Marx Lane
An Inventory Marx Playset Figures and Accessories
Manufactured from 1951 to 1979
 
Appendix C-2 - Other Playset-related Figures
 
Contents of this web site may not be reproduced or duplicated for use on the Internet or for commercial purposes without permission by Eric Johns.


Table of Contents
(click on name to move to section)
This Page
60mm Figures
American Heroes
Warriors of the World (WOW)
The Presidents
Cereal Premiums
Other Pages
Page 1 - Civil War Playset Figures
Page 3 - Civil War Playset Accessories
Page 4 - Civil War Playset List
Back to the Civil War Table of