Giant Robot Review: Bird Knight Griffin Thingie Non-Transforming Transformer

This time, I'm coming back with a feature I had debated whether continue at all after introducing Retrobots Review. I decided to bring it back because the "giant robot" is a concept that goes beyond time. The toys that established the genre (especially in the 1980s) might be "retro" now, but they are still in the same tradition as much later items. And few examples are more egregious than the specimen under consideration here. Here's more pics with the Truckstop Queen, her boyfriend Ken and the Lido army guy.

I picked up this guy very early this year, and this time around I had no trouble at all finding a provenance. He had very bad wear on his various points of articulation, a problem that would loom very large in subsequent investigations, but evidently intact and clearly robust in overall construction. The toy was made in 1984 by a company called Zima (no apparent relation), and by some accounts sold through Sears. It was given the name Transposer, and evidently sold in enough numbers that specimens still in the box can be found in the $20-50 range. Photos show that it was sold two different color schemes, with further evidence of one other bot sold in Japan.

Now, so far this may seem an unremarkable 1980s bot, with a Shogun Warriors influence that would have been a bit retro even then. But this was sold as a transforming toy, at the same time Transformers and Gobots were hitting US markets, and that is where things get weird and ugly. To start with, there is a strange trapdoor in the back to move the head, along with a pair of wings that get in the way even more than might be expected. (These were the parts where the joints were completely shot.) If you fiddle just right, the knight's head drops out of sight and the figure becomes a kind of bird-headed hunchback.

I have no idea what this bit is for.

"Him belong dead."

But this is clearly just preparation for a greater transformation, and that is where even pics of the original box won't help. The knees are double-jointed, while the feet fold, so the figure can drop into a pose that could pass as a griffin.

But, you are surely saying, this can't really be it? Surely, there is something more? Well, even the box doesn't show an intended final "alt mode", let alone how to get there. However, if you finagle some more, you can get the thing to rest on its feet instead of dragging its knuckles. This is what I have to show for it.

Is that... doing a Catwoman dance???

And this is where I gave up when I got this thing and am giving up now. If I can't figure out how to turn it into something that looks like anything, it's because the people who made it didn't know either.  People made fun of the "G1" Transformers then and now, they ridiculed the Gobots even worse, but this makes the lousiest knockoffs of the 1990s look downright functional. The only good that can come out of this is that it shows just how much creativity and thought went into the transforming bots that we remember. But it's still going back on my shelves, because a robot space knight with wings is still pretty cool.

For the source/ links, here's a web forum with as much information and images as I could find.

As a bonus, here's an excellent Shogun Warriors page at Toys You Had.

Plus, my original Giant Robot Review and Retrobots Revisited parts 1 and 2.

The Legion of Silly Dinosaurs! Generic Zilla

Of all the things that have come and gone, I think the most irreversible loss is the comic book shop. When I was growing up, there was one particular shop my brother and I haunted, and it sold and traded not just comic books but every kind of  toy and collectible imaginable. Sure, it's now normal for comic shops to sell toys as much as comics, but I would wager none are as eclectic as this and presumably any number of shops like it. I have any number of memories centered on this shop, but my strongest is from when I visited the store on my birthday, and my brother told me he had found something. I followed him to one of the store's more secluded corners, and saw something that is with me to this day. Here's a pic of the big guy with my stalwarts Husky and Carl.

Don't worry, it's Carl. Seriously, his superpower is being unkillable.

Only a flesh wound.

Up to that day, I had been obsessed with Godzilla, though I had never seen any of the movies and still didn't have a TV. I had seen licensed Godzilla toys, but their size and quality never impressed me. I had better luck with the Definitely Dinosaurs Tyrannosaurs, which had served as the big G in many playtimes, but it still wasn't the same. When I did find my Godzilla, it was obvious that it was no authorized likeness, but it represented my idea of Godzilla better than any of the tawdry, rubbery guys I had seen before. Of course, a big part of that was simply being absolutely gigantic. I never doubted that this would be THE Godzilla, and I never questioned or cared where he really came from. And that is where the trail begins.

