Custer’s Seventh Cavalry and Other Early Bussler Figures

Text and photos by Henry I. Kurtz

DURING A VISIT to Polk’s Hobby Shop in New York City in 1950, I came upon some early U.S. Cavalry by Dr. Ralph Bussler, a Massachusett’s osteopath turned model soldier maker. The mounted and dismounted troopers looked as if they had just jumped out of a painting by Frederic Remington (such as the one illustrated here) or one of the John Ford cavalry films that had recently been released.􀀀Being an Indian Wars buff, I was instantly attracted to them.

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