Marx Toys 60MM Figures today we will look a various 60mm figures by Marx. Marx sold 60MM figures in playsets and individually. The individual figures are called bin toys. In the 50’s you could walk into a store and pick your figures. This changed when stores reduce their staff.
The above figure is from my childhood. I do not know if I picked him out or either my parents or relatives did. He was always in the second row of my fighters.
Marx did a several series of 60MM Indians. Kent Sprecher lists the figures in the above photo as stockade and skinny. The Indians with tomahawk and knife, standing firing rifle and crawling with knife are stockade Indians. Indian running with tomahawk and rifle and with tomahawk are skinny Indians. The skinny Indians were sold individually. The foot poses of the skinny Indians were later used in the Masterpiece and Warriors of the World series. Marx took the two firing poses and Indian dancer from camp Indians
Another set from the Marx bin series Marx Rough Riders. There four different poses. The figures were sold loose or in a box with Colonel Ted Roosevelt. The ones I am showing are reissue figures that turn up in New Jersey in dollar stores several years ago. They may have shown up in other places. The figures were originally in a brown. Kent reports a tan color reissue in 1990’s.
According to Kent Sprecher this figure is part of a rare set PL-318 GI set made in 1951. Kent feels the set was discontinued do to the three standing figures in the mold do not stand up well. A recast of the Paratrooper was done by the late John Stengel Sr
Marx Toys 60MM Figures Captain Gallant
Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion was television show from the 1950’s. It starred Buster Crabbe with son Cullen who played Cuffy the legion’s mascot. Marx did a playset which has anomaly. Gallant and Cuffy are in modern dress Foreign Legion while the Legionaries in the playset are dress 19th century. One person speculated in a toy magazine that Marx had plans for a Foreign Legion playset and just bought the rights.
The Captain Gallant playset contained Arab opponents. The set came with 10 figures in seven poses. The figure set had one standing firing figures which made him the most desire figure on the secondary market.
For some reason Marx did not sell the Arabs separately like they did with the Foreign Legion. The Foreign Legion were sold in bags and boxes.
Growing up in the United States in the 1950s, in the Golden Age of Marx playsets, the Marx 60mm figures like the ones depicted above became my favorites. Even today, when I attend toy soldier shows, with all the choices from around the world layed out on display, I still find myself drawn to these original Marx.
As Rusty Kern reminds us, it was part of the marketing genius of Louis Marx that he so often made his sets correspond to a current TV show or big movie release. So as I thrilled to Robin Hood, Captain Gallant, and Rin Tin Tin on TV every week, there was the matching Marx playset for me for me to expand my interest and imagination in each subject. And even though I loved all the Marx playsets, the larger 60mm size versions of Fort Apache, Robin Hood, and Captain Gallant became my favorites, along with the “almost 60mm” Blue and Gray sets.
In posing, sculpting, and detail, some of the modern U.S. 60mm makers (Conte, TSSD, LOD, etc.) are clearly superior to Marx. But I still prefer the softer plastic of the Marx figures. Also, each time I see and handle the Marx figures, a flood of childhood memories come flooding back which modern production, for all its virtues, can’t quite duplicate. Fortunately, for me, it’s not an “either/or” choice, and when I can afford it, I try to get both.
I should also mention that I thought the 60mm Cpt. Gallant Arabs, the 60mm knights of the Robin Hood playset, and the 60mm 7th Cavalry of the Fort Apache/Rin Tin Tin playsets —- were all exceptionally great figures.
And when the hard plastic 60mm Warriors of the World were made into soft plastic bin figures, they also became excellent Civil War figures — not nearly as artistic as the “almost 60mm” figures in the Marx Blue & Gray playsets — but still great figures.
The Marx sculpts of the 60’s had the best facial detail that few modern makers can match.
Agree! Each one seemed to have his own distinct personality.
I was thinking as I looked at the pics, before I got to the comments, that it’s remarkable how well so many of the Marx figures stand up to the newer stuff being issued – that’s no hit on either group of figures. I was just able to get some Russian recasts of the Marx 60mm Indians off ebay and this particular batch (except for the color) will fit in with some of my Paragon and TSSD Indians. The running guy with rifle and tomahawk remains one of my favorite poses for some reason in both 54mm and 60mm versions since I was a kid, first playing with my neighbor’s Ft Apache set and later with my own.
When I was about ten I traded for a copy (I think) of the Guy loosing his arrow – I don’t know who made it as he fits great with the 54mm Ft Apache figures. But he’s in a kind of bright glossy yellow I don’t think Marx used (at least not in 1966). I would be interested. I know several of the Timmee Indians look suspiciously like the Marx 60mm figures…
Maybe someone knows?
In the 1950s the toy companies used outside sculptors and mold makers. They were often using the same people when contracting to have molds made. So when it would be cheaper for a mold maker to reuse some of their master sculpts for a second customer they did so. Rusty Kern has documented how Marx would give talented sculptors lots of work do so they would not have time to work for other toy makers. This is how a lot of the odd ball Marx figures ended being made. So there was little copying just the reuse of master sculpts. A classic example is the set of GIs made in 1958 for Kelloggs to use as premiums in which the mold maker mixed master sculpts that had been made for Marx & Lido figures early in the 1950s and made a 14 figure set got the cereal company. Another example is the 45mm GIs first made for Marx and then made for Payton. Marx’s first copyrighted playset was the Eskimo skiing marked under a ski in 1959 (I think). Some copying did occur and in 1959-62 Ray Plastic (Rayline) appears to have panto-graphed Marx, Tim-Mee, Lido & MPC figures to use as knock down targets for their shell shooting toy guns. I have speculated that the Marx copy Civil War figures they made to go with their Gatling gun was the spark that made Marx start copyrighting new playset figures in 1963
What change was the copyright law. Prior to that ou could not copy human form. That changed in 1960’s a great example is GI Joe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Joe
Aside from the obvious trademarking on the right buttock, other aspects of the figure were copyrighted features that allowed Hasbro to successfully pursue cases against producers of cheap imitations, since the human figure itself cannot be copyrighted or trademarked. The scar on the right cheek was one; another, unintentional at first, was the placement of the right thumbnail on the underside of the thumb. Early trademarking, with “G.I. Joe™”, was used through some point in 1965; the markings changed once G.I. Joe was a registered trademark; “G.I. Joe®” now appears on the first line. Subsequently, the stamped trademarking was altered after the patent was granted (in late 1966), and assigned a number; 3,277,602. Figures with this marking would have entered the retail market during 1967.