CivilWarTalk Throwback Thursday, 12-20-18

Nowadays, everything is a video or computer game. When I was a youngster, I had lots of plastic WWII army men - US Army vs. the Wehrmacht. I had a big sandbox in the backyard where I would spend hours setting them up and just a few minutes knocking them down, or as I got a little older, plinking at them with my BB gun. I used to love the Avalon Hill board games, too.
 
The set I had was the Blue and Gray Civil War Centennial set, and I got it during the Centennial. I also had Fort Apache set. I might have had the D-Day set, and I remember the set from The Guns of Navarone. An odd one to me was the Flintstones set, and I am sure there were other similar oddities.
 
The set I had was the Blue and Gray Civil War Centennial set, and I got it during the Centennial. I also had Fort Apache set. I might have had the D-Day set, and I remember the set from The Guns of Navarone. An odd one to me was the Flintstones set, and I am sure there were other similar oddities.
I really coveted the D-Day set and never got it. I've honestly never heard of the Guns of Navarone set. Sounds cool.
 
I really coveted the D-Day set and never got it. I've honestly never heard of the Guns of Navarone set. Sounds cool.
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… I also had these exact Sears Sons of Liberty & Fort Apache sets.
I didn't have The Alamo, but I did inherit a handful of Mexican Infantry from what was left of an older cousin's 1950's version of that set.

Back then, everyone was producing some version of Fort Apache.

I still think Marx turned out the best product.
Since there actually was a historical Fort Apache it was a name that couldn't be copyrighted; however, most knock-offs had some other name, one of which was Fort Cheyenne which I also had, and as you say by comparison was pretty awful. In addition to the ones illustrated here there were many other Marx variants, usually having different figures. One silly example of that was the original Walt Disney Davy Crockett at the Alamo set - Marx wanted to get a set out for Christmas following the unexpected success of the Fall TV show but didn't have time to design new figures. Since Marx' early production in the 1920's and 1930's was lithographed tin toys they were able to quickly produce the steel-walled Alamo building but peopled it with stock cavalrymen & Indians from Fort Apache! (The one I got still had the cavalrymen but also NEW Mexican infantry.)
 
My long-suffering mother made me a uniform similar to the Union one here - Union because my favorite TV show at the time was Rin-Tin-Tin so I wanted to look like Corporal Rusty of the 101st Cavalry! I had a Colt-style single action army cap pistol and flap holster on a belt with buckle and a brown plastic Rin-Tin-Tin canteen, plus one of those awful pressed felt blue "kepis" like in the picture, worn with blue jeans and a light blue work shirt, both with yellow stripes. I wish I had a photo of that, my very first reenacting "uniform!"
 
I just had to post these pics, they brought me back some very good memories of my childhood and I hope in others too. We lived in a different age then. Some things were good, and others not so. To be a child back then was so different. One had to use your mind as well as your body. It was rough and tumble, but we had to think, and not sit in front of a TV and use our hands and fingers. I say this although I love video games.
 
What wonderful toys to still have. I was to old when those came out, but have a great Marx WW2/Korea boxed set with metal barracks
I was still in the 10ish range (born in 1950) when they came out. Heck, I still have a Davy Crockett hat in a box next to some old Yo-Yo's and 50's-era Lionel trains. We had toys that required a little imagination. The highest-tech toy I remember is the Etch-A-Sketch.
 
I loved Rin Tin Tin. I remember when they came to rodeo in Madison Square Gardens. My folks took me. We loved rodeos. I got everyones autograph. Dad bought me a program and we went down to gates and they signed for kids. I remember petting Rin Tin Tin. Dad also got me a Rin Tin Tin stuffed dog. Those were great times.
 
The toys were a big part of it no doubt but we also had the Civil War Centennial happening.
Indeed; here's a ca. 1961 merchandising flyer from a business in Texas featuring Civil War Centennial items that I'd posted in a previous Throwback Thursday that even includes one of the smaller Marx Blue and Gray sets:

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I loved Rin Tin Tin. I remember when they came to rodeo in Madison Square Gardens. My folks took me. We loved rodeos. I got everyones autograph. Dad bought me a program and we went down to gates and they signed for kids. I remember petting Rin Tin Tin. Dad also got me a Rin Tin Tin stuffed dog. Those were great times.
Of course I also had to have one of the licensed Marx Rin-Tin-Tin Fort Apache sets, complete with little figures of Rinty, Rusty, and Lt. Rip Masters!
 
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