Dinosaur Playsets

[Hepcat]

Lots of play value there for sure!

 

[japfeif]

A cool ad from a Sears catalog, probably 1974 since the One Million B.C. mountain set came out that year. Found this on Google Images.



I don't have this set but I do own the Marx Prehistoric Mountain (1975) and the Marx Giant Prehistoric Mountain (1977) (gray mountain pieces). I find it strange that the Sears ad shows no plastic playmat, or Marx box, and only lists 12 Cavemen where the other two sets contained 18 Cavemen. I wonder if Sears repackaged the playset in a Sears shipping carton and altered the contents, or did the One Million B.C. set lack the playmat and only have 12 Cavemen? It also doesn't list the color booklet, or ferns, present in the Prehistoric Mountain set. Inquiring dinonuts want to know. 

The One Million BC set did not come with a playmat or a color booklet, however, it MAY have had a version of the booklet that was produced for only a short time around 1974, after Quaker had taken over Marx. It looked the same as the earlier "Revised Edition" booklet from the #3398 set from '71, except that it had a new "Marx Toys" logo, and listed the Stamford, CT address (home of Quaker) rather than the NY address. It had 12 cavemen and 29 dinos, and half of the Palm Tree Group (two trees and two ferns). All three of the Mountain Sets only had a half Palm Tree Group.

The next year, Marx came out with the Prehistoric Mountain set, which added the playmat, the color booklet, and upped the cavemen count to 18. In 1977, the Giant Prehistoric Mountain (with gray mountain pieces) came out. It also had the playmat & color booklet, but the caveman count dropped back to 12, and also the dinosaur count dropped to 22 from 29 (the Small Mold Group was not in this set).

Hope this helps!
BTW, my book on Marx & MPC dinosaur playsets was delayed (surprise surprise) but should be available this fall for whoever is interested!
Jeff

[Hepcat]

I'm awaiting your book anxiously!

 

[horrorhunter]

I'm awaiting your book anxiously!

 

If this book gives collectors the detailed factual information we want and it's priced fairly then I would be interested as well. It should show each playset actually set up, not just a box, and give information on original contents such as which mold groups were included in which colors and all other contents as well as scans of all booklets/instruction sheets. It should also list when these various products were sold and for how much. We've needed a reference work like this with good photos of the playsets actually set up for years. We'll see if this delivers.

BTW, I've waited forever for Playset Magazine to do a DVD on Prehistoric Playsets which they never have. They have several DVDs out covering War Playsets and TV Show Sets as well as several other themes, but no dinosaurs. There is a definite lack of good info available on the subject.

[tdude]

I had a Styrofoam Tyrannosaurus Rex that stood about 8 feet tall when built. has about 50 pieces. Anyone remember that or have a pic?

[Count_Zirock]

I had a Styrofoam Tyrannosaurus Rex that stood about 8 feet tall when built. has about 50 pieces. Anyone remember that or have a pic?

I had it! No pix, though. You put the Styrofoam pieces on wooden dowels. I think it was only 5' high, but 8' long with the tail.

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk

[tdude]

I had it! No pix, though. You put the Styrofoam pieces on wooden dowels. I think it was only 5' high, but 8' long with the tail.

No wooden dowels. Mortise and Tenon system.
maybe this was it...http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/201105379174?lpid=82
I think the one I had was larger and a bigger box.

[ChrisW]

I never had any Marx playsets growing up, but had many of the carded sets. I remember one with a particularily nice prehistoric painting on the card...at least it was to my 7 year old eyes. Probably Marx...

[japfeif]

If this book gives collectors the detailed factual information we want and it's priced fairly then I would be interested as well. It should show each playset actually set up, not just a box, and give information on original contents such as which mold groups were included in which colors and all other contents as well as scans of all booklets/instruction sheets. It should also list when these various products were sold and for how much. We've needed a reference work like this with good photos of the playsets actually set up for years. We'll see if this delivers.

Yes, actually this is pretty much exactly what it entails, except for the prices. Price guides of any sort are out of date almost immediately, and I didn't want to be held to any values I gave to the different sets. But all pics are of the assembled sets in front of their boxes, with all pieces, discussions of what mold groups were in each, etc. There are not scans of each individual instruction sheet per se, but if the set came with one, it's included in the pic.

On prices, if you meant what the sets originally went for, I did not have that information for the most part so did not include that.

As for price, it's not been set by the publisher yet (that is out of my control) but I believe the price will be in the neighborhood of high $30s-low $40s.

[horrorhunter]

Yes, actually this is pretty much exactly what it entails, except for the prices. Price guides of any sort are out of date almost immediately, and I didn't want to be held to any values I gave to the different sets.

I didn't mean collector prices. I meant the prices the toys sold for new at retail. That's the historical information. Some of that information is available in old catalogs, books that reprint old catalogs, and could be found with online research.

[The Creeper]

I had they grey playset!

[Hepcat]

Which grey playset?

 

[horrorhunter]

Which grey playset?

 

He must mean the color of the mountain/rock pieces. It could have been the Marx Giant Prehistoric Mountain (1977), or the #4208 Marx Prehistoric Dinosaur Playset (1978) (pic below).

[RedKing]

I had that one HH-one of my very favorite toys as a kid! wish I still had it!

[horrorhunter]

I had that one HH-one of my very favorite toys as a kid! wish I still had it!

It's a cool set all right. I bought that set at Big K in '78. The pic I posted is off the net. My #4208 is still complete and like new. When these sets pop up on eBay they are seldom complete and the box and paperwork are usually damaged. Those little plastic clips that held the rock formation together are usually missing, too. I was 19 when I bought mine so it was never really played with. It was really the first dinosaur playset that I bought as a collector. However, I didn't start collecting dino toys in earnest until around '99 and I didn't begin to really amass a good collection until around '01 when I started using eBay. Without eBay it would be very difficult to find enough of this stuff to reconstruct original playsets. I picked up a crap load of Marx and MPC eBay lots over a few years to put together my original sets. The stuff gets harder to find all the time. I'm glad I put my sets together when I did.