Marx ACW Tent Group

I tell ya, you can make a hobby just out of collecting various Civil War accessories as I discovered when rounding up bridges. Back on February 13 we had blogged the Officer's Tent available at Michael's Crafts stores (which I since learned was made by Safari Ltd). Then on April 3 we looked at the two tents included in Americana set #98512, so today we're going back to my roots by covering tents made by Marx for their Centennial sets. Other Marx sets had dark brown colored tents while these are a very light tan, almost beige color. They came in a group which included one officer's tent, 3 pup tents, and a multi-piece cot. Enjoy!

Marx 'Burnside' Bridge

Back on Feb 13 we took a look at a nifty little bridge by Safari Ltd that I bought at a Michael's Craft Store. While smaller, you can tell it's not a cheap knock-ff of Marx's iconic bridge from their Civil War playsets because the detailing is totally different. Today however we will cover the Marx bridge. The bridge has come to be called the 'Burnside Bridge' in reference to the bridge over Antietam Creek over which the Union's forces led by General Ambrose Burnside were repulsed by Confederate sharpshooters. That's a quick and dirty summation of just one of the actions taking place during the Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American military history, Sep 17, 1862 with over 22,000 casualties suffered.

Our toy bridge is one of two Civil War toy bridges on the market during the same general time frame: early '60s. The other one is by MPC and it was a two-piece design with spring mechanism causing the bridge to 'blow up' when hit. The Marx version we see today is a one-piece casting and measures  9 7/8" (25.1cm) L x 5 1/8" (13cm) W x 2 1/2" (6.4cm) H. I don't know when collector's started to refer to this as the 'Burnside Bridge' because in every ad I've seen for Marx Civil War playsets, it's simply listed as common accessory along with all the other accessories. In addition, the original bridge over Antietam Creek was a triple-arch bridge while this one and the MPC bridge are both double-arch bridges. HOWEVER, I did come across this 1862 sketch by Edwin Forbes in the Library of Congress:

Library of Congress

It's a terrific sketch but incorrectly shows a double-arch bridge. It could almost have been used as a model by Marx but probably wasn't. Marx simply made a bridge as a scenic element to be included in their playsets that fit the time period and a small bridge fit the bill nicely. The bridges came in gray and brown and originals are still available today for a reasonable cost and nicely done, low-cost repos can be acquired from a number of on-line hobby shops.

Comparison shots of the Marx and Safari Ltd bridges

Enjoy!

Marx Civil War Centennial Playset Box

One of my favorite playsets as a kid was the Sears Happi Time Civil War playset by Marx. Her's a picture taken Christmas morning 1965 with my new-born nephew propped-up against the box.

When I switched from HO scale trains to 3-rail tinplate and started buying toys to populate a portable layout a very odd thing happened - a flood of nostalgia hit me and slowly but surely I started remembering all the cool toys and playsets I used to have. This one here was one of my all time favorites but I have to take issue with some of the observations the "experts" have. All the "experts" claim this set had no falling rider (a superb sculpt of a horse falling upon its front legs with a shot rider falling with him, hands upraised) and no Ambulance Wagon. I'm sorry people but my set had them both!!! Don't ask me why, I was just a kid back then and couldn't tell you but those two pieces are some of my most vivid memories of the set - along with the Mansion, character figures, and exploding bunker. The falling rider was one of the coolest scuplts in playset history and even as a kid it impressed me. The wagon impressed me for other reasons. Although it was a really cool design, quite frankly it was a pain-in-the-a _ _ ! That darn top wouldn't stay on for love-nor-money, and just try to hook on the barrels or other accouterments to the sides and still try to keep the top on. Just didn't happen. More often than not the top was put off to the side and the toy used as a regular wagon.

***********UPDATE Apr 7, 2014************

Well, time to eat crow - better cook mine first. I owe the 'experts' an apology. Ya see in a moment of 'Boy, do I feel dumb' a  heretofore forgotten detail of my youth struck me and happened while pouring over some Sears Christmas catalogs. Yes I did have a falling horse and rider and yes, I did have an ambulance type wagon, but NO they were not a part of the Civil War playset. They were a part of the Sears large Fort Apache playset!!!! My folks were big Sears fans and most of my playset's were from there and I sure did have that beautiful Fort Apache set. Clearly shown in the ads for the set were the wagon and falling horse and rider. I feel better now and hope I didn't mislead anyone - too badly.

