Editor’s note If you have any more information on Spaulding dinosaur SDC it would be appreciated. I am telling what I can remember of the company.
Before Excalibur Hobbies brought up the Marx reissue figures from Mexico there were some other attempts. I would go down on to the border, go across the border and would buy the Marx figures in bags from the stores to bring back to resell. Stone Castle had the Civil War Bridge redone and brought up other Marx figures in the states in incorrect colors. Finally the last company to try import the figures before Dinamicos came to a New York Toy Fair was Spaulding Dinosaur or SDC.
Some how I learned that Spaulding Dinosaur had gone looking for the Marx dinosaurs and found the other Marx figures. Spaulding decided to market the other Marx figures as well. I got word that they would be at New York Toy Fair, which I had planned to attend.
I went up with a very good friend Barry Stettler, who own a hobby shop at the time to New York City for the Toy Fair. We decided to stay over night so we got a room at the Milford Plaza. The hotel was only a block away from the bus terminal. The hotel has had its name change and remodeled because back in those days it was a dump. Our room was so small that we had to put my large suitcase in between the two double beds. I also remembered my friend Barry freaking out that there was a small window in the shower area. Going down from our room the elevator was jammed and one guy seeing it was crowd said “I see a space”, and jump in. The elevator held up and got us down to the main floor. Barry and I walked around Time Square and found a nice sea food restaurant for dinner. After dinner we headed back to get ready for the next day.
The next day we got up and headed to the Toy Building. Back then Toy Fair was held in the Toy building where companies had permanent year round spots and the Javits Center where the out of town sellers would set up. Today all the dealers are at the Javits Center as the Toy Building has been sold. Barry and I walked around to various companies. One place we went was Polk’s Hobbies where Barry introduced me to Nat Polk. We found the spot for Spaulding Dinosaur, but it was closed. With no time listed of when they would be opened, we headed over to Javits Center. There we did the toy fair and the Merchandise show. At the time, the Merchandise show had the bottom floor, the Toy Fair had the top floor. Today the Toy Fair has the entire Javits Center and Merchandise has moved to Las Vegas.
Barry and I walked around the two shows, at one of the shows we found a dealer who had Airfix 1/72 scale military vehicle kits bagged , but with no box or instructions. Barry bought several cases while I took one case. Done with the Javits Center, I told Barry we had to go back to the Toy Building as I had to see if Spaulding Dinosaur’s room was opened. We took the shuttle bus back to the toy building and went up to the floor where Spaulding Dinosaur was. The door was opened and went in. The space was the size of a large closet and they had on display various Marx reissue figures. I got a brochure which you see at the beginning of this posting, and possible a sales sheet I am not sure if they had one or it would be sent. We left the spot after ten minutes and headed home.
I don’t remembered if I order anything from Spaulding Dinosaur, which I doubt. I know that they issued some blister card sets of the dinosaurs. I had heard an unconfirmed story that they had a falling out with Dinanmicos. The company Spaulding dinosaur was incorporated in 1986 in Overland Kansas.
The Brochure itself is double side and has black and white photos of figures from Dinamico and Jugetemundo. The company Jugetemundo who did the MPC monsters. It was a very interesting attempt to bring up the Marx reissues to the United States.
Paul, Somewhere around here I have a catalog from the company that finally brought the repos’ into the US, in those crazy colors. Al Srtiano and I somehow found out that the company had an office in Westchester, NY. It was either Poughkipsee or Haverstraw. I can’t remember which.
Anyway, we just knocked on the door and the gentlemen allowed us in and gave us catalogs and samples galore. He was happy to get rid of them. I recall picking out all of the “correct” colors that I could find and we left with shopping bags full. I had given the man my address and about two weeks later a box showed up from Mexico with about 500 figures. Alamo Mexicans in orange and yellow, Rev War figures in green, various blues and reds and all kinds of figures, in all kinds of colors.
I think I still have a couple of the blister cards for the civil war figures, which were in blue and gray.
