Agent
Reynolds & Marchbanks, 301 West Canino Gardens Boulevard, Boca Raton, Florida 33432, USA
Company Identification Number: 404322
FEI/EIN Number: 501510721
W (Willard). A. Cook - Company President/Director, Harry A. Sorenson - Vice President/Director, William J. Little - Vice President/Director, Meier William - Director/Secretary, Anthony Nordone - Director. Little and Sorenson were also involved in another company with a similar name; Highlander Enterprises of Broward, Incorporated, which is probably connected, there is nothing else on this company or its products at present.
Timeline
1972 - Domestic 'for profit business' incorporated on Wednesday, 5th July
1976 - Name change amendment filed 23rd August
1976 - Toy production started in North Carolina
1978 - Re-incorporated
1979 - Last report filed: 27th September
1980 - Involuntarily dissolved 8th December
1" to 50" scale (approximately 1:48th scale) polystyrene kits, assembled vehicles and figures, set in/based on Vietnam and the green berets, probably launched at completely the wrong time, anti-Vietnam sentiment and the Star Wars phenomenon killing the range/idea at birth.
The agents appear to have become the Highlander company with the name change in '76 but this is not clear, they (the agents) are still - apparently - extant, as a law firm; eMail's from the author generated no replies.
The range seems to have remained a small 'market-entry' line, with up to six items available as finished ready-to-play toys and as undecorated kits (for a catalogue listing of 12), but as one of them was a combination of two others, and excluding the individual figures there may only have been four items: a US tank and SPG, a WWII German A/T gun and the .50Cal machine-gun vignette.
A forum comment somewhere else on the 'web talks of sets of 10 unpainted British soldiers of WWII being cleared with the painted Pak-40 cards at a flea-market somewhere in Florida, I suspect this is just mistaking the green berets for something more British-looking, the beret being a - relatively - new style of headgear for the Americans when the Special Forces started using it in South-East Asia?
From the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Thursday, September 23rd, 1976 edition, we
have an interesting editorial 'puff-piece' (with a bloody-odd title!) on what
is clearly still a new company with big ideas; very big ideas if they thought
they were going to sell a million units in six months!
Text reads;-
" Within
six months there will be a million more guns, soldiers and tanks in America.
A
cause for rejoicing? It is for Willard Cook of Boca Raton, president of
Highlander Toy and Miniature Military Hobbies Inc., a new toy manufacturing company
which specializes in military miniatures.
The
Highlander line, currently in production in South Carolina, includes such items
for 5 to 12 year olds as U.S. Main Order of Battle Tank M60-AZ, the U.S.
50-Cal. heavy machine gun and crew, green beret soldiers, foxhole machine
gunners and self-propelled artillery. A
similar
line featuring Russian equipment is on the
drawing
board.
"War
has been a plaything of mankind ever since cavemen started banding together.
Acts of aggression and defense “are innate parts of humanity. They’re basic to
all members of the animal kingdom" observed Cook.
"As
long as we have military establishments we're going to have little boys playing
with soldiers and as long as we do, we’re going to give them the best quality toys
to play with."
For
the 49-year-old marketing consultant and son of a professional naval officer
and Navy nurse, the company is the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition.
His
miniatures, he claims, are realistically scaled and are the result of working
closely with the United States Army and talking with thousands of children in an
extensive and expensive market analysis.
He
adds that statistics show an average of $80 per year is spent on each American
child for toys.
Noting
that the Vietnam War caused some disenchantment with military toys and other "toys
of violence," Cook, the father of two, belives
[sic] that most parents underestimate
their children.
"Most
parents have no idea what their kids play with. If parents won`t buy guns then
little boys will go out and pick up sticks and pretend they’re guns. Or; else they’ll
play with their friends guns." "
It's also interesting to find that there
were plans for a Russian range to combat what seems to have ended-up as a one-sided, all-American range with a distinct Vietnam-war feel? I may have the
missing section (page 4C) somewhere, but don't recall it turning up.
Obviously the example in my collection
(follow link to Home Blog articles; below) is an 8" howitzer (200mm), but
they seem to have produced (or had plans to produce) a version with an
extension-piece to provide a self-propelled 155mm 'Long Tom'?
