Sunday, November 1, 2015

The Lone Ranger 1967 & Princess Wildflower

The Lone Ranger is a kit I have been wanting since something (I have no idea what) happened to my original.  The Lone Ranger live action series ran on television from 1949 to 1957 and continued in re-runs for years.  I loved this show when I was a kid.  OK, truth to tell, I still love this show and I keep hoping they will make a movie worthy of the name.  No luck on that front yet.  There was a Saturday Morning animated version which ran from 1966 to 1969 although it seems to have had more in common with the Wild Wild West than with the original live-action series.  It looks like Aurora re-tooled the Zorro mold to make the Ranger, so many of the pieces are extremely similar.  

Unlike most of the kits I own, I do not have a built up of this one.  I own the Comic Scene version, still in the original shrink wrap.  This kit was originally issued in 1967 and as a Comic Scene in 1974-75.  The kit I own just celebrated it's 40th birthday and, although I have been very tempted to build it, I have not yet managed to get myself to open it!  The kit has not been re-issued in later years by any company, although I was hoping Atlantis or Moebius or maybe even Round 2 would re-pop the kit when the latest Lone Ranger movie came out.  If they had, I would have built the re-pop.  

Original box:

My not built up:

Johnny West Corner

Princess Wildflower

The Princess was released in 1974 and was a precursor to the Johnny West Adventures line of figures.  She is the first figure to have multiple colors of soft vinyl accessories.  Her accessories were a mixture of turquoise and salmon.  I have seen all of the accessories in both colors, so it is rather luck of the draw as to which of your accessories are in which color.  Princess Wildflower herself is not terribly hard to find, but it is a pain to complete her accessories.  Her packaging in nice condition is very hard to find.  She was released in two boxes, Best of the West and Johnny West Adventures, and those for less than a year each.  She is a very nice figure and I am very pleased to have it in my collection.  I am also rather happy I am not a box collector.



No comments:

Post a Comment