Welll, it's time to begin the next phase of Marx military playset posts. We'll be looking at the various figure sets next. I'm gonna start this whole series now, but there are two (maybe three) sets I still have to photograph and it's a tad warm out in The Cave, so that'll probably slow me down some. ALSO, I do not have all the figure sets Marx offered: no Japanese, no Russians, etc., pretty much just American G.I's and a set of light gray Germans. Honestly, I'm not that well versed in all of the figure sets Marx made.
Appearing as early as 1951 in Training Center playsets, Marx's 1st series of G.I.'s were made in soft plastic in 45mm. While the postwar era saw a departure from the standard cast metal toy soldiers, this first series was reminiscent of those metal soldiers in that these weren't that highly detailed - but it was a start. Many people confuse these for the Little Green Army Men made by Payton a few years later as many of the poses are duplicates. That said, Marx's 1st series offered more poses (17) than did Payton (11), details on the Marx figures differed from those on the Payton, and the bases on the Marx pieces were thin vs. the thick bases of the Payton's. Early figures had no bases which made them impossible to stand up on carpets or outside in the backyard. Marx then added bases but they weren't much larger around the perimeter than the figures' feet. Later still, Marx enlarged the size of the bases to increase stability. As I post the photo essay's for each pose we'll get a chance to see these difference in a bit more detail.
Ed
No comments:
Post a Comment