With the start of Presidents Day weekend I have been thinking of an amazing set of presidential figurines that my Grandma gave me one year. They are about three inches tall and made out of plastic. I did a little bit of research to find out more about them. I took a few pictures of them, but I really should have paid a lot more attention to the lighting. I will have to take more pictures some other time, as I already cleared them off my little table. I have some future blog ideas 
.
I first pulled all the little figurines out of the old Avon box that they were kept in and set them up in order. I set them up in rows of ten, starting with President Washington and ending with LBJ. You can easily date this set by knowing who the last president is in the set. One of the reasons that I like this set is that it contains all the presidents who served before I was born. You may notice a missing spot in the third row. The set only has one figurine for President Cleveland, so I left an empty spot for him in this picture.
I then decided to play around with posing them to get an interesting picture.
I decided to line them up into five columns and set a book about the American Presidents behind them. I think that this picture would have turned out really nice if it was in better focus. Maybe next time . If you look closely, you will see that the pedestal that each president is standing on has their name. On the back of the pedestal they have their order and the dates they served. That made it a bit easier to put them in order .
In this picture I focused in on George Washington. You can see that he is a bit worn and is missing a little bit of paint. The figurines have not been stored well over the years and have also been used several times for learning the order of the presidents. In any case, some are missing a bit of paint. Not surprising, President Lincoln is missing the most paint. I have a suspicion that my Grandma may have had him setting somewhere where she could see him and pick him up occasionally. She was a big fan of President Lincoln.
I did find out that this set of figurines was made by the Louis Marx Toy Company. This particular set was made in the mid 60′s while LBJ was president and was most likely acquired through a promo at the local grocery store. A new figurine was made available each week or the entire set could be ordered by mail. There was also a Styrofoam base that you could glue them to. I can imagine my Grandma going each week to the grocery store and slowly building her collection. Reminds me of the State Quarter program as we all slowly collected all the states.
Oh the anticipation she must have had leading up to the 16th week when she would get her beloved President Lincoln.
Who is your favorite president?
Steven
February 16, 2013 at 8:37 am
What a great collection of figurines.
February 16, 2013 at 10:50 am
Wow, that looks like something you could take to the Antique Road Show, you might get a big surprise. I’m not sure if I have a favourite. I really love both Bill & Hillary Clinton. Despite the controversy, I think they are both have given so much to your country and made sacrifices to do so. Have a great long weekend.
February 16, 2013 at 3:41 pm
There is actually a lot of information out there about these figurines on the internet. I also looked through a short history of items posted on e-Bay and they are fairly common.
February 16, 2013 at 11:21 pm
No kidding, so no big cash happening on them, well it’s sure a nice set to have anyways.
February 16, 2013 at 11:24 am
Steven, I am capivated by this set of toys! What a wonderful idea, and how great that they are dated by the last preident in the set! Fantastic photos and really excellent post…
February 16, 2013 at 1:34 pm
Oh, I love this set. It’s precious!!! I agree with your Grandmother … Lincoln’s my favorite. Steven, who is your favorite??
February 16, 2013 at 3:38 pm
Good question, do I really have to narrow it down to one? I will narrow it down to one for one category. Presidents who have served in my lifetime, and the nod goes to Reagan. All-time it is real tough and sometimes depends on whose biography I have just read
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February 18, 2013 at 5:27 pm
[...] The find out more about the figurines used to illustrate this post, click on the link to a post I wrote last week: Marx Presidents [...]
February 22, 2013 at 8:56 am
*blush* boy, I feel sheepish!! I was wondering where you had gotten the figurines and then found this post. lol. I would have to say my favorite president was Reagan. I turned 18 the election year that Clinton won, so I had memories of Reagan and Bush Sr.