Mike Jackson’s Hartland Photos:
Hoby Gilman & Variations

Text & Photographs Copyright Mike Jackson 1998-2008

Hoby Gilman: #825
This is a really nice set. The figure has his hand up holding his hat in place. The hat is bent up, possibly from the wind? I have watched a couple of the old videos and his hat was not turned up in the shows. He is riding a beautiful semi-rearing black horse with brown reins (no martingale). His saddle is just like the standard black western saddle with a rifle hole, except Hoby’s is brown. He carries one pistol and probably shipped with a rifle most of the time.

Semi-Rearing Horse with Full Wavy Tail: Earliest version and probably less common
Semi_Rearing Horse with Mane Up & Slender Tail: Probably more common horse variation.

Number Show
Name		 Star’s
Name		 Figure’s
Name		 Studio Show
Years		 Brochure
Years
825 Trackdown Robert
Culp		 Hoby Gilman Four Star Films 1957-
1959		 1959-1961

Some information in this chart from “Total Television” by Alex McNeil 1996, 4th Edition
Mold Mark
Gillman figure: “©Four Star Films Inc.” on rear of the figure, just under the jacket.
Hoby Gilman shipped in one of the Crystal Palace boxes typical of the later sets. While he has Four Star Films Inc. on his figure mold mark, it appears to have a CBS logo on the box. His round tag has navy blue lettering and blue string. The brochure photo above is the one used on all brochures showing this figure starting in 1959.
Gillman’s hat has 825 inside the crown. It is very similar to the hat used by Vint Bonner but this one is turned up in the front and is black instead of brown. Care must be taken not to break the hand or fingers on the finger when putting his hat on his head.


Gilman’s saddle is one of the brown “rifle holed” saddles. It is from the same mold commonly used on the later sets with black saddles. His optional rifle would have been one of the two shown here. Many of the early horse and riders received regular silver pistols, but by the time Hoby Gilman was being sold, I believe many of them had the brown or black pistols shown below.