Plastic Figure Showcase Part Two Readers Contributions, Photos March 2018 we have a number of items to share. First we have a link to Marx Prototype Playset. Next we have photos from several of our German friends. I will round out the month with a photo or two.
Plastic Figure Showcase Part Two Readers Contributions, Photos March 2018 Playset
Glen Ridenour has a protoype Marx playset up on Ebay. It is the Marx Monster Mansion Playset. At the height of the monster craze Marx thought of getting in with a playset. They did a mock up of what it would look like. First they took a Marx tin litho castle repainted it. Next they used MPC monsters and Auroa Monster parts to decorate the playset. Several pieces were mocked up including a gallows. The set never went into production.
This set had been at the Marx Museum. Glen wants for the Marx Monster Mansion Playset $12995.00
Plastic Figure Showcase Part Two Readers Contributions, Photos March 2018 Knights
Peter Bergner send us this photo of a carded set that the found. they are swoppet knights that are copies of the Britains swoppet knights.
Plastic Figure Showcase Part Two Readers Contributions, Photos March 2018 Markus’ Finds
I asked Markus Lecksheid what he got at the German Plastic Show. He responded with two items. The first is the battle damaged pirate.
The next item was a gift from a friend. It is the Timmee Missle Base that was only sold in Europe.
From the card it looks that it was to be distributed in Belgium as its bilingual French/Dutch. Price indicated makes only sense if French francs. Markus likes obscure items.
Plastic Figure Showcase Part Two Readers Contributions, Photos March 2018 MPC
Andreas Dittmann got these pieces at the show and wonder if they were MPC. I replied back that they were. He wanted to know if any building went with it.
Plastic Figure Showcase Part Two Readers Contributions, Photos March 2018 Photos
Do you know who made this Indian?
Barclay did their Christmas figures in metal. A company in Japan or China in plastic. I was able to get two in a junk box.
Finally here is comparsion between the Heimo/Marx 60mm with a poor Hong Kong copy.
If you look closely at the figures in Peter Bergner’s blister pack you will see that they are an amalgamation of Britains and Lone Star swoppet knight parts: the legs, heads and shields are Britains War of the Roses, while the bodies and swordbelts are Lone Star.
Markus’ pirate was made in France by RF (Rene Fischer). The card on the Timmee missile base set carries the logo of Belgian toy firm Nazaire Beussaert who made a large range of composition toy soldiers before the war but never made the transition into plastic, post war they mostly distributed other firms products, primarily nativity stuff.
Interesting on the Timmee pieces from Germany being sold by a Beligium figures. Not suprise on missing the Lone Star knight parts as I only have seen a few figures. Might have some in the collection. I keep finding Lone Star red beret figures.
The green Indian looks like a Toy Major figure. Years back they were available in bagged sets at various places. More recently, they were in bucket sets at ToysRUs.
The Toy Major Cowboys and Indians were the set that had an Indian wielding a big sword and a cowboy firing a snub-nosed revolver.
I received the MPC fort piece with a Daniel Boone (or was it “Boonesboro”) playset for Christmas 1965. It came with a full fort I remember two special pieces designed for cannons. There were also the MPC snap-together buildings that I thought fit quite nicely against the regular wall pieces as shown. I still have some of the original fort that I managed to augment with some Ebay purchases.
One thing about that set I never understood: the set came with their approx. 60mm ringhand pioneers (the bearded ones they used for everything from Boonesborough to ACW) against their 45-50mm Marx knock-off Indians. I had a couple of other MPC sets that did the same thing – ringhand “GIs” against their Germans. Oh well…
About the price; up until around 1972 or 73 (when we went completely off the gold standard and the value of currency became more fluid) – the value of a Belgian Franc was roughly two cents. When we lived in Belgium (1969-70) it was 50 Bf per dollar and about 4 French Franc per dollar so if the set was bought in France it cost about $13 if Belgium $1.05. I thought you might find that interesting.
