Last Night we posted if the Marx 60mm Rusty without winchester was a variation or damaged. I want to see your responses. I got three responses, the first said damage without backing up his reason. The second one enlarged the photo and felt it was possible. The third person Ed Borris gave me the answer I was looking for. In his comment he mention seeing a picture of Rusty from South America in red with the winchester. That was the information I needed. I know the Marx Rin Tin Tin cavities are somewhere in South America. Many years ago I went over to England for the Plastic Warrior Show. A few days before the PW show, Norman Joplin had a night toy soldier show. I took the underground to the show and had a very interesting time. I did not expected to get much and ran into a deal that I had to bum a ride from Bill Murphy to take the items back to my hotel. I also met my first German dealer Erno Tegli (I may have his name mispelled). Erno had some interesting items including a Rip Masters in translucent blue. He would not say where got it but I learned later he did a lot dealing with people in South America. I had other dealings with Erno over the next few years before his death, but he never show up with any others of the Rin Tin Tin character figures
With this information from Ed, we now know the Rusty figure without the winchester is damaged. Case Closed.
Damage
I have seen some Rusty’s where the rifle didn’t look like it was broken, but just looked defective coming out of the mold. Some of the ones I have seen had a little rounded nub coming out of the bottom of his hand, others with no excess plastic, they all had telltale sign of the top of the rifle though. The one you have pictured it still looks like the barrel of the rifle is coming out of the top of his hand, so I would think it’s a mold defect or mismold. I have not heard of them changing the mold so he had no rifle. I have a number of Rusty’s with the rifle intact in cream, powder blue and even one in gray. In the not too distant past I had seen a vivid red Rusty on e-bay being offered by a guy in South America, I wondered about the authentencity of that one.
Ed
See my update you will see comment on the Rusty figure from South america. The Jim Hardy figure may be down in South America as well as I have seen him in a red. Western figures are popular. There is a web site from Brazil where the collector shows figures from his country and they are mostly western. The collector has been to Gettysburg toy soldier show twice and may do OTS next year.
I enlarged the photo above and I can see remnants of the barrel both above and below the fingers. That does not mean they did not seal off the mold- just maybe did it in a straight line instead of trying to flow smoothly into the fingers
Mark
See my update on Rusty. I use a magnifying glass on the figures and wwhile my were smooth breaks we know now that it is damage.