It wasn’t Spaulding, but it had to be right around that time….Bill
When I first got tuned in to the rebirth of plastic toy soldiers in the 1980s, the prices of original Marx figures had so skyrocketed that it was impossible financially for a person of modest means to recreate, say, a Civil War battle using original Marx figures. I was therefore grateful the original molds were discovered and rerun to produce near identical figures, all in supple, good quality plastic. I don’t think the Marx Civil War figures were ever run in anything but the traditional blue and grey. Many of the other Marx figures were run in bright off-colors, initially, but were still in a soft, high-quality plastic. Eventually, a few American entrepeneurs managed to get all of the Marx figures run in original or at least realistic type colors. It wasn’t until many years later that so many of the reissues started to be run in truly cheap, crappy, brittle plastic that make them so worthless today. The original waves of reissues were just fine in terms of the quality of the plastic.
Today, now that I’ve been in the hobby as an adult for the past 25-30 years, I have a strong preference for original Marx, since the prices have become much more affordable (a dollar per figure at the shows for Civil War Marx is quite common), and I like the flat colors of the originals. But initially, the reissues were a godsend for people like myself, and I’m grateful to the hobbyists who went to the trouble of getting all the reissues into circulation.
Don
I do not remember if the Marx Civil War figures were in multi colors. I do know that everything I got in the border runs were in multi colors. Also the figure were brittle, certain figures would high breakage rates. One unconfirmed story I was told they were using left over Tupperware plastic. It took people to show them the correct colors and plastic to use.
Back in the old days Marx figures were higher. the internet change all of that. The quantity available changed it from a seller’s to buyer’s market in many things causing the price to drop. People who did not have access to shows now could get their figures through their computer. The internet increased the number of sellers as well causing prices to drop.
When I get a chance I will tell the story about Dinamicos at New York Toy Fair, which lead to the Marx Reissue figures to come up to U.S. in the correct plastic and right colors.
I still have some re-issues that came from Excalibur Hobbies and some of the figures the Russians and GI’s are a hard brittle plastic, many were broken inside the bag, the Japanese while a softer plastic had large holes in many of the figures. I wasn’t particulary pleased with those re-casts. Later on I got some Civil War re-casts from CTS and they were a harder plastic too.
later production sold in mexico in silver colors are better quality plastic..
I bought the brown vikings, about 300 of them, and I am thinking out of all of them, at least half were broken by the time I opened them, I sold them all at a convention along with a bunch of Hoefler knights, and the Big King Arthur castle for a $100. I could have sold it for more, but because they were brittle, I sold them to get rid of them quick. I was thankful for the reissues as well, because playsets were out of the question. I could make my own playset anyway.
Someone’s website had the Zorro /Alamo mexicans in a nice red color I want to get some of them, they had El Commandante in red also with them, anyone know how to get them, I guess they come from Mexico also. Is that DSG.
There is a really detailed and informative article on the Marx dinosaurs on the Dinosaurs-Toys- Collectors-guide.com page. On the second web page of the article it mentions the Spaulding Dinosaur Company as well as a brief history of the Marx Dinsosur molds after Marx went out of business.
http://www.dinosaur-toys-collectors-guide.com/marx-playset-monograph.html
Here is a link to the first page of the article above.
I started out collecting in the late 1980’s with a bunch of Marx and other figures from my childhood. My Mother did not throw them out! Then I discovered dealer web pages on the internet and I really got into buying the reissues that I could not afford in original production. I bought from Stad, TSSD, toysoldierhq, and various other collector/dealer sites. Sometimes I bought whole sets of reissues, sometimes I bought select original Marx figures. The reissue plastic back then was good and pliable and sets like the Marx Civil War 1st issue Union, Confederates, and Centennialls came in both blue and grey! Early EBAY auctions were outrages for the high prices that were bid for now more reasonable originals.
Larry T.
