September 2024 Odds and Ends Various Figures, I have various figures to share in this post. First I will comment on the red Confederate figure I showed in a previous post. Next, we will look at some Marx figures. Finally, I will share some foreign plastic figures.
September 2024 Odds and Ends Update
I showed this figure back in August. some people wondered if this figure was a reissue. The answer is no. It is an original Marx. The Marx 54mm army exists in this color as well. also, I am an expert on reissues so I would have known.
Marx Figures
The Marx 60mm figures do not get the love that the 54mm do. I like the Marx Union. The above two figures are my favorite. while both the soft and hard plastic Confederates, I only had the hard plastic Union as a child. I finally got the soft plastic as an adult.
Love the Marx six-inch Man from Uncle Figures but wish they had been done in 54mm.
I acquired various items in the early days, including a Marx display board. These boards were used to show the various figures available for sale. For various reasons, I had to sell it. One of the figures that I liked and reacquired was the Army Preist. The person who designed it included webbing on the inside of the helmet.
Marx did two different versions of the Marx 60mm Robin Hood Playset. While the merrymen were the same the character figures were different. One version had a set of generic figures. The other version had character figures based on the Richard Greene Robin Hood Show. The sculptor caught the image of the people from the show. Here is Friar Tuck who was played by Alexander Gauge. You can see the other character figures from both playsets here.
Foreign Figures
Here we have the six Turks that were done by Cane of Italy. The figures are copies of the Elastolin Turks. I believe the figures are collector-painted. Why do I feel they are from Cane and not Grisoni which did these figures in the 1980’s? The figures in the above photo have a white base while the Grisoni version is in festive color.
These pirates that were done in France
This is African native was done by Gama of Spain in 1959.
A source got these two accessories. He knew that they were made in Germany, but not who made them. I posted them on Facebook and found out they were done by Merten. I never know what will pop up.
The Man from Uncle figures would be good candidates for scanning into 3D files. A 3D printer could print them 54mm or any other scale. Would there be any copyright problems?
I would love to see the “Man From Uncle” in 54-60mm. They are still being sold in Mexico as the recast 6 inch. There is a dealer on FB from Mexico selling them. I heard in the near future they will have a scanning wand for 3D printers, these and all the other Marx 6 inch figures would be ideal for this. Also I wonder why after all these years nobody has done decent 54-60mm figures of James Bond and all his evil enemies/henchmen?
I noted that with the 6″ Man from U.N.C.L.E. figures I see on ebay , some of the figures have the U.N.C.L.E logo under the base , along with an MGM copyright. Other figures only have the MARX logo and copyright.
I remember seeing them in the “Dime” Stores like Kresge’s, Woolworth’s, and Ben Franklin’s when I was a kid and remembered wishing they were 1/32 scale (I didn’t know the proper name for the scale back then). I always thought the Thrush agents would be great for Storm Troopers and I liked the character figures anyway; I just wasn’t crazy about the scale – though I had a pretty good collection of Marx (mostly) six-inch WW2 and frontier figures. I always wished Marx had done their six-inch WW2 and Cavalry & Indian poses in 1/32 scale too.
Was glad when someone did that in the 90s – even if they were on the small side of the scale (I can’t remember who did them); and was really pleased when CTS came out with their first series of Germans and recreated the German poses.
Funny, I remember them costing a dime. Which seemed the right price at a “dime store.”
I have seen some James Bond figures on eBay. Not sure of the scale or who made them. I think J.B. is depicted in a white tuxedo if that helps ID them.
There is a wand type scanner available which runs about $1,000. To use it you also need a very powerful computer to manage the files.
I found the Gilbert brand Bond figures on ebay, they are about 70mm and pretty common. They seem to date from 1965. Prices vary from reasonable to absurd.
Sorry to step into your conversation, but I have tried to contact you about Eric John’s website marxwildwest.com You mentioned back in March that it was up and running, but I can’t get into it. I get a server problem.
When I heard about Eric’s passing in 2022 I offered to host his site free of charge on my own site, barbigirl.com I host my own sites and some of people who are collectors, but want to retire, and want their information to remain on their site.
Eric contacted me years ago because he saw the dollhouses on my site and wanted to know if he could use the pics and if I could help him with the dollhouse info. He was such a great guy to work with.
You also mentioned you had some of the pics on a drive. I’d love to have them for my own info.
However I would love to see Eric’s site back up and running.
I just tried to get in an error. I will have to check with people.
I have the pages now and I want to contact the family to see if it is ok to put the site back up. Do you know how I can contact them. email perhaps.
I do have several page images and photos from Eric’s website saved to a terrabyte storage. I could try to email these to anyone interested. It would be terrific to have his website back online, it was a great resource.
If you could mail them to me. I could post them on my site under my Marx pages. If I can’t get to resurrect it to it’s own site. People could still find them as I would put them up with the marxwildwest names.
My email is barbigirl@shaw.ca
I’ve seen the Bond figures. Nice to have if you were a kid when they came out in 65 but they are statue like figures reminding me of Marx Presidents.
OK Thanks. I’m still willing to host it for free, if that is the problem.
Regarding 54mm James Bond figures, I too always wondered why these figures were not made? I sure would have liked them. Just FYI there is an Ideal board game “Message From M” that has some fairly decent figures. They are about I would say 50-52mm perhaps, not quite 54mm scale.
I saw one of the ‘Message from M” games on ebay, it had a complete set of the figures. Looks like there are 6 different poses.
Gama swapped swivel figures come first than Herald and the patent was officially recorded before Herald ,making Spaniard maker GAMA the first making soft plastic swappable true figures in reality .This have been printed in 3 books so far with patent registration date recorded on it on photos .The made many nice western ,africa safari ,pirates else figures .Today very hard to find as were far less exported abroad .
the CANE figures looks like recast from Grisioni ,the bright purple ,pink color below paint denote it ,the bases appear to be changed or/and swapped and then over painted .Also Tibidabo and Barabelli sold the former CANE painted over too in window boxes.
Erwin Sell: El Maestro! No ones knows the research better. Interesting stuff.