In each and every toy line there used to be a play set. A headquarters, command center, bunker or a castle that was the crowing achievement in your toy collection. It was the beating heart of your adventures and it was on your holiday/ birthday wish list. Finally, there was a place that wasn’t made of Legos, Lincoln Logs or discarded Styrofoam, a fully endorsed product with all the monitors, guns, jail cells and bunks that our heroes and villains needed. As of late I have noticed that the “command center” is disappearing. Most toy lines, if any, no longer include the doll house for action figures. Why is this? Sure figure lines from places like NECA and Mezotoyz specialize in movie properties but why isn’t there a B.P.R.D. headquarters? Nobody produced a Helm’s Deep from The Lord of the Rings but there were certainly enough figures to defend it. It seems as if only Hasbro produces these large play sets anymore. Unfortunately the price usually matches the size when it comes to their play sets.
To get one thing clear, I am all for a child using their imagination and creating their own world. Styrofoam was always the greatest thing because it allowed me to create either the ice planet Hoth or a GI Joe command center in the Artic. Lincoln Logs where always brought into the fray and a quick cabin for Snake Eyes was usually established or building my own Ewok Village. The following are five play sets that were essential in playing out the perpetual battle between good and evil. They not only rocked our imaginations but set a bar that has never been surpassed.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe took a lot of flak at its inception. Was this a toy commercial or a cartoon? I never cared because the entire He-Man universe was a great place to play. Sword and sorcery mixed with crazy technology and a Flash Gordon meets Conan the Barbarian story line supplied hours of entertainment both on TV and in our backyards. Castle Grayskull (see header) was the quintessential He-Man toy outside of owning both He-Man and Skeletor. Not only was it a play set but a carrying case for your figures. It supplied you with a cache of additional weapons and gave you something you could never duplicate with Lincoln Logs and Legos. For the first time you had a piece of Eternia to call your very own, sitting it proudly on top of hill and defending it from Skeletor. They have tried to duplicate it since but it just never looks as great as the original once did.
Probably the best Star Wars play set, outside of the Millennium Falcon, was Kenner’s Death Star. It has the big gun, the tall elevator shaft, the trap door and trash compactor. Hours were spent with this four tiered headquarters. What is truly a shame is that with all the re-released Star Wars products that have come out in the last twenty years the Death Star has never gotten the re-boot. Both the Millennium Falcon and the AT-AT have been repainted and re-imagined with stunning detail. The Death Star however remains as it was. It is by far the best and most collectible original Star Wars play set.
The Planet of the Apes had an incredible toy line that encompassed the movie, TV show and cartoon. Amazingly enough Mego Toys created an Ape City Fortress. What stands out is the size of the fortress and its detail. Setting this up in the woods and hunting down the pesky astronauts must have been great seventies fun. Any toy collector should place this one on the must have list. It was based on characters and settings from the TV show and not from the original movies but that just makes it all the more collector worthy. Imagine finding one of these gems still in its box. I would rock this out with some of Jerry Goldsmith’s score playing on a loop.
The GI Joe Headquarters was a great play set. Unfortunately it didn’t have everything. You need vehicles to arm it or else it just had one big gun and some tiny little ones. Plus, I could never figure out why it was open in the back. Now the Cobra Terrordome was a completely different story. It came with a launching Firebat, four guns bigger than the GI Joe Headquarters’ one. Your God’s eye view was perfect and you could place the villains where you needed them to be to fight off those pesky Joes. It had a refueling station, jail cell and it put the Joe’s Headquarters to shame. The Cobra Terror Dome is the ultimate bad guy’s headquarters. Since Hasbro is re-issuing all their GI Joe toys is the Terrordome due for a re-release?
By farthebest play set and headquarters of all time has to be the USS Flag Aircraft Carrier from GI Joe. Sure it did have some of the same trapping as the GI Joe Headquarters where you would need jets and helicopters to defend it. However, its mere size at seven and half feet made it an awesome sight. It took practically all your GI Joes to man it and all your jets to land on it. It also took GI Joe out to sea thus creating new stories to take place. It was an awesome and intimidating sight compared to a Cobra Hydrofoil. It’s only down side was where you were going to keep it when you weren’t playing with it.
This week’s commercial is for the Cobra Terrordome. The commercial is great because it is not only an ad for the toy but the cartoon and comic as well.
Video Game Gimmicks for the Week:
Gears of War 2 will undoubtedly suck up most of our time this week. Amazon has two gimmicks this week and one is worth mounting on the wall. Check out the Lancer on Amazon.com.
Holy Cr*p on a cracker!!! Where the frak did the USS Flag aircraft carrier come from? 7 and a half feet! I never saw that and I am always looking for or at toys first for myself and now mainly for my children. I couldn't imagine how much that cost, I'll have to check E-Bay.
great article! but you forgot one major piece. you mention castle greyskull and props for doing so, but you forgot about the Eternia playset. Three towers, a motorized tram on a track that circled all three all sort of the traps tricks and gadgets. It rocked my world when I was younger and now drives my wife crazy as it sits in our basement and I refuse to sell it or throw it away!
Some others that I had and loved that didn't make your list include: the ghostbusters firehouse, snake mountain, and the sewer base of the ninja turtles and of course, the technodrome.
two of the my friends each had the aircraft carrier. It was extremely impressive and a source of jealousy despite my own impressivew collection of toys, which reminds me.....
I had the USS Flag when I was younger. It was great. My dad had built it and kept it in the basement for my birthday. I had so many G.I.Joe mission on the ship.
Holy Hand Grenade! You're making me feel down on the playsets I had as a wee pirate. A fischer price firehouse, ewok village sans accessories, and a blanket. Blankets: the best damned shapeshifting playsets in the land. You throw it up and bring it down all crumpled, thus creating a mountain with a series of new caves. My GI Joes and Ninja Turtles were invading the middle east before the US thought it was cool (uh... when the russians thought it was cool?).
But seriously, seven and a half feet? Holy she-ra!
what about snake mountain??? that was pretty sweet, turn the snakes head and the trap door falls... but then the sorceress had her trap door in castle greyskull... heman did have some amazing play sets... i used to use them with tmnt after heman had stopped making toys... great stuff...
terrordome was cool as well, had that and it was so great, made me not want the uss flag or the gi joe headquarters, it was just so much cooler and compact and fit in the back of moms car so we could take it to the baby sitters... the day was done!
and i am in much agreement about the deathstar playset, that was a fun playset though i remember it falling apart a lot so we would use the empire strikes back playset which was a star destroyer, had darth vaders champer and han in carbonite... they were both FAR BETTER than the lame jabba's palace playset... that was just pegs on plastic to have your guys stand around... ugh...
Thanks for brining up all the memories. My Favorites were the G.I. Joe Headquarters Command Center from 1983 and the Millennium Falcon which was a play set within itself. My son now plays with these, along with all my other G.I. Joes and Star Wars toys.
For any G.I Joe nuts out there like I was, you should check out joes.propadeutic.com/index.html . Great Stuff!
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Holy Cr*p on a cracker!!! Where the frak did the USS Flag aircraft carrier come from? 7 and a half feet! I never saw that and I am always looking for or at toys first for myself and now mainly for my children. I couldn't imagine how much that cost, I'll have to check E-Bay.