The Champ Horse and Riders- history

Mike Jackson’s Hartland Photos:
History of the Champ Horse and Rider Sets

(Scanned images on these pages copyright Mike Jackson 1997-2001 and not to be used by others
without permission. Images of boxes, tags, and printed literature for historical reference only)
Updated 08-07-02

Overview:
Hartland began selling riders, hats, guns and saddles for their large Champ style horse some time around the beginning of 1954. Specific information has been very difficult to turn up to help document the timing. However, small tidbits have been filtering in and at least a skeleton history can be assembled. Sometime prior to 1950 Hartland supplied a large standing “Champ” style horse and plastic base for the Mastercrafters Clock and Radio Company in Chicago. The deal fell through after a short period and Hartland was left with the horse and saddle mold. There appears to be a few years gap between the clock horses and the first sightings of the large horse and saddle. The first rider was probably the Large Black Cowboy on a white horse, followed by the smaller 800 series counterpart, shown here. (Note: The large horse shown above is from the second mold. Currently, I don’t own one of the earlier versions with the scallops on the top of the martingale. That horse would also have a split mane. Also, the smaller horse would probably have black hooves and the longer tail.)
Timing on the release of these sets is interesting. Breyer Molding was also making plastic horses during this period of time and it is unclear whether Hartland or Breyer created the first riders to go on their horses. At this point, I believe Breyer released their Indian Rider prior to any Hartland horse and rider sets. Breyer also made horses for Mastercrafters Clock and Radio and those large horses are very close in appearance and size to the Hartland Champ horses. Likewise, the smaller versions of those two horses are very close in size and appearance. The saddles on the smaller versions are almost identical. While not conclusive, stand alone Breyer horse and saddle sets can be found in numerous magazines long before any similar ads showing Hartland horse and saddle sets.
Miss Texas is seen holding a Large Black Champ horse and rider set in an April, 1954 issue of Playthings magazine. The caption also indicates there was a smaller version available. In a December, 1954 Western Horseman advertisement, a retailer was selling both the large and small cowboys and cowgirls in what appears to be the standard production colors they would use for the next few years. In the time between those two sightings, it appears that Hartland did quite a bit of experimenting with colors, finishes, and combinations for their Champ horse and riders.
The Western Champ and his Master first appeared in the brochures in 1955, listed with a lot of other 800 series sets but shown with a 900 series set in the brown/blue/palomino combination. I have documentation indicating that Hartland sold some of the 800 series Red and White Champ Cowboy sets at least as late as June, 1958 though they were removed from the brochures after 1957. If Hartland did create a brochure specifically showing their 1954 line of Champ sets, they have not surfaced. They did create a single sheet titled “The Story of theWestern Champ and His Master” which gave a small history of the horse and riders on the Western plains, along with instructions on putting the rider and saddle on the horse. I believe that document was created in 1954, too. A Chief Thunderbird instruction sheet, from around the same time, lists a variety of available Champ style sets. By sometime in the middle of 1954, Hartland changed the color of their 900 & 800 series riders to powder blue and added a mask to call the set “The Lone Ranger”—commonly called the Champ Style Lone Ranger by collectors. This seems to mark the beginning of the TV linked horse and rider sets, with the exception of the generic Lance O’Rourke and Chief Thunderbird sets. For a temporary period of time, the Cowgirl figure was switched to green and put on a light dunn colored Champ horse and given the name “Dale Evans” to go with their new Roy Rogers mold. Roy was introduced on a Champ style horse sometime around beginning of 1955 at the New York Toy Fair.
Trying to date the introduction of the riders:
Hartland created this horse and saddle mold for the Mastercrafters Clock and Radio Company along with the base some time prior to 1950. No hard evidence has surfaced to prove that Hartland created this piece first or whether Breyer Molding created their very similar version of the horse and saddle. You can read much more about this on the Mastercrafters Clocks page on this site. The large horse mold may have been stored after the clock deal until around 1953 when they started selling stand-alone Horse and Saddles. I have found absolutely no evidence of Hartland selling the horses between 1950 and the end of 1952. Breyer, on the other hand, had been selling their large Western Horse for several years. The first confirmed sighting in a print ad was a large Breyer Western Horse is in the November, 1950 Western Horseman ad for the creamy white horse. 'That ad was placed by the Little Joe Wiesenfeld Co, which christened the horse, "Cream Puff," though Breyer may never have called it that.
The ad on the left is from a September, 1953 ad in Western Horseman magazine. This is Breyer’s smaller version, called the Western Pony. Of course, for this set to be produced, distributed, and then advertised in this September, 1953 magazine, it would have had to been originated much earlier. (Advertising deadline for the September issue was July 20, 1953). Recently, a 1953 Wyeth Company catalog #244 has surfaced which lists #43 Palomino, #44 Black Beauty, and #45 White “Western Horse Mounts” in the 7.5" tall version. Nancy Young (The author of "Breyer Molds and Models") identified the horse shown in the color photo as a Breyer Western Horse but there is little doubt the smaller Breyer pony was available by the middle of 1953.
Who did the first riders? When I asked Nancy Young about the earliest known Breyer riders, she replied: “The Indian was evidently Breyer's earliest rider, followed shortly by the Cowboy. Both figures appear on Western Ponies on an early Breyer catalog sheet that I date to circa 1953 (it could date to early 1954). The Indian on Western Pony, but not the Cowboy, appears on an even earlier sheet, a news release written for Breyer by its plastic supplier, Eastman Chemical. The release is undated, but it contains clues proving that it pre-dates the circa 1953 catalog sheet. The release probably dates to early 1953.” If Nancy’s research is accurate, it is very likely that Breyer had their small horse and first rider quite a while before Hartland began introducing their horse and riders as shown below.
