It's A Small World After All: Marx Paint-A-Village and More Marx HO Scale Buildings - Marx HO Service Station - Cream HP

The HO scale service station - in blue - was part of the Guid-A-Traffic review and posted here back on 16 Feb. This station is in a color that collectors refer to as 'cream' while Marx referred to it as 'ivory' and I'm afraid some of these pictures make it appear to be yellowish. That yellow tinge is the result of a) how my camera 'reads' colors and b) editing. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

5.25" (13.33cm) W x 4" (10.16cm) D x 1.5" (3.81cm) H

TRAIN TIME: 2023 Christmas Train Layout - Pt 2c K-Line's KCC Christmas Village Set #42101 (1992) #K-4073 Service Station

The second of six buildings in K-Line's Christmas Village set is this nicely done Service Station. The artwork on the box shows an automobile ('57 Thunderbird) which should be included, but the factory sealed bag from my kit was missing it. I have two of these Christmas village sets and neither one included the car. The building itself hasn't received special treatment in regards to it's color scheme other than silver-painted bay doors. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Ummm, I didn't realize until after the photo was taken that the wreaths are upside down! - that has since been corrected.

The House of Campbell, Inc Toyville Garage

I really thought I had posted this garage before before but after searching my own blog and looking in my spreadsheet of log posts I just couldn't find it. So much for relying on memory! I came across the unedited photos the other day while trying to accomplish more back-ups. Ever since last years hard drive debacle I've been trying to back up and save pics and docs in multiple locations. Here I am a year later and still working on recovering files. When all is said and done there are about a year's worth of work totally lost :-(   Fortunately photos for this vintage gem survived (I still have it but hate re-doing photographs if I don't have to).

Here's a really cool vintage garage I know nothing about. Beneath the base there's a label proclaiming "A PRODUCT OF THE HOUSE OF CAMPBELL INC.". The garage is made of lithographed paper on cardboard, with cardboard inserts in the garage delineating stalls, and has cardboard tube 'gas pumps' with shoestring 'hoses'. The garage measures 10 3/8" (26.35cm) W x 4 5/8" (11.74cm) D x 4 3/8" (11.11cm) H. On-line searches don't reveal anything about The House of Campbell' so I believe it may have been a small firm selling locally to the Massachusetts/New England area. It may also be a wartime toy due to the lack of strategic materials like metal. Wood, cardboard, and paper toys became the norm during World War 2 as metals were needed for the war effort. However, some companies specialized in non-metal toys anyway so it's hard to say what 'The House of  Campbell's' product line was without any catalogs or how long they were in business. Anywho - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Here it is shown witn a Marx plastic auto and a Tootsietoy diecast tanker for scale