Vintage Ponies
Johnny West "Buckskin"
Like Silver, "Buckskin" was found at a thrift shop, by a friend who gifted him to me. He's a Johnny West horse, a few were articulated, this one just in the neck which gives him some great expressions when posed. Despite his name, he's a palomino (as were a number of the Johnny West horses like Flame and Thunderbolt, though they sometimes came in bay or a weird sorrel with a mealy-mouth muzzle, flaxen legs (some sorrels with the flaxen gene do have pale legs), flaxen mane and tail and a weird flaxen patch on the chest. All the Johnny West horses are well designed by artists who clearly knew horses. The type of horse depicted is more like a cross between a Remington or Russel horse (wiry little hammer-headed mustangs) and a Thoroughbred... than like a modern Quarter Horse. Many people repaint or remodel these and take great shots of miniature western scenes using these horses and any 12" doll or action figure (Barbie, GI Joe, Johnny West, and others). This one has wheels on the bottom of his hooves.
Silver
A moment of appreciation for this pretty good action figure (circa 1973) from Gabriel Toys. He’s the Lone Ranger’s Silver (I found him, yellowed with age, in a thrift shop with no tack, and repainted him, pics of his original condition at bottom of gallery). His head’s a bit clunky, he’s terribly sickle hocked (when the rear cannon bones… lower leg… are straight, the hocks are set too far beyond the edge of his butt, or, when the hocks are under his butt, the lower leg slopes in the shape of a sickle, a weakness in real horses), and he is a bit ewe-necked (the neck bulges underneath, not arched like a swan). He actually looks a bit like the kind of western horse Remington and Charlie Russell drew and painted, the sort cowboys would have been riding back in the 1800s, definitely not something Barbie would choose. He is nicely articulated (to the point he’d make good art reference if you had some other stuff like photos of real horses), though his butt is a bit bulgy when the rear leg is forward, and his chest is a bit oddly deep right where the front legs attach (a bit too far forward). Even his tail moves.
He was originally painted white body with grey mane and tail and dark hooves: a grey horse, not a white one. Greys begin a normal horse color and whiten as they age, usually turning white between 6 and 10 years old. I repainted him the white Silver has always been; pink skinned (shows around the eyes, muzzle and hooves) and dark eyed. There is no albino gene in horses. Silver from the 2013 film is a Thoroughbred with sabino genetics... a kind of pinto... you can see the speckled skin around his face, and some in his neck and shoulder. The pics here of him looking like a weird palomino pinto are the pics taken before I repainted him to his original glory. Where the light hit, he is faded nearly orange, where light was blocked by his original tack, he is still mostly white. One side yellowed more than the other (presumably he was set on a shelf with that side out). Hopefully the acrylic paint will preserve the plastic underneath.
He was originally painted white body with grey mane and tail and dark hooves: a grey horse, not a white one. Greys begin a normal horse color and whiten as they age, usually turning white between 6 and 10 years old. I repainted him the white Silver has always been; pink skinned (shows around the eyes, muzzle and hooves) and dark eyed. There is no albino gene in horses. Silver from the 2013 film is a Thoroughbred with sabino genetics... a kind of pinto... you can see the speckled skin around his face, and some in his neck and shoulder. The pics here of him looking like a weird palomino pinto are the pics taken before I repainted him to his original glory. Where the light hit, he is faded nearly orange, where light was blocked by his original tack, he is still mostly white. One side yellowed more than the other (presumably he was set on a shelf with that side out). Hopefully the acrylic paint will preserve the plastic underneath.
Hartland Horses
Vintage stuff from the 50s and 60s.
