Marx 34 Pc Village and Construction Set - Ranch House

Back on Mar 3, 2011 Toys & Stuff featured scans of this modern Ranch House (Ranch House scans) and today we're FINALLY featuring photos of the built-up house. The house measures  7 5/8" (19.4cm) L x 3 1/8" (7.9cm)n D x 2 1/2" (6.4cm) H. This whole debacle has taught me a lesson (I hope). That is, not to post scans unless I've also built the structure and photographed it. It just makes life a lot easier. Enjoy!

Marx 34 Pc Village & Construction Set - Garage

In February of 2011 Toys & Stuff featured the scans for this garage and today we finally have pics of the built-up toy! See the scans here: Garage scans  The garage measures 2 3/8" (6cm) H x 2 3/8" (6cm) W x 3" (7.6cm) L

Something kind of interesting came to mind when editing the photos. First of all, understand that this toy was designed in the early 1950s - perhaps earlier. We know it's a garage because you'll notice the car showing through the windows. The toy reflects American architecture of the period and as such the garage is a separate structure, unlike the modern house where the norm is for the garage to be integral with the house. Now, look at the pics and imagine, if you will, that this is a photo of a real garage (you'll have to mentally edit out those clunky tabs though). Our garage was mostly likely designed for the old Model T's. How so? Notice the doors. They open outward vs. rolling upwards and they are narrow. Now take a good look at the length. If this were a real garage it would be too short to accommodate the longer, wider cars of the '50s. Homeowners of the '50s who maintained these old garages would have had to alter them to accommodate the newer cars. I know, because during the 1970s I parked my car in one of these old-timer bays! Our neighborhood was largely built around the turn of the 20th century and our house didn't have its own garage, so we rented one from a neighbor lady who didn't drive. It was a 2-car garage but the two bays were separated by their own sets of doors similar to the ones in this toy with a wall separating the two parking bays. At some point in the past an addition was built onto the back of the garage which looked like a lean-to attached to the wall and was just high enough to fit a car's hood when one pulled in. The garage was so narrow - and still short enough - that I had to park my '75 Olds Cutlass at and angle. The front of the car had to be turned towards the right as I pulled in allowing me to exit out of the left side driver's door and any passengers had to exit the vehicle prior to me pulling into the garage!

On to the pics. Enjoy!

Marx 34 Pc Village & Construction Set - 2-Story House

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.

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!

Scans of the 2-Story House available here

Marx #151 '34 PIECE RAILROAD and VILLAGE CONSTRUCTION SET', Pt 9

Haven't been on the Internet at all this week - need still to rest up from that darn flu. But I think we'll conclude our look at the Marx #151 '34 PIECE RAILROAD and VILLAGE CONSTRUCTION SET' and feature all the people, trees, signals, and bases that came with the set.  Enjoy!

There were ten of these bases

There were two "Danger Do Not Trespass' signs

There were two of these 'STOP' signs

...and only one of this type 'STOP' sign

There were two 'Yard Limit' signs

There were two semaphores

There were two Railroad Crossings

There were 3 switch stands

There was only one of this type of tree

...and two of these trees

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Marx #151 34 PC RR and VILLAGE CONSTRUCTION SET Pt 7

Today we continue our series of the Marx #151 34 PC RR and VILLAGE CONSTRUCTION SET with the Bus Shelter. The larger structures have already been featured but there are are still a bunch of ancillary pieces like figures, trees, signals, sheds , and of course this small bus shelter etc. Enjoy!

Left Side Wall

Back Wall

Right Side Wall

Right Front Wall

Left Front Wall

Bench

Roof

A scan of the entire shelter