I had the Sears 1960-61 Blue and Gray playset. It was one of my favorite Childhood toys. It had the Shooting Mortar and Cannon set up. In all the collections I have seen on youtube, I have seen the cannons and mortars, but none of them have the firing mechanisms. Boy it was a great Toyset, and now that I am 70 years old, I without shame, sometimes wish I had that set again.😃
What childhood memories you brought back. I don't remember the set numbers but I had mostly from Sears; the Prehistoric set, the early blue and gray and then for a Christmas I got the centennial civil war set including the gray falling Confederate on a horse, the metal Cape Canaveral, the Sears Custer battle, the first moon base with a huge moon background which was my last 1/32nd playset, as well as the Sears Alamo set, and the Sears D-Day landing set. My very first set was the construction set and the last two sets that I received before I aged out of playsets was the charge of the light brigade and knights and Vikings with castle which were" hand painted by artists" in Hong Kong. Same with my warriors of the world figures. I sold most of the sets to Rick Eber,a Marx collector in New York, and since my parents said the sets were only allowed to be played with inside they were complete in excellent condition. I made a substantial amount of money after I sold them to Rick after 911 when I needed the money after a job loss in the aftermath of the attack. Marx was a major part of my childhood and I recall seeing the display boards in various stores in Chicago. I usually got one playset for my birthday in December and then one for Christmas I really enjoyed my childhood and I'm thankful my parents had enough money to purchase these great sets. Thanks for this excellent video.
Around 1965, I remember my mother taking into a toy store & showing me these playset on the display wall. There was about six or seven of them. She ask me which one I wanted & I picked out the army set, although I don't remember the name of it. Regardless, I enjoyed many of the Marx playsets & toys throughout my childhood.
Best Marx collection I ever seen. I only had two Marx play sets as a child. Got the Blue and Gray set in 1961 or 62. And the Fort Apache set for Christmas in 1962. And the Marx service station in 1959. Still have most of the pieces to those sets. And I added several more as an adult with the original box, Wells Fargo, Cape Canaveral, American Airlines Jetport and several different Ft Apache sets.
Thanks for watching brother. I am heading to the Gettysburg Toy Soldier Show this weekend so I'll be posting a video sometime next week on everything that was for sale there. Keep watching.
Awesome and incredible collection! Your stewardship in preserving and displaying these many sets of immeasurable joy coupled with imaginative magic is most noteworthy! Was. Blessed with several original Marx sets! These sets can be discerned by the colors of the figures-I.e., the “Alamo” Mexicans were a deep blue, Crocket & Company were chalk-white; “Fort Apache” Indians were larger than 54mm and were a deep burnt-orange, a deep slate color, and a chalk-white respectively. Also had the first “Space” set with fantastic Mouse Aliens, Robot-like figure, spacemen with detachable clear bubble helmets, green horizontal Rocket Ships with wheels! Again, kudos for being a great curator of happy memories shared by thousands of youngsters.
Awesome collection. I had a few Marx sets and they are probably my fav toys. I played the hell out of them. Seeing all these war sets reminded me of an episode of Thirty Something. A mom refused to buy her son any war toys, so she bought him a toy farm and when she saw him playing with it, he was having a war between the pigs and cows.
WONDERFUL !! Santa brought me two small, or one big, military set every Christmas for years in the 1960's. Until I ran across this type of video, I had no idea Marx had made so many and for so long. And that they re-used the same figures over and over again; in different ways and different colors. The walls in the Foreign Legion fort look the same as that used for Prince Valiant. (5:54 middle row) The Custer's Last Stand set used the Confederates from my (1962?) Civil War set (but in Union light blue). (6:20) The other Custer's Last Stand used the Texans from my (same year, 1962?) Alamo set but in different colors; plus the Indians from my Fort Apache set. I think my Indians were in three different colors; as were the Texans. Alamo and Zorro used the same Union light-blue for the Mexican soldiers. I was always irritated that my WWII sets ($10 D-Day, $6 Desert Fox, and $6 Iwo Jima back when $15 would cover everything Santa might bring) used the wrong tanks and weapons for the U.S. Army. I now understand the first set Marx did was in the 50's - and used the M-47 tank, M14 rifle, and M60 machine-gun of the time (that I would use for real in the Army decades later). 9:35 That's Sergeant Rock ("It's never easy in Easy Company) in the background. 10:25 How did Hitler, the Nazi swastika, and even the SS symbol (lightning bolts on the flag) slip in to all this?!! 10:30 THOSE ARE SHERMAN TANKS !! Never have I seen Marx make Sherman tanks, and I don't recognize most of the figures. Who made this, and when? 18:35 Now I know where my Farm set came from; this must have been in the 50's when I was pre-school. Of course, later it became an objective for my soldiers to capture; as did my plastic-brick bunkers, wood log cabins, and metal bridge construction sets. I realize you focus on store display-board sets. I could never put those on a shelf and just look at them; they are meant to be played with and I'd have consolidated each genre into one gigantic battle. You have the room for it! Mine are all piled together in a box.
