Matchbox Fighting Furies Playset Carry Cases
No pirate is complete without a ship and naturally enough the two playsets which supported the product line both recreated the world of a Spanish galleon with its decks, anchor, cabins, and helm. Launched with the original figures the main Sea Fury carrying case unfolded to reveal much of the ship’s stern and a below deck Captain’s quarters which were enhanced with a self-assembly desk and chair. Released exclusively in North America a year later in 75, a larger more comprehensive version of their ship again converted into a carrying case and was made of the same vinyl covered cardboard - which was the established playset de rigueur at the time – and once again was simplistically decorated with suggestions of decking, doors and hull planking.
In concept the initial ‘Sea Fury Play Set/Carry Case’ (and where you could store all your Fighting Furies) offered a straightforward split-level deck via a stage-set type design and an enclosed Captain’s Cabin below – resplendent with the desk and chair – while the larger alternative was more epic in scale, recreating the broad shape or impression of an entire vessel as a traditional open sided playhouse design, described on its packaging as being “a gigantic 44” long [111.76 cm] realistic pirate ship”.
However, the larger ‘Pirate Ship Play Case’ version was only available in North America and only then exclusively through the national retailer Sears where the box also bore the retailer’s logo; a deal secured by the Lesney Products Corporation (the U.S subsidiary). It offered the opportunity for Peg-leg and the gang to promenade the upper deck, descend a ladder to snooze in a hammock on the lower deck, poke fun at a prisoner (enclosed behind the bars of a prison door) or visit the Great Cabin where one could relax in a single vinyl chair and admire the artwork on the wall (which was a painting of two flintlock pistols, of course). Failing this, just for laughs, you could order your prisoner to walk the ship’s gangplank or consider whether you’d rather sell your detainee into slavery, which was actually all the rage in the pirate profession. The retailer’s blurb also attempts to suggest that you can steer the ship yourself (hoodwinking whichever figure is wasting their time manning the Ship’s wheel) by turning the sail via the rigging lines (i.e. two bits of string tied to the sail’s cross spar which could twist the upright Mast as it was simply wedged between the two newly conjoined compartments of the ‘hull’).
While the full Pirate Ship version did ingeniously fold in on itself to form a neat carry case (which surprisingly was even smaller than the standard Sea Fury version), its assembled state served more as a spectacle and offered more of a panoramic backdrop – familiar to streetscapes created for other action figure toy lines - whereas arguably the smaller worldwide version was a superior offering with a simpler diorama snapshot of a ship’s bridge and deck where-in the fighting furies boys could be fully emerged, duelling it out all day in an expansive foundation for imaginative adventures.
For modern-day big boys wanting to display their vintage Fighting Furies collection, the smaller Sea Fury set arguably provides the superior - and space saving - backdrop and display setting while the diminishing availability of any Full Ship versions which are truly complete are scarce with most sold in the collector’s market being “unwittingly” incomplete, with either the small construction accessories missing (clips/mast sheath/lines) or the gangplank, sail, mask, Jolly Rodger, or ladders absent; which doesn’t deter increasingly unreasonable prices and requires new collectors to source two or more to cannibalize into one complete version.
