Marx Toys catalog, 1975

Ed Iceberg's Flickr stream includes a set of medium-rez scans of the 1975 Marx Toy catalog. The toys are awfully fine, especially stuff like the Marxwriter, but the icing on the frosting on the cake that's balanced on top of a bigger cake is the fabulous cover art from Jack Davis.

Marx 1975 Toy Catalog (via How to Be a Retronaut)

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MORE: Copyfight • Gadgets • illustration • Old school • toys

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Cowicide

Amazing. Are toys like this nowadays at all? (honest question)
- BarBarSeven
  
  Not really. Unless you look at the bootleg Asian toy world, but they are not even close. There are so many toys pictured in these catalogs that would not exist today due to political correctness, over protective parents & general “we know what’s best for you”-itis.
  
  In my mind the 1970s were really the last true era of fun, wacky & creative toys being pumped out to the general population.
  
  And fun fact folks, Marx was based in the U.S. All of the toys pictured? 100% made in the U.S. Yes, that was 40+ years ago but hard to imagine in many ways.
  
  I miss my Big Wheel. :/
  - knoxblox
    
    Exactly what I was thinking the minute I saw the cover.
    
    I miss my Big Wheel, too.
    - BarBarSeven
      
      Do you remember how the front wheel wore out to the point the center cracked open? That’s the sign of a well rode Big Wheel.
      - Cowicide
        
        And something to be damn proud of, too.
      - Vengefultacos
        
        Really? I think we always wore out the back wheels, due to all of the skidding slides and 180′s we used to do. All those drift racers had nothing on us kids on our Big Wheels.
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Huntington/1389561896 Brian Huntington
      
      Who mentioned 180s? This is all I can think about.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BNZCZsHJIR8
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    There are so many toys pictured in these catalogs that would not exist today due to political correctness
    
    Which toys that would be missing today are you upset about?
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      @boingboing-4eefea4fc77f6a79afe6a2e4b0898d84:disqus
      I remember wearing out all the flat tread on mine so that all that was left was something that resembled plastic rims. We’d still spin 360s and stuff on those destroyed tires anyway.
  - sean
    
    Actually, Louis Marx moved much of his production overseas (Hong Kong) after his workers in Glendale, WV, went on strike in 1962. Remember all the HO scale figures, “hand painted by artists”? The miniature guns, mounted in a cardboard frame? Hong Kong. I wouldn’t necessarily assume all these were US made. Especially since Quaker had already taken the company over.
    - BarBarSeven
      
      Hmmmm… I seem to recall that the molds used for Big Wheels were still in the U.S. up until the dissolution of the company in 1978.
      - sean
        
        Could be. I’m not up on a lot of the post-650′s stuff. I could see those being done here, as they were big and bulky. I think the Johnny West stuff was all Chinese, but I’m not sure.
- http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
  
  Toys today are AMAZING.
  
  I limit my collecting to 1/6 scale or I’d go nuts, but even the budget, off-brand lines now are astounding. Previously bootleggish firms like Chap Mei and M&C Toys churn out wonderful figures and accessories for kids, and Cararama and New Ray make exquisite, accurate little vehicles.
  
  Hasbro and Mattel seem to limit their toys to tacky, brand-driven lines like Barbie and GI Joe and whatnot, but if you are looking for a doll or a car or a soldier toy in the most general sense, then the lesser brand toys are just fantastic now.
  
  And the German companies… Siku, Schleich, Bruder…
  - http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
    
    Incidentally, I find it sort of interesting that many of these non-American companies do a good trade in “generic” toys through the simple appeal of quality. They seem to have lasted a while and they’re popular. Shows you don’t need to make everything about demographically tailored narrative.
  - BarBarSeven
    
    Well, I think you miss the point. Chap Mei and M&C Toys pump out tons of generic “war” playlets with very little imagination to them. So generic in fact that few people know who Chap Mei and M&C Toys really are. MARX is a company that had a long history, distinct personality & unique toys that were not based on war & destruction. Small niche marketed toy companies cannot compare. And more to the point, they were mass marketed, successful, independent & 100% American made. The quality of the plastic used by MARX stands the test of time & they are still collected & coveted by adults nowadays.
    
    Very few companies nowadays can make that claim.
    - http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
      
      M&C’s action figures are fantastic. They get snapped up by the trolley load by adult collectors.
      
      Chap Mei’s stuff is well made and the playsets offer excellent value. I’d have given my eye-teeth for toys like that when I was a kid.
      
      Both firms make a variety of themes, not just military stuff.
      - BarBarSeven
        
        They get snapped up by the trolley load by adult collectors.
        