This photo is from an April 1954 Playthings magazine. This is the first known photo of a Hartland Horse and Rider set. It shows Charles Caestecker, president of Hartland Plastics, Inc., and Miss Texas holding a Large Black Champ horse and rider. I’d guess it was taken around February or March of 1954 and I am currently working on pinning that date down. Click on the photo to the left to view a much larger image! In a conversation with Paul Champion, Sales and Marketing Director at Hartland Plastics at that time, he told me that Robert McGuire named the horse “Champ” after him. The caption under the photo indicated that two sizes were available and called it simply “Western Horse and Rider”. Either that happened after this photo, or it was another typo by Playthings as there was no mention of the word “Champ” or “Champion”. Additionally, there was no mention of a Cowgirl set in either size nor an indication the sets were available in other color schemes. While not conclusive, I would bet this was Hartland’s first introduction of the first two sets and all other variations came later.
Not much documentation exists to help pinpoint the introduction of the first horse and riders. The photo above helps tremendously but it doesn’t preclude the possibility the set was introduced a lot earlier. Both of the Champ Cowboys (800 and 900) are marked on their chaps with “Hartland Plastics, Hartland, Wisc.) and that does help considerably. The Classified Directory of Wisconsin Manufacturers lists trade names used by companies during certain years. As illustrated on the chart, Hartland used the Diamond I imprint or brand name until it was time to submit new information for the 1955 directory—or some time in 1954. It seems logical that if the molds for the large and small Champ Cowboy figures had been made prior to the submission time for the 1955 directory, they would have been marked with either “Pearl Glow”, “Iolite”, “Diamond I”. For most collectors, knowing the month and year of the introduction of the first riders isn’t very important. Generally, a few months one way or another wouldn’t matter at all unless you were trying to figure out whether it was Hartland who imitated the Breyer small sized horse and figures or whether it was the other way around. While the size and shape of the large horse had to fit specific dimensions to work on the Mastercrafters clocks, it is a mystery to me how the smaller horse is so close and even more a mystery how the small saddles are almost identical.
Filling the voids:
The horse shown to the right is virtually identical to the ones used on the Mastercrafters Clocks earlier. This ad shows a large Champ horse from January of 1953 (Horse Lovers Magazine, shown to the left) and it shows up again in October of 1953. There is no mention of a smaller horse being avaible—nor a rider. Documentation found on the Mastercrafters Clocks page indicates that Breyer was making horses for Mastercrafters Clocks in 1950. According to that documentation, the clock deal put Breyer Molding into business making plastic horses and other animals. There appears to be a gap period between the loss of the Hartland/Mastercrafters clock horses and this ad (unless Hartland’s version of the horse came after the Breyer version in 1950. I am fairly certain Hartland did have their large horse by mid-1951). The horse shown here has a “short seat”—not usable by a rider. As stated earlier, the same ad shows up again in Horse Lovers Magazine in October of 1953 and still no mention of a smaller horse or a rider. The next sighting is the Playthings magazine with Miss Texas holding a rider in April of 1954.
This ad from Western Horseman magazine was printed in the December, 1954 issue. By this time, Hartland was selling both the Cowboy and Cowgirl in both 800 and 900 series sizes as shown in the text of the ad. Along with that information, it appears Hartland had settled in on a few basic color schemes for the sets. Between the first sighting of the Black Cowboy in the Playthings article and this ad, I am fairly confident that they experimented around with other color combinations. The horse shown in the ad to the left is the earlier version with the split mane and scallops on both top and bottom of the martingale. The second version lacks the split in the mane and the top of the martingale is smooth. For whatever reason, the Black Cowboys were phased out along with a Jade Green Cowgirl in both 800 and 900 series. These colors are generally much harder to find than the standard ones which were used for a longer period of time. Collector Sande Schneider probably has the most complete collection of Large Champs around. Click Here to see a chart of her 16 Large Champs! She has been very instrumental in trying to help me identify variations and patterns of those variations. Her collection helps confirm that Hartland was experimenting with a variety of combinations.
The Story of the Western Champ and His Master: Click on the thumbnail to view a large image This page probably was produced in 1954 to be inserted with the Large Champ horse and riders. The lower section explains how to put the cowboy and saddle onto the horse and also how to remove it. That wouldn’t have been necessary on the smaller sets since they slip right off and on.
Chief Thunderbird instructions: Click here to view a much larger image of the page A very similar sheet, probably printed about the same time gives information about the Chief Thunderbird 800 series set and it lists other sets available at the time—all Champ style horse and riders (except the T-Bird set of course). I believe this sheet also dates to about the middle of 1954 or maybe a little later.
The Champ related small text section from above says: "Hey why not start a collection of Hartland's Famous series? Here they are, all beautifully molded, and hand decorated in beautiful detail. Ideal collection pieces. 1. The Lone Ranger and his great horse “Silver”---just like you see him on television. The authentic masked rider and his wonder horse---complete in every detail. 2. “Western Champ”, the golden palomino, and his cowboy master. 3. Chief Thunderbird and his great pinto war-horse, “Northwind”. 4. The Wrangler on his favorite pinto quarter-horse, “Paint”. (Also available riding beautiful ebony “Blacksnake” or white “Starlight”). 5. The Cowgirl riding either a Palomino, white or black horse.
Lone Ranger (listed #1 above) from mid-1954 Dealer Sheet: As it indicates, the Lone Ranger was available, which would have been a Champ style set like the one to the left. Many of the early Lone Ranger sets are marked with a rubber stamp dating it with 1954. The Wrangler would have been the Red and White Champ Cowboy, while the Cowboy Master that went with the Palomino would have been the Brown and Blue figure. According to this literature, the only horse to actually get the name “Champ” was the Palomino version. Over the years, all of that style have been called Champs—along with the same designation for any of that style riders with the chaps. (Thanks to Bruce Schwartz for the scan of his sheet) Click on the thumbnail dealer sheet to the left to view a larger version