Larry
Thanks for the link on Marx dinosaurs, it is a very interesting article. Yes the reissues were an inexpensive way to buy back into the hobby. It was one of the things that help build Stad along with the warehouse find. The prices were outrages in the beginning because people were able to buy items they had been looking for years which they could only get at shows. I still remember when I sold my Famous Monsters of Filmland No 4, the person who bought it said to me this is suppose to be a rare book? yours is the fourth one I have seen. Once realized that people realized that figures were not rare, the prices dropped. Also some of the big buyers were satisfy with their wants prices dropped.
Don, The original repos were not in supple, high quality plastic. They were brittle and made from reground soda bottles. These are what Stad and I are talking about. In Mexico, you could buy them in bags for next to nothing, at the local variety stores.
They were the first wave to hit the US right around 1980 or so.
Later on in the mid-eighties it was Bill Murphy who located the molds and convinced the owner to use virgin, high quality plastic pellets and the correct dyes. A lot of what Bill ran passes for originals today because they were so close. I’ve got metallic blue Mexican Shako reissues that I would defy anyone to be able to tell them from the originals.
Marx western furniture, same thing. Bill’s first issue of the hospital wagon is so close
that it very, very hard to distinguish from the real thing.
Original Marx collectors were up in arms, as they saw that the value of their collections going south. That was a big brouhaha, with certain collectors swearing on their childrens lives that they would never own a repop. Little by little, non original colors began to appear and some makers stamped the repops as recasts right on the figure themselves, just to be clear.
I’ve still got bunches of the orignals. Strictly nostalgic……..Bill
Bill
Bill Murphy did not discover the molds, he walked into the figures at a New York Toy Fair like I did. He did go down and get the figures run in the correct colors. I will talking about the whole matter in the future.
I keep reading about a company called PlastiMarx which supposedly was a division of Marx run out of Mexico City. The dates on this plant are sketchy, but they say this occured in the late 50’s early 60’s and it seems it was in operation until the early 70’s when it was sold by Marx. I have never been able to get much information about this operations, but if they were using original Marx molds what would you consider the figures they produced? Would they be originals from an alternate location or would they be considered re-casts? Just curious if anyone has any additional information about this operation.
Ed B
My information is limited on Plastimarx. From an article I found on the internet, the Mexico operation was started in 1952. This operation was done in associated with a Mexican industrial Manuel Diaz Barreiro. In 1957, the name was changed to Plastimarx. The company made various toys from what has been determine they used molds already made the United States. An example of this is the American Beauties. Plastimarx had a motto: “They are nice, they are durable, they are toys” The company was sold in 1979 to artifacts plastics S.A. which may be Dinamicos.
Bill, you were obviously in a position to know, and are undoubtedly correct. My experience in the 1980s was that the first reissues I encountered were, in fact, from Bill Murphy and Gregg Hahn (StoneCastle), and I just assumed they were the first wave. They were all in good, supple, high-quality plastic, and either in good original colors, or, in good new colors that were also desirable, at least from my point of view (Marx Confederates run in blue and butternut, Union figures also run in gray, and Vikings run in yellow, red, and brown, along with Marx Alamo Mexicans run in the original light blue, as well as cream). I assumed, incorrectly, that these must have been the first wave. It was only later that I started encountering the cheap, brittle plastic, and I then assumed these must have been the follow-on second wave. Anyway, I feel a debt of gratitude to Bill Murphy and anyone else who followed up with the owners of the molds, and convinced them to run everything in high-quality plastic and in good appropriate colors. My only regret nowadays is that no one could ever find the Captain Gallant molds, or, more recently, the Atlantic 60mm molds. Again, the reissues served to get me back in the hobby at affordable prices. Now that I’ve “matured” as a collector, I better understand the charms of owning originals in the nice, flat colors.
Don
The first wave was the brittle plastic. The main party to that was Stad’s. As I said before I did border runs after I confirmed that the figures exist. I will tell that story in the future
Stone Castle was next with the Civil War Bridge and brought up with in the wrong colors
Finally Murphy got the figures in correct colors and softer plastic.
