Marx Monsters

[Hepcat]

I just want to say that you guys are great for putting so much effort into trying to unravel some of the mystery behind Marx monsters history. People who don't give a ratsass about monsters, you know "normal people" ("lookat'em over there....I hate'em"), would think us mad. Or, at least strangely "off", with the amount of attention we pay to this confounding minutia. Vile green or vile repop, we love this stuff, by god! And that color green looks great whether it's vintage or not. I loved it enough to go after all six of them a few years ago.

There is no other place on the net as good as UMA for providing detailed informational content on just about any monster related toy and on most monster model kits and many baby boomer toys as well.

[horror1o1]

They are not even close in color. I have a complete set of these, and it is distinctly different in color and esp. value. More "white" and "matte" to the color, like other Marx figures produced. Same with the blue, more like the U.N.C.L.E. figures produced. They had a certain color ready to roll, needed to produce more figures to fill an order, and went with it. Obviously they made a jillion times more of the common colors. As I said in the other thread, these were known colors by figure guys years ago.

That makes sense. I know if i had orders to fill i would use what ever i had

[Hepcat]

Sadly I have no memory whatsoever of these being sold at the five-and-dimes in London, Ontario. Perhaps because I was more oriented to model kits; I just don't know. Maybe they just weren't sold in my neck of the woods because I just didn't know of their existence until more recently.

I just contacted three of my collecting buddies in Canada all of whom are baby boomers about the same age as I am. One was my best buddy in London who was also into the Aurora kits and my Creepy and Eerie magazines when he was a kid, another grew up in Hamilton and haunted the toy departments of the Kresge, Woolworth and Eaton stores downtown since he was heavily into the Aurora kits and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and the third grew up in Ottawa and was into Marx Tinykins and other Marx figures as a kid. None of them remember the Marx Universal Monster figures being sold in stores.

Maybe they just weren't distributed in Canada.

[horrorhunter]

I just contacted three of my collecting buddies in Canada all of whom are baby boomers the same age as I am. One was my best buddy in London who was also into the Aurora kits and my monster magazines when he was a kid, another grew up in Hamilton and haunted the toy departments of the Kresge, Woolworth and Eaton stores downtown since he was heavily into the Aurora kits and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and the third grew up in Ottawa and was into Marx Tinykins and other Marx figures as a kid. None of them remember the Marx Universal Monster figures being sold in stores.

Maybe they just weren't distributed in Canada.

Here is a bigger question: Did Marx distribute anything outside the United States? Marketing to other countries wasn't as common fifty years ago. As long as I've collected Marx this has never come up in conversations with other collectors. I know that many things were marketed to Canada by U.S. companies....How about Marx?

[Hepcat]

Many Marx toys were definitely sold in Canada. I very clearly remember a Great Garloo on display at Kresge in downtown London. I pointed it out to my mother but at that price point it was an absolute no-go.

The Marx Playsets, e.g. Fort Apache, Ben Hur, Alamo, etc, were also sold in Canada. So were the Tinykins. That's why I found the absence of any memory of something as striking as the Universal monster figures curious.

In general, whatever toys were sold in the United States were also sold in Canada. Exceptions, such as the Topps Mars Attacks cards, are therefore worthy of note.

[Allhallowsday]

Your  green Frankie could very well be original vintage  1960's .... if my memory serves me well (as it does for the past and not the present) i remember seeing the first round of Marx monsters (in 1963) were the teal blue ones,,, i remember only seeing blue ones that first year... shortly after i remember seeing the Popsicle orange ones  mixed in with the blues but the orange ones were undated..... so your green one very well could be original 1960's......who can say it is or is not... but it is definitely not a first issue release........does any one have 1963 dated orange monsters??

I'd like to see an example.  I kept a set of orange, of varying hues, and none have the date, but the usual marks.  Except the Hunchback has no Universal Pictures mark, just a blank circle...

[Mord]

I don't think the Uncle Milton's are missing any detail, if they are I'd need a microscope to find it?!  Now once you get into the Mexican reissues, there are definitely the flashing issues, lack of detail and just plain crummy molds on a lot of them!

Also I wouldn't really care if the Glow ones were lacking detail because, well quite frankly, these things just look so damned cool in the dark!!

I think the Uncle Milton ones were inconsistent in quality. I've seen some pictures posted here that had serious issues and others that were perfect. I have a "Monster Studio" set that is absolutely beautiful. One problem they do have is that they are brittle. You have to handle them with a lot more care than the originals.

[Monsters For Sale]

Most of the Mexican Marxies are pretty well done, using the original molds. Sometimes the plastic is added to the mold before it has reaches the right temperature and fingers aren't completely filled.  Later on, the molds got worn or people just didn't care enough to tighten the parts sufficiently and there is excessive flashing.

Generally, I like them a lot.  I mean, if the are good enough for us to be confused about what is and what is not a first-run Marx, they must be pretty good.

The Mexican knock-offs that really tickle me are the one that are incredibly sloppy copies.  Here are examples of both varieties side-by-side:





Evidently all the little guys were sold with the paint job shown.  I have never seen one that was not painted the same way.

[mrmike59]

I have a full set of the orange ones and everyone of them have the MCMLXIII date stamp on them.

[mrmike59]

Yes I have several of the teal ones with the dates on them.

[Hepcat]

I have a full set of the orange ones and everyone of them have the MCMLXIII date stamp on them.

Interesting! Could you post pictures of these?

[Monster Bob]

The black molded, flesh-tone Mexican Frank thrills me for some reason. I had to buy one, and got one still in the cellophane wrapper. It appears to be older- I don't know about how old, but it is a cool figure in its own way.

[Hepcat]

Black molded and flesh toned? What do you mean? How can that be?

[horrorhunter]

I have a full set of the orange ones and everyone of them have the MCMLXIII date stamp on them.

This is, so far, unknown. The original orange Marx Monsters had a bar over the date. The orange Mexican repops are usually blank on the bottom. We would like to see pics regarding this.

[Wicked Lester]

This admittedly Mexican re-pop of the Creature just sold at an incredibly high price on Ebay. Misidentified as from the 70's. Looks like the same one I have from the 90's. Someone must have wanted this awfully bad.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-RARE-UNIVERSAL-MONSTER-CREATURE-FROM-THE-BLACK-LAGOON-FIGURE-BY-MARX-/360959732781?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=GBBEcIJWTvpTGSSrRkfx2tLN6Ig%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc