The cool winds wisped over the sands of Gold City on one fateful November morning. From his watch post atop the bank, Diego Salvator� watched Carlito sleeping in his cell across the street and the Sheriff sleeping on his rocking chair on the porch of his office. Diego knew that in only minutes he would hear the soft hoofbeats of James "Flatfoot" Thomsen's horse as he rode into the central junction.
Diego took a few small pebbles from his duster pocket and began throwing them in the vicinity of Carlito's face. The jailed man awoke with a start and saw Gringo on the bank. He knew now that his time in jail was short.
Diego watched Flatfoot Thomsen riding into the city now and he began walking toward the Sheriff's comfortable station in his rocking chair. Flatfoot dismounted and stepped toward Carlito's cell, brandishing several pounds of dynamite. Upon hearing the sound of Flatfoot Thomsen striking a match, Diego drew his pistols and cocked them. He stepped onto the porch as the dynamite was detonated. The Sheriff of Gold City awoke to two deafening blasts and a cold lurch in his stomach, the last thing he ever saw being three horsemen riding off into the canyons near Tucamcari.
JOSEPH: The Sheriff's Lock-up is quite a nice partner-set to the 6765 Gold City Junction in that they both set up the beginnings of a main street in a wild west town. The set comprises a sheriff's office (very much the same size as the general store of the junction set) and a separate construction that is the jail cell with an exploding wall. It was quite nice to see that the exploding mechanism works quite a bit better here than with the 6765 set but that set's problem is obvious in that the exploding wall (including a bench on the outside of the wall!) is just too heavy to really catch any air.
BILL: I agree that the bank could use some modifications, but I never use the exploding wall segments on either sets. (I guess it doesn't realistically disperse into hundreds of pieces like the real thing.) Still, the "main street" idea is a very good one, and I am disappointed to see that it wasn't continued in 1997.
JOSEPH: Nyuk, nyuk, I never thought about the realistic explosion thing, don't think I've EVER seen an entire wall blow out with absolutely no debris.
BILL: Yes, it's much more fun to crumble the pieces in your hands and make really stupid noises.
JOSEPH: Brown building bricks are probably one of the nicest aspects of the wild west sets and it was interesting to note that there were a few "wood" pieces I hadn't seen in the Junction or Fort sets, these were some 1x1x5 standing beams, 1x6x1 arch bricks and the rail and bannister elements, very nice.
BILL: I too am quite happy to see uncommon colors pushing their way into the mainstream sets (green submarines, brown buildings, beige clothes), and while Wild West and Aquazone seem to be pioneering this movement, I wouldn't be too surprised if we saw a brown Space sub-theme pretty soon.
JOSEPH: Four mini-figs included in the set (two bad guys and two good guys) but only one white horse. Plenty of guns are also provided for our adventuring cow-persons.
BILL: Interesting you should say two bad guys. I always assumed that there were three: red-shirt mean guy, black clad mean guy, and that blond fellow. For some reason, the sheriffs are never the heroes in my stories, it's always some quiet cigar-smoking bounty hunter in a pancho. (Can't imagine why).
JOSEPH: You know, I thought I did hear a trace of Ennio Morricone's score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as I was reading that opening story line.
BILL: I'll take that as a compliment. Something makes me doubt, though, that I'll ever be able to write plots and screenplays as well as Sergio Leone could. But we digress. I'm sure it's safe to call all of these mini-figs cowboys, since they all have the ridiculous and annoying markings on their faces. Flatfoot Thomsen looks to me like no one so much as either Alvin, Simon, or Theodore. I could complain for quite a while about decorated faces.
JOSEPH: Yeah, I abided the different mini-fig faces at first but they are definitely annoying and limit versatility when using the mini-figs in other settings. I waited more than a year to finally pick this set up to add to my collection but I wouldn't suggest waiting so long for your own. It's very possible they'll move on to something else in this particular line and discontinue the set rather soon.
BILL: That would be a pity. In most themes, the first-year sets begin a pattern which the second-year sets continue. That was not true in Wild West's case, unfortunately, the main street which was begun in 1996 only included three buildings. So naturally, in 1997, I hoped for a printing shop, telegraph sation, stagecoach office, city hall, and (of course) a saloon. Well, maybe in '98.
JOSEPH: Hey, great ideas for western town additions. Let's keep our fingers crossed, I'm pretty sure we'll see more town stuff soon.
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