My first play set was the cowboy town in 1954 when I was four. I played with it so much the metal town broke so I made one out of wood with my Dad. Liked my Ben Hur set and Revolutionary War set. I also had a knight castle set. So many hours spent on the floor on my stomach. I made a popsicle fort with ramparts for the soldiers.
My brother and I were really into playsets growing up in the 50's and early 60's. Both of us had the civil war set, I had Ben Hur, the Untouchables, the Tales of Wells Fargo train set with the metal western town and cowboys and Indians. Early on my brother had the dinosaur playset, and at one point either he or my sister had the Flintstones set. The last playset I remember having was the WW2 soldiers but later, I remember getting the WW2 Germans. I still have numerous figures from most of these sets.
What a great collection of Marx toy sets! I have never seen those display boards before and didn’t realize they were even a “thing.” As a kid I had the Battleground set and Dinosaurs and my brother had the Fort Apache and a Sears Gas Station set. Wonderful toys. I’ve since bought some pieces off EBay to various sets just because I wanted them because I still love/like the Marx toys especially the WW 2 soldiers and remember having the soldiers fight against the dinosaurs! I guess I’m just a 70’some year old kid!
This brings back a lot of memories. Growing up in the 60's every Christmas my mother would set me down with the Sears Wish Book and tell me I had a $100 to spend. On Christmas morning I would have at least two or three of these play sets
I remember admiring the Marx playsets in a Montgomery Ward catalog although I was living in Japan. I finally broke down and pleaded my father, who was stationed in Vietnam to get me one. The Marx Prehistoric Playset arrived in about a week with over $18.00 in postage, a lot of money back in the early 60s.
Great video, loved seeing the sets as advertised. In addition I have always known it to be GRAY and not Grey. Because Lewis Marx taught me about the Civil War, and taught me to spell GRAY! I had that record and played it when knocking down the troops. Hours of set ups to have that last battle, I did not keep count but the Rebs would give em hell until the Cavalry arrived to save the day...
Since you check these comments I have another memory and question? The bagged figure sets. I bought a bag of the marx figures, bought a few. I remember the bags had a cardboard header and on the back was a cut out, on one bag it was the blown up house from the battle ground set, the other was a pill box you cut out and folded. Have you seen these before? @@paulknappcollections
I had the Flintstones, Disneyland, Battleground Europe(dark green US troops), Iwo Jima, Knights& Vikings-moat and castle, Daktari, Civil War set, Sold the Daktari display mat for $65. The only thing I kept was a few knights and Vikings, and the Civil War soldiers. Happiness on Christmas morning was palying wih the set I had got that Christmas. The sets were on display high up in the Sears Store in Macon Ga. I wiah I could have visited the Sears Dumpster.
@@paulknappcollections born in 67 I guess I missed out on marx hay day. But still had a desert fox(74), fort apache (76) and navaron(77). Still have have them .
Used to go to the Montgomery Wards store on Middlebelt and Plymouth Rd in Livonia, MI and check out those mounted Marx play sets and bug my parents to get me one for Christmas.
That place is just amazing. I could spend hours in there and if I was in his hometown would gladly offer money that could go to a local charity? What an amazing place ☺️☺️☺️☺️
Hey Paul GI Joe Eddie here just drop in to say hello and thank you for sharing your video brother God bless you and your family I appreciate you time brother thank you I can remember some of the sets considering my kids tell me I'm old as dirt but I remember those thank you I appreciate you God bless you and your family looking more exciting video God bless GI Joe Eddie over and out
Amazing collection! George is one committed and lucky guy. I had a bunch of these sets (mostly western and war) some I never knew existed. What a learning experience, thanks to you and George.
