Marx Roy Rogers Playset, ca. 1950
GUEST:
I received it for Christmas probably around 1950, as far as I can figure.
APPRAISER:
And you remember playing with this as a kid and...
GUEST:
Many hours.
APPRAISER:
And then after you played with it...
GUEST:
Then it remained at my parents' house and I never really let my son play with it. I was afraid he might be a little hard on it. I have twin daughters, and they loved it and they played with it a lot.
APPRAISER:
This is a Marx playset, and Marx made a number of playsets in the 1940s through about the 1960s. They did playsets as well as doll houses and they did doll furniture. And what made Marx spectacular-- they probably were the largest American toy manufacturer. And Louis Marx was very ingenious in the way that he mass-produced all of the toys that he made. He would have one model, but then the lithography on the metal would change so that he could do not only the Roy Rogers set like we see here, but then the Wyatt Earp and then all of the other Western playsets. You also have the instructions here for the pieces on how it all goes together, so that really helps the value. And in addition to that, not only do you have the small set here, but you also have all of the original boxes for the item. Also, you can see the figures here. We're going to spin this around so that you can see the interior, and this is something that really set Marx apart from all the other toy companies is that they made it very complete. You can see the interiors have been all done. Because it's Roy Rogers, because you have all of the pieces together, these playsets are becoming more and more collectible and would have a value of about $800 to $1,200 for this collection.
GUEST:
Oh, my.
APPRAISER:
Which is nice. So it's a good thing you maintained them in very good condition, huh?
GUEST:
Right-- thank you.
Appraisal Details
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