REL Cannon and Limber and Figures - Pt 3 - Cannon

As promised, here's the photo essay for the REL cannon which measures 5 1/4" (13.33cm) L x 3 1/4" (8.25cm) W. I s'pose REL made these in other colors as well, but as I was never able to drum up enough interest in these I've never investigated them more. So okay - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

USA Toy Soldiers 24pc Artillery Set 54mm - Pt 1

Last year we hit the American Civil War toys kind of hot-&-heavy and then just sort of petered out. Subject burn-out or perhaps just an innate restlessness always causes subject drift at the drop of a hat. Well, today I was going through my photo albums and came upon this set meant to have been posted months ago but never was. It's actually a terrific modern era set distributed by some company called 'USA Toy Soldiers'. I haven't a clue who's behind this but the the header bag uses cloned Americana artwork yet none of the set pieces are in any Americana set I've yet to discover.That being said, this is the only 54mm set I'm aware of which concentrates on the poses one would associate with an artillery battery and two different types of artillery are included: a cannon and a howitzer, both of which have variations not found elsewhere. The set itself consists of:

4 cannons
4 mortars
4 cannonball piles
6 Confederates & 6 Union in identical poses

all cast in a soft vinyl plastic. The USA Toy Soldiers cannon has a shorter barrel and the muzzle is non-flared as compared to the Americana version. The mortar rests on a stalwart frame. Both are non-operating. Photos between USA Toy Soldiers, Americana, and Marx are shown for comparison. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

(L) USA Toy Soldiers (R) Americana

The USA Toy Soldiers cannon has a shorter barrel, no flare at the muzzle, and the trail has the prolong hooks and prolong detail missing from the Americana 

(L) USA Toy Soldiers (M) Americana (R) Marx

(L) USA Toys Soldiers (R) Marx)

Siege Mortar

As I was looking through the Internet I didn't see any photos of mounts quite like this one, but then there's a gazillion images out there and maybe I missed it.

(L) USA Toy Soldiers (M & R) Marx

MPC 60mm Breech-loading Cannon

Okay, time to re-engage with the Civil War toys - although I am working on some other series. MPC was a major player in the 1960s Civil War toy scene and they ended up having some fun stuff. Many toy collectors think only of Marx when it comes to Civil War, because quite frankly they were the best. But back in the day kids wanted this stuff to play with, not to collect and MPC gave them much of the same fun stuff as Marx: exploding bridges, firing cannons, wagons, tents, and lots of figures but at 60mm they were BIGGER (the exception of course is the very limited 50mm line of Civil War figures MPC made)! The figures and accessories were scaled to 60mm and being bigger meant they simply had more presence. While Marx offered a Napoleon style muzzle-loading cannon in their Civil War sets, MPC offered this nice breech-loading in blue for the Union, and gray for the Confederates. However, MPC did not offer any figures specific to a cannon crew like Marx did and the average MPC foot soldier had to stand in as a cannoneer. Enjoy! Fritz and Bettina Berg

Normally there would be spring attached to the two posts however mine is missing. It wouldn't make much of a difference though as the parts are now so tight on my cannon, there's no real free movement That makes this a nice display piece.

Here, a 60mm MPC ring-hand soldier has been assigned to a cannon battery