TOYHEM! Small worlds for big imaginations…
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Welcome to TOYHEM! For the seventh straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays!
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By JIM BEARD
You remember how it was when you were a kid…
You were living your best action figure life, save for one thing: You didn’t have the fershlugginer playsets.
You could give your figures everything they needed to be happy, but you didn’t have their playset, an environment all their own to adventure to their heart’s content.
I hear you. I was there. I felt that pain.
For the purposes of this article, I define “playset” as a specific construct that emulates an environment of one kind or another meant to enhance and expand upon a “world” for toy figures. Oftentimes these playsets are manufactured in the form of buildings or other similar venues and quite often also act as a carrying case for said toy figures.
In short, a playset is something that would complete your best action figure life.
There were so many of them back in the day, some popular, some obscure, but each of them a unique piece of fantasy that made you drool every time you came across one in the JC Penney Christmas catalogue or on the shelves at Toy City USA.
It behooves us today, as adults, to revisit those halcyon and, yes, frustrating days of childhood to pull out 13 examples of the Fine Art of Playsets for our edification and enlightenment.
Come with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when plastic and cardboard offered your toys a home…
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Planet of the Apes Forbidden Zone Trap (Mego, 1975). Oh, how I wanted this one. I didn’t own any of the Mego Apes figures, but I still wanted this, so much so that when I role-played POTA with the other kids, it was all based on this lonely old ruin of a garage and the traps within it to snare unwary astronauts.
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Captain Action Quick-Change Chamber (Ideal, 1967). The captain always had cool playsets, all pretty darn rare today, but I think this Sears exclusive case that actually came with a CA figure and a Batman costume wins the day. I love that he kept all his costumes in a vault, because of course he did.
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Major Matt Mason Talking Command Console (Mattel, 1966). There were a lot of playsets, sure, but how many of them talked? Matt had that in the form of this groovy carrying case, featuring that wonderful retro-futurism design he was known for. I used to have one I bought at an antiques show long ago, but it didn’t talk anymore, alas. In a way, though, it certainly spoke to me.
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Batman Batcave (Mego, 1974). Pretty sure everyone had this one. One of the most ubiquitous playsets of all, and for good reason. It wasn’t original — its construction originated with Action Jackson a few years before — but it popularized the design. I myself couldn’t imagine my childhood without it, cheap paper Batcomputer notwithstanding.
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The Lone Ranger Carson City (Gabriel, 1973). A little known, yet pretty spectacular set that delivered an entire environment for the amazing Lone Ranger figures. It had both sides of the street and some of the very best painted images of any playset of the era. These suckers don’t show up much these days, and when they do, aren’t always in the best of condition, making them something of a, ahem, ghost town.
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Mini Monster Play Case (Remco, 1980). The Universal Monsters never had it so good. When I met my wife in 1988, she had five of these she bought on clearance at Children’s Palace. We sold off all but one over the years, but I still have it and yes, it’s as gloriously ghoulish as it looks. One of my most favorite playsets. The Monsters dig it, too.
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Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise Action Playset (Mego, 1974). C’mon, would any list like this truly be complete without this one? It deserves to be here for that Spin Action Transporter alone, right? Mego produced another Bridge Playset later for their smaller Star Trek: The Motion Picture figures, but cool as it was, it couldn’t rock a kid’s world like this one did.
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Superman Playset (Ideal, 1973). Such a simple concept, but super in so many ways. Yes, it’s not exactly action figures, but to my mind it remains one of the seminal sets of its kind. Ideal did similar ones for Batman, Spider-Man, and Dick Tracy, but I only had the Superman set as a kid, so it holds a special place in my Kryptonite heart today.
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Six Million Dollar Man Mission Control Center (Kenner, 1973). Seems that 1973 was a banner year for playsets. Steve Austin could boast he had one of the finest in this set, one I had and loved. I don’t know about other kids, but I always imagined it sat at the bottom of the sea and Steve had to dive to access it. Hey, nothing good comes without its challenges.
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Star Wars Death Star Space Station (Kenner, 1978). Hey! That’s no space station! It’s a playset! Well, not one kid who got this on Christmas morning or at their birthday party cared about that, they were just thrilled to get one of the most groundbreaking sets to come into their orbit ever. Full of gadgets, gimcracks, and gewgaws, the Death Star blew all the other planets… er, playsets, away.
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Hall of Justice (Mego, 1976). Remember this one? I don’t blame you if you don’t, seeing as how it came out at the tail-end of the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes line and wasn’t as promoted and produced like the earlier Batcave. That’s a shame because it’s super-cool with its Star Trek-like Translocation Chamber and meeting table. I would’ve loved having this set back then.
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GI Joe Adventure Team Headquarters (Hasbro, 1972). OK, we’re down to the GOATs of this list. I wanted this set so bad as a kid and begged for it every Christmas, but never got it. Years later, I worked at an event with a guy playing Santa Claus and took him to task for never bringing me the Headquarters. Probably for the best that I won’t wax poetic about it now, because we could be here for a while if I do… just savor the gorgeousness of it all.
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Marvel World Adventure Playset (AMSCO, 1975). I never imagined anything could ever eclipse the GI Joe Headquarters, but in the end, this one does by a hair. I spent countless hours with this cardboard version of Marvel NYC and when I was there, I was happy. It’s not action figures, but it’s something so much more, a complete world, top to bottom, and I miss it to this day. Truly the best.
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MORE
— The Complete TOYHEM INDEX of Stories and Features. Click here.
— MEGO ODDBALLS: 13 Times MEGO Shot and Didn’t Always Score. Click here.
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When JIM BEARD’s not editing and publishing through his two houses, Flinch Books and Becky Books, he’s pounding out adventure fiction with both original and licensed characters. In fact, he’s put words in the mouths of Luke Skywalker, Superman, Fox Mulder, Carl Kolchak, Peter Venkman and the Green Hornet… and lived to tell about it.
Right now, for the holiday season, he’s got a “Comic Book Culture” book bundle up for sale on Amazon — Jack of All Comics! about Jack Kirby; The Old Origin Changeth, about how superhero back stories evolve and expand; Breaking Bold and Brave, an issue-by-issue guide to the classic Brave and the Bold comics series; and, Walking the Wider Web, a guide to Marvel Team-Up. Check it out here.
