Marx Repo Tinykins Flintstones - A New Look At An Old Post

We interrupt our normally scheduled programing for this update:

Wellll, I did it again - screwed up that is. Back on 9 Jan 2015 I made a post regarding this box of Marx Flintstone Tinykins claiming it to be repo. Thanx to the detective efforts of a facebook Marx Toys group member's (who is also a blog reader), the kind cooperation of another member, as well as the learned opinions of a couple of toy experts a little mystery has been solved. And I'm quite pleased. I never claimed to be an expert - I'm just a schmuck with a camera. I take pictures. LOTS of pictures and the focus of the blog is on those. I cannot claim to be an expert simply because I don't take the time and expend the energy needed to become one, flitting from one subject to another like a Hummingbird from one flower to another. That's just the way it is.

I'm pleased to have found out that the set I bought and thought was a repo was in fact vintage. This has caused me to rethink selling off the set - yup, it's a keeper! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Okay, first of all, here's the set in question:

I postulated that these were repos based on the abundance and relatively low price of the set. Well, in an alternate universe that may have been a good assumption but through the efforts of blog reader and fellow Marx Toys fb group members Christopher Wallentine and Stanley Luksenberg we now have a better understanding of where this set resides in the toy world. Here's the narrative, verbatim, in the group:

"Very interesting story I have for you all and a mystery solved. A couple years ago Rick Eber asked me my thoughts on a set he had come across of six Marx flintstones figures in a white mail container away box. My opinion before he had asked was that set was assuredly not released in the 60’s. That was my main takeaway, and it is always listed as such. Marx released the tinykins in many formats, but their priorities were always shifting to new things. This would not have been on the table in the early 60’s. Additionally, with the sheer amount of existing examples, there are was just something that didn’t seem to add up. I had seen the set many times before, as they pop up all the time on eBay. Further than that, I had came across a post by Ed Bettina Berg on his website toyconnect.blogspot.com (great site by the way), while looking to give Rick a more well rounded answer on the value and history of the item. Ed was of the belief that they were actually modern day repos made from the original tooling. Which made a lot of sense really, given the fact the sheer amount of existing examples out there. And the lack of mail away Marx examples of toys at that time. Couple that with my definitive belief they were not released in the 60’s as sourced, I told Rick to pass. That was in addition to the fact regardless of when they were made or if they were indeed Marx, it wasn’t a valuable set. Today I came across these photos, and it turns out you and I Ed were about half right in our thinking. This boxed set was indeed a mail away premium by Marx, offered from 1972-1973 for 50 cents. Now that we know it was for Post Fruity Pebbles, it makes a ton of sense why there are so many existing examples left. The set is only worth about 30.00. The box is the ticket here. Marx as we all know looked way different in the 70’s in terms of output of toys compared to the ones in the 60’s. Each decade of Marx toys I think is very distinct. Whenever you see a wacky looking marx toy it’s probably from the 70’s. This set does fit in that timeline, as Marx looked for ways to profit on existing toys through other means. Hope you guys enjoyed the read. The items here are owned by Stanley Luksenberg

·         Rick Eber Christopher Wallentine...very nice detective work, another Marx mystery solved! Appreciate the information Chris. Nice to have a young guy like you in the hobby...we need more collectors from your era to show interest like this. Thanks for filling me in.

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Christopher Wallentine Thanks Rick Eber it always feels great being able to date a Marx item accurately. Glad we got the full story in the end figured out!

·         Kent Owen Sprecher Can I use your pictures at my website?

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Christopher Wallentine Kent Owen Sprecher The owner is Stanley Luksenberg turns out, you’d have to ask

·         Ed Bettina Berg Allrighty - Excellent! Many Thanx for the kudos! I hate it when I get things all screwed up, so far too often I resort to guesswork - pure and simple. Not a professional attitude by any means but then the blog really is about the pics and far too often I just don't have enough 'me' time for thorough research. May I use your detective work for a future post? I'll have to contact Stanley Luksenberg somehow on those photos.

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Christopher Wallentine Ed Bettina Berg You certainly can. It’s all good, if anything what you thought made a ton of sense! The real guesswork was people assuming that this item was from the early 1960’s just because that’s when tinykins were being released first.

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Grr Ridenour Ugh, sorry Ed Berg, nothing personal, but I don't see anything about this set to suggest it would be a modern repro, and while Christopher Wallentine's hunch proved correct, imo there is nothing that would suggest it couldn't have been issued in the early '60s as some sort of mail-order set, back then. Stanley Luksenburg is in this group, so contact should be no problem.

Certainly appreciate Chris bringing this to our attention, but shouldn't it be Stan Luksenburg getting credit for this discovery? He put the elements together, after all, or am I missing something?

o    Ed Bettina Berg I had no other information to go by and it seemed as if there were just too many available to be 'vintage' and there are still many of the old Marx toys being made in the world today which would explain a modern day repo. Obviously NOS seems to the case in this case. It are what it are :-)

Grr Ridenour Ed, these have been showing up for at least 20 years (and probably a lot longer), and I suspect that there was a warehouse find of the left-over premium stock that made its way into the collector community, at some point in the '80s or '90s. I always assumed that they were from an obscure listing in a mail order catalog (the "MO" on the box code was a standard Marx designation for "mail order" sets, and was used going back into the 1950s); this cereal premium tie-in makes perfect sense, in retrospect.

Yes, there certainly are a lot of recasts from the old Marx molds, however, most of it is simple casting in high density PE (polyethylene), and unpainted. These 'kins are hand-painted styrene, which would be a little more complicated to produce now -- not impossible, sure, but the whole presentation with the Marx product number on the box, and all, require a degree of knowledge about original practices that most would overlook (imo)."

End of narrative

The following box photos are presented here with the kind permission of their owner and Marx Toys fb group member Stanley Luksenberg.

With all due respect to Mr. Ridenour, Marx styrene recasts are more prevalent than he may realize - but in the toy train realm. Maury D. Klein of MDK / K-Line had gotten nearly all the tooling for the old Marxville O-gauge railroad buildings and accessories as well as O-gauge rolling stock, and engine shells. K-Line produced these - in styrene - for many years prior to going out of business and being taken over by Lionel (I haven't kept up with them for a while but I think Lionel no longer produces them either. I'll have to check that out in my fb groups). On the playset side of the toy fence, yes he is correct, styrene repos aren't nearly as prevalent as the PE type plastics.