I wanted any of them so bad but my mom and dad were young just starting a family and barely making ends meet and these sets were expensive. They always put these displays along the top of the freezer cases at the grocery store. So looking up trying to see all the details was frustrating as a little kid.
Jeez I'm getting senile... I also had the castle set with the yellow plastic battlements which I think I got around 1959 or 1960 as my first military related set. I always wanted one of the airport and the strategic air command sets but given I received all those other sets noted in the previous post I did pretty well.😏
PS. ... I did receive the Steve Canyon pilot helmet (from Ideal) which I would run around with while playing with my plastic model airplanes my dad made for me.
@@paulknappcollections I never had any of the play sets but I sure had plenty of Marx plastic soldiers! I live in Ohio and the Glendale Marx plant is just down river (as we say around here!) So all the 5 &10 stores around here had bags or boxes of soldiers. I bet if they tore up every lawn in the valley you would find millions of forgotten figures. A small story, my father was building our house and had bought a truck load of sand to mix concrete. To a little kid that looked like the ideal place to play with my soldiers. I mDe caves and bunkers then threw gravel at them for artillery. Had a blast! Next day I wake up to the sound of a cement mixer running. I go outside to discover about half my army has fallen victim to the monster mixer! So everything I walk on my dad's front porch I think about the fallen soldiers I walking on! Lol!
Little disappointed to not see the Sears department store play set. Maybe it was never available as a store display. Grandma worked at Sears so we got a play set almost every year for Xmas. All eventually gone now except for an occasional accessory piece.
I so desperately wanted a moon Base set. I beg my parents To get me 14 Christmas. Obviously I was not a good boy. 60 years later I still want one. Go figure
I had the Sears 1960-61 Blue and Gray playset. It was one of my favorite Childhood toys. It had the Shooting Mortar and Cannon set up. In all the collections I have seen on youtube, I have seen the cannons and mortars, but none of them have the firing mechanisms. Boy it was a great Toyset, and now that I am 70 years old, I without shame, sometimes wish I had that set again.😃
Good childhood memories though
Unbelievably beautifully well displayed!
Many thanks! I've posted many videos on Marx playsets let me know what one your Dad had.
What childhood memories you brought back.
I don't remember the set numbers but I had mostly from Sears; the Prehistoric set, the early blue and gray and then for a Christmas I got the centennial civil war set including the gray falling Confederate on a horse, the metal Cape Canaveral, the Sears Custer battle, the first moon base with a huge moon background which was my last 1/32nd playset, as well as the Sears Alamo set, and the Sears D-Day landing set.
My very first set was the construction set and the last two sets that I received before I aged out of playsets was the charge of the light brigade and knights and Vikings with castle which were" hand painted by artists" in Hong Kong. Same with my warriors of the world figures.
I sold most of the sets to Rick Eber,a Marx collector in New York, and since my parents said the sets were only allowed to be played with inside they were complete in excellent condition. I made a substantial amount of money after I sold them to Rick after 911 when I needed the money after a job loss in the aftermath of the attack.
Marx was a major part of my childhood and I recall seeing the display boards in various stores in Chicago. I usually got one playset for my birthday in December and then one for Christmas
I really enjoyed my childhood and I'm thankful my parents had enough money to purchase these great sets. Thanks for this excellent video.
I purchased many items from Rick at the toy shows. Great guy. Thanks for watching and I have many videos on other Marx playsets.
Around 1965, I remember my mother taking into a toy store & showing me these playset on the display wall. There was about six or seven of them. She ask me which one I wanted & I picked out the army set, although I don't remember the name of it. Regardless, I enjoyed many of the Marx playsets & toys throughout my childhood.
Most likely a Battleground set. Great memories
Best Marx collection I ever seen. I only had two Marx play sets as a child. Got the Blue and Gray set in 1961 or 62. And the Fort Apache set for Christmas in 1962. And the Marx service station in 1959. Still have most of the pieces to those sets. And I added several more as an adult with the original box, Wells Fargo, Cape Canaveral, American Airlines Jetport and several different Ft Apache sets.