Now that I’m having to search my memory, I remember that I first obtained reissues from Greg Hahn by mail, and then from Paul Stadinger by mail, and then from Gregg, Paul, and Bill Murphy together, all at my first OTSN. I definitely must have arrived at the “second wave” of reissues, because everything I got from those three individuals was a soft, good-quality plastic.
Undoubtedly by now, almost everyone on this board must have seen Playset Magazine’s long, 5-page article in the July/August 2014 issue, “Tales From the Early Days”. It’s highly entertaining and quotes extensively from the recollections of Paul Standinger, Gary Linden, Glenn Smith, John Bowers, Mike Holverson, Rick Eber, and the like.
Incidently, I noticed it lists June 1989 as the beginning of “The Second Wave”, with the advent of Peter Fritz on the scene, taking over publication of The Marx Toy Collector Newsletter.
The article (Tales From the Early Days) doesn’t list an author, so I assume Rusty and Kathy put it all together. But for those of us who attend the shows today, it makes great reading.
Don, Funny you should mention that. I am writing an article for Rusty about the first Marx Meet, held in a fire house in NJ on May 4, 1986. Stad was there, as was I.
I’ve talked to about 8 or 10 attendees and am looking for contact info for:
Bob D’Angelo
Dave Gall
Ron Angleton
Al Hartman
Larry Riggles
If anyone has contact info on any of these gentlemen please let me know.
I don’t know where they got June of 1989 from. Fritz was around long before that. I’de say late seventies, very early eighties at the latest.
You can find Ron Angelton on the Hobby Bunker forum, he is STRYKER.
Ed B sometime in the eraly ’90’s a company called PlastiMarx issued a bunch of the 6 inch figures in crappy plastic. Some of the colors were close, but the plastic was again brittle and most of the bayonets, rifle tips or whatever ended up breaking off.
Toys R Us sold them in bins. Just like the good old days.
Bill,
Yeah I know about the later day stuff, I was trying to get a handle of what they produced in the early years when they first opened shop down there sometime in the late 50’s early 60’s.
I used to get my 6″ figures at Wolworths, they had a giant basket suspended from the ceiling filled with them, literally hundreds of them. They also had hundreds of Warriors of the World stacked in a display. The old dimestores were a treat.
I used to stop by the Stone Castle hobby shop in Louisville once a quarter while on business. The owner Greg Hahn’s Marx recasts were almost all multicolor brittle plastic. He had multicolor Marx ACW figures. He also had the Tim-Mee Pioneer wagon in header card bags but the reins were not rubber like the originals but the same plastic as the rest of the wagon and broke easily. Due to declining sales he closed the store and moved back to his home town (Bardstown) where is is still trying to get rid of the left over Mexican recasts (jungle natives, Eskimos etc…). Bill Murphey and CTS had quality recasts made in good colors, but somebody told the Mexicans they could be sued if they used the same colors as Marx did. So they started making everything in silver and removed the logos under 7th cavalry bases. One very wealthy man has bought out most of the other Mexicans and owns perhaps a few thousand molds from many makers. He also is storing molds for Jay Horowitz who must give them the OK to use if someone wants to have them run. Some of the early customers have been reportedly cut out due to nonpayment and not returning borrowed molds, but I don’t know all the specifics. The Mexicans are now very untrusting of US buyers but Classic Recasts is trying to get better colors back. They are bringing in the 54mm GIs in green and tan and the 60mm horse mold PL-324 with 3 running & 3 standing horses + 2 running M brand calves in; black, brown, tan & white. They will have them at OTSN and will be selling on Amazon and EBay. The factory will make stuff using recycled plastic ( no doubt some tupperware in the mix) or with virgin plastic (doubles the cost). Classic Recasts is getting virgin plastic and hopes to unearth other molds. The Mexican do not know what they have and call everything Marx. Jay Horowitz was the same way. I stopped by his Miami operations back in the 80s. He gave me a nice tour including the big warehouse where there was a pyramid pile of molds. He did not know what he had as it took 3-4 hours to open a mold and at 300-500lbs not easy to move around. In his display room he asked what I thought of his Fort Apache that had MPC cavalry. I said it would be better with the Marx cavalry and he said, “I am Marx this is all Marx”. I told him in a nice manner if he was making toys to sell in a collectible market he had to used the names of the original companies when selling. PlastiMarx bought lots of other companies molds so the Mexicans just think it is all Marx.