        That’s the key problem. MARX made wonderful toys for children that adult collectors like because of their quality. Companies like M&C just create junk for the “collectors market” which is not the same as MARX or any mass market toy manufacturer in any way.
      - http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
        
        Eh? M&C make amazingly articulated dolls/action figures with genuinely nice accessories that any kid could play with.
  - http://www.facebook.com/marko.raos Marko Raos
    
    Agree, imo it’s not the “political correctness” problem so much as the old dinosaurs growing complacent and cynical while utterly dominating mass distribution. “Mattel” Really? Someone should finally shut that old whorehouse down, lol.
- http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
  
  I second Ladyfinger’s sentiments. Today’s toys are incredible and can be every bit as awe inspiring and intense as they were back when looking through the Sears Catalog to show your grandparents what you really, really wanted.
  
  But you have to look, as Ladyfinger sez, most toys now are brand/image driven, they’ll slap a sticker on a perfectly good toy and ruin it in the attempt to attach and/or exploit attachment to some media baed crap like “Carz” or what have you.
  
  I recommend going to an “educational” toy store for hands on exposure to more pure toy lines, these stores often carry full lines of some of the toymakers Ladyfingers listed.
  
  My kids get actual toys, not DVD/movie/cartoon/brand driven marketing tools barely disguised as toys.
  - http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
    
    Those educational toy stores (depicted rather pessimistically in that Small Soldiers movie, heh) are great. The toys that are available now are so good that they look impressive as adult knickknacks. Hobby stores have also got beautiful junior lines to get kids started.
  - BarBarSeven
    
    I can’t think of anything worse than those so-called “educational” toy stores. More to the point, MARX represents a mass market company that sold tons of cool stuff to all kinds of stores. Toy stores, pharmacies, hobby stores, department stores, etc… That is why everyone who remembers them have such a fond memory of them. They were everywhere. They were the mainstream. Now if you want “cool” toys you have to go to a “special” store and maybe they might have such items. Vast difference.
    - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
      
      Whatevs, the percentage of toys in toy stores, pharmacies, dept stores, box stores etc that -isn’t- licensed label crap (this movie, that cartoon or a legacy brand like Barbie) is a thimble to a bucket.
      
      But I can go to those s0-called “educational” toy store and get my kid a car, tractor, house, tank, train, board game, action figure, tools, puzzles, books, blocks, riding toy, stuffed animals, there is some approximation of almost any toy they want available, and extremely well made,
      
      and they use -their- imaginations.
      
      This was true of Marx, but that’s not what there is anymore with some clear exceptions as there always are. In fact, the stores I describe are part of the exceptions. Mainstream toy stores provide Madison Avenue/Hollywood pre-packaged imaginations, that’s about as appealing as a stick in the eye, especially as I don’t DVD parent.
      
      Right now, we’ve got a wide variety of toys, but both are of an age where a line like http://www.plantoys.com/home.php is a mainstay with lots of supplemental toys for specific activities.
      
      I like blank stuff, well made, it lets them project their imaginations and play, which lets them create their emotional attachment, which can’t be used to sucker them later. And they love their toys.
      
      course, they do cost, not “collectible” cost, but not cheap either.
http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Wheels-inch-The-Original/dp/B0001A866O

$15 off. What? The?! Hell?!$%#
Patsy Cline

Wow-Marx toys actually sucked big time hey?
- http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
  
  B-i-g W-h-e-e-l. Your argument has failed.
  
  It ruled, until I got the Green Machine
- MikeKStar
  
  They also did Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots – a classic!
  - http://twitter.com/BongBong BongBong
    
    Always wished I could take the robots off the platform and fight with them.
    - Sparg
      
      My nephew did manage to get one of them out of the ring. He used that, an Ultraman toy, and some small plastic army men to stage his own dueling monsters scenarios in the sandbox. I raised that boy right on Ultraman and Johnny Sokko videos! Of course, I had to suffer through the Power Rangers and Blarney.
http://plagmada.org Tim H

Is that catalog cover by one of the artists from Cracked magazine?
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
  
  Yup, Cory mentions him above.
- BarBarSeven
  
  His signature is right in the corner: Jack Davis.
- http://twitter.com/BongBong BongBong
  
  MAD Magazine, not Cracked.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

While the themes have changed, kids still buy lots of action figures and accessories.

I didn’t recognize anything in this catalog until I reached the Big Wheel. I was too old by ten years to have one of those, but I sure as heck knew them. They were incredibly ubiquitous, and inexpensive enough to be purchased by families that couldn’t afford a sturdier metal tricycle.

