, so this is a recently bought replacement, with original box. One of the few toy western forts with 2 internal buildings, and a relatively realistic guard tower, so one of my favourites, in addition to the nostalgia factor.

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2nd version of Fort Dallas by ELF Toys, circa 1965

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3rd version of Fort Dallas, circa 1970, after ELF had changed their name to Joytoys and moved from Shipston-on-Stour to Malvern.

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Now one from 'Binbak', Binns & Baker Ltd, Bradford, Yorkshire. Another favourite item in my western buildings collection.

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They are fabulous   

Like 4U, I love the store, - and the other town buildings too.  
I suppose that is a "chick-thing", as my son says    

I had also some like this in my childhood, but now i think only one.   Congratulations