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I know what you "experts" are thinking, "Oh his mother bought him bags of Marx toys or other playsets with theses pieces in them." Nope. I got the playsets at Christmas or birthdays and throughout the year would have gotten header bags from MPC, Rel, or whatever but there were no additional Marx sets.

Time passes on and I'm all growed up and now start to collect stuff, so I'm thinking how nice it would be to try and gather up this playset again. Boy, was I in for a shock. The prices on these original pieces now command a king's ransom, waaaay out of proportion to the income of a pauper, but occasionally pieces become available that aren't exorbitantly expensive. I got the box relatively cheap because the top is separated from the remainder of the box. Unfortunately Marx made this in a more flimsy cardboard than they did for their other sets and they have a hard time weathering the years, but for me the artwork, and memories are priceless! Enjoy

'New' Marx ACW Mansion

We have yet another American Civil War Mansion, this time from what many collectors call 'New' Marx aka "Louis Marx & Company" aka "Marx Toys" of Miami, Florida, founded about 1990 by Jay Horowitz. For the decade of the 1990's, Mr. Horowitz's firm attempted to recreate the Marx magic of the '50s and '60s by re-creating many playsets, using many recast Marx pieces as well as a mix of other manufacturers. Several sets even included brand new tin-litho center pieces based on, but not exact replicas of, original Marx tin. This mansion was never included in a New Marx playset but to the best of my knowledge first appeared in new playsets being offered by a fairly new company of the 1990s called Classic Toy Soldiers who are still in business and still offering quality playsets. 

Unlike the original Marx ACW mansion this was patterned after, this is a full 54mm soldier compatible as you'll see in the photos and measures 15" (38.1cm) W x 7 1/2" (19.1cm) D w/o porch / 9" (22.9cm) D w/Porch x 9 5/8" (24.4cm) H. The mansion includes an American flag, Confederate flag, back brace, and a rather odd outhouse. The privy is odd for two reasons; first, it has rounded corners, the result of using generic type of notions box for a building; and secondly because of the door with glass windows. Even were it not an outhouse or privy but rather a storage shed, I have never seen any photo of the Civil War or even just from the early 1900s of small sheds with glass windows in the doors.  It measures 2 1/2" (6.4cm) H x 1 3/4" (4.4cm) square. These mansions are still widely available and normally don't come with the porch, repos of which can still be ordered from on-line hobby shops. I have seen the mansions sell brand new for as little as $9 and as much as $60 and it is also still included in Classic Toys Soldiers playsets. It was a treat assembling a tin structure as 99% of my tin were original and already assembled. There are a couple of tricks in assembling which will be covered below. Enjoy!

The mansion comes packaged flat.

The roof, brace, and flags are on the back of the packaging.

The porch is a repo of the original Marx porch included with its Civil War Mansion

Kit contents displayed. There are no flagpoles included but repos are readily available

The 'New' Marx logo

Test fitting the roof - at this stage it needed to be bent down more. Bending the tin against a squared off surface works best.

A small piece of lumber is used for the chimneys

There are two tabs which fit into slots on the original Marx mansion but which look out of place when used with this large mansion.

The slots in the new mansion which would accept the porch side rails aren't wide enough  to accept the thickness of the porch so the porch sides which protrude the most must be filed or scraped down.

The two holes meant to accept the pegs of the porch are spaced too far apart. I scraped off some of the peg material, and then using the heated blade of screwdriver the tabs were melted down to prevent them from popping out.

Here's the original Marx mansion with attached porch. This was rather an odd design because there is an upper level to this porch but no means of entry onto it!. Notice how the upper level fits ON TOP of the roof. This makes for an awkward fit on the new mansion.

The slant of the porch side rails extend over the bottom level walkway

If you push the side rails into the building far enough to hide the cut-off side rails you'll end up with a really awkward and crooked porch.

It still looks a little odd but is far better than above.

A comparison of graphics on the New Marx and original Marx mansions

Another comparison of graphics

On the original Marx mansion, the pine tree is on the left side (as one looks at the front of the mansion) and vines on the right. On the 'New' Marx version it's the other way around.

The two flags included  in the 'New Marx' version are nice enough but lack the level of detail found in the original Marx

The original Marx Confederate flag shown at left is typical of original Marx having only one strap at top and bottom. The new version has two straps which must be splayed apart

Original Marx (top) New Marx (Bottom). The original flags have nice shadow detail in the 'folds' of the flag.

A quick set-up using the Michael's Craft Store tent, original Marx figures and original flagpole. These are 54mm and you can see how well this mansion works with them.

The notions box privy