The riding pony and inchworm had annoying commercials, as I recall.
Jake0748

I’ve always wondered how a toy company named Marx survived and thrived throughout the the house unamerican activities joe mccarthy anti-communist hysteria of the time.
- http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
  
  Grouchily.
- buggzzee23
  
  This Marx was from the Groucho side of the family
nealpolitan

Wow. That is right in my wheelhouse as far as toy wishlists. I had a few Johnny West figures from my older brothers and in 1979 or 80, got the Navarone army man set for Christmas – along with a shit ton of Lincoln Logs. Then the next year, I got the Fort Apache set. Didnʻt even know that they were all Marx products. I guess I was a fan!
Mickey_disqus

I like that she’s playing with the electric hockey game rather than a toy oven.
- http://www.facebook.com/sarah.shevett Sarah Shevett
  
  I couldn’t figure out what she was playing with..but why can we see her underwear?
  - taj
    
    Because that’s what happens when you stick a little kid in a dress.
niktemadur

Damn… there was a huge table, a mechanical helicopter arcade game, inside a glass or plexiglass bubble, I don’t remember, too young back then… let’s put it this way, Chutes Away was the later yet more “rustic”, home version of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJH7Zwb-0I4
jnordb

What struck me most was the pre Star Wars era lack of space toys…
- BarBarSeven
  
  That’s not exactly correct. There were space toys back then but it was mainly based on the world of NASA & simply going to the moon. I know because I had some. But not all toy lines felt the need to have space toys, so yeah you are right.
http://www.facebook.com/sarah.shevett Sarah Shevett

Why can you see the girl’s underwear? And what exactly is she playing with?
- http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
  
  That’s hockey on a not-a-tv TV.
  
  In the 70′s a short skirt on a child was still considered just “cute” gender stereotyping in the same problematic way it always occurred before the hyper-sexualiztion of children in the present. It was wrong, but it was only related to today’s wrong. The ancestor of today’s wrong if you will, IMO.
MikeKStar

OMG. I had one of those Dodge Chargers pictured above when I was 5. I frickin’ LOVED that thing and would play with it for hours. It was by far my favorite toy (that and my Evel Knievel motorcycle). I remember the dented fender that you’d replace with two little silver bolts using the power wrench. The front grill, hood, engine and wheels all came off as well. I remember taking off all the screws and sending it crashing into the wall where it would explode. Good times!

Many, many times I have thought about that car over the years and wondered where it came from and who made it. Now to peruse ebay to purchase a little bit of my childhood back….

Thank you so much for posting this.
- http://jeremyjarratt.com/ x jeremy jarratt
  
  Ditto on every single word, Mike.
RayCornwall

Funny thing- at the time of this catalog, Marx Toys was either sold or about to be sold to the company that also owned Fisher Price- Quaker Oats. Unfortunately, according to wikipedia, the company was about to go into its final downturn…
sean

Louis Marx was a real good friend of Ike’s, as well as many other political figures back then. Marx produced figures of all the presidents, a White House set, and his factories contributed to the war effort in WWII. Ike used to collect and paint toy soldiers; Louis gifted him with many. Maybe that was enough to keep Joe McCarthy at bay.
sean

Uh…that last post of mine was in response to Jake0748′s post…
technogeekagain

Actually, this has me pondering the convention that a young girl must be un-selfconsciously displaying her panties.
sean

By 1975, Marx was a shadow of its former self. It was the biggest American toy company for decades- from the days of tin litho toys in the 30′s right up through the early 60′s playsets. Louis didn’t like to spend money advertising, and Remco, Hasbro, and others that were smart enough to use TV to sell their stuff, starting in 1960 or so, eclipsed the Marx company. The toy doll GI JOE spelled the end for the Marx military (and other) playsets; Barbie took the girls by storm. Johnny West was a feeble attempt to duplicate GI JOE’s success.
I’m one of the geeks that collect the Marx toy soldiers I grew up with in the early 1960′s. And they do get costly- some sets have sold for $10,000 and more (Johnny Ringo, BATTLEFIELD with the rare damaged cabin…) oops, getting too esoteric.
Sparg

I had the Big Wheel and WW2 play set. The towed artillery pieces were great because you could put toothpicks or ball point pen refills down the barrel and launch them. The Germans were grey and the Americans were green plastic. Amazing most of us survived intact with all the pointy toys like these and Jarts.
LYNDON

I’m imagining a convention with the Marx Toys stand sitting opposite the Galt Toys stand.
http://eyejustmadeitup.blogspot.com flailx

PIT CHANGE CHARGER!! I had one! Awesome toy.
http://twitter.com/BongBong BongBong

You know what a good toy for me was as a kid? A can loaded with black powder, a load of tank models and a Super-8 camera. Pure cinematic bliss.