The Western Horsemen Booklet:
This group of pages come from a single black and white booklet
consisting of two 11" x 17" pages, printed on both
sides, folded and stapled to make a simple 8 page booklet. This
was probably printed in 1959-1960. Notice the tail and mane on
Cochise has been changed to reflect the colors they were actually
shipping.
 
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“The American Historical
and Western”
Series of Mounted Heroes:
This is the only color pamphlet that I have ever seen, but I
am sure there must be more. A few of the pieces have odd color
variations, such as Roy Rogers and Annie Oakley, but they do
give a good idea of what Hartland was shipping in about 1959
or so. |
 
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  This item was in a 1963
Frederick C. Wolf & Son toy distributor catalog. The
toy store would buy one of these displays and set up twelve Hartlands.
I am curious whether the toy store would then glue all the pieces
together to keep them from falling off or being stolen. I have
never seen one of these displays for sale after all these years. |
 Click
Here to view this page along with five more from this 1967 Dealer
sheet:
Hartland did produce horses for quite a long time after they
discontinued the horse and rider sets. This set of dealer sheets
does show their line of products during the very last few years. |
 Sgt.
Lance O’Rorke Dealer Sheet
Actually, I think this is a very early piece of literature since
they didn’t even use his name on the color sheet. It appears
that Hartland was just making a Cowboy, an Indian, and a Cowgirl
in the beginning without ever really giving them real names.
This one falls into that pattern, too. According to the literature,
this set originally came with one of the plastic belly cinch
straps. It lists the piece in the “removable parts”
section and shows it clearly in the drawing. The set is numbered
#804 on this dealer sheet. |
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 1961 Dealer Catalog:
I had heard about this catalog for a while, having only crude
photocopies of it. Recently, this item went through eBay and
I underbid, coming in runner up! Oh well....the seller gave me
permission to use his photos on this site for all to see. The
winning bidder also sent me a photocopy of the pages. Thanks
Bruce!
The fourth page of this group shows a couple of groupings
of Aribians—Silk, Satin and Velvet |
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 This
is the page that most interested me! We always knew that Roy
Rogers occasionally came on a semi-rearing Trigger, along with
the Lone Ranger coming on a semi-rearing Silver but this catalog
clearly dates the combinations. I think this would have been
the exact same time that they shipped Tonto on the rare semi-rearing
brown pinto as it is common to see those two uncommon sets paired
together in collections. Also, notice that Roy Rogers is in the
“horizontal fringe” mold at this time when on this
horse.
More than likely, Dillon was shipped on occasions on his mane
up semi-rearing buckskin horse at about the same time. Favor
is shown on his semi-rearing horse and The Rebel is shown on
a horse used in all Hartland literature showing the Rebel that
I have ever seen. That horse, however, has never turned up. Instead,
he is always shipped on a gray Appaloosa with black stockings
and tail. Upon close inspection of the larger photocopy, it appears
that The Rebel is on a black saddle with silver D ring stirrups
It is probably a black version of the Cheyenne saddle, but hard
to tell for certain. That probably accounts for the attraction
of putting Yuma on a Lee style Confederate saddle. I am skeptical
that he ever shipped that way.
Lastly, there are a few other figures missing from this grouping—most
notably Chief Thunderbird. The smaller fold up Brochures seemed
to have shown him through 1962. |
 The Minis in 1961:
As stated on the Minis page, I think Hartland shipped mini figures
on a random selection of horses. Favor is shown here on a palomino
but I suspect he had a brown horse at times. Tonto is on a white
one, and I bet he shipped on a brown one at times, too. The rest
of the figure's horses seem to follow the normal colors of their
larger counterparts, but I think their poses varied also. |
