Unless I find an original tin-litho downsized cabin destroyed building and/or a complete original plastic exploding ruins, this is the last building I'll be posting for this military playset series.
When Marx introduced its large Army barracks in 1955 they really screwed up. Somebody who probably never set foot on a military installation decided the walls should be a horrid dark olive green. I dunno, maybe they thought it would be cute to match the colors of the vehicles and figures. Anywho, a a year or two later (I'm not sure when exactly) somebody came to their senses and made the walls white (the "#T7-34" designation remained the same for the white-walled version). Unfortunately they also chose to plaster that big ol' "U.S. ARMED FORCES TRAINING CENTER" sign on the roof! AAAARRGH! So essentially, Marx never really got this building right. The barracks, as shown in the artwork for the Sears 1955 catalog, has an external fire escape but, to the best of my knowledge, that was a feature found only on the white-walled version. Original fire escapes are hard as unicorn teeth to come by but fortunately repos are still available for around $7-$10. It did occur to me that, with enough money, one could buy a bunch of these barracks and swap roofs. Remove the correct roof from the dark-walled version and place it on the white walled version! Just a thought.
Ed
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