John LeSaffre
Melrose, Massachusetts
In 1953, fledgling model manufacturer Revell hedged its market bets with the Miniature Masterpieces line of historic subjects. One of those was the 20-Mule Team, adopted as a customer premium item by the makers of Boraxo, sponsor of radio and television’s Western series Death Valley Days (hosted for a time in the 1960s by a popular actor and spokesman named Ronald Reagan). Fifty cents and a boxtop proof of purchase netted the 1/67 scale kit for youngsters like John. He says, “I tried to put this kit together almost 60 years ago but couldn’t do it. I saved the original kit all these years to complete it one day. It required a new kit — still available and identical to the first one — but I succeeded in meeting a 60-year-old challenge.” He substituted finer thread (“too thick for the harness”) and used pins and costume-jewelry links to attach the jerk line. John painted with Humbrol and Testors Model Master enamels.