While I was growing up with my Godzilla, I saw identical items on sale at least once, after enough time that it was clear someone was still making them. There were epic battles, including showdowns with army men I had bought just to fight Godzilla, and sometimes the army won. In the course of these battles, I figured out Godzilla's head, arms and tail could pop off relatively easily, and improvised further gruesome effects. Eventually, I took to hiding undelivered note and other random treasures inside, many of which I only cleaned out in the course of preparing for this piece. Then, sometime in the age of the internet, I did a little digging. What I found was story after story of people who had owned and sometimes still had my same Godzilla, and the name that came up again and again was the one I found on my old Godzilla's foot: Dormei.

It turned out that "the" Godzilla was one of many products by a clearly prolific company that specialized in turning out rubber dinosaurs and sci fi/ fantasy creatures. Many of these seem to have been intended to fill niche markets created by other toys, notably that of "mounts" for He Man figures and others of similar size and themes. The larger offerings, up to and including Godzilla, might have aimed to be villains and monsters for higher budget kaiju/ giant robot lines like Shogun Warriors and Voltron. I further discovered that the Dormei Godzilla was issued with several different heads, one of which had a much closer resemblance to the "real" thing. Here are two prize finds, an actual Dormei advertisement (originally posted at skullbrain.org), and a specimen sold with a tag sometime after 1990 (apparently removed from the original source):

Of course, with this lead, I was going to do something foolish. Immediately before starting this piece, I bought another Dormei generic-zilla online. It came in a box that was too big for the postal box but still outlandishly small for one of these guys. Here's pics of my unboxing and the new guy with my old friend.

After seeing the outside of this box, I was genuinely afraid to open it.

Never mind nuclear testing, they made ME fly COACH!

Needless to say, the new arrival looks far less threatening. His overall look is in line with the 1970s Godzilla movies, usually considered the weakest of the series (albeit with psychedelic interludes like Godzilla flying). What caught my interest is that the spinal ridge line extends to the head. This convinced me that this was the "original" head the toy was designed for, though the mention of "interchangeable" heads in the ad suggests that alternate heads were available from the beginning. Here's a closeup of both:

Unfortunately, this photo also shows that the "original" specimen has serious issues with quality. The tail is loose enough I would have suspected it had been replaced if the colors didn't match. (And there really is no way that a repainting could be made convincing to anyone who has handled one of these.) There is flash and frills of plastic all over, including an unbroken line on the underside of the tail that is actually sharp. It was bad enough for me to give a much harsher inspection to my beloved old battler, and I did find similar problems when I looked for them, but nowhere near as bad. It would be tempting to assume this was a late and inferior copy, but it does have the Dormei name, and I think it just as likely the manufacturer cleaned up their production methods when mine was produced.

For the post script, this is one where the trail is long but untraceable. Dormei is reported to have introduced the toy in 1986, and production continued well after 1990 both by Dormei and other manufacturers. Later US sales were by Toysmith, source of the tagged example shown above (and naturally independently familiar to me). I have no doubt the same toys were the subject of a lawsuit by Toho at the mindbogglingly late date of 2008, as well as less humorous complaints about lead paint. From what evidence is at hand, this may have been the end of the line for our not-Godzilla, as no reports are in evidence of further production and sales. Abundant specimens remain on sale online, where they are by no means rare but certainly not cheap. Most such specimens appear to be from Dormei's glory days, but it is certainly possible that somewhere, some obscure manufacturer is churning out copies of copies of the big guy.

If that all seems somber, here's one more pic of the "original" with some friends. Lineup in order of size is Lanard Alien Queen, Definitely Dinosaurs Spinosaurus, Ken R. Wampa, the Truckstop Queen, Marx evil space guy, Bossk, sidekick Carl, Husky, Playmobil astronaut, Galaxy Laser Team commander and Rogun Robots H bot and Red.

Hail to the King, or the next best thing!

Very short link list:

Knockoff Collector article on this and other knockoffs and generic fantasy toys.

Video review of vintage specimen, and the main thing that got me started on this.

While I'm at it, my first/ previous Legion post on the patchisaurs.