The Champ sets above were scanned from photocopies of 8"x10" sheets. I don’t know the name of the owner of the original photographs, if they even still exist, but I have about 50 different pages of Hartland sets—most identical to the ones they used in the brochures. Several of these show how they were experimenting with color combinations. The two Cowgirls are the Jade Green versions, knowing she has a white belt and boots. Hartland apparently created these photographs for some sort of literature or advertising pieces, however I have not seen any of them used. Maybe they are clues to missing links to valuable information?
The Riders:

800 Series Champ Cowboys: Hartland made a large and small version of each of these four cowboys. The Lone Ranger figure on the right was later replaced with the Clayton Moore style Lone Ranger mold. The Cowboys were assigned a model number of either 801 or 901 depending on size.
For size comparison, the figure on the right is a 900 series Black Champ Cowboy. The smaller Champ Cowboys are molded in solid black plastic and then the silver, white and flesh accents are painted over it. All other 800 series Champ Cowboys were molded in white plastic and then over painted with the correct colors. Most of the larger 900 series Black Champ Cowboys were also molded in white plastic, however, it does appear that at least a few were molded in black plastic. All of the Large Black Cowboys, that I am aware of, have a cigarette in his right hand. Many of the later Large Champ Cowboys lacked that feature. None of the Small Champ Cowboys held a cigarette. As stated earlier, I believe these were the first two western riders Hartland Plastics created.
800 Series Champ Cowgirls: Hartland made the large and small versions of the two Cowgirls on the left. Unlike the Cowboys, she carried only one gun. Cowgirls were assigned a model number of either 802 or 902 numbers, depending on which size.
The olive green Cowgirl on the right above, is commonly called the “Early Green Dale Evans” and she rode a light dunn colored horse with brown points as shown in the photo on the left. (The photo came from a Farwell Hardware catalog from probably early 1955.) That version of the Dale Evans figure was replaced with the newer one later in 1955. Both versions used the 802 (DE) designation.

*Coming soon! Photos of Large Champ Cowboys and Cowgirls*

900 Large Champ Horse Mold: There were two slightly different Large Champ horse molds. This one has the solid mane, suggesting it was the later one. According to Sheryl Leisure, the person at Hartland Collectibles, LLC who took the photos, this one does not have a hole in its back You can see the tail at the top of the photo. This mold does not have a saddle included in it. (Thanks to Hartland Collectibles, LLC for this exclusive photo!)
Related Links: Mastercrafters Clocks Page Classified Directory of Wisconsin Manufacturers Sande Schneider’s Page of 16 Large Champs Ads and Catalogs arranged by the year Roy Rogers Dealer Sheets The Missing Champ Literature Chief Thunderbird instruction sheet “The Story of the Western Champ and His Master”sheet 1953 Wyeth Company Catalog Sheet Kilroy Was Here pages Kilroy Was Here Web Sites Roger Russell’s Mastercrafters Web Site Official Site of the American International TOY FAIR®
Special thanks to: Denise Deen, Phil Duncan, Jo Kulwicki, Hartland Collectibles, LLC, George C. Jones, Sheryl Leisure, Bruce Schwartz, Sande Schneider, Joy Sheesley, Heather Wells, Nancy Young, and a long list of others!