In my humble opinion, you cannot re-issue something that was not mass produced in the first place, Frank Polk was a Cowboy who carved various items, When Character Manufacturing first produced their "Cowboy" slot machines, they just could not get the leg's to look authentic, (See Picture) they commissioned a cowboy called Frank Polk who was carving various objects as an hobby around Reno.
Frank Polk carved a total of 92 characters in various poses (see List) out of those 92 characters only 64 are known to exist, The reason that these characters with the various slot machines models in their bust's are so collectible is not because the rarity of the particular slot machine, but because these characters are classed as the early works of a Cowboy who became a famous Cowboy artist, and was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame for his carvings and Sculptors along with other famous Cowboy sculptors the likes of Remington who was also famous for his Bronze sculptors as is Frank Polk.
Also the machines used in these so called re-issues are not the original machines that Harry Skelly installed in the Frank Polk characters, but just one's that were produced from the original Mills production line. It is also possible that James Schafer used reproduction Mills High Top's, as reproductions were being produced in large numbers during the mid 1980's. Also when James Schafer produced his Frank Polk copies, he probably only had access to the Frank Polk figures that Ron Brooks had left in his collection, and those were not the rarest of models. (See the James Schafer Story reproduced from the December 1985 issue of Loose Change, attached)
Freddy Bailey
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 6:33 pm