Rogues' Roundup! Dropped Pilots

It's time for the start of another feature, and this time the theme is that there is no theme. This will be a line up of the odds and ends of the toybox, and I'm starting with a perfect storm of offenders, what I call "pilot" figures. I use this as a general term for articulated figures that were not sold on their own, but included with vehicles and playsets as pilots, drivers, or general crew, and then very possibly lingered on without identity or purpose after the toy they came with was lost, broken or forgotten. Whatever their origin, these were the most mysterious and least respected of vintage figures. They were the sidekicks, the hostages, the bystanders COBRA and the stormtroopers gunned down. They were the figures you dropped in boxes, bins and carrying cases with your less used figures, then never quite remembered putting there. They were the ones that got thrown in to a trade for something else, the ones the other kids made fun of, the ones the comic book store wouldn't take. But in your heart you still loved them, and when they were gone you would still wonder what it was you had lost.

Of this genre of figures, I count as the best and purest examples are those included with the Robotix sets. Building toys were the source of many pilot figures, but these are the only ones to come to my attention that are on the "standard" 3.75-4 inch scale. Overall, they are of good enough quality and detail that there really isn't a lot to be said about them. Their size and science-fictional style made them easy to integrate with Star Wars and GI Joe figures, and also made it easy to assume they were part of some relatively high profile action figure line. I personally believed for ages that the pair in my possession were Robotech figures. In fairness, before you throw those rocks, I only ever saw or owned one figure actually from the line. Here's a closeup of the pair:

Meanwhile, the most prolific producer of pilot figures was surely Fisher Price, who notably started before action figures had been established as a market in their own right. The Adventure People line featured some of the first fully-articulated plastic action figures, both as add-ons to vehicles and playsets and sold on card. The toys were innovative enough that other manufacturers simply ripped them off; the lore even tells that Kenner tried out Star Wars designs using Adventure People figures as a reference My one encounter with the line was when I received the Deep Sea Diver figure, which was something like a midway point between a playset and a separately sold figure. It came in a box I still vaguely remember, along with a rubber octopus, a buoy that attached to the diver's helmet and a treasure chest I remember filling with coins, plates and goblets from Playmobil sets. Here's a pic of the diver with the octopus, and a bonus pic of the figure without the helmet, which I still can't resist trying to remove.

Fisher Price inevitably did a science fiction subline, which could be considered a Star Wars ripoff but in this case is more like turnabout/ fair play. I'm  somewhat surprised I didn't have any of these, though I saw them in the wild occasionally. Shortly before starting this essay, I finally bought one of the figures from this line, an astronaut that looks more like a robot or deep sea diver. Like the diver, his left hand is shaped to hold an accessory but turned sideways, a pose that may have originally been intended to fit with holding a steering wheel or gear shift. He also shares with the diver a head that clearly has far more detail than can actually be seen. Here's pics of the astronaut with Bossk and another in our line up. the Construx guy.

Construx building sets, also by Fisher Price, was yet another major source of pilot figures. The one shown here can be taken apart and featured interchangeable helmets. I tended to view him as a robot rather than a man, which (for once) didn't make him a lot more interesting. I also have/ had a more conventional figure included with some Construx sets, a generic but well-made man in a blue sort of uniform about 3 inches tall. My first recollection of that little guy was finding him stuffed in the accessory compartment of a Kenner Darth Vader carrying case. For a very long time, I played with him occasionally without any idea what he was. In hindsight, this was more strange than it sounds, as I am now reasonably satisfied he would have come with a boat set I'm sure I received no earlier than my 7th birthday, the time when my memories go from hazy to clear. I had planned to make him the centerpiece of this collection, but unfortunately, I had no luck when I actually went looking for the figure. While I have by no means lost hope, I have let his turn wait for another day.

