Marx Monsters

[dlhenderson]

I had few of the large hand-painted Romans (one of which had a curiously botched paint job). Bought them at Woolworth's. Also had some of the big soft plastic WW2 figs (mostly Germans). And, of course, some Nutty Mads. A fond memory: After a harrowing trip to the dentist, my Dad surprised me with two items to salve my psychic wounds: A copy of Meet the Beatles AND a Nutty Mad (Waldo the Weight Lifter). Those were likely also procured at Woolworth's, since it was down the street from where he worked.

[Hepcat]

I had few of the large hand-painted Romans (one of which had a curiously botched paint job).

Neat! I didn't realize that the Romans came painted. They were the hard plastic, were they not?

[bigbud]

Hep, I believe all the hard plastics came painted.......again.........most all the hard plastics are on E-bay at the moment in around the $40 range and down. Take a look.......... Bud

[Hepcat]

Not bad at all. Here's an image of one of the Roman soldiers I lifted from Ebay:

[Hepcat]

Also the plastic is a little less flat looking on the orange ones than the teal ones which corresponds to the way Marx switched from the "lead based" plastic, like with the series 3 nutty mads and the Marx dinosaurs. I think these figures are the most iconic monster kid toy period, even over Aurora models. Thanks for reading my reply.

Are you saying that the series one and series two Nutty Mads were made from lead based plastic and are flatter looking than the series three Nutty Mads whose plastic did not include lead? Would the Marx Weird-Ohs have been made from glossier plastic as well therefore? And were the dinosaurs made from flatter or glossier plastic?

[horrorhunter]

Hi Hepcat, I'm certainly no expert on this but the plastic changed on Marx figures around 1964. I collect Marx Prehistoric Times playsets as well as monster stuff, and I've read dinosaur collectors refer to the earlier Marx dinos as being made from "lead-based plastic". These older dinos are more sought after because there were small variations in many of them called "marbling" where small color variations would occur. The later plastic is always uniform in color and slightly glossy, not flat like the older plastic. There is no consensus as to why Marx switched plastics. Some theories are that the new plastic came out of the molds easier which led to less time loss due to cleaning of the molds. Maybe the new plastic mix was just cheaper? Who knows? Anyhoo, Marx seemed to have changed the type of plastic on all their figures. This must have happened in '64 because the first run of Marx monsters (teal color) came out in 1963 and they are obviously the older flat-type plastic. The second run of monsters (orange color) came out in 1964 and they seem to be the newer type of plastic. If you hold a teal blue monster and an orange monster up to a bright light the orange one will look slightly translucent by comparison. This is really apparent with the third series Nutty Mads (glossy green color) which came out in '64, as they are obviously slightly translucent compared to the earlier, flat color, Nuttys. All of my Marx Weidos are the older flat color plastic, even though they are dated 1964 on the base bottom (in regular numbers, as opposed to roman numerals, strangely enough). Maybe the Weirdos came out just before Marx switched plastic recipes in '64. I think '64 must have been the date of the plastic switch because the Weirdos are the older plastic and the series three Nuttys are the newer plastic, and both series came out in '64. I wish someone that worked for Marx back in the day would come forward and clear some of this up for us. I hope this helps, Hepcat. I always love to discuss this crazy stuff. Oh, by the way, I just ordered a six foot Jack Davis Frankenstein poster repro. I've been wanting to hang one of those babies for 40 years.     Cheers, Michael

[Hepcat]

This is really apparent with the third series Nutty Mads (glossy green color) which came out in '64, as they are obviously slightly translucent compared to the earlier, flat color, Nuttys. All of my Marx Weidos are the older flat color plastic, even though they are dated 1964 on the base bottom (in regular numbers, as opposed to roman numerals, strangely enough). Maybe the Weirdos came out just before Marx switched plastic recipes in '64. I think '64 must have been the date of the plastic switch because the Weirdos are the older plastic and the series three Nuttys are the newer plastic, and both series came out in '64.... I hope this helps, Hepcat. I always love to discuss this crazy stuff.

