U.S. BORAX CO. 20 MULE TEAM WAGON TRAIN MODEL KIT

---

Nearly every home now has a television set, replacing the radio as the go to source for news and entertainment, along with becoming the perfect platform for the advertising of consumer goods. The on-going obsession with the Western genre that dominated the movies and radio shows of the 40's exploded onto those TV screens. 

One of those radio series, DEATH VALLEY DAYS sponsored by the U.S. BORAX Company, made the move to promote their products in this new medium. By the end of its second season, it had become the most watched and popular TV show to date. But the sales of their soap products remained flat. 

Re-thinking their marketing strategy, they would offer a model kit of their iconic 20 Mule Team Wagon Train as a 'premium' to the dominant show viewer......young model building kids. They would ask the kids to send in $2.50 and 1 Boraxo Soap box top and they would send them a genuine 1/64 scale model Kit of the 20-mule team train......I did......they did. But this could only happen if mom was urgently dispatched to the store to acquire a box of Boraxo soap and a model order slip from the pad on the promotions shelf signage. This would be repeated thousands of times all over the country for many years.

Box received, and in hand, I opened it and emptied the contents on the dining room table.  There were 2 plastic bags, mule parts in one, wagon parts in the other, a length of cord and an instruction sheet.  There would be 11 variations of mules, each in 2 pieces, wagon parts, bells, harness rigs, 2 wranglers, totaling 130 parts.  A typical model kit of the day (car, plane, boat), would have a single or 2-piece body with any details molded-in and having only a few additional parts could be assembled in an hour or two.  This finished 'stand-alone' model could be quickly set out, completed or not, to be admired and played with.

But this highly detailed and true to the prototype, was not to be a young modelers entry level kit. Assembling the number of small detail parts, rigging the mules, painting and the mounting on a (not included) 3/4"x 2 &1/2"x 42" board would prove overwhelming.  Even a partially completed model couldn't be displayed or handled, the mules with legs poised in walking positions, would barely stand unaided, the multi-part wagons would need complete assembly to be handled, so frustration would quickly set in and the attempted assembly would stop. My kit and probably the majority of most all of the others would end up in a shoe box and stored away, to be forgot about. Eventually rediscovered, there would be another yet unsuccessful attempt to assemble. This would repeat many times.  

The time finally came......it was now or never......determined to finally complete the model, I would then mount it on a series of CARNIVALE railcars...... not on that un-included board......now only 72 years later!