Meanwhile, pilot figures got a boost from two relatively late lines, Dino Riders and Starcom. These were made at a scale only a little larger than "army men", undoubtedly to keep the vehicles, sets and creatures they came with at an affordable size. In overall quality, they rival even the Robotix figures, with the further edge of 7 points of articulation to those stalwarts' 4. However, the Dino Riders never seemed to reach the mark set by Star Wars, GI Joe, or the emerging TMNT brand, while Starcom would be remembered as a notorious failure. I never got any Dino Riders toys, I suspect because they were more expensive than other dino toys that kept me just as happy, but picked up one of their weird villain/ alien figures many years later. As for Starcom, I traded for a single figure a friend had lying around sometime in later elementary school, and never really cared about getting any more of the line. Here's some pics of this pair with other figures, including the Arco/ Rogun bots and the Truckstop Queen.

"Sorry, but we live on 2 different scales. Also, I already have a boyfriend, and he's a Wampa."

Now for last and to me the best. Soon after the Adventure People hit the scene, Tonka produced a line of "Play People" action figures to go with their larger vehicles. In researching for this piece, I found out they were sold separately or in pairs, but I believe that the ones I played with all came with vehicles, particularly a van/ camper set I still have around. I am sure there were at least two or perhaps three, including what I took for a woman in an orange suit that was already fading to a peach color. Any figure that would match is long gone. What I do still have is a helmeted driver I call "Carl" that I now know was included with a 1979 race car set. Here he is with a pair of Husky Helper figures that probably should have been in this group all along.

Looking at him now, he's better than I remembered. I was particularly impressed to find that the head can turn as well as going up and down, where most figures could only do one or the other. 

I have absolutely no memory of this guy with the race car, which probably would have been given to my older brother if we ever had it at all. What I do remember is that I once tried to trade him at a comic book store, only to be turned down. I then had a further misadventure where I lost him at a restaurant while having lunch after. At that point, I was determined enough to look until I found him, and took him home again.

Some time after that, I was playing with the Husky figure shown here on the right, which is in fact undoubtedly the most heavily used figure I own. At one point, I intended to make the second Husky his sidekick, and started an adventure that would have introduced them to each other. However, the arch villain (played by Bossk) got an overwhelming advantage so early even the other Husky couldn't save the day. Then, by the wonders of retconning, Carl came to the rescue, and got both his name and super powers in the process. Soon enough, it was Carl who went with Husky on most of his adventures, until I practically forgot I had tried to get rid of him. Such is the power of the imagination, and the generic action figure.

Here's the links for this installment:

This Old Toy guide to Construx and Adventure People figures, as well as just about anything else Fisher Price related.

A BattleGrip overview of Play People, short but by far the best I could find on the subject.

Toy Galaxy's videos on Starcom and Dino Riders

Miniature Giants Part 5: Not Marx Is Still Good Marx

This will be the final installment of my series on large-size Marx figures, though I have enough material to bring it back as a feature. I have previously commented that perhaps the greatest testimony to Marx's legacy is that many toys that they didn't make are still attributed to them. Just as many of the most iconic Beach Boys songs weren't actually by the Beach Boys, casual collectors and sellers list items as from Marx that were made by other companies and in some cases were being made well after Marx bit the dust in 1980. In that spirit, here's a lineup of rogues that weren't from Marx, but still represent the Marx style. To start with, here's another lineup of several of our rogues, with Scooper and the Truckstop Queen for reference:

The first of our rogues are here on a technicality. These are Mexican reissues of loosely related Marx figures probably released in the early to mid-1960s. I actually obtained this pair in a quite terrible "vintage" bag that I'm sure was from no earlier than the late 1980s. The figures were noteworthy for their unusual scale, either 3 or 4.5 inch, and detailing that looks rather "retro" even for the 1960s. They were also probably the last Marx astronaut figures to be unambiguously portrayed with weapons, including the rather surreal knife-wielding figure seen here. Here's a pic of the pair with Bossk the bounty hunter:

What really sets this group apart, and will certainly get them at least one further installment, is the quite vivid facial expressions. For this alone, I rank them as easily the most bizarre, disturbing and flat-out evil-looking Marx items I have seen or handled (including the "casualty figures!). The old man/ commander especially manages to look more menacing than the armed figures. Here's a few more shots to show what I mean:

"Looks like someone brought a knife to an orbital-laser-cannon fight..."

