Customized Sets and Repaints

Text & Photographs Copyright Mike Jackson 1998-2009

Hartland created quite a few figures and variations over the years. Sometimes you have to wonder whey they didn't make certain sets or combinations. This page features some of those pieces, along with a few figures that people have spoken of over the years but have failed to appear. For a long time we searched for a Green Shirted Champ set along with a White V-Fringe Roy Rogers (they are usually blue). When customizing, it is sometimes fun to create those pieces, just to see what they might have look like.

Of course, when customizing a set, it is important to make sure everyone knows it has been customized! The last thing we need is another phantom chase for sets or pieces the Hartland did not produce.
 
Johnny Yuma, The Rebel:
This is the only brochure photo that I have ever seen for this figure. He is on a horse that Hartland apparently never shipped because he always seems to show up on a prancing appaloosa. When I first started collecting, I paid $12 to Frank Fullop for his hand colored photocopies.
Favor and Rebel were shown on prancers with white stockings, mane and tail similar to the custom repainted horses below. His photos were fairly small and fuzzy so it was hard to tell if the horse had traditional appy spots. I believe Frank had a customized piece that he painted or possibly a prototype that was never produced. Frank worked in the shipping and production department so that is not unlikely. That group of phocopies have probably caused a good deal of confusion over the years as Frank did show quite a few pieces incorrectly. The photos of Favor and Rebel were not in the typical Hartland photographic mode. I’d say Frank took the photo for his little “booklet”. Frank also listed the Green Shirted Champ which doesn’t appear to actually exist. That booklet, however, was one of the only source of information for a long time for many collectors and it was a great help at the time. I studied it for hours. I have since learned it had a lot of errors.
Customized Prancing Appaloosa by Mike Jackson 1999
The two horses above (actually the same horse) were customized by myself for my collection. I’ve always wanted one like it. Not long ago, I purchased a head down prancing palomino which had faded to the point of not being too collectable. I stripped it down to raw plastic and then repainted it with warm grays and black. Both of these figures look great on them. Someday I want to do one more like the one in the Rebel brochure shown above. It appears to be more of a coffee dunn prancer with white stockings instead of the normal black stockings
I always wondered why Hartland never made Coffee Dunn horses in some of the other molds. The mane up version is really pretty. Favor seems to have been designed for the semi-rearing horse because he sits awkwardly in the saddle on a regular walking horse. This walking horse looks great with about any figure.
Customized Coffee Dunn Semi-Rearing with mane up.
By Mike Jackson 1998
Customized Coffee Dunn Walking
By Mike Jackson 1998
 
Buffalo Warrior. Customized by Mike Jackson 2001.
I started this figure a few years ago and was inspired to finish it by this new page. The main part of the headdress is the crown of a Crockett Coonskin hat, with the additional buffalo hide added down the back. The horns were added on both sides along with a breastplate. I trimmed the standard spear and custom molded a buckskin tan colored tomahawk, knife, and shield. When I was little, I always wanted one of these!
Click Here to go to a page of additional photographs of this set!
 

Roy Rogers with white fringe and a red shirt. Customized by Mike Jackson 1997.

This piece required stripping off the blue paint off the fringe and cuffs of a standard Roy Rogers, a little clear varnish to bring it back to the proper sheen, and painting the red on the top section. This one is slightly different than the one in the Roy Rogers museum which has light blue on the top. A similar version of this piece can be seen near the bottom of this page, created for Larry Hyatt by Elaine Brisker.
  
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Red Shirt Dale Evans:
Customized by Mike Jackson 2001.

There isn’t much to this customizing job except painting the shirt red on a normal Champ style Green Dale. There is a very similar set in the Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum, with the only exception being that figure has an upainted white scarf. Check out the Roy Rogers page to see a photo from the museum. I’ve never seen nor heard of a factory painted set other than the one in the museum.

 

The Bad Guy.
Customized by Mike Jackson 1997.
Hartland made all kinds of heros, but no bad guys or villians. In my young days, it was still politically correct to knock off a few Indians all in the name of saving the West. This one started as a Matt Dillon. I just sanded off the badge and gave him a new color scheme, a black hat of course and a black stallion. The next time I have the airbrush out, I think I will give him a two day old beard!
 

Rifleman on Razor and Rifleman on Semi-Rearing:
By Mike Jackson April 2001
In the TV shows, Lucas McCain usually wore bluejeans and light colored shirt. His hat seemed a little darker than white—more of a tan color. If the variation on the left, I repainted an old faded figure with a darker blue shirt and dark blue pants. I molded a special color hat and did a custom paint job on the rifle. He is sitting on a stock version of Sgt. Preston’s horse with brown tack and a Hoby Gilman style western saddle.