On a side note, the Dm (German Mark) was worth about 4 per dollar when we first arrived in 1973 – by the time I left after my first hitch in the Army in 1978 it had risen to roughly 2 Dm per Dollar. Talk about hitting the wallet…
Th pirates and Musketeers- foot poses from RF mold were copied sold in bags unpainted in 80s in Spain least,I have then in multicolor poses colors in bags from Stapin todocoleccion site years ago,they were sold as PIPEROS/KIOSKO there .
Apparently using a cloned mold else ,they are in yellow ,blue ,red ,orange purple and green in my bags.
Unfortunately i resold swap repeat poses but keep one each as the detail is poor,still poses are nice .
Interesting the Britain knights copies card ,never see that format packing .
Are they from HK or other country brand!?
The indian is TM to me too,they did hybrid poses by mixing airfix else poses in crude way ,same in cowboys.
Best
Thanks to Brian for identification of RF Pirate. Almost assumed by the plastic used its same as RF musketeers. Of course I hadn’t the maker in mind but did see a nice with the musketeers just recently in France.
Maybe I have a second pirate pose going to take a pic if can relocate.
The green Indian does look like it came from the Toy Major set with the machete Indian and snubnose detective special cowboy. I found an article on the set on ThorTrains and I think you can see this Indian in the top right photo behind the yellow Indian with the huge medieval sword.
http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/westnutz.htm
Hey everyone – hurry and buy the Marx Monster Mansion and you’ll earn $100 in eBay Bucks!
My problem is that I need TWO of them, so have to pass on this “one of a kind”. Hypothetically, I’d have 200 eBay Bucks! Oh, well….
This is probably my last chance to be a part of “MONSTER TOY-MAKING HISTORY!”, too……
That kind of looks like a patched together fake to me. The use of Aurora model pieces is questionable and I don’t believe that graveyard piece was made by Marx at all.
Just have to hope that nobody is foolish enough to pay that price. The “museum” has always had the highest prices, but this is ridiculous.
This is a prototype tryi9ng to show what it would look like. If it had been approved the set would have looked much different. When Marx did a prototype zorro playset they used the Shako Mexicans. as we all know that was changed to the Presido hat Mexicans.
Actually, if my (fading) mind serves me well, one of the playset magazines (PM or PFPC) did an article on this prototype model.
The write-up mentions PM issue #11.
I wonder if Glen would accept an offer of $10,000 on the “Marx” Monster Mansion. I bet he would.
But I’m not planning on making the offer.
I actually believe that nobody will purchase it period.
And it appears not to even come with a box.
To me, the whole “set” seems to be a collection of disparate junk pieces that anyone could put together.
And the original seller, the “Museum” in West Virginia, always sells things at the highest prices around.
Easy for me to say, but start the monster mansion at $500 and see where the auction goes vs. a RIDICULOUS Buy It Now price.
When I see such unrealistic greed from an ebay seller, I tend to start hoping they end up with absolutely nothing —- no bids, no interest, no inquiries — nothing.
And if this seller paid a couple of thousand dollars to the Marx Museum for such an assemblage of disparate, disjointed parts from different manufacturers, that doesn’t even come with a box or anything that ties it together as a set, then in my humble opinion he was taken for a ride.
My guess would be that his asking price is so extreme that he will receive no offers whatsoever.
And I’ll further bet that once potential ebay buyers look closely at exactly what this so-called “set” actually contains, that any final price will be well south of $500.00.
Prototype play sets are cool, I liked the one with the tin litho prison. The figures were convicts & prison guards. I think it was called “The Big House” play set. The gate was a revolving door.
It is a prototype set made by the Marx model department. They used what ever they could find including the MPC monsters and kit bashing a lot of accessories. The Castle is Marx and a HTF variety high wall with Robin Hood plastic. Marx only made a castle like this once in 1964. #4734 with gold and silver first series knights. Sold in a Sears Allstate box but no factory documentation has been found and no catalogs or other marketing pieces by Sears. It may have been a mistake in communications between Marx & Sears and only a few have turned up. The monster castle like other prototype sets Marx made might have all kinds nonMarx stuff that would be replaced if it was decided to place the set into production. Glenn and Francis paid a lot of money to get the set and all of the factory records they could find.