I’ve been looking everywhere for the plastic “Sinclair” dinosaurs. They were bigger than the ones sold in the Marx sets and they were sold at Sinclair gas stations. Supposedly by Spaulding Dinosaur Company. They were also slightly different than the mold Marx made outside of Sinclair. My uncle (born 1964) would love to have one. Since he remembers buying it I would say it’s early 1970s. Anybody have any idea what I’m talking about or any info? Thanks.
Robin
You can check Toy Soldiers Headquarters web site for information and possible items for sale. Also look for the magazine Prehistoric Times. It is usually available for sale at Barnes and Noble.
You can easily find them on eBay, and as Paul says, good pictures can be seen at Toy Soldiers HQ. (Keep in mind variants, T-Rex, teeth, no teeth, and variants of the identifying name stamped on the bodies, if this is important)
I think Spaulding is a red herring for your search.
The SDC figures were exactly the same size as the Marx figures. They were Marx figures as SDC was the last company to produce figures from the Marx revised mold group mold. Where the mold is now is anybodies guess.
Sinclair sold many sets of dinosaurs in its history, all different than the Marx figures. I am not sure how or why SDC figures ended up at Sinclair stations but someone who claims title to historian for Sinclair Oil claims to have never heard of SDC. Go figure.
Pat
I used the name Spaulding Dinosaur at the bottom over the SDC as it was more explicit. They surfaced up at New York toy Fair over twenty-five or more years ago. They had acquired the Marx dinosaur figures from Mexico and discovered the other Marx molds. They hired a salesman in the toy building to represent them. The room was an oversized closet. I went to the toy fair and after two attempts got a brochure. The company disappeared soon after that. Not having any Sinclair stations in my region I do not know if the Marx dinosaur reissues were sold or not or how long. Kent Sprecher of Toy Soldier Headquarters might have some more information. The dinosaur mold is in Mexico but the company that holds it has had bad experience with Americans so they are hard to deal with and may not know where it is in their pile of molds.
As a geologist, now retired, I am a fan of the multiple working hypothesis so I will add your ideas to my stash.
Toy Street was the first to mix Marx and MPC Dino figures. Spaulding did too. I never thought their dino’s came from Mexico, they are high quality repros and there is that rumor that the Marx mold resides somewhere in Texas but maybe the MPC figures came from Mexico (?).
I think they have the monsters and mammals mold south of the border, the megatherium is damaged. And they have the medium mold. I have no idea about any other types of molds.
The story is the SDC figures were sold at Sinclair stations,
that much I believe, just don’t know exactly why.
The editor of Prehistoric Times claims that PT covered SDC in great detail, straight from the horses mouth, he just can’t remember which issue. I guess I will just have t buy all the back issues ; )
Pat
I have never heard the rumor of the mold in Texas. Perhaps Kent can give you the issue on SDC that Prehistoric Times did.
Ok last entry.
In 1984 a gentleman named Chuck Saults from Texas purchased the SDC Marx and MPC molds and to all knowledge is still in possession of them. Revised Marx mold pieces have not been produced to most accounts since the SDC series.
http://www.dinosaur-toys-collectors-guide.com/marx-playset-monograph-Part-2.html
His name show up in a few more sites.
Pat
As mention Chuck Saults bought the prototypes from the Marx auction. I remember something on they tried to get a person to buy it but could not and it was broken up. Superior purchased a number of molds from American Plastic but owe them money and Jay Horowitz got them back. Jay could have run the molds for SDC if he had them in his inventory. American Plastic was buying, selling and leasing molds around the world.