Yes, that it does!

Oh, by the way, I just ordered a six foot Jack Davis Frankenstein poster repro.

I wonder what an original would fetch these days?

[frankenstein73]

You bet buddy. I've several of the reproduction sets as well,I started rebuying these monsters about 15 or so years ago. I remembered playing with my uncles set at my grandmothers house when i was a kid in the mid 70's.  two of which i still have, a hunchback and franky! And if memory serves me correctly i didnt start seeing the colored mexican repros until around  twelve years ago and they started showing up on ebay. Thats when i bought my first repro set,(dark blue)and a single black mummy. The blue set was good quality but The plastic was different shades from figure to figure,and the black mummy had major molding issues on his back. before then all I saw were the teal,orange, and the carded and loose glow versions. I never saw any other colors besides teal and orange until the repos  started showing up,that's why I don't think they ever made the vile green, yellow, Or red. If they did it was extremely limited, although I vaguely recall (or imagined?)seeing a yellow one showing up before then on eBay and it sold for quite a bit more than the teal and oranges were bringing. At the time I had No idea that Marx had supposedly made more colors? But it's been a long time and a year Or so after that the Mexican sets started showing up. i wish i would have paid more attention and could remember the dates and years i spent looking at these better, it would help narrowing down when the repos were started being made. Oh well, hindsight i guess. And I just realized I messed up in my previous post. My dad was born in 1949 not 54. Oops, sorry dad!

LOOK! its a yellow mummy! he has been painted over but you can see the yellow underneath and it has the DATE! I knew i had seen one before. this thing looks vintage to me. heres the link. (i saved the pics and will post them permantly later) i just wish id have seen it before the guy that used the buy it now. dang!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&hash=item3a707faf43&item=250995519299&nma=true&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&rt=nc&si=AODzDHAHWrLAh%252FcZbgf0%252BF%252BgcH0%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

[bigbud]

I don't know Jeff.........I see a mighty definite greenish to those photos. Lighting can be tricky........Buddy

[Scatter]

I finally finished painting my set after almost 10 years.

Outstanding Doc!! What you lack in speed you make up for in quality!

[frankenstein73]

You may be right buddy, I looked at them on my computer instead or my phone and it looks more questionable. Plus it looks like the plastic is marbled yellow and brown like it wasn't mixed? Maybe marx had trouble with the other colors mixing and that's why we only see teal and orange? And only a few rejects of the other colors got out. Or its just antother mexrepo.

[Hepcat]

...the Ebay seller listed it with an original Phantom saying both figures were from 1964.  But now after seeing and discussing this with you as well as Playset magazine I now present as an original

1964 MARX FRANKENSTEIN IN VILE GREEN

Two questions:

1. Is the plastic dull like that of the teal figures or is it glossy and somewhat translucent like that of the orange figures?

2. Does it smell the same as your orange figures as opposed to like the newer Mexican recastings?

[horrorhunter]

     Re: "Vile" Green Frankenstein, I have all six in this shade of green. I picked them up from eBay auctions in the last few years. Some have the bar where the date should be (like the original orange ones from '64), and some are blank where the date should be. A lot of dealers represent these as original to the '60s. I was on the fence about these green ones being original for awhile. The plastic is flat looking like the teal blue originals, but they don't seem to have that smell of the older lead-based plastic. I finally concluded these green ones must be repops because of the sloppy molding...there is a lot of excess plastic on the molding seems on some of them like those Mexican repops they crank out these days. This is especially apparent on the green wolfman. There is so much plastic sticking out the sides of his head he almost looks like he has werewolf ears. In the original teal blue and orange ones the molds were cleaned regularly and you didn't get all of this excess on the mold seems. I like the green ones and they look way cool, I just think they came out of the molds too imperfect to be original to the '60s....Louis Marx had better quality control than that.

[Monster Bob]

I agree, HH. Too much flash plastic, just like the white "Uncle Milty" one behind it.

[Hepcat]

So you're saying the quality control was bad on the Uncle Millton Glow-in-the-Dark rereleases?