CivilWarTalk Throwback Thursday, 12-20-18

I love these old photos and the toys, but I cant imagine a toy company releasing products like these in today's times...

In italy there's a niche market and there are many niche companies !

As I child I used to love tiny soldiers and I am afraid that I would spend all my money on these things If I accualy had them !

Nice topic, it brings some nice memories
 
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.
From age 7-13, I lived in Phoenix and there were many rodeos. Up in Prescott, they had the big Frontier Days rodeo. Between Phoenix and Prescott, we got to see all the big western stars like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Rex Allen, Sky King and even Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger. After seeing all the TV stars, nobody cared much about the actual rodeo competition.
 
Great one as it brings back Christmas memories. I got the Johnny Reb cannon for Christmas back in 1962
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I would have loved this as a child.

Uff, I wish I had many friends like the boy in the video to act battles like that. Well nevermind, children have a very powerful immagination

Do you think nowadays a video like that in wich women are rappresented only as infermery would be accettable ? We know that historically is true and children just want to play but adults sometimes are more worried ...
 
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It's a little early, I know, but not only has the site been having problems lately, tomorrow my public library won't be opening until 4 pm, so I thought I'd get this out early rather than late, especially after missing last week while working on my Fredericksburg thread: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-battle-of-fredericksburg-december-13-1862.152459/ for those who missed it. This week approaching Christmas I've created a thread on my favorite toys I received as presents: the "playsets" made in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's by the Louis Marx Company in West Virginia like The Battle of the Blue and the Gray shown here, ca. 1959: https://www.civilwartalk.com/threads/louis-marx-the-battle-of-the-blue-and-the-gray.152661/

Anyone else having (preferably) old Civil War-related photos, mementoes, or memorabilia is welcome and encouraged to post them in this thread as well!

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Does any toy company make Civil war soldiers or battle sets .I have not seen any combat toy sets even of WWll.I had one when I was six and never wanted to go to war as a result of playing with it neither did I turn into a bigot or develop a race superior attitude .
 
I found all these on Amazon.



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*Since my separate thread on Louis Marx' playsets has already disappeared, I'll post the relevant parts of it here as well:

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This time of year always reminds me of my very favorite November birthday and December Christmas presents - the wonderful playsets made by the Louis Marx Company in west Virginia! The "historical" ones were always my favorite, though I also had Prehistoric dinosaurs, a gas station (with working elevator!), freight terminal (my dad was a truck driver), Captain Space Solar Port (the space stuff was all in the future in the 1950's), etc., etc. But of course my most treasured were The Battle of the Blue and the Gray, Fort Apache, and Davy Crockett at the Alamo, in no particular order. As you can see, I also saved the relevant pages from the Sears & Roebuck Wish Book, reproduced here. Both pages above and below are from after Christmas 1960 when there were *NEW* figures added for the Civil War Centennial. (I had one from 1959 so just HAD to have one with the new figures too!)

Note the inevitable increase in prices for these, plus the fact they were merchandised differently over the years - in 1956 when Walt Disney's Davy Crockett - King of the Wild Frontier was all the rage on television, there were "official" Marx sets bearing the names of both Walt and his gold mine; later, it was enough to have simply Alamo sets so as to not have to pay those pesky licensing fees! I'm sure that many older members here remember these and like myself were inspired by them to actually want to learn about the war and other historical events - I owe them a great deal of gratitude.

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Sadly, the backlash and protests against the Vietnam War caused the decline and eventual fall of these so-called "war toys", but for a time Marx through Sears and their chief competitor Montgomery Ward's found a way around that by emphasizing their "historical" value; above and below are pages touting Sears' Heritage Play Sets from the 1970's. In the descriptions for some reason they've confused the figure of Jefferson Davis, instead describing him as Sherman, no doubt to his posthumous dismay!

For completionists like myself, here are some additional Sears ads that do not include Battle of the Blue and the Gray; the one below is the oldest, dating from the 1950's:
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Marx was always updating the sets, adding new figures and/or accessories; note the difference in the cavalrymen and Indians in these two different Fort Apache sets; the one below dates from 1972 and shows more of their Heritage line, including a plastic White House and all the Presidents to date:

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When I played with mine,I would place the Indians inside the fort and the soldiers on the outside,kin of a reversal history.But the Indians would have no cannons or weapons of the white man .Could not alter facts to extreme.I did allow the Indians to tunnel out
*Since my separate thread on Louis Marx' playsets has already disappeared, I'll post the relevant parts of it here as well:

View attachment 214659
This time of year always reminds me of my very favorite November birthday and December Christmas presents - the wonderful playsets made by the Louis Marx Company in west Virginia! The "historical" ones were always my favorite, though I also had Prehistoric dinosaurs, a gas station (with working elevator!), freight terminal (my dad was a truck driver), Captain Space Solar Port (the space stuff was all in the future in the 1950's), etc., etc. But of course my most treasured were The Battle of the Blue and the Gray, Fort Apache, and Davy Crockett at the Alamo, in no particular order. As you can see, I also saved the relevant pages from the Sears & Roebuck Wish Book, reproduced here. Both pages above and below are from after Christmas 1960 when there were *NEW* figures added for the Civil War Centennial. (I had one from 1959 so just HAD to have one with the new figures too!)

