Play Sets

Playsets were stage props that gave way to action figures, creating a storyboard for children to act out their fantasies. Children could use playsets to battle it out or play in a make believe world made of tin, plastic, and cardboard. Purchasing a playset gave children the opportunity to recreate and even comprehend space travel and Civil War battles or learn how to farm. They could also create worlds where television characters like Roy Rogers came to life.

Though many manufacturers produced playsets, Louis Marx and Company is known for manufacturing some of the finest playsets in history. Marx’s iconic sets include Fort Tomahawk, to The Untouchables, Alaska, and even comic character sets for Yogi Bear. These playsets dominated childhood toy collections.

Marx developed a new plastics mold concept in the ‘30s. The mold, along with the production of lithographed tin, made producing hundreds of pieces for a single playset simple. Building on the popularity of toy soldiers and battle-scene sets, Marx created sets where one group battled against the other, including the classic cowboys and indians.

Quick Facts

• A rare mint in the box Marx wagon train playset sold at Philip Weiss Auctions in November 2008 for $15,255
• Though Marx was sold to Quaker Oats in 1972, the production of play sets went on, creating playsets for “A New Hope,” the first Star Wars movie
• Marx made many play sets, but some of the rarest are prehistoric playsets produced in 1961 that include plastic dinosaurs, cavemen, trees, and rocks