I’m sure both the gentlemen you mention paid “a lot of money to get the set…”.
And now of one of them is attempting to redeem his “investment” on ebay by posting it at an exhorbitant price.
But it is more than just rumor and innuendo that each of these dealers attempt to sell their wares at higher prices than anyone I’ve ever run into at the Chicago and Midwestern show circuit, and/or among those who advertise in the pages of Playset Magazine.
Here’s a case in point: I went to the Columbus, Ohio show looking for a Marx 60mm red/brown Arab in the standing firing pose. Both Mr. Turner and Mr. Stengel Jr. each had one for sale, both in near mint condition. I happened to see it first at Mr. Turner’s table. When I inquired as to his asking price, he quoted $60.00. When I walked across the aisle to John Stengel Jr.’s tables, John was asking $30.00 for his, and sold it to me for $25.00.
Throughout the show, John Stengel’s tables were always busy with traffic, whereas Francis’ tables often seemed devoid of buyers, and he seemed to often be standing behind his tables all by himself. I concluded his lack of trafficde was due to his sky-high prices across the board.
I know both of the collectors involved in this Marx Monster prototype are knowledgeable dealer/collectors who have each made substantial contributions to the revival of interest in Marx playsets starting in the 1980s.
And I think it is understandable, Kent, that you want to regard them in a kindly, sympathetic light. That’s what makes you a nice person.
But their propensity to ask silly, excessive (and in this case ridiculous) prices is for me (as just a collector) a complete turn-off.
I had seen collectors paid up to 500.00 x a single “rare ” figure from Marx .Not surprise find one day one paying this price x this playset .
Conte playset sale for several thousand in bids too as I had seen then before sold and not even vintages at all.
Just one crazy deep pocket show up and it will go.
Is a crazy world outhere
My thoughts
Best
Remember that the figures & accessories in this “Monster” playset, other than the castle itself, are not prototypes at all, but are simply ordinary common figures used as stand-ins. They are widely available elsewhere.
Only the castle itself is a true prototype, because it is either painted or lithographed in a different way than it was originally done.
If the Marx designers had come up with original or unique figure sculptings (beyond the castle), even if they used an old figure but cast it in a different color, then the figures in this set could legitimately be classified as “prototypes”. But they didn’t. The castle itself, because of it’s unique color, is the only real “prototype” in this entire set.
And that is what Glen is now asking $12,999.00 for.
In my opinion, treating such an outlandish price as reasonable only feeds more foolishness down the road.
Of course, as Erwin points out, it only takes one fool with more money than he knows what to do with to make such a sale.
But my betting is that there isn’t even one person out there quite so dimwitted — at least not one who has sufficient funds to make such a purchase.
I remember when the MIB Johnny Ringo set sold on eBay, to Don Durant’s proxy, in June 2001 for $8988.00. I think that was the absolute peak for JR (and all other Marx) sets which are probably cheaper 17 years later. Also, a Johnny Ringo single figure sold for $1600 in March 2001 and the next one, equal condition, sold for $883.50 10/30/2001 – 55% of the first. I remember, sometime last year, a Ringo figure that finally sold for around $500 after sitting for a while. CLEARLY a downward trend on “rare” pieces. As Don P. points out, this monster monstrosity isn’t even a set – no box, common MPC figures, and a few basic conversion accessories. Some of the paperwork is unique, but $12,999.00? As I said somewhere before, if he really wants to sell it, start at around $500 and let it run as a 7 day no reserve auction to let the eBay community determine it’s value. Or is this just a lark to show something off at an American Pickers “I don’t want to sell it price”?
There is one other aspect to the Marx Monster Mansion Playset. Glen mentioned in a Facebook posting that the graveyard was not original. It was added to the playset for the article in PFPC.
It would have been nice to see Marx do the Universal monsters for this playset in 54 or 60mm! One of my dream sets of figures…….