Santa

In the Batman TV show, the Duo is Slumming episode, Andy Devine appears in character as Santa Claus.  Santie Claus as he pronounces it.

So that makes Santa Claus a Batman character.

I am building a small Santa's Village for my American Cities project.  Often large cities just outside of town in the forest would have an amusement park, or tourist destination with a Santa Claus and sort of secular Christmas theme.

They typically had a few small rides for the kiddies, a petting zoo, restaurant, and shops, lots of shops.  And of course Santa Claus.

This little resin building came from Hobby Lobby, it lights up.  It's actually for Valentines Day, but the gingerbread house motif works for Christmas too.

Shown here with my Dollar General on sale Christmas tree.

Race wants a hydrofoil for Christmas.

This little train is also from Dollar General over the last couple years I got several of them.  It consists of one locomotive, one box car and a small circle of track.  I got a bunch of them so my loco motive could pull a few cars.  The surplus locomotives will be repurposed as stationary steam engines in factories, or in small steamers.

The Wooden Soldiers are also from some dollar store a few years ago, they are Christmas tree decorations.

Santa needs a whole army of toy soldiers because, why not?
 

Hedges, House and Her Majesty's Secret Service

Hobby Lobby sometimes has some interesting terrain items,

This is a collection of hedges and bushes, in HO scale.

I got this little house at the dollar store.  It needed a little repainting but turned out okay.

Not bad for a couple bucks, note the upstairs window and window box are not painted at all!

The ends of these little buildings often don't get painted.

But I use the cheapest dollar store paints on them and they are economical and durable.

They work fine for background buildings.

They are seasonal and seldom do they have the same ones two years in a row.

Mr. Bond approaches a country home.

No one is home so he returns to his DB5.
 

Carriages

I got these Christmas ornaments at the Dollar General store, for a dollar.

They are one piece resin, covered in glitter.  I hate glitter, it gets everywhere.

I used Simple Green, it did not take off the glitter and so now it is soaking in Kleen Strip Green Paint and Varnish Remover.  I have done the gold one a couple runs and it still has glitter in the tight spaces.  One more run and it should be fine, but it has been too cold for that.  Maybe next week.  It is coming off okay but I like very single square of glitter off before I repaint them.  It's a big carriage, really probably 1/48th scale.  But my plan is to use it for a Disneyland Main Street parade with Eagle Games horses, so it should be fine for that purpose.  The second one will end up in Oz, not sure who will tow it.  Maybe mammoths or giraffes or something odd.
 

Lizard Toy

Creepy Animals plastic lizard.

I got it at the dollar store.

It has a nice paint job I think.

I only want one, that's enough.

In the movie Killers from Space the aliens are growing giant monster size lizards with the intent of using them to conquer the world.

The back of a lizard.

For a cheap toy the model stands well and the tail looks good.

It has a nice open mouth.

The bottom is pretty good too.
 

Small Bridge

Dollar General bridge.

They were having a sale on this stuff, up to 50% off.

It's a nice little generic bridge.

Look good in a Japanese garden or in a hotel garden.

Here with a couple trees.

Maybe with a little boat.  1/72nd scale figures.
 

Skeletons

These are from Dollar General and are similar to their Mummys only these are skeletons.  Obviously.

I think they are a reasonable set for only $1.

I am thinking I may cut off the weapons and bases and use them for archeology subjects.

Or maybe just cut off the bases.

They are about 54mm size.

Reasonable selection of ancient weapons.
 

We Welcome You

Some little plastic generic civilians I got recently on Amazon.

They are very small people as this 1/72nd scale Airfix figure can demonstrate.

Dollar store building.

We welcome you to Munchkin Land.

So I got these little figures both for Munchkins and as just short people or children.

This building looks like an imposing lighthouse in this photo with these figures.

Many of the dollar store buildings have been getting smaller and smaller doors the last few years as the models themselves are littler too.

This one from Dollar General is a good example.

So I am using them for Munchkin buildings.  Or maybe an amusement park.

What if instead of Dorthy Gail from Kansas, it was MP SGM David Gail, with 27 years in service from from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas?  That movie might have gone a little differently!