In the photo on the right, I repainted a standard mane-up semi-rearing horse. This one lost it’s white blaze and stockings and I painted the stockings black, tail black and retouched the shading around the eyes and nose. He appears to sit better on a walking horse.

Customized Rifleman Rifle:
This one is molded in black plastic, and then I painted the wood parts with a light brown paint.
 

Customized Tan and Red Champ:
I can’t take any credit for this set. I purchased it on eBay after asking quite a few questions. The seller told me the chaps, hat and scarf were painted to the tan color. When I got it out of the box, it was apparent that the white plastic on the front half of the figure had severely yellowed to the point of being tan. The red was still very vibrant, so I have to assume the deep color was caused by cigar, cigarette, or pipe smoke. I’m not sure why the aging only really affected the rider and not so much on the horse. The back side of the figure was almost the same color as the white on the horse. Whatever the case, it is still a nice looking customized piece.
 

Special Edition Test Run Thunderbird, 2001:
This is one of a group of test color schemes done by Hartland Collectibiles, LLC in 2001. A similar set was raffled at the West Coast Jamboree, and the winner sold his to Sande Schneider (shown below). At the current time, I do not know exactly how many of these test runs were made, but I have a good hunch it was under twelve. I was told they are all different!

The mane down Semi-Rearing mold was apparently modified at some time, probably by Steven Manufacturing as this horse lacks the normal molded-on bridle. The horse is painted in a very similar color scheme as the horse used with The Rebel and Tom Jeffords on the vintage sets, however the finish on this set is matte. There is a generous supply of wonderful detailing throughout the set, including the weapons and shield. The eyes are painted black and white, along with small painted on eyebrows.

He’s a beauty! Another exclusive to this site, thanks to Hartland Collectibles!

Special Edition Test Run Chief Thunderbird, 2001:
This is Sande Schneider’s special run Chief Thunderbird. The riders and accessories were left over pieces from the 1994 short run by Steven Manufacturing. The normal mane up Semi-Rearing horses “had some problems”, according to Sheryl Leisure at Hartland Collectibles. These sets were combined with some of the other horse inventory from the 1994 Stevens runs. Notice this horse has the molded on bridle, where the one above lacks it. Also, this set has the hands and sunburst design on the horse’s rump and shoulders, created with the original copper paint masks.
Riders and blankets from the 1994 Steven Manufacturing run are available from this site. 
 
Customized Favor Horse and Lone Ranger Horse
By Ken Milchick 2000:
Ken customized to sets and sent me the photos a while back. The one on the left imitates the fairly rare black head down prancer, complete with the customized Earp style saddle.

The Lone Ranger is on a head down prancer that had been bleached to white. The black tack had to be repainted.
Customized Hopalong Cassidy
By Elaine Brisker 2001:
“I had lots of critique from Phil (Duncan), George (Carter) and Larry (Hyatt). They said Hoppy didn’t have chaps. His boots were outside his pants and we never liked the champ’s holsters. Hoppy's cheeks were fatter, and his tie was different. He had a steer head as a clasp. I made all those changes to a Large Champ figure. After all that, I painted the sucker and this is the result.”....Elaine Brisker

 
 
The Cisco Kid
By Elaine Brisker 2000:
Elaine customized an old Lone Ranger figure for this interesting set. The Horse appears to be a standard Ring-Eye semi-rearing pinto. He is on a standard black Champ style saddle.
  
Geronimo
By Elaine Brisker 2000:
This one is a little move obvious, created with an old Cochise figure, a red Indian blanket and a semi-rearing horse. Looks great!
 
White V-Fringe RR (owned by Larry Hyatt)
Customized by Elaine Brisker 2000:
There is a figure very much like this one in the Roy Rogers museum and he appears to have a saddle which is also very similar. The one in the museum is riding a Champ style Trigger. For years, we had heard of a white V-fringe Roy Rogers figure, but after searching hard for an extended period, most collectors have called off the search. I don’t think any factory painted ones still exist outside the museum.

Custom Roy Rogers with full mane SR Trigger by Ken Milchick:
Wow! These sets are really looking nice. Ken Milchick started with a beat up early style Roy Rogers and stripped the piece down to white plastic. The new colors really change the appearance of this figure. Trigger, with the unusual full mane, is a beauty!
 
