Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 79 Sets: Miner Ind. Playset No. 1753 Army Action Squadron Task Force Set (my set #3) - Pt 7 Figures

The next series of photo essays will feature the minty green figures that came with two of my Miner Industries set. 

Ed

The nine poses included in both of my sealed Miner Industries sets

Miner only seems to have produced nine of the eleven original Payton figures: Pose 3 and Pose 11 (the K9) were not in my sealed sets.

Pose 3

Pose 11

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 31 Field Accessory's Heavy Weapons Sub-Group: Tripod Mounted 30cal MG

Here we have Payton's tripod mounted 30cal MG. Funny story: many years ago I walked into a friends house and sitting on his living room floor was one of these bad boys! A real one - not a toy!!! My friend held a Federal firearm's license was able to buy and sell to cleared individuals. He said he was waiting for the guy to pick it up. 😆

Anywho, here's Payton's toy version!

Ed

Marx - Payton Comparison

Like the 50cal water-cooled MG, I see some minor differences around the gunsight / grip area.

Payton

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 30 Field Accessory's Heavy Weapons Sub-Group: Tripod Mounted 50cal Water Cooled MG

Well good readers, if you see a lag in posts this coming week, it's because I've been fighting a cold and persistent cough the past couple of weeks and I really haven't felt like doing much of anything. I have tried to get as much ready beforehand as possible so maybe it'll all work out in the end.

Anywho, our next trip down Payton memory lane brings us to the heavy weapons group. Okay, well maybe not 'heavy' as in cannons, howitzers, or tanks, but heavy enough if it was your job to haul these around the battlefield. Here's what we'll cover in the next few days:

-Tripod mounted 50cal water-cooled MG

-Tripod mounted 30cal MG

-Tripod mounted recoilless rifle

-Bazooka

They were all molded in soft vinyl plastic and are almost indistinguishable from Marx - who also molded theirs in a soft vinyl plastic. But, to that end I've included Marx/Payton comparison shots.

Ed

Marx - Payton Comparison

If I were some guy selling this stuff on eBay I'd have a helluva time trying to figure out the difference. Look closely and you'll notice the minor differences but the single biggest difference that I notice is the gunsight

Payton

Miner Industries Playset No. 1753 Army Action Squadron Task Force - Set #3

Here's the third unopened Army Action Squadron playset I bought over this past year-&-half or so and, like the one posted yesterday, this has the later Payton casts. The figure/vehicle count is sightly different but they are all the same type. The photos don't show it that well, but these are a very light mint green and with the darker casts from yesterday's set the two make great opposing forces. Those Batman style "POW", "BAM" graphics are a bit corny but, ummm but - give me time, I'm trying to think of something positive to say here - but they're, ummm colorful! Yeah, that's it - they're colorful! 

Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Miner Industries Playset No. 1753 Army Action Squadron Task Force - Set #2

Back on March 2nd, I posted a Miner Industries Army Action Squadron playset. Over the past year and half I tried my luck and actually bought three of these MIB, still sealed sets. Two of the sets were sealed in clear plastic wrap while the third simply had been taped. That first set posted in March hit the jackpot with it's VHTF all white Mobile Missile Launcher and set contents that matched up well enough with the box cover photo. These next sets aren't nearly as exciting but are still cool in their own way. Nothing in the next two sets I'll be posting match up with the box cover photo. Well, lets just have the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

After some discussion on the facebook groups, it was concluded that the figures and vehicles are original Payton - not repos. However they are later castings than the ones we normally associate as being from the 1960s.

This reply is from noted plastic and playset collector Kent Owen Sprecher which explains how Payton pieces ended up in a Miner Industries box (quote used with permission):

Miner Industry Playsets

Kent Owen Sprecher

Those are actual Payton. About 1972/3 Payton and Premier were taken over by a group of investors who set up a shell corporation WINNECO to run things. They failed and t all ended up in court. HG Toys ended up buying both companies in the later 1970s. In the 1980s, HG, Miner (MPC), DFC and Helm all made playsets to grab the market share after Marx went under. It seems some stuff was shared and a bunch of figures and empty boxes were found in warehouses. In the late 1980s a man whose name I forget got a lot of Miner Industries boxes and filled them up with what he could find. Excalibur got a bunch of these sets. I show the contents of three "Miner" photo box prehistoric sets I got at my website. None of them contained any Miner (MPC) dinosaurs but had Ajax & Nabisco animals and a mix of DFC, Marx reissue & MPC reissue cavemen. https://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/MPCanc.html

TRAIN TIME: 4th of July Celebration Running My K-Line "The United States Army Train" Set No. K-1911

I don't always do something for the 4th of July but this year I thought it would be fun to break out and run an old Army train, one that I haven't run in 11 years! I'm kinda jumping ahead of my Train Time posts in that I've started a new layout: The Milwaukee North Western but progress has been slow and it really doesn't look much different than the set-ups that have been utilizing that space over the span of the past 6 years. 

The basis for this set-up is a few Marx tin-litho Army buildings, an MPC helicopter, Payton Little Green Army Men, assorted vehicles, and K-Line's "The United States Army Train" set No. 1911.

Well, anywho, here it is - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The set came with a header bag of Jak Pak U.S. Infantry figures

There was actually a second bag of 6 figures stapled to the original bag of 18 figures

Non-firing cannon - but still cool!

This is only a missile transport car, not a missile launching car

Lighted caboose

I don't know what's in those cannisters but they're under intense guard!