Was the Illco Playset Rare?

D'Snowth

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As a baby, I had a few SST toys manufactured by Illco Toys, including their version of a neighborhood playset, with Hooper's Store and 123, connected by a piece of cobblestone and a tunnel entrance in the shape of the carriage horse garage doors and such.

I was wondering though, is this particular playset rare? I mean I hardly ever seen one up for auction on eBay, and there's no page about it on Muppet Wiki... and I also wonder, which came first, the Illco set or the Playskool, and did one copy from the other? Both sets have some of the same accessories like the lamppost (only that the Illco set omits the street sign), the sets have the same designed fire hydrants on the sidewalk, both of the Hoope's Store buildings have the exact same plastic awnings, and very similar green and yellow checkerboard stickers, etc.
 

Sgt Floyd

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I'm fascinated by how there is no information other than the fact Illco was bought out by Tyco in 92.

I did find something that said Illco was known for making knock offs of Playskool toys though. Is there a date on it? Playskool released theirs in 75
 

D'Snowth

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Are you sure about that date Sarge? I would think 85 rather than 75 (around the time the original Fisher-Price set was released).

It makes sense though that Illco would knock off Playskool toys, because again, so many aspects of the Illco set is identical to the Playskool set... yet funnily enough, comparing the two together, I think the Illco set as a whole turned out better than the Playskool set... at least the Illco set you could put together with an arbor area and set up the construction doors and such, and 123 was much more proportional (the only error is that the stoop is in the middle of the building, andnot to the right).
 

Sgt Floyd

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I'm an idiot. I WAS looking at the fisher price one

I guess my mind went to that one since I actually owned that one, believe it or not.

You are right, the Playskool one was in 84 according to the muppets wiki
 

D'Snowth

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*Nods* Yeah... I have the Fisher-Price set,first thing I ever got off eBay (just wish I had the Little People characters), it's the best playset that's ever been created in the past 40 years... even the 40th anniversary set made by Fisher-Price pales in comparison (it's more like the Playskool set was).

One thing I also find odd about the Illco set is that every item in the set, including the buildings and accessories are stamped with "© Jim Henson Productions", rather than CTW, which kind of leads me to believe it is a knock-off set, considering assuming SST is a full-on Henson production is a common misconception... but then again, the Tyco beanies and figurines of the 90s are stamped with a Henson copyright, of course that's because they were of the Muppet characters, back when JHC still owned the rights to the characters.
 
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