When I started this blog in October of 2010 I was just kinda feelin' my way around things and in the process left a few loose ends, like when I posted the scans to the 34pc cardboard Marx Village & Construction Set but didn't assemble them and take photos! As much as possible, we'll try to tie-up some of these loose ends this year. Thanx for your patience folks! Since first posting the scans last year, I have acquired an earlier version of this set from Jaymar (an early Marx brand). The earlier set is actually nicer having more buildings and accessories. Somewhere along the line Marx got cheap and offered this 34pc set which has less buildings and a bunch of signs. The only thing this cheaper set has which the larger set didn't is the trees.
I must say that after assembling these Marx buildings maybe I would have been better off leaving them in their envelope! Why? Well, it's actually because of the way the set is made. First of all they're made of a nice stiff cardboard. Most importantly they are not tab & SLOT construction, but rather tab & SLIT construction. Instead of designing the dies such that they would chop slots out of the cardboard for the tabs to fit in, they simply made slits making it very difficult to force the heavy cardboard tabs into them. After assembling the buildings I decided to widen the slits for the people, trees, signs, etc. by simply taking a scissors and cutting out the slots. That made it a lot easier!
Here's the whole Village
Set contents are as follows:
- 2-Story Ranch House w/o add-on (an earlier version of this set has the 2-Story House with an add-on)
- Garage
- Ranch House
- Fire Station
- Shopping Center
- Railroad Station
- Bus Shelter
- Shanty
- Large Tree
- Small Tree
- Billboard: 'WHAM' candy bar
- Crossing Gate - small (an earlier version of the set had a larger crossing gate)
- Sign: 'Do Not Trespass' x 2
- Sign: 'Resume Speed'
- Sign: 'School Slow'
- Sign: 'STOP' x 3
- Sign: 'Yard Limit' x 2
- Semaphores x 2
- Grade Crossing Signal x 2
- Switch Stands x 3
- People:
- Group of 5
- Mother & daughter
- Man reading newspaper
- Woman carrying luggage
- Porter carrying luggage
- Track worker holding 'STOP' sign
The bases are not a part of the piece count.
- 2-Story Ranch House w/o add-on (an earlier version of this set has the 2-Story House with an add-on)
- Garage
- Ranch House
- Fire Station
- Shopping Center
- Railroad Station
- Bus Shelter
- Shanty
- Large Tree
- Small Tree
- Billboard: 'WHAM' candy bar
- Crossing Gate - small (an earlier version of the set had a larger crossing gate)
- Sign: 'Do Not Trespass' x 2
- Sign: 'Resume Speed'
- Sign: 'School Slow'
- Sign: 'STOP' x 3
- Sign: 'Yard Limit' x 2
- Semaphores x 2
- Grade Crossing Signal x 2
- Switch Stands x 3
- People:
- Group of 5
- Mother & daughter
- Man reading newspaper
- Woman carrying luggage
- Porter carrying luggage
- Track worker holding 'STOP' sign
The bases are not a part of the piece count.
The buildings are small and would look just fine if used alongside the Built-Rite cardboard buildings already shown here on Toys & Stuff. Their biggest drawback design-wise are those big tabs sticking out all over the place. The 2-Story House featured today measures 3 3/4" (9.5cm) H to top of chimney x 3" (7.6cm) D at the roof line x 3 3/4" (9.5cm) W at the roof line. Enjoy!
