Marx 50mm USAF Figures - Cave Finds

This year has been about discovery - re-discovering treasures out in The Cave that is - and bringing them to the light of day here on the blog. Just yesterday I found a bunch of Marx 50mm USAF figures and accessories. In August I posted the complete set of 50mm USAF figures and at the time thought I had gathered them all in one place, until...

...I came across a box full of figures and accessories!

Ed

This inventory shot taken back in June shows all the USAF figures I thought I had

Here's what I ended up with after The Cave find!

From 27 pieces to 104!

The top row in the photo below shows original figures in various shades of metallic blue that Marx made.

The second and third rows reflect colors I wasn't aware of. Are they original Marx? Repops?

Marx 50mm USAF Figures - Metallic Blue SP - Pt 2 Pose 1

It's apparent when looking at the eleven different USAF figures from Marx, that a variety of personnel are represented: pilots, ground crew, munitions specialists, maintenance personnel, POL specialists, tower personnel, etc. This mirrors the real life diversity of tasks required to keep the aircraft serviceable and flying. Our first figure is wearing the baggy clothes, service cap, and flight jacket of what is likely a bomber crewman, going over what I presume is his pre-flight checklist.

Ed

Ed's Travelogue: USAF Basic Training Sep 1978 - Pt7 USAF Basic Training , San Antonio Sights (2) The O. Henry House

While our flight was on a day pass in San Antonio, I had a chance to visit the O. Henry house. William Sydney Porter - aka O. Henry (pen name) - was a prolific short story writer. While he was born in North Carolina, this was one of the places he lived while in Texas. Those of us growing up in the '50s will recognize his name as it was mentioned in the opening credits of the TV show "The Cisco Kid" (1950-56) starring Duncan Renaldo in the title role with Leo Carillo starring as his sidekick Pancho. The Cisco Kid - along with The Lone Ranger,  Roy Rogers, and The Wild Bill Hickcock show - were among my favs as a kid! These were all the pics I have as I was rationing my film for all the other sights to see. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Ed's Travelogue: USAF Basic Training Sep 1978 - Pt 5 USAF Basic Training, San Antonio Rodeo

Having been chosen as Honor Flight had its perks. One of those was a chance to go to downtown San Antonio and see the rodeo. Now, I'm here to tell ya I'm not rodeo fan - I don't know one horse and rider from the next - but it was still fun and a chance to get the heck out of the dorm LOL The souvenir photo shown below had to have been a freebie handout. The photos posted here of the riding action are pretty crappy. Again, I just had a deuce of a time figuring out how to take decent indoor shots. I have a lot more photos but won't post them here cuz they all suck! :-) Anywho - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The guys lining up to get in

Some shots of the guys in the stands

Ed's Travelogue: USAF Basic Training Sep 1978 - Pt 3 USAF Basic Training Life

 Here's some postcards of life during Basic Traning I didn't include in my last post. Basic wouldn't be complete without obstacle courses and small arms training. What follows is only some of the photos I took while there.

Okay, I included the scan here, but there was no narrative on the back of this postcard - unusual for a postcard.

They called new recruits 'Pickles' becuase of our unadorned green fatigue uniforms and clean shaven heads hahahahahaha what a hoot!

I got propellers growing out of ears LOL

My official photo

Our Squadron, the 3708th Basic Military Training Squadron

The T.I.'s (Technical Instructor) office

:Give me your 341" ooooh we didn't want to hear that one. That's what the T.I. said to us when we were caught doing an infraction. Her would take the 341, record the infraction and file it away until the end of basic. I had few enough 341's that I was awarded the Basic Training Honor Grad ribbon.

Nice and neat!

I can't post the pix of pillow fights and general disorderlyness during the evening because by then we were all in our skivvies LOL But hey, we cleaned up after ourselves :-)

We were awarded Honor Flight and here's our guidon.

This would prove to be a fairly big deal for us as I'll show in another post.