Note the inevitable increase in prices for these, plus the fact they were merchandised differently over the years - in 1956 when Walt Disney's Davy Crockett - King of the Wild Frontier was all the rage on television, there were "official" Marx sets bearing the names of both Walt and his gold mine; later, it was enough to have simply Alamo sets so as to not have to pay those pesky licensing fees! I'm sure that many older members here remember these and like myself were inspired by them to actually want to learn about the war and other historical events - I owe them a great deal of gratitude.

View attachment 214660

Sadly, the backlash and protests against the Vietnam War caused the decline and eventual fall of these so-called "war toys", but for a time Marx through Sears and their chief competitor Montgomery Ward's found a way around that by emphasizing their "historical" value; above and below are pages touting Sears' Heritage Play Sets from the 1970's. In the descriptions for some reason they've confused the figure of Jefferson Davis, instead describing him as Sherman, no doubt to his posthumous dismay!

For completionists like myself, here are some additional Sears ads that do not include Battle of the Blue and the Gray; the one below is the oldest, dating from the 1950's:
View attachment 214661

Marx was always updating the sets, adding new figures and/or accessories; note the difference in the cavalrymen and Indians in these two different Fort Apache sets; the one below dates from 1972 and shows more of their Heritage line, including a plastic White House and all the Presidents to date:

View attachment 214663
When I played with the western set I would place the Indians in the fort and the soldiers on the outside.Kinda of reversal of history .however I did not permit the Nobel Red man to process artillery or weapons of the soldier.One can only alter the facts in novels or movies ,maybe in today's social studies classes.I would allow the Indians to tunnel out to avoid a massacre by the Caucasians.This was all pretend.
 
At one time werent toy soldiers made from pewter, Pot metal or some sort of cheap metal? When was the cutoff date for plastic right after WW2?
Toymakers went to Rubber (think Auburn and Sun Rubber Co.'s) and vinyl (an early forms of plastic) to make animals and soldiers in the very late 40's and then into the 50's. The earliest Marx figures were the vinyl which felt kind of rubbery. They then moved on to plastic as we still see it today in the early 60's.
There are still toymakers making metal army men. They are extremely detailed, and there are some really cool Civil War series out there.
 
Does any toy company make Civil war soldiers or battle sets .I have not seen any combat toy sets even of WWll.I had one when I was six
Actually quite a few.

Only thing, our age groups are the only customers . . . so these products are priced accordingly.

Browse these sites to start:

http://www.contecostore.com/playsets.html

https://www.michtoy.com/michtoy_search_product.php?&matchString=acw&typeofSEARCH=fulltext

https://www.sierratoysoldier.com/ourstore/pc/American-Civil-War-c69.htm





 
Hah ! View attachment 214677


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.
I had 3 out of 4! The only one I never had was the Alamo. My Ft Apache came with the "Ft Dearborn/ Alamo defender" figures though. I still use the terrain pieces and the civil war figures in skirmish wargames. I recently did a funeral for a woman who worked on the figures line at Marx toys. Her family appreciated the moment when I pulled the little running frontiersman out of the sleeve of my robe and set him on the pulpit. Those Marx employees were fiercely proud of their work.
 
I didn't have Navarone, but I had the WW2 set called "Battleground." It came with a lot of wonderful terrain and sandbag positions, a ruined house, a pontoon bridge - although the figures are gone, the terrain is still around, and like the other sets, makes frequent wargame appearances.
Marx also made a couple western sets themed to western tv shows like "Maverick." The figures weren't anything to write home about, but the steel buildings in those sets were beautiful. There was a single story and a 2-story western false front street, with doors your figures could walk through. The saloon had swinging doors, and all the building interiors were fully printed; the rear of the buildings was open so you could access the interior. I scored a single story building a couple years ago. What a find!
 
Great one as it brings back Christmas memories. I got the Johnny Reb cannon for Christmas back in 1962
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That was such a cool cannon. And it shot the cannon balls all the way across the yard. My big brother got one for Christmas also. A few months later I tried to stuff one of the cannon balls down the barrel without using the rammer and my hand got stuck in the barrel. My pap had to crack the cannon barrel open to get me unstuck. My big brother was some kinda mad at me for years after that...
 
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