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Showing posts with label Fort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort. Show all posts

Monday, January 5, 2026

Ideal Marine Base Playset

Around 1958 Ideal came out with a series of small forts which were packaged in header bags. The sets included a plastic main gate, flanked by two tin-litho walls. The two walls included in each bag were identical. As well, the bags held figures and accessories. Later, the sets were packaged on blister cards with no accessories.

Ed 


The following sets were offered: 

The Alamo

Dodge City

Fort Laramie

Fort Pitt

Knights and Castle

Marine Base

Valley Forge

Here's the ones in my collection:

The Alamo

Knights and Castle


Dodge City


Marine Base

 Gate: 6" (15.24cm) W x 1" (2.54cm) D x 5" (12.7cm) H   Walls: 10.125" (25.71cm) W x 2" (5.08cm) H





Gate front

Gate back

Walls


While I've acquired extra wall pieces, I have yet to get the figures and accessories. Something I'll need to work on this year.

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Ideal Tin-Litho Fort Laramie Regimental HQ

Bought two years ago during the last spate of Western toy posts, this ended up not being blogged as I got distracted and moved on to other things. Ideal's Fort Laramie had always been on my bucket list but this was the only piece I ended up with - so far. As much as I'd love to get the whole set at once, being on a tight budget usually means that I have to acquire it piecemeal. It's sized for rather large 60mm-70mm figures, the type Ideal is known for and the remaining fort pieces are all tin-litho as well, I s'pose I'll have to work at getting those now huh? 

 The HQ measures: 20.875" (53.022cm) W overall at the roof line x 5" (12.7cm) D 

x 6.125" (15.55cm) H















Everyone carries on about how nice Marx graphics were, but Ideal (as well as T. Cohn) also did outstanding work.








Saturday, September 30, 2023

PIRATES: Battle For Fort Treasure - Pt 2 Final

After looking at the photos of this set-up I'm thinking to myself, "Meh" LOL I enjoyed messing around with the toys but at the same time the photos aren't what I'd hoped. But that's okay - this is the first time ever on the blog that a sea-born battle was waged and photographed. I'm going to need a different base with a bit more realistic looking water (not just a platform painted a flat sky blue) and different backdrops for more effective photography. That being said, here's the remaining pics from the photo shoot of Tim-Mee's Pirate Fortress Playset. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The fort rests on a piece of green poster board simulating an island. Good 'nuff for playing but lousy for photography. I have a bunch of playset forts and castles in the collection as well as random sheets of Styrofoam laying around. I really need to take a look at what I can make for a proper castle/fort base


The smaller 45mm Tim-Mee figures look much better with the MPC boats than the MPC 60mm ringhands which would normally have come with them


The original MPC boats are colorful and toy like, whereas the repop's are brown or rust colored


A bird's eye view of the set-up. This table will be used for my Halloween and then Christmas train layouts in the coming weeks, but it needs more panels for the backdrop. I could also use some more landforms if I'm gonna do set-ups like these.
You can see that a plain, flat sky blue painted 'water' isn't all that great, but it's a step in the right direction.

The fort is about the same size as some of the Marx Fort Apache stockades. The 'island' took up the entire size of the green poster board and appears to be a decent size for it however, some of my castles are a bit wider and will need a larger base if I ever get around to making one.


Tuesday, September 26, 2023

PIRATES: Tim-Mee #5730 Pirate Fortress Playset - Pt 2 Final The Fort

This is the fort which came with Tim-Mee's Pirate Fortress Playset and it can rival just about anything Marx put out like their Fort Apache series. It includes not only the obligatory walls and gate but lookout towers that are actually easier to place figures in. Unlike Marx, who used tin-litho buildings as a part of their sets (a very big plus BTW), Tim-Mee made a small stable to fit inside the wall. There are enough accessories to bring life to the post. Once assembled the overall dimensions are 17 1/2" (44.45cm) W x 11 1/4" (28.57cm) D x 5.5" (13.97cm) H to top of gate. 

I'll be posting photos of these various sets in the coming days or weeks, all set up and ready to play.

Enjoy! Opa Fritz



There are four walls with ramparts/catwalks. the measure 5.3/4" (14.60) W x 4 1/4" (10.79cm) H


There are five walls with gun ports.

The three-piece


The stable is comprised of a side wall, front wall, and roof. While those three pieces all connect, once assembled the structure does not connect to any of the fort walls and basically gets tucked free standing, into the cor

Water trough with pump,
Hitching post
Two Barrels
Well
Log pile
Flagpole
Gun rack (that odd looking piece in the bottom middle that looks like the top of a teepee)
Two ladders