For me, it was always the yard, as the house until I left at age 8, was an old dairy, so the yard was a concrete area behind the house, which was effectively the roof of the old victorian cowsheds underneath. We lived in the living area above the workrooms. The yard had an area of smoothed concrete in the middle where my dad had repaired some cracks and this became my Moon. A pocket Mare Crisum for me to take my spacex ships flying from the wooden space station, to land on the lunar surface.
What was your favourite ? I'd welcome photos or example of your own favourite playsets and terrain that populated your childhood.
Meanwhile, here are a few words which epitomise that far away land..
The Land of Counterpaneby Robert Louis Stevenson
| When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay, To keep me happy all the day. And sometimes for an hour or so I watched my leaden soldiers go, With different uniforms and drills, Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; And sometimes sent my ships in fleets All up and down among the sheets; Or brought my trees and houses out, And planted cities all about. I was the giant great and still That sits upon the pillow-hill, And sees before him, dale and plain, The pleasant land of counterpane. |
An army of "Giant" spacemen and various craft on the living room carpet, with various Hong Kong spaceships. sorry, no photos seem to survive!
ReplyDeleteWoodsy, during those cold Milwaukee winters I was fortunate enough to have a number of Marx playsets to keep me busy inside. During the summer it was little green army men in our rather small backyard. As I got a little older, the little guys gave way to the larger, original G.I. Joe's and a couple of cheap cllones.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the living room carpet; epic site of many a battle! White Styrofoam packaging (the kind you'd get with a small appliance, like blender or food processor) were always employed as bunkers or some kind of alien structure. For more permanent terrain, my Mom had a large/heavy piece of knarled driftwood (must have been a large root) on display in the living room. You could always find a small plastic figure left somewhere among its limbs.
ReplyDeleteMost of my playsets were cobbled together from various cereal boxes and styrofoam packing cradles. One "official" playset that saw a lot of action was the Death Star from Star Wars. We used that for everything from Transformers to GI Joe and Micronauts. My mother may have pictures of it assembled on Christmas Day, with all the Star Wars vehicles and figures my brother, cousins and I received that day lined up next to it.
ReplyDeleteI still have it to this day, a little worn and the laser cannon has broken off it's pedistal. The foam pieces that go in the trash compacter are there, but are beginning to turn to dust. My oldest son likes to play with it once in awhile if he can get Dad to drag it out of it's hiding place in the garage.
Another one I remember and wish I had held on to was a space station that came with some MPC spacemen and a few vehicles and rocket launchers. It had a dome that came in sections which had to be taped together. There was also a radar on top that turned via a wheel at the base. I've searched and searched but haven't found any pictures on the net, or any for sale.
I'd wonder if I dreamed it if I didn't have one photo of it from Christmas morning.
Some photos of your xmas haul would be great, if they still exist!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile check out http://www.plaidstallions.com/
for MPC playsets - it may be there..
I have indeed checked there to no avail. I'm beginning to think that maybe it was made by a third party company and either sourced the figures and vehicles from MPC or pirated them straight out.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid the picture I have doesn't show much, just the box which is in the background and a bit blurry...can't read anything on the box, I just know what it is because I was there. :)
Found it! I tried a search term I hadn't used before and there it was...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wishbookweb.com/1980_JCPenny_Christmas/images/1980%20JCPenny%20Christmas%20page446.jpg
Although I don't remember it being exactly like that, maybe they had changed it by the time I got it, or maybe my memory is failing? Mine didn't have the two smaller domed space pods, and I remember the radar being smaller and at the top of the dome.
I still don't know that it was made by MARX, but it is grouped with other sets that are definetely MARX, so...?
Holy Cow! I didn't realize MPC made such a BIG station! If you look at those smaller modules in the upper left corner (just under the boys right hand) - those were also available as smaller playsets by themselves. The vehicles were standard MPC 'little green army men' types but for the space sets they often were white or some other color. I have a couple of sets of those modules (one of them w/OB) and a bunch of MPC space launchers and tracked vehicles.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite playscape was available only once a year but I would get it for a whole week.It was the beach,Long Beach Island NJ,where my family would vacation in a tiny cabin just behind the dunes.That was a GREAT place to set up the colorful plastic Cowboys & Indians available at the bait shop 5 doors down. The promontory rocks were a great battlefield for plastic soldiers and sailors. The only toys from home I deemed tough enough to withstand the rigors of sand & surf were my Shogun Warriors and Godzilla.They usually trashed The village of sandcastles carefully built during the afternoon and left an (imaginary) smouldering ruin as the sun sank behind the dunes.35 years later, as I write this,Godzilla and Raideen stand guard on a shelf overlooking my office,probably with a few grains of Jersey Shore sand still stuck between their wheels.
ReplyDeleteThats an excellent reverie Brian - send us a pic of the two heros on your shelf!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, camera's down and I don't have a scanner,otherwise I would.Hopefully I can make some contributions to this site in the near future.It's interesting to learn how similar people's interests can be, even though they are separated by an ocean(Or several planets,perhaps?)Keep up the good work, guys.
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