Miniature Giants Part 4: The Good, the Marx and the Ugly

In this series on large-size Marx toys, this post brings things full circle. When I was a kid in the early to mid 1980s, sci fi/ fantasy toys were the rage, and my choices in toys certainly reflected it. But there were a fair number of usually ill-fated attempts to revive Western-themed toys, presumably fueled by parents and grandparents.who were nostalgic for the cowboys-and-Indians crazes of their own childhoods, and these too came into my toybox in enough numbers to make an impression. There were playsets from the larger Little People and Playmobil lines, which tended to blend in with farm-themed sets from the same manufacturers. There were old-style "army man" figures, including a "swoppet" set I'm still fishing out pieces of. I even had a few figures including a horse from the merchandise line for The Legend of the Lone Ranger, which I must have received years after the movie had come and gone. But the one that really made an impression was a giant Marx Indian, featured on the far right, which I now know was originally released in 1964. Here's another pic of the figure with one of the Japanese soldiers.

This is one where I have a particularly clear recollection of how I obtained the figure. In 1987, I played with the toy in a doctor's office and convinced the doctor to let me take it home, which I now hope means it wasn't an uncommon item. As I figured out what it was (around the time I acquired and then identified the Japanese soldiers), I took it as a given that it was a reissue or copy; I even thought it might have been even bigger than 6 inches, based on recollections of holding it in much smaller hands. However, it was only in the course of preparing this series that I fished it out for closer inspection,  and was a little unnerved to see the authentic Marx stamp on the base. I ordered the two other featured figures in hopes of comparison, and am now satisfied that it most likely was manufactured during Marx's later days, perhaps the mid-70s or later, I have further noted a little bit of translucent "flash" around the base, similar to that on the Soviet officer. Here's some closeup pics of this and a second Indian I obtained.

Yeah, I'm putting my money on the guy with the gun.

Along with the second Indian, I acquired a cowboy/ gunslinger, clearly sculpted as one of Marx's particularly notorious "casualty" figures (covered in a previously referenced article here), which I will be getting to in more detail. What both figures have in common is that they are posed on one foot with an unusually small base that I found noticeably springy. Despite this, the figures are quite stable. I further determined that both figures were missing parts, specifically two feathers on the Indian's head band and a revolver that would have been dangling from the gunslinger's open hand. On closer inspection, I could not find unequivocal signs of breakage, particularly on the Indian, suggesting that the molds may have been streamlined at an early date. With a little further research I found pictures of specimens of the gunslinger missing the gun without other apparent damage, including one still in packaging, which I will also get to below.

As for the gunslinger itself, there is really very little that can be said. The pose in itself is stereotyped and almost tame, clearly based on the movie convention of a defeated villain dramatically clutching his chest before dropping tidily to the ground. The expression, however, is truly horrid, almost but not quite to the point of being comically grotesque. There is also even more detail than usual, including separately sculpted fingers. Here are few more pics.

Now, we can get to the usual postscript, with a little bredth and depth than usual. By the late 1980s,the Western genre had been dragged down by a series of high profile failures, including the above-mentioned Lone Ranger film and the even bigger bomb Heaven's Gate. Some of the last noteworthy Western productions were science-fictional crossovers, and even then the results were uneven. The most notable and ambitious was surely the 1987-1988 cartoon Bravestar, produced by Filmation with possibly more weirdness than usual. That experiment lasted long enough for a modest toy line, but ultimately left more of an impression on those (admittedly including myself) who saw ads and clips years later than on anyone who watched it at the time.  The one inarguable success was Back to the Future 3, released in 1990, which on top of being a critical and commercial success managed to provide at least a fair compromise between movie/ TV conventions and comparatively realistic depictions of Old West life.

Meanwhile, Marx continued production of Western toys to the very end and ultimately beyond. Wild West playsets continued well into the 1970s, while others reused parts from earlier Wester sets, egregiously the surreal 1960s Guerilla Warfare set. The company even released the "Ready Gang" line of Wild West action figures in 1977-1978, among the first of a boomlet of Western figures that the Lone Ranger tie-in line marked the end of. Then, even Marx slipped away, its Mexican affiliate Plastimarx ground on with Western products including large-size figures. I am sure that this is the source of the most significant artifact of the line,  the above-mentioned bagged sets, which are sighted easily enough in online auctions. Typical specimens consist of easily recognized Marx figures identified as made in Mexico and sold under the generic label "Cowboys And Indians". Unfortunately, I was unable to find any further information about them, the chief reason I am not including links to any image of the set, but I have no doubt these sets were made well after 1980, and might even be in production today.

Finally, let's take one more look at the ill-fated gunslinger from a different angle. Not much more to see, just more Marx detail… Wait a minute...

Truly, the past was more messed up than we can imagine.

Here's links for the earlier installments

Enemy Marx

Marx Marxists!

Marx on the Moon!