Thanks for watching brother. I am heading to the Gettysburg Toy Soldier Show this weekend so I'll be posting a video sometime next week on everything that was for sale there. Keep watching.
Awesome and incredible collection! Your stewardship in preserving and displaying these many sets of immeasurable joy coupled with imaginative magic is most noteworthy! Was. Blessed with several original Marx sets! These sets can be discerned by the colors of the figures-I.e., the “Alamo” Mexicans were a deep blue, Crocket & Company were chalk-white; “Fort Apache” Indians were larger than 54mm and were a deep burnt-orange, a deep slate color, and a chalk-white respectively. Also had the first “Space” set with fantastic Mouse Aliens, Robot-like figure, spacemen with detachable clear bubble helmets, green horizontal Rocket Ships with wheels! Again, kudos for being a great curator of happy memories shared by thousands of youngsters.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Awesome collection. I had a few Marx sets and they are probably my fav toys. I played the hell out of them.
Seeing all these war sets reminded me of an episode of Thirty Something. A mom refused to buy her son any war toys, so she bought him a toy farm and when she saw him playing with it, he was having a war between the pigs and cows.
Checkout some of my other videos on the Marx sets I own.
WONDERFUL !! Santa brought me two small, or one big, military set every Christmas for years in the 1960's. Until I ran across this type of video, I had no idea Marx had made so many and for so long. And that they re-used the same figures over and over again; in different ways and different colors. The walls in the Foreign Legion fort look the same as that used for Prince Valiant. (5:54 middle row) The Custer's Last Stand set used the Confederates from my (1962?) Civil War set (but in Union light blue). (6:20) The other Custer's Last Stand used the Texans from my (same year, 1962?) Alamo set but in different colors; plus the Indians from my Fort Apache set. I think my Indians were in three different colors; as were the Texans. Alamo and Zorro used the same Union light-blue for the Mexican soldiers.
I was always irritated that my WWII sets ($10 D-Day, $6 Desert Fox, and $6 Iwo Jima back when $15 would cover everything Santa might bring) used the wrong tanks and weapons for the U.S. Army. I now understand the first set Marx did was in the 50's - and used the M-47 tank, M14 rifle, and M60 machine-gun of the time (that I would use for real in the Army decades later).
9:35 That's Sergeant Rock ("It's never easy in Easy Company) in the background.
10:25 How did Hitler, the Nazi swastika, and even the SS symbol (lightning bolts on the flag) slip in to all this?!!
10:30 THOSE ARE SHERMAN TANKS !! Never have I seen Marx make Sherman tanks, and I don't recognize most of the figures. Who made this, and when?
18:35 Now I know where my Farm set came from; this must have been in the 50's when I was pre-school. Of course, later it became an objective for my soldiers to capture; as did my plastic-brick bunkers, wood log cabins, and metal bridge construction sets.
I realize you focus on store display-board sets. I could never put those on a shelf and just look at them; they are meant to be played with and I'd have consolidated each genre into one gigantic battle. You have the room for it! Mine are all piled together in a box.
Marx did some wild stuff in the day when making playsets
Hard work and dedication pay huge dividends!
Yes it does!
My first play set was the cowboy town in 1954 when I was four. I played with it so much the metal town broke so I made one out of wood with my Dad. Liked my Ben Hur set and Revolutionary War set. I also had a knight castle set. So many hours spent on the floor on my stomach. I made a popsicle fort with ramparts for the soldiers.
Great memories
I still have some of those military pieces...didn't realize they were Marx toys. I'd better take an inventory. 😎
Awesome.
I've visited George Kroll's collection! Amazing place!! He has a set up that would rival the old Marx Toy Musuem in Moundsville.
No doubt. Great guy and very humble. I see him every year at the Gettysburg Show.
one amazing set after another, and a great garloo and big loo right next to each other which is unreal just in itself.
Yes his collection is insane. He built his garage just to house his toys.
My brother and I were really into playsets growing up in the 50's and early 60's. Both of us had the civil war set, I had Ben Hur, the Untouchables, the Tales of Wells Fargo train set with the metal western town and cowboys and Indians. Early on my brother had the dinosaur playset, and at one point either he or my sister had the Flintstones set. The last playset I remember having was the WW2 soldiers but later, I remember getting the WW2 Germans. I still have numerous figures from most of these sets.