Listing (descriptions and wording differ between price list, catalogue and packaging, so a mixture of their wording and mine, to simplify - refer to images)
MOB = Main Order [of] Battle (commonly MBT - Main Battle Tank)
SPA = Self Propelled Artillery (commonly SPG - Self Propelled Gun)
Known (painted)
HT-101 - U.S. M.O.B. Tank M60 A1 Long Gun
HT-102 - U.S. M.O.B. Tank Rocket launcher (M60 A2 'Starship')
HT-103 - U.S. M107 S.P.A. 1775mm (Self Propelled Gun)
HT-104 - U.S. M110 S.P.A. 8" Howitzer (Self Propelled Gun, later "U.S. M110 S.P.A. 8" Self Propelled Howitzer")
HT-105 - German Pak-40 75mm Anti-tank Gun
HT-106 - US 50 Calibre Heavy Machine Gun & Crew (1 ethnically black soldier, 1 white)
HT-105 - German Pak-40 75mm Anti-tank Gun
HT-106 - US 50 Calibre Heavy Machine Gun & Crew (1 ethnically black soldier, 1 white)
HT-107 - Soldiers (subsets described as 3, actually contained 4 figures)
HT-107A - Set A - 3 Advancing Infantrymen (1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107B - Set B - 3 Advancing Machine Gunners (1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107C - Set C - 3 Defensive Infantrymen (offhand), (Standing, Firing M16, 1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107D - Set D - 3 Foxhole Infantrymen (kneeling), (Kneeling, Firing M16, 1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107E - Set E - 3 Defensive Machine Gunners (prone w/sandbags), (1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107F - Set F - 4 Assortment: 1 Radio Operator, 1 Officer, 1 AT Gun Loader, 1 AT Gun Gunner
HT-108 - Combo Pack: 1 Tank, 3 Soldiers (M60A1?)
HT-109 - Tank Combo Pack (M60A2 'Starship' tank, 9 standing, 3 kneeling, 2 prone soldiers, painted; non-white ethnicity; 5 out of 14)
HT-107A - Set A - 3 Advancing Infantrymen (1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107B - Set B - 3 Advancing Machine Gunners (1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107C - Set C - 3 Defensive Infantrymen (offhand), (Standing, Firing M16, 1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107D - Set D - 3 Foxhole Infantrymen (kneeling), (Kneeling, Firing M16, 1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107E - Set E - 3 Defensive Machine Gunners (prone w/sandbags), (1 ethnically black soldier, 3 white)
HT-107F - Set F - 4 Assortment: 1 Radio Operator, 1 Officer, 1 AT Gun Loader, 1 AT Gun Gunner
HT-108 - Combo Pack: 1 Tank, 3 Soldiers (M60A1?)
HT-109 - Tank Combo Pack (M60A2 'Starship' tank, 9 standing, 3 kneeling, 2 prone soldiers, painted; non-white ethnicity; 5 out of 14)
BG-101 - Green Beret Strike Force X-Ray Zebra (header card/bag, 13 figures + 50-Cal., vignette)
BG-102 - Green Beret Firebase holding Force (boxed)
BG-103 - Green Beret Battle Group (boxed)
Build A Battlefield (diorama/vignette sets)
BABS-1 - Position 1 (also "8x10 Terrain Base for Anti-tank Gun Position")
BABS-2 - Position 2 (also "8x10 Terrain Base for Heavy Machine Gun Position")
BABS-3 - Position 3 (also "Long Trench 30")
Unassembled, Unpainted Hobby Kits
HT-201 - U.S. M.O.B. Tank M60 A1
HT-202 - U.S. M.O.B. Tank M60 A2
HT-203 - U.S. M107 S.P.A. 175mm
HT-204 - U.S. M110 S.P.A. 8" Howitzer
HT-205 - German Pak-40 75mm Anti-tank Gun & crew
HT-206 - US 50 Calibre Heavy Machine Gun & Crew
HT-207 - Assorted Soldiers
Other
? - Price List / Order Form (1977)
? - Commercial Catalogue (4-page, gatefold, approximately 1977)
? - Commercial Catalogue (3 pages, 1978 (?))
? - Commercial Catalogue (3 pages, 1978 (?))
Assumed / Suspected / Reported
HT-? - US Figures (10 per pack? Painted version of HT-207?)
HT-? - US Figures (10 per pack? Painted version of HT-207?)
HT-? - Pak-40 and 50-cal. + figure (painted)
HT-208? - Pak-40 and 50-cal. + figure (unpainted kit?)
HT-208? - Pak-40 and 50-cal. + figure (unpainted kit?)
Unlikely to Have Existed
HT-? - WWII British Figures (? 10 per pack, painted? Probably the US figures, definitely 10 per pack)
HT-? - WWII British Figures (? 10 per pack, unpainted? Probably the US figures, definitely 10 per pack)
- Russians
- Vietnamese
- Germans
They Say
"Build Profits While Your Customers "build Battlefields" with Highlander" - The tag-line on the trade catalogue.
Other People Say
Quite nice, if a slightly quirky group of very playable toys, suffering only from uncommon scale and subject-matter - This author.
Quite nice, if a slightly quirky group of very playable toys, suffering only from uncommon scale and subject-matter - This author.
Thanks To / Contributors:
Anthony C Dollard (additions to figure list)
Bobbi Kukal (HT-109)
Anthony C Dollard (additions to figure list)
Bobbi Kukal (HT-109)
Jason Pontiac (many images)
Images
Outer gatefold, later (?) catalogue.
Inner gatefold, later (?) catalogue.
Price list, dated effective January 1977
Although similar to the M48, it was never officially a 'General Patton'