The next in the lineup is a large-size version of an astronaut released by Timmee with the Galaxy Laser Team set, and quite possibly the single most frequently listed "Marx" astronaut. He is curiously realistic for a distinctly fanciful line, to the extent that I have wondered if the sculpt was developed independently for something closer to the Marx "Apollo" set. I am certain that the open hand was originally intended to hold some kind of accessory not included with the set, most likely a flag of the kind already common in army man sets. Why this was retained in the large-size figure is less clear. Unfortunately, it will be readily apparent that the manufacturer did not put in nearly as much detail as Marx. Here's some more pics of the figure:

The last item is one I have held back for this post. I acquired the figure as a pair with the Apollo cameraman astronaut, and it was a major reason I took the deal. It was sold as another Marx figure, but it was quite clear to me that it was quite different. In fact, compared to Marx's very manly style, it seemed almost subversive, to the point that my first suspicion was that it came from a later period. Here are some pics of the mystery offering:

In the time it took to receive the figure, I was able to find out enough to establish a provenance that turned out to be routine. The figure was part of a group made by Lido, a major manufacturer of army men, in 1963, about the time Marx started releasing 6-inch figures. (These included a grenadier figure that was even more bizarre and ineffectual looking.) Additional reports indicate that this and other Lido molds were purchased by Asian manufacturers in the 1970s and then used well past 1990, perhaps accounting for my sense of a "modern" look. 

Even with an explicable provenance, I was struck by how different it was not just from Marx offerings but from any number of idealized depictions of the military. The oddly large head, the neutral expression and especially the almost unmasculine jaw all present something quite different from the usual determined, patriotic and stoic troops that more orthodox toymakers churned out in droves. This feels like a trooper for the era's emerging realities, of young men recruited or drafted into conflicts they did not understand with no certainty that victory could be achieved or even defined. Of course, this is undoubtedly reading far too much into things the designers would never have been competent enough to try on their own volition. But even unintended subtexts are still potentially potent, especially in a toy reused for generations, and it is not completely fanciful to wonder if this was one of the many tiny cracks that shaped the outcome and aftermath of Vietnam.

Again, here's the major links:

Toy Soldier HQ article on Lido army men

Marx Wild West Guide to astronaut figures

Little Weirdos post on large sized Galaxy Laser Team figures, plus the original post on GLT

And a recap of the rest of the installments in this series:

Part 1: Enemy Marx (Japanese figures)

Part 2: Marx Marxists! (Soviet figures)

Part 3: Marx on the Moon (Apollo/ astronaut set)

Part 4: The Good, the Marx and the Ugly (Wild West and "'casualty" figures)

Retrobots Revisited: Rogun knockoff spinoff not-Gobots robots

While I have been meaning to get to this post for a very long time, its immediate genesis was a matter of chance. In the vast world of cheap, cheesy and/ or weird 1980s-vintage toys, there is one name so notorious, prolific and unrepentant you can run across them at random: Arco Toys, one of the most prolific producers of vintage low-budget toys. They turned up previously as the only company to admit to making or distributing the notorious "patchisaurs", and I immediately knew them. Yet, I was still being reminded of their creations in the course of researching this piece. The company was best known for generic toys, knockoffs and equally sketchy licensed "rack toys", which they continued to produce even as other prolific offenders were folding or fading away. They also had a somewhat uncanny ability to release knockoffs at the same time or even ahead of the properties that were theoretically being ripped off, notably releasing The Other World the same year as He Man and Space War before Kenner's first Star Wars figures. I can think of no better summary of their work than a quote from Toy Galaxy: "There are good toys, there are bad toys, and there are Arco toys!"