That's awesome brother. Thanks for watching my channel.
Oh WOW! what a FANTASTIC COLLECTION. NICE👍👍
Thanks for watching
What a great collection of Marx toy sets! I have never seen those display boards before and didn’t realize they were even a “thing.” As a kid I had the Battleground set and Dinosaurs and my brother had the Fort Apache and a Sears Gas Station set. Wonderful toys. I’ve since bought some pieces off EBay to various sets just because I wanted them because I still love/like the Marx toys especially the WW 2 soldiers and remember having the soldiers fight against the dinosaurs! I guess I’m just a 70’some year old kid!
He does have an enormous store display boards. Thanks for watching.
This brings back a lot of memories. Growing up in the 60's every Christmas my mother would set me down with the Sears Wish Book and tell me I had a $100 to spend.
On Christmas morning I would have at least two or three of these play sets
Great memories brother
Caught a glimpse of a plastic German helmet, my brother and I had these as well, I think he still has his.
I think there is a company that is remaking them now. Thanks for watching
I remember admiring the Marx playsets in a Montgomery Ward catalog although I was living in Japan. I finally broke down and pleaded my father, who was stationed in Vietnam to get me one. The Marx Prehistoric Playset arrived in about a week with over $18.00 in postage, a lot of money back in the early 60s.
Awesome set. Great childhood memories.
Excellent display.
He has a very cool ManCave. I made 2 videos from his place. Thanks for watching
Cool stuff. Brings back memories. Not a collector but I loved the bigger figures to play with when i was a kid.
Thanks for watching
Great video, loved seeing the sets as advertised. In addition I have always known it to be GRAY and not Grey. Because Lewis Marx taught me about the Civil War, and taught me to spell GRAY! I had that record and played it when knocking down the troops. Hours of set ups to have that last battle, I did not keep count but the Rebs would give em hell until the Cavalry arrived to save the day...
Great memories.
Since you check these comments I have another memory and question? The bagged figure sets. I bought a bag of the marx figures, bought a few. I remember the bags had a cardboard header and on the back was a cut out, on one bag it was the blown up house from the battle ground set, the other was a pill box you cut out and folded. Have you seen these before? @@paulknappcollections
@@TP-ie3hj wow, nope I’ve never seen them but I’m sure guys like Rick Eber have. Contact him on facebook
My goodness what I wouldn’t do to have these sets. Or even to see them daily and dust them. Fantastic 🥰
Right?! That's why I visit at least once a year. LOL
This was really a great video .I had the fort apache and wagon train. Great stuff
George has the best collection I've ever seen. Plus a super humble guy.
Wonderful battlesets that i never had in the 1960s! Great video.
Glad you enjoyed it
I had the Flintstones, Disneyland, Battleground Europe(dark green US troops), Iwo Jima, Knights& Vikings-moat and castle, Daktari, Civil War set, Sold the Daktari display mat for $65. The only thing I kept was a few knights and Vikings, and the Civil War soldiers. Happiness on Christmas morning was palying wih the set I had got that Christmas. The sets were on display high up in the Sears Store in Macon Ga. I wiah I could have visited the Sears Dumpster.
Great memories brother.
I totally agree, I had Blue and Gray set, along with the Germans and US soldiers.
Fantastic
Thank you! Cheers!
awesome video, brought back sooo many memories
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very nice collection.
It is amazing. George is a great guy.
Just awesome
Epic collection.
@@paulknappcollections born in 67 I guess I missed out on marx hay day. But still had a desert fox(74), fort apache (76) and navaron(77). Still have have them .
Used to go to the Montgomery Wards store on Middlebelt and Plymouth Rd in Livonia, MI and check out those mounted Marx play sets and bug my parents to get me one for Christmas.
Great memories. I saw them at Sears
That place is just amazing. I could spend hours in there and if I was in his hometown would gladly offer money that could go to a local charity? What an amazing place ☺️☺️☺️☺️
He lives in Maryland and built that garage just for his collection. Crazy.
Wow. Literally reminded me of a couple of sets that I forgot I had!
