Marx Monsters

[frankenstein73]

I have an original vile green phantom. It Has the date still on the bottom, not barred out. The only one ive ever seen besides a creepy yellow mummy with the date.  And I have a theory why we don't see the other colors, I will post some pictures of him later. 

[horrorhunter]

I have an original green phantom. It Has the date still on the bottom, not barred out. The only one ive ever seen besides a vile yellow mummy with the date.  And I have a theory why we don't see the other colors, I will post some pictures of him later.

We look forward to seeing this info. I would love to see proof of the mythical colors of original '60s Marx UniMons- Yellow, Green, & Rose (with accompanying adjectives).

[Haunted hearse]

We look forward to seeing this info. I would love to see proof of the mythical colors of original '60s Marx UniMons- Yellow, Green, & Rose (with accompanying adjectives).

I think it defames the Marx Monsters to suggest that any of them were craven.  I refuse to believe that any were yellow!

[frankenstein73]

Sorry for the delay I have been trying to find the pictures I had saved of a yellow mummy that sold on ebay a couple years ago. but I am afraid they were lost with all my others when my laptop crashed. I had posted the auction in this thread earlier but the pictures are gone from it as well. (if anyone else saved it -zombiehorror?- please post for us to see)
   Anyway it also had the date on the bottom and it had swirled tan colors in it much like this green one of mine. The colors obviously weren't completely mixed.
My theory based just on these two examples, being the only two in the other "proposed" colors that I have seen - with the dates present- is this.
    The yellow, green and rose colors simply wouldn't mix properly so the factory dropped them and went with the two colors that did mix easily, being orange and teal.
The reason we cant seem to find them, a few leaked out, possibly from employees taking factory rejects home, or some went out in the first few batches sent to stores.
  here is my green Phantom of the Opera with dated bottom. the plastic seems like the old figures, has the same "old" plastic smell, and is  a good molding.


20140630_165004 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

20140630_165017 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

20140630_165839 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

20140630_164942 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

I will post some pictures of it with one of my green  Mexican repop marx later, im out of time.

[frankenstein73]

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

here is the auction I posted back in 2012 that had the yellow and brown marbled plastic MUMMY with the date. I would swear there were permanent pictures posted and more comments about this auction. But don't see them anymore??
  And evidently I had seen one before that I had forgotten, but it must have been one from the late 90s or 2000. I vaguely remember another yellow one tbat sold in ebays early days.

[Mord]

What an incredible Marx collection you have, F73. No wonder I can't find any of these out there, you've cornered the market.

[freddie poe]

i can easily see the marx company of the early 1960's taking two different color plastics and dumping them into the one mold. especially if they were attempting to create those sorts of wild weird-oh named colors i.e. the green, yellow, etc...that they were advertising.  but if is true the run was certainly short lived making those colors very very rare.

[horrorhunter]

From what I've been able to find out the mixed colors didn't pass Marx quality control. They buried thousands of Marx pieces in the famous "Marx dump" through the '50s and '60s for molding defects or inconsistent colors. Currently, and for the last few years, collectors have dug up some of those pieces (mostly Marx dinosaurs) and many have gone into collections or been offered on eBay. Many of those pieces were ravaged by the elements, but some survived undamaged. One of the reasons they switched to the shiny "Heretage" type plastic around 1964 was probably because it mixed better and always looked more uniform. But collectors want the older pieces because of the variations in the coloring- the very thing Marx quality control fought to make uniform. If these yellow, green, and rose colors were especially hard to mix then that's a good reason Marx wouldn't have continued with them. You see a few Marx dinos with the marbling effect in the grayish colors, but they are a bit scarce. They are highly prized by Marx Prehistorics collectors.

[freddie poe]

Brother Horror Hunter is right about the dump near the old marx west virginia plant.. that place has been excavated more than egypt!!

[frankenstein73]

What an incredible Marx collection you have, F73. No wonder I can't find any of these out there, you've cornered the market.

thanks Mord, I acquired most of them about 15-20 years ago. They were much cheaper then, They were some of the first uni monsters I started recollecting from the memories of my youth. I love their simplicity and beautiful sculpts, I have often thought about selling a set or two them, but change my mind every time. I will post pics soon of my collection, I about have it set up the way I want.

From what I've been able to find out the mixed colors didn't pass Marx quality control. They buried thousands of Marx pieces in the famous "Marx dump" through the '50s and '60s for molding defects or inconsistent colors. Currently, and for the last few years, collectors have dug up some of those pieces (mostly Marx dinosaurs) and many have gone into collections or been offered on eBay. Many of those pieces were ravaged by the elements, but some survived undamaged. One of the reasons they switched to the shiny "Heretage" type plastic around 1964 was probably because it mixed better and always looked more uniform. But collectors want the older pieces because of the variations in the coloring- the very thing Marx quality control fought to make uniform. If these yellow, green, and rose colors were especially hard to mix then that's a good reason Marx wouldn't have continued with them. You see a few Marx dinos with the marbling effect in the grayish colors, but they are a bit scarce. They are highly prized by Marx Prehistorics collectors.

I have heard of the marx digs, could you Imagine how much fun that would be! I wondered about that with my phantom but I dont think his mask would have made it if he was buried.
I still lose sleep over missing that yellow mummy......if it hadn't been a buy it now I guarantee it would have been on my shelf today. There are collectors that have these, i know they are out there. I wish they would share their knowledge and pictures.  One more hope for yellow mummy pics, I have an old desktop in storage. Im going to hook it up and see if the mummy pics are on it.

[horrorhunter]

Thanks for the info, F73. I think your theory is probably correct about the yellow, green, and rose Marx UniMons- a few were made that surface occasionally, but they were never made in quantity because of mixing problems for those colors. Those things have become almost like mythological cryptids at this point. It's great to finally see a picture of one with the original date showing. Man, that's one freaky lookin' Phantom. I hope to stumble onto one of the weird colored originals one day.

[frankenstein73]

And here he is with a common mex marx green for comparison.

20140630_165204 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

20140630_165905 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

20140630_165839 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

[Hepcat]

Brother Horror Hunter is right about the dump near the old marx west virginia plant.. that place has been excavated more than egypt!!

Bottle collectors are also heavily into digs.

[RedKing]

That is very very cool F73! Man I would LOVE to go excavating in the Marx dump!Can you imagine the treasures there??

[horrorhunter]

And here he is with a common mex marx green for comparison.

20140630_165204 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

20140630_165839 by j-raysjunkyard, on Flickr

Dude, I am SO grabbing copies of these pics. This Phantom is really cool.