Playset

Child playing with toy (tin) figures

Playsets are themed collections of similar toys designed to work together to enact some action or event. The most common toy playsets involve plastic figures, accessories, and possibly buildings or scenery, purchased together in a common box. Some sets during the 1960s and 1970s were offered within metal "suitcase" containers that also functioned as part of the playset.

First pioneered by metal figure manufacturers around the turn of the 20th century, usually as military "play" figures with simple accessories, the concept of the playset was further developed by companies like Marx Toys, Superior Toy, Remco, Deluxe Reading, Multiple Toymakers (MPC) and others throughout the Baby Boomer era. Several manufacturers continue to produce playsets today.

Several popular playsets by Marx were:

• Battle of the Blue and Gray (1958)
• Battleground
• Ben-Hur
• Desert Fox
• Fort Apache (1951)
• The Alamo
• The Guns of Navarone
• Johnny Tremain

Popular playsets based on television series were:

• Daniel Boone
• Tom Corbett
• Davy Crockett
• Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion
• Gunsmoke
• Jungle Jim later recycled as Daktari
• Johnny Ringo
• Roy Rogers Mineral City (1952) (the first "branded" playset)
• The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
• The Flintstones
• The Gallant Men
• The Rifleman
• The Untouchables
• Zorro

See also

• Toy soldiers

References

• Levinthal, David Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box Zzdap Publishing (1997)
• Playsets at Marx Toy Museum

Further reading

• Playset Magazine