This has been a l-o-n-g overdue series. There's sooo much Marx military toys sitting out in The Cave and I just recently got serious about photographing them. There's more than enough to start a new series, however, I am not going to break the series down into 'parts', like Pt 1, Pt 2, etc. because there'll be like 5000 parts when all is said and done!
As a kid I never had a Marx Battleground or Training Center playset, yet I still remember them, most likely the result of my folks buying smaller header bag, or carded sets vs. the larger boxed ones (although I did actually get several large Marx playsets as a kid). As an adult collector I always shied away from them because of costs and I only have one boxed Training Center playset. But I do have a multitude of the individual pieces that came in the playsets! A few pieces have already been posted on the blog like the three airplanes that Marx included in their big boxes. Those were posted back in 2023. Then, just yesterday I posted the CH-37 Mojave helicopter which appeared in some of their very first big box offerings
This extract from the 1958 Sears Wishbook is the first reference I could find of a Marx Battleground playset. You can clearly see the Mojave helicopter as well as the destroyed house which is featured here today. The write-up calls it a 'bombed out building' although I've seen it referred to variously as destroyed building or house, or mansion. Call it whatever you want I s'pose!.
My memories of this piece comes from the Civil War Centennial playset I got in 1961, but little did I know at the time that it was already a three year old accessory.
The house measures: 6" (15.24cm) W x 2.5" (6.35cm) D x 3.25" (8.25cm) H