Mike Jackson’s Hartland Photos:
Brave Eagle Sets and Accessories

Text & Photographs Copyright Mike Jackson 1998-2008
Brave Eagle & White Cloud #812:
I am fairly certain that Brave Eagle was originally designed to go on a semi-rearing white horse. His brochure photo and the drawing on the side of the box indicate that combination. When you study some of the brochures and timing of some of the releases about the time Brave Eagle was announced, it becomes apparent that there was some kind of problem with the first semi-rearing horse mold. George Washington was originally illustrated with a semi-rearing horse, but shipped with a walking horse. Cheyenne was shown on one or two of his first brochures on a walking horse, but actually shipped on a semi-rearing horse. While we can only speculate on what actually happened, the results speak for themselves. For a short period of time, Brave Eagle was sold on a walking horse with black hooves and a straight tail. This horse was also used with their new offerings of Tom Jeffords and Matt Dillon. It appears that some of the first sets only had the knife, bow, blanket and feather as accessories. Some sets started getting his special Warbonnet while still on the walking horse, from what I can tell anyway. After moving from the walking horse, he eventually rode three different semi-rearing horses.
First Horse and Rider Combination:
Brave Eagle was introduced in 1957 and probably first on this horse while waiting for the semi-rearing horse to be completed. The horse was one of their newer styles at the time with the straight tail. This same set might have had the warbonnet as well as the feather.
Second Horse and Rider Combination:
The mane-up wavy tailed semi-rearing horse was probably his “designed for” horse, based on the brochure photos and box illustration. The brochure shows his horse with black hooves as shown above and also used with the previous walking horse substitution.
Third Horse and Rider Combination:
This set is exactly the same as above except they omitted the the black on the hooves. It is hard to say which of these two is more or less common, but I believe I have the most of this one.
Fourth Horse and Rider Combination:
I probably have eight or nine of the wavy tailed Brave Eagle horses and only one of this style with the smoother slender tails. I know of a couple of other collectors with this horse but they agreed that this one is less common in their experience, too.
Brave Eagle is the only western figure with an add-on arm, similar to the arms used on several of the baseball players. The lower section of his right arm is glued on at the elbow. The headband is molded to accept a feather when desired, similar to the way they did it on Tonto. The Warbonnet, when used, slips over the headband. While many of Hartland’s ads and promotional literature touted the figures as molded in “unbreakable plastic”, they apparently didn’t consider this a problem when they sculpted the braids. Finding a nice Brave Eagle figure with both braids intact is a tough assignment. The left braid is most often broken. This set and Cheyenne are notorious for having part of it broken.
Brave Eagle Feather:
From all I can tell, this feather is identical to the one used with Tonto. The tip of the feather is airbrushed red. Because of their brittle nature, finding one with a full stem is very difficult.
Brave Eagle Warbonnet:
This warbonnet is different than the Chief Thunderbird piece in several ways. This one lays back on the figure better and it lacks the beadwork strip along he bottom of the feather stems. It also lacks the two little rossettes that cover the ear area on Thunderbird.

Mold Mark
Brave Eagle: “©Hartland Plastics, Inc” on the back of the right leg.

Figure
No.		 Show
Name		 Star’s
Name		 Figure’s Name Studio
Name		 Show Year Brochure Years
812 Brave
Eagle		 Keith
Larson		 Brave
Eagle		 Wrather Corp. 1955-
1956		 1957-1961

Some information in this chart from “Total Television” by Alex McNeil 1996, 4th Edition
Brave Eagle Box:
This colorful box is unique to Brave Eagle and his horse White Cloud. The sides show the horse in a semi-rearing pose. It also shows a warbonnet, bow, blanket and knife but no shield or rifle.
Tag and Brochure Photo:
The Brave Eagle tag is similar to the Chief Thunderbird tag—shaped like an arrowhead. This one has blue lettering over a white background, while the Thunderbird tag has white letters over a blue background. Brave Eagle is shown on the brochures with the semi-rearing horse with black hooves. His warbonnt has some extra color at the base of the feathers, but I have never seen one like it. Also, notice there is no shield or rifle shown.

Red Indian Blanket
Two Indian figures shared this blanket. Actually three if you count the two Thunderbird variations! They range a little in color but are generally very bright red. The newer Stevens 1994 version of this blanket were duller and the finish was not as smooth.


Chief Thunderbird: #813
Warpaint Chief Thunderbird: #813
Rare Factory Sealed Accessories:
Some collectors report getting a few extra pieces for their Brave Eagle sets and the sealed bag here proves it. The white rifle and shield were originally created for Chief Thunderbird but were seldom shipped with the sets. I believe Hartland just stuck these in with the Brave Eagle sets to get rid of them or possibly give the kids more toys to play with on their Brave Eagle sets. Occasionally, you will see a Brave Eagle bow cupped over into a distinct “C” shape, probably from the constant pressure of the rubber band. This photo shows their correct shape when new. A Chief Thunderbird “tree” of parts including the shield and rifle are shown on the Chief Thunderbird: #813 page.
Standard Brave Eagle Accessories:
Besides the special Warbonnet, the accessories to the left were probably the pieces you would expect to find in your box. The bow is white and is larger than the yellow Chief Thunderbird bow.