K-Line No. K-418731 Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus Billboards

I love K-Line billboards! They had so many over the years it's crazy and this RBB&B set is up there with the best. BTW, there may be another lag in circus posts as I haven't been out in The Cave for a while. A combination of mobility issues and freezing temps out there makes it difficult to get anything done. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

in the frames and scans of each billboard

CIRCUS TIME: K-Line by Lionel 6-21610 Lions &Tigers

This is the last figure pack I have from K-Line and believe the ones posted so far are all the ones offered by K-Line. It is really nice that a decent selection of people, animals, and accessories were released and makes me wonder whatever became of the tooling for all the remaining pieces. Sooo, while it's not all the pieces Marx offered with its Super Circus playset, certainly there's enough to have your own miniature circus. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

CIRCUS TIME: K-Line by Lionel 6-21609 Elephants & Graffes (2008)

By 2007 Lionel had acquired K-Line brought about as a settlement of a lawsuit by Lionel against K-Line. I don't know all the specifics so we'll just leave it at that. The first 'K-Line by Lionel' catalogs I've noticed were in 2007 but if there were any before then, I'd sure like to know. While Lionel did carry on the accessory line once produced by K-Line, gone was the innovation. The K-Line buildings were packed in header bags vs. being boxed and there were no more attempts at animated buildings and such from what I've seen. Lionel did continue to produce circus stuff like this Elephants and Giraffes set from 2008, but really their hearts were into locos and rolling stock. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

It should be noted that this was not the full array of elephants and giraffes once produced by Marx for their Super Circus playset. 

CIRCUS TIME: K-Line K-41712 Acrobats & Clowns

In MDK's earlier years they did offer circus trains and accessories, but they were still just a re-seller of Lionel and other companies products. In 1992 K-Line offered it's first circus train set under the K-Line banner and in the 1995 catalog they offered a train set which included a few figures and accessories that were from the old Marx tooling. It was only a small smattering of people and such - nothing to brag about - but it was a start. I have a break in my catalog collection but by 1998 they had started selling header bags sets like the ones we've been featuring here, as well as separate sale circus wagons. This bag contains just three poses, and is not the complete range of acrobat and clown figures Marx had produced during the '50s. It could very well be that not all of the tooling survived and K-Line made do with what they acquired. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

CIRCUS TIME: K-Line K-41711 Rings & Things

I can't help but think about how well K-Line re-did these older Marx offerings. Even a simple set like this was plussed-up with some additional color! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's the original Marx pieces. Notice that the barrels and stands are only in one color. You'll also notice that K-Line didn't release all the plastic accessories in one big group but spread them out through a series of sets.

K-Line's set

CIRCUS TIME: K-Line K-41713 Ringmaster & Friends PLUS 1995 MDK K-Line Catalog First Edition

In 1993, K-Line offered a Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey circus train set which included a set of three billboards and a partial set of the 'Ringmaster and Friends' accessories. The figures shown in that train set were unpainted. By 1995 they showed up again in another train set, only this time the set was complete and painted. 

The various circus accessories sets by K-Line - which I'll be posting here on the blog - were all originally Marx and came with Marx's 'Super Circus' playset. K-Line did a wonderful thing by offering them all in painted versions vs. the plain cream, unpainted originals. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The original Marx Super Circus showing all the accessories

K-Line K-41713 Ringmaster & Friends set

1995 catalog showing the 'Ringmaster and Friends' set included with the RBB&B train set