Custom Annie Oakley (owned by Larry Hyatt)
Customized by Elaine Brisker 2000:
This is a really nice set with Annie on a head down prancer. The figure and saddle have been stripped and then custom painted. The white rifle is one of my special run reproduction pieces.
Customized Lone Ranger & Horse
By Ken Milchick 2005:

Ken ground off the original scarf and modified the right side of Clayton's shirt collar to create a site for a graft. The new scarf was carved from a junker Lone Ranger Champ. He also carved a mask-band into the back of the figure's head. He said it the first time he added the scarf and mask details.
"The Ranger's hat is a former Stevens Lee hat that was molded in white rather than in vanilla. They're a little tougher to find. I painted a siver hat band on it and added the drawstring. It makes up for the lack of the lacing bow. I eliminated the silver paint from his spur straps and painted the belt loops blue also." "The pistols are Stevens Rogers guns with resculpted and unpainted cream white handles. You can still make out the new mask-band even with the more accurate hair color. Clayton's hair was almost raven black.Much of the overall effect of this model was achieved through paint."
 

Swamp Fox:
Customized by Jack Canning, San Diego, 2001
Jack did a great job on this set, starting with a Tom Jeffords figure and putting him on a black head down Prancer. He added a longrifle from a Crocket set and modified a Washington hat. The photo on the right is probably one of the Arcade Cards from around the same time.

Read Jack’s post about this set on the Westerns Bulletin Board
 
WILD BILL HICKOCK - By David Neideigh
"I started with a Roy Roger's figure because of the fringed shirt, two gun belt and fancy boots. All similar to what Guy Madison wore on the TV show. Since Roy's head did not look like Guy Madison, I removed it and replaced it with a head from a Wyatt Earp figure. The upright arm was repositioned in a downward position and new fringes were added to the shirt where this was done. Holsters were slightly modified so guns could face front instead of back. The figure and horse were repainted following the colors on the CAVALRY AND INDIAN'S GAME of Wild Bill Hickock with Guy Madison."
 
CISCO KID -By David Neideigh
"For this figure I started with Cheyenne. The knife sheath was removed and the necktie was made from sheet plastic. Sanding was done to the figure to remove all unwanted lines on the jacket. Thin plastic lace doilies were cut to the pattern I wanted and glued on the jacket. The figure and horse were then painted. The Mexican hat and saddle blanket are from an old Aurora Mexican figure model (the hat is a perfect fit)."
 
SHOTGUN SLADE—By David Neideigh
"Shotgun Slade was made by using a Jim Hardy figure as the base figure. Shotgun Slade starred Scott Brady as the title character and ran in syndication from 1959 to 1961. Shotgun Slade was an odd mixture of a swinging private eye and Western hero working for clients on horseback. His weapon was a unique two-in-one shotgun. To reproduce Shotgun Slade I first removed Jim Hardy's gun belt using a dremel tool. All areas were filled with putty and sanded when dry. Slade wore an unusual belt which was wide and held cartridges of both rifle and shotgun shells. I used a wide rubber band for the belt. This being flexible it molded perfectly to the body shape. A large belt buckle covers where the rubber band meets. The belt buckle was made from scrap plastic. The rifle and shotgun shells were made from plastic dowels and super glued in place. The over/under shotgun/rifle was made by using the Winchester Rifle, which comes in the PYRO model of Wyatt Earp. I used this as the starting base for the rifle. DELL COMICS only made one issue of Shotgun Slade and this depicted him in an outfit, which he was usually not seen in on the show. In reviewing the TV show he is seen mostly in his riding and working clothes, light colored pants, medium colored jacket and light colored hat. Slade thus was painted with light tan pants, medium green jacket and light tan hat."
 

Customized Vint Bonner (owned by Lonnie Chapman) Customized by Buzz Setzer 2003:
Here's another nice set created using a Matt Dillon figure and a Vint Bonner head and hat. Matt's star had to be removed and the entire body repainted. The horse appears to be a Buffalo Bill statue with black stockings, mane, and tail.

Customized Rearing Scout (owned by Lonnie Chapman) Customized by Buzz Setzer 2005:
This one required only a repaint of an existing rearing horse. Nice job!

Customized Cheyenne Horses (owned by Lonnie Chapman) Customized by Buzz Setzer 2005:
Everyone is used to seeing Cheyenne atop a Semi-Rearing chestnut horse, but he also looks great on these customized horses.
 

Customized Hoppalong Cassidy
by Gary Costa 2007:
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Customized Lone Ranger
by Gary Costa 2007:
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Customized Annie Oakley
by Gary Costa 2007:
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If you’ve created a customized set and would like to see it here, just send me a good clear photograph or a digital photo through e-mail. I'll try to get them in!
 
This page last modified Thursday, October 18, 2007