Along with the tremendous assortment of martial figures and playsets, most of the toymakers produce a small assortment of non-combat equivalents. Except for Dinosaur sets, these focused on civilian activities. They were aimed at parents who opposed combat toys. The peace toys could also be marketed to girls.
Dinosaurs - A Jurassic Lark?
A popular toy to this day, plastic dinosaurs have always found favor with children. In the 50s and 60s, the major sources of toy dinosaurs were Marx and Timmee. Both offered a variety of small "thunder lizards" for the budding paleontologist. Marx's had slightly better detail and were a bit larger than Timmee's. However, the latter's fare was offered locally. I remember seeing those dinosaurs sold everywhere from candy stores to beachfront pavilions.
An added touch was the occasional presence of cavemen. Marx's cavemen came in a handful of interesting positions: Timmee's was limited mainly to three poses, with a fourth appearing more recently. Among the cavemen were figures wielding clubs and other stone-age weapons. Their playtime enemies were dinosaurs, despite scientific proof that the massive reptilians had faded into extinction millions of years before the emergence of the earliest human.
Characteristically, Marx re-used its dinosaur molds for a special playset in the 1960s. The Flintstones' Playset included soft plastic miniatures of the entire cartoon cast, hard plastic cartoon homes, vehicles and accessories, and loads of the soft plastic dinosaurs.
With interest sparked by movies like Jurassic Park, dinosaurs have gained new prominence in the toy chest. New makers produce a variety of reptilian figures, from models based on popular movies to others marketed as "museum-quality" replicas.
Farm Sets are one of the more common non-action toys. Most include an assortment of domestic animals, farmers, accessories and a tractor. Marx produced a very elaborate, tin-litho farm that included everything right down to rows of crops. While the popularity of soldiers declined in the 70s due to anti-war sentiments, farm sets continued to be produced in abundance. Sets ranged from small bagged collections of animals and a few accessories to massive playsets.
Another popular toy, zoo animals were an assortment of wild and domestic plastic animals sold in plastic bags. Most companies' offerings were limited to animals themselves, though a few might include fences and a zoo keeper. Popular among very small children, zoo animals are still a common item.
Gas stations and car service centers came out in the late 50s. Marx produced a nice one in tin litho complete with rooftop parking area. It was bundled with hydraulic jacks, mechanics, gas pumps and other automotive accessories, plus 1/48 scale soft plastic cars. (Half of those cars are offered in Marx's re-issued Sears Service Center, the other as scenery accessories by K-Line Trains). The older mechanics in about 1/48 are still found in some K-Line models, while later mechanics are currently included in the Sears set. Other makers had their own auto service stations, ranging fro ma few cars and one or two gas pumps to sets approaching the elaborate scale of Marx's.
Take Western accessories and a few Western figures, add a few new things and triple the number of horses, and you've gone from Wold West to horse ranch. This was a creative way to re-invent Western figures for the peace-toy market. Horse ranches were also popular with girls. A few makers tried their hand with variations on this theme, hoping to get a little extra mileage out of their Western molds.
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