Did Chuck Saults died and all his molds were auctioned off long ago!?
Here said he died, least before 2007 and his Marx mold auctioned off
http://marxwildwest.com/introduction%20to%20web%20site.html
I had seen then at eBay too very often, but most are listed as generic dinosaur not with the name brand .I recognize then easy because the difference compare to others same era!!And I also own few…
Paul are these the same molds as the British Museum dino’s? I just recently ran across a boxed set of the Museum dino’s 4 or 5 in a box. I’m pretty sure that they sold these at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.
I sent Paul pictures of the original repo’s bag sets and header card art from Mexico.
They are here somewhere. The artwork is astonishingly good. Too bad the figures were not.
I have a Diplodocus in dark grey soft plastic which has ‘British Museum Natural History 1974’ on the bottom. It also has ‘Invicta Plastics Ltd. Leicester, England’ in much smaller printing. Invicta produced a series of dinos for the British Museum and they were later offered at other museums and elsewhere. I found this one at a Nature store in a shopping mall about 1988?. I contacted Invicta at the time and the dinos were then out of production. Very nice figures though.
Speaking of Classic Recasts, I do have a number of his offerings for sale, mainly GI’S and I think the 60mm horses. We should have some on our table this Sunday at the Cantigny show as well as the latest offering from TSSD and Paragon.
I really don’t think such an issue exists.
Most people have SDC Spaulding and Sinclair joined at the hip.
PT has covered Sinclair in great detail, at least there are several issues with stories about Sinclair in them. I believe that is what is being remembered.
To me, SDC and Sinclair is just a coincidence, a result of a poor (and failing) business plan, or, maybe, a product with no market.
Pat
The problem is that is happen over 34 years ago before the internet. To me SDC was a blip in the history of plastic figures. They popped up and disappeared before you know it. One thought I had was SDC might have gotten their product into the several Sinclair stores in their area to sell. They used this to tout their product. I saw a photo of the blister cards on the web and it would be interesting to see if they state where the figures were made. I will be watching for shows to see if a card pops up.
I guess it depends on your prospective.
In the world of toy figures and playsets, Spaulding is, indeed, a blip. When you focus just on Marx dinosaur figures and playsets, as I do, it gains stature not for its output, but because it has the distinction of being the company who last made figures using the important Marx Revised Mold. And it may hold a clue as to what happened to the mold.
Pat
You have a very good point on SDC’s part of the Marx dinosaur world. Your next step is to track down a card to confirm where they were made. Then contact the newspaper in the town where Spaulding was to see if they did any articles.
I bought lots of cards on eBay
even one made to show how man and dinosaurs lived together
before the flood.
Now that I see it, says made in USA
OK
one step forward,
two steps back.
The article about Chuck Saults was written by Chuck Saults.
Chuck Saults, “Dinophobia”,
Prehistoric Times, no.12, May/June, 1995, p.22
evidently he acquired models and models “worth” $,$$$,$$$
but found buyers only willing to part with $$,$$$
PT #12 is going to require a bit of luck
and more waiting until I can get my hands on : (
Can anyone make a copy of the article Dinophobia for Pat. If so let me know and I will pass his email to you to help him out in his research.
Got it. Sounds like it might be one of the guys you met in NY.
Will share directly with admin if (s)he is interested.
Sent me what you found out. My email is pestad@gmail.com
Been a while ….
Found evidence of a direct link between SDC and Sinclair gas stations,
(besides what Chuck wrote in his article).
Purchased a 8″ x 10″ poster with SDC prehistoric figures.
The front of the poster advertised the coming of a 130′ Dino Hot Air Balloon over the Lincoln, Omaha areas ( Nebraska). On the other side, was an invitation to start your miniature dinosaur collection (SDC figures produced from the original Marx Revised Mold.)
If interested check out the Collector’s Corner in Prehistoric Times magazine #126