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Based on the 1967 "Capture Hill 79" Sweepstakes, which got it's own board game, I figured a Sears Exclusive set wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility.
The Sweepstakes involved getting a "Magic War Map" from an in-store stand, and taking it home and submerging it in water. Numbers would then appear on the map, then an eager kid would run back to the store to check his numbers against those in the winners' circle. Prizes included Jeeps, Space Capsules, Sea Sleds, the Capture Hill 79 Game, with the Grand Prize being a footlocker filled with $2,500 ($18,804.87 in TODAY's money).
Sears exclusive sets were released only at one store, Sears Roebuck, a department store (now defunct). Generally, the sets included a figure, and a selection of equipment, some on cards, some loose in the box, which was corrugated cardboard, with a colored label adhered to the top. See some real ones to compare here, here, and here.
My set features a Joe40 MG, tripod, ammo can, helmets, and map and case; some repro grenades; VAM40 mortar, grenade launcher, trousers and shirts, and M16; vintage ammo belts and sand bags; Timeless Binoculars, field telephone, and flamethrower. One figure is vintage (a late 60's soft head), and one a Masterpiece Edition.
The "war map" boasted in the art. Painstakingly recreated from a fuzzy picture found on the web of the original one in the Capture Hill 79 Sweepstakes from 1967.
The Sweepstakes involved getting a "Magic War Map" from an in-store stand, and taking it home and submerging it in water. Numbers would then appear on the map, then an eager kid would run back to the store to check his numbers against those in the winners' circle. Prizes included Jeeps, Space Capsules, Sea Sleds, the Capture Hill 79 Game, with the Grand Prize being a footlocker filled with $2,500 ($18,804.87 in TODAY's money).
Sears exclusive sets were released only at one store, Sears Roebuck, a department store (now defunct). Generally, the sets included a figure, and a selection of equipment, some on cards, some loose in the box, which was corrugated cardboard, with a colored label adhered to the top. See some real ones to compare here, here, and here.
My set features a Joe40 MG, tripod, ammo can, helmets, and map and case; some repro grenades; VAM40 mortar, grenade launcher, trousers and shirts, and M16; vintage ammo belts and sand bags; Timeless Binoculars, field telephone, and flamethrower. One figure is vintage (a late 60's soft head), and one a Masterpiece Edition.
The "war map" boasted in the art. Painstakingly recreated from a fuzzy picture found on the web of the original one in the Capture Hill 79 Sweepstakes from 1967.
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