VINTAGE 1979 GROSSET AND DUNLAP PEANUTS / CHARLIE BROWN ACTIVITY BOOKS BOX SET – $75. Find it on eBay (affiliate link).
The world of Peanuts activity books is very wide. Through the years, many companies made them like Saalfield, Dell, Scholastic Books, Golden and Landoll’s. Most companies don’t just make a couple activity books. They take that licensed character and make a wide variety of cheap books to color, paint, cut, doodle, connect, puzzle, etc. The paper is cheap. The puzzles are reused. The artwork is stock. They’re cheap delights to engage children with something other than TV. We still love them all these years later.
Peanuts activity books are not well documented. The volume at which they were produced, coupled with their lack of artistic merit in general, means they’re not something most collectors will seek out. There are some exceptions like the Price-Stern coloring books. The Peanuts Maze, Puzzle and Activity Books falls squarely in the realm of the quick buck.
Dell, Ottenheimer, and Grosset and Dunlap all produced activity books in this style in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I have examples of the same book from multiple publishers. Were they produced all at the same time? Were the rights sold from one company to another? I have no idea. These are answers probably lost to time and it probably doesn’t matter anyway. This Peanuts Maze, Puzzle and Activity Books box set was probably a re-packaging of a couple books together to give a better presentation and make more money on the bundle.
How much are Peanuts Activity Books worth?
Most of the Peanuts activity books of this type in my collection have been bundled with other collectibles. I don’t really seek them out. There’s nothing that makes them special enough to me to really put the effort and money into collecting them. If you’re nostalgic, I could see being a little more invested in finding them. I like the Golden Books ones for my own nostalgia, but I’m still not seeking them out.
If I were to come across this box set in this condition, I would pay maybe $10-$15.The box has significant damage. Plus, the coloring books might not all be there. The non-Peanuts 50 States coloring book featured is definitely not part of the set. I have this same box set, but mine is also missing books. Without opening a new-old-stock version, I can’t be sure what was originally in the box. This fresh-in-the-plastic box set is more reasonably priced at $30 and is right in line with how much I would expect to pay.
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