1963 Marx Universal Monsters: What should a new collector know?

[Jade88]

I'm just getting starting on this classic monster line, and I'm in love. I just received the Creature and Hunchback marked 1963.


The have a nice waxy feel and are very clearly vintage figures. Two things throw me off however. The Creature is marked on both circles. He has both a 1963 and Universal stamp. The Hunchback only has a Marx Bros stamp. Was he not an official Universal Monster in this line?

The other thing that's different between the two of that the Hunchback is a much lighter than the creature, but this looks like sun fading to my eyes. Are the commonly found with faded colors?


Thanks for any help with these questions or any other useful information about this line for a newcomer!

[horrorhunter]

I'm just getting starting on this classic monster line, and I'm in love. I just received the Creature and Hunchback marked 1963.


The have a nice waxy feel and are very clearly vintage figures. Two things throw me off however. The Creature is marked on both circles. He has both a 1963 and Universal stamp. The Hunchback only has a Marx Bros stamp. Was he not an official Universal Monster in this line?

The other thing that's different between the two of that the Hunchback is a much lighter than the creature, but this looks like sun fading to my eyes. Are the commonly found with faded colors?


Thanks for any help with these questions or any other useful information about this line for a newcomer!

You didn't mention color. Are they both teal blue?

Anyway, for good info interspersed with copious chaos check out this thread: http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=1070.msg17346#msg17346
...and pack a lunch. You'll be there awhile.

BTW, Welcome.

[Jade88]

You didn't mention color. Are they both teal blue?

Anyway, for good info interspersed with copious chaos check out this thread: http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=1070.msg17346#msg17346
...and pack a lunch. You'll be there awhile.

BTW, Welcome.

Whoops, they are both Orange. Thanks for the welcome!

[Mike Scott]

Welcome to the UMA, Jade88 

Here are the two original 1963 colors. These are not faded. If you have any much different, they're probably Mexican repops.

Universal had their name on the Aurora "Hunchback" model a year later, so it looks like they were claiming copyright, around that time, even though the Marx Hunchback is pretty generic looking.

[Hepcat]

I'm just getting starting on this classic monster line, and I'm in love.

The other thing that's different between the two of that the Hunchback is a much lighter than the creature, but this looks like sun fading to my eyes. Are the commonly found with faded colors?

To further confuse present day collectors, different production runs on different days could and very probably did result in colour variations:




And here from zombiehorror's collection is a Frankenstein figure that he has good reason to believe is an authentic original Marx vile green figure:






Here's a shorter thread that summarizes what we think we "know" about the Marx monsters:

http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=27394.0

[horrorhunter]

And here from zombiehorror's collection is a Frankenstein figure that he has good reason to believe is an authentic original Marx vile green figure:

The green Marx Frank in those pics is by PlastiMarx and from the '70s. PlastiMarx was the mexican subsidiary of Marx until Marx was purchased by Quaker in the early '70s, and then the Mexican factory became it's own separate entity and named itself PlastiMarx. I have all six of the green PlastiMarx monster figures. I can't say with 100% certainty this is correct, but based on what I've been able to find out and piece together I'm about 90% sure this is the case. Those green ones have shown up on eBay off and on for years, so I think the PlastiMarx explanation makes more sense than the supposedly "scarce as hen's teeth Vile Green" story.

Here's a link to a post with more info concerning PlastiMarx and the green ones: http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=1070.msg513947#msg513947

And another link: http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=1070.msg497670#msg497670

Here's an old pic of my Marx monster shelf showing the green PlastiMarx figures with my original Teal Blue figures (from 1963), and original Orange figures (from 1964).

[Hepcat]

The green Marx Frank in those pics is by PlastiMarx and from the '70s. PlastiMarx was the mexican subsidiary of Marx until Marx was purchased by Quaker in the early '70s, and then the Mexican factory became it's own separate entity and named itself PlastiMarx. I have all six of the green PlastiMarx monster figures. I can't say with 100% certainty this is correct, but based on what I've been able to find out and piece together I'm about 90% sure this is the case. Those green ones have shown up on eBay off and on for years, so I think the PlastiMarx explanation makes more sense than the supposedly "scarce as hen's teeth Vile Green" story.

While there's no doubt that PlastiMarx produced almost all of the green monsters found these days, zombiehorror's words about the vile green Frankenstein he bought can't be lightly dismissed:

I still believe my lime green Frank to be an original Vile Green (I think that was the colors name.).  Although I have seen similar lime colored ones from Mexico mine has none of the flashing issues associated with those repros!  Also I bought them from a seller in Pa. that stated they (there was an orange Phantom [I think it was one of the orange pumpkin/milky ones] as  well) were his from when he was a child.  There was also a 19 cent price tag on its base; not sure when the sticker fell off but apparently it did but I'm pretty sure there was a store name on it as well!

[Jade88]

To further confuse present day collectors, different production runs on different days could and very probably did result in colour variations:




And here from zombiehorror's collection is a Frankenstein figure that he has good reason to believe is an authentic original Marx vile green figure:






Here's a shorter thread that summarizes what we think we "know" about the Marx monsters:

http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=27394.0

This stuff was such a great help, the color variation picture was a godsend. Thank you!

[horrorhunter]

While there's no doubt that PlastiMarx produced almost all of the green monsters found these days, zombiehorror's words about the vile green Frankenstein he bought can't be lightly dismissed:

It's really hard to tell detail by his photos, and certainly hard to tell about true color by the lousy old pic I posted of my green ones. I was just going by the look of the color of zombiehorror's green Frank in his pics. It looks exactly like my green ones look in person, and it looks exactly like the good pics of all of the green ones I've seen listed on eBay over the years. Since the "Vile Green" ones are supposed to be so rare, if they exist at all, it seems that there is a higher likely-hood that the missing sticker was placed on a PlastiMarx green one in the '70s, or it could have been a sticker from an older Marx figure that ended up on there...who knows? Regarding the lack of plastic flashing, those PlastiMarx greens varied somewhat as some have considerable flashing (usually the Wolfman), and some had very little to none. We can't know for sure after all these years but just by the look of his green Frank in his pics I think it's probably just another PlastiMarx green like the rest of them floating around the marketplace. It should be noted that the PlastiMarx greens have little in common with later Mexican repops which usually have much more plastic flashing as well as blank circles on the base bottoms and are rarely if ever the same shade of green as the PlastiMarx figures.

[Hepcat]

Did PlastiMarx produce monsters in any colour other than the vile green?

[horrorhunter]

Did PlastiMarx produce monsters in any colour other than the vile green?

One would think that they must have but the ones that have shown up on eBay are lime green as far as I know. I do have a Series 3 Nutty Mad Gutterball Annie in tan that is identical in tan color to other Marx figures which were identified by an eBay seller as being made by the PlastiMarx facility. Here's an old pic of my Nutty Mads with the tan Gutterball Annie in the back row.



Another monster collector I knew years ago had a Marx Wolfman in tan. Maybe that one was made by PlastiMarx? I dunno.

[Haunted hearse]

The reason I bought the glow in the dark Uncle Miltie figures was because they were affordable, and I didn't have to worry if they were reproductions or not. I honestly enjoy having the complete set of six, so I'm fine they aren't original Marx issued.