BMC Toys: Rough Riders Reissue Confounding Color Conundrum
Posted by Jeff Imel on
A few months ago we staged a search and rescue mission for the BMC Toys San Juan Hill Playset molds. The search was a success, but the molds need a lot of repair and maintenance, so for the rescue part I decided we'd start with the Rough Riders figure mold, and get a bagged set of Rough Riders and Spanish soldiers produced for the Fall. The mold is still in the shop, but the details need to be finalized soon so everything is ready to move into production in time. One of the first things to figure out is what colors the figures will be. Originally, the BMC Rough Riders were a orangish tan and the Spanish soldiers were bright white:
These figures have been out of production for several years, so now is a good time to evaluate if the figures might be better in different colors. I started out by obtaining vintage Marx and Marx Recast Rough Rider figures, and matching them up with color swatches, and also researched the Rough Riders' and Spanish uniform colors. Here's a digital mockup of BMC's Teddy Roosevelt in various colors:
For the Rough Riders I'm currently leaning towards the same tan used for the BMC Toys D-Day British Soldiers and possibly also medium blue, maybe a shade darker or more muted than the original BMC San Juan Hill's 71st New York Regiment and 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers. For the Spanish Soldiers I think a very light gray (off white) might be better than the bright white of the original. I have some test shots that were made in the very light gray color for a previous project and they look good. Here's a mockup of what the figures included might look like:
Speaking of the 71st New York Regiment and 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, while digging through the BMC Toys archives I found that Bill McMaster has planned to reissue both in 2013 as bagged figures molded in light blue to match vintage Marx and current Toys Soldiers of San Diego Civil War figures. The plans were shelved when the molds couldn't be located. 
Let me know what you think about colors for the Rough Riders vs. Spanish Reissue and possible future reissues of the other San Juan Figures and Playset.
Tanks' for your help,
I like dark tan, blue for Rough Riders, an off white like you mentioned for Spanish.
I also like the idea of light blue to match TSSD, Marx etc for both 10th and RR.
Any chance of getting them enlarged a bit to more 1/32 while you’re rehabbing the molds?
And let’s do something about having a Spanish Flag bearer.I liked the US Civil War set that had the Adhesive Flag stickers that you could even have “Captured” colours,wish he had kept that up in his other sets.
The darker tan and blue sounds the most appealing. I had the original playset and white figures are, well let’s just say not my favorite. When they get dirty they look dirty vs looking ‘weathered’. I also have Mexican re-pops of Marx ‘Untouchables’ figures in white and I’m not crazy about them either.
I’d say a slightly darker tan for the Rough Riders.
I reckon I’ll go with your picks Jeff.