To pick up the trail from the other end, my original encounter with the items under consideration would have happened in the late-ish 1980s, perhaps as early as 1987 or as late as 1989. Somewhere in the midst of other acquisitions, I picked up two robot figures sculpted in "army man" scale, probably as a reward in school. They obviously didn't make a strong impression immediately, but they stood out in my collection for their unusual level of detail and overall quality, which compared favorably to plenty of larger and more sophisticated robot toys. I was particularly impressed with the sculpt shown at the top of this post, which I thought of as "H" for the symbol on its/ his faceplate. I also recognized that the design of both bots seemed intended for peaceful tasks, without a hint of the weaponry that bristled from more typical robot toys then and now. Over time, they became a go-to for a space expedition, typically led by a Timmee Galaxy Laser Team astronaut I also had lying around. Here's a pic of my original pair with a couple Timmee figures:

As usual with these things, I only picked up on what the figures were in the era of the internet. In the course of learning about other toys (mainly GLT and "patchis"), I discovered that my bots had been part of a larger set called RoGun Robots, originally released in 1984 around the same time as a series of Gobots with a similar name. Of those who knew of the set, many were unimpressed or entirely critical, frequently further criticizing them as a knockoff of the Gobots line. I further concluded that the ones I had were by a wide margin the best. Still, I searched intermittently for examples on sale, and eventually found a set on sale. Here's a pic of a full selection:

It will already be evident that the critics had a point. The entirety of the set is six sculpts in three undistinguished colors, and since they were typically sold in bags of 48, the whole would have been far less impressive than the individual bots. There were also plenty of flaws with the design of the sculpts. My original pair were reasonably functional, particularly H, but not especially dynamic. I also never could think of a reason for H to have a letter on his face, no matter how much I wanted to. The next best is the short robot with the raised arms. Its design generally matches the aesthetics of the other two, while the pose adds enough flair to hint at actual motion. Here's more pics.

Things quickly go downhill with the remaining three. I consider the next runner up to be the one with the hemispherical head. It still another looks functional, but to me the design hints at a militaristic purpose out of character with the others. The last and least both looked as if they are supposed to fly, with one I think of as "Whirler" even having what look like tiny engines on the end of each arm. Here's more pics of these lesser bots, including what seems to be a variant of the Whirler sculpt.

Now, we can circle back to the bigger questions. Were these bots merely knockoffs? Are they any better or worse than other offerings from Arco? At the end of the day, did Arco toys really deserve the notoriety they have received? The honest answer is that Arco was no more guilty than the larger players they took their cues from. When Hasbro's Transformers and Tonka's Gobots arrived simultaneously in US stores, both lines were little if anything more than amalgamations of toys originally sold separately in Japan. While Transformers would focus on unifying existing and new designs under a common mythology and aesthetic, the Gobots line made an equally defensible and certainly more economical decision to continue accepting new items from available suppliers and worry about continuity later, if at all. Of course, one of the companies they turned to was Arco. 

Unfortunately, there is little room for argument about the results that followed. Arco delivered a whopping four Ro-Gun bots that resembled bootleg Megatrons from the Bizarro continuum, and several more of the worst and most ridiculed toys to be sold under the Gobots' already tarnished name. I might normally say something in defense at this point, but I must say that the actual Gobots were clearly inferior to the 2-inch toys.  (However, my pick for worst Gobot would have to be the mind-boggling ScooterBot, which I was mildly surprised to find had nothing to do with Arco.) For some reason, Arco decided to reuse the same name for their bagged army man bots, and the rest is history.

Unfortunately, the postscript is that Arco was soon to follow its products into history. While thee is no evidence that the Arco Gobots lost money, they seem to mark the end of the line for the company as a creative force.  The toys that they produced afterward were just as cheap, but with hardly a trace of the streak of psychedelic, near-psychotic imagination that had made seemingly routine products either beloved or notorious. The end of the line surely came when the company was bought out by Mattel in 1986. The toys that came after are like the tributes of a conquered and humiliated vassal, Captain Power dart gun sets, second-tier Disney merchandise and loads of Barbie accessories. It was an ignominious and for and infamous company, but while they lasted, they left a legacy that will linger on in the minds of anyone who lived through it. Because it turns out nostalgia and PTSD are pretty close to the same thing.

Again, I have saved the bulk of the links for last, and this time there are plenty!
Little Weirdos Rogun Robots and The Other World, because this site has everything.
Toy Galaxy Ro-Gun Cap Rifle review, source of the quote in the opening paragraph.
Little Rubber Guys forum discussion of Rogun 2 inch bots
That Junkman overview of Space War
CollectionDX reviews of Arco Destroyer and Aircraft Carrier Gobots

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!