Thanks for watching
Hey Paul GI Joe Eddie here just drop in to say hello and thank you for sharing your video brother God bless you and your family I appreciate you time brother thank you I can remember some of the sets considering my kids tell me I'm old as dirt but I remember those thank you I appreciate you God bless you and your family looking more exciting video God bless GI Joe Eddie over and out
Thank you kindly
Amazing collection! George is one committed and lucky guy. I had a bunch of these sets (mostly western and war) some I never knew existed. What a learning experience, thanks to you and George.
Thanks for watching brother
Got a castle set back in the day also a gas station set.wonderful stuff!🇨🇦
Very cool, thanks for watching
I love marx toys they were the best
Just posted a new video from yesterdays show. Lots of Marx there
Definitely brings back memories! Cool video brutha!!
Glad you enjoyed it
This is AWESOME 👍😱
Amazing collection and great guy.
Oh I almost forgot. I had the Sears Marx gas station too.
Childhood memories brother
What an amazing collection! Thanks for sharing this with your viewers.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I wanted any of them so bad but my mom and dad were young just starting a family and barely making ends meet and these sets were expensive. They always put these displays along the top of the freezer cases at the grocery store. So looking up trying to see all the details was frustrating as a little kid.
Yes, I remember seeing them in Sears. Thanks for watching
Love this video and I too collect Marx Playsets and other 50's and 60's toys. Keep up the good work 👏 😊
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. There's a lot of great old toys out there.
I just spotted Big Lou!
And Garloo!
He's there
That is an amazing collection.
No doubt, thanks for watching
wow epic collection, thanks for showcasing it.
Thanks for watching!
Jeez I'm getting senile... I also had the castle set with the yellow plastic battlements which I think I got around 1959 or 1960 as my first military related set.
I always wanted one of the airport and the strategic air command sets but given I received all those other sets noted in the previous post I did pretty well.😏
Strategic air command is a great set.
At 35:20 What is the set? Nice that it came with weapon sprues.
it is a Satellite Launching Station set# 2664
So cool 😎 grate job.
Thanks for watching
We went to burks Carnegie pa toy store matchbox and marx fort apache Navarro mountain
Navarone was my favorite back in the day.
PS. ... I did receive the Steve Canyon pilot helmet (from Ideal) which I would run around with while playing with my plastic model airplanes my dad made for me.
Thats awesome, great memories.
How does he keep them so dust free?
Oh its climate controlled, but you should see my collection, open garage withy no climate control. There is no keeping these clean. LOL
@@paulknappcollections I never had any of the play sets but I sure had plenty of Marx plastic soldiers! I live in Ohio and the Glendale Marx plant is just down river (as we say around here!) So all the 5 &10 stores around here had bags or boxes of soldiers. I bet if they tore up every lawn in the valley you would find millions of forgotten figures. A small story, my father was building our house and had bought a truck load of sand to mix concrete. To a little kid that looked like the ideal place to play with my soldiers. I mDe caves and bunkers then threw gravel at them for artillery. Had a blast! Next day I wake up to the sound of a cement mixer running. I go outside to discover about half my army has fallen victim to the monster mixer! So everything I walk on my dad's front porch I think about the fallen soldiers I walking on! Lol!
Little disappointed to not see the Sears department store play set. Maybe it was never available as a store display. Grandma worked at Sears so we got a play set almost every year for Xmas. All eventually gone now except for an occasional accessory piece.
That’s a great memory. I loved the Sears displays.
Lol. Apparently the only American who would ever be bothered if pieces were "Out Of Scale" was...Donald Duck.
What a great collection
Holy smokes.
I know, I didn't want to leave LOL
Was.looking for Rocky Jones or Tim Corbett Space Station Set ? That was a.pre 1960s toy.
He has quite a collection. More stuff boxed uo that I didn't show.
I so desperately wanted a moon Base set. I beg my parents To get me 14 Christmas. Obviously I was not a good boy. 60 years later I still want one. Go figure
Although I did get a mccolley space helmet. Wish I still had it .
Childhood memories bro. Thanks for watching
My Dad tried to buy one forr me but they refused to sell it at Sears!
I'm sure back in the day they were hard to get from the stores.
Where are the trains?
He had a few sets in the downstairs area but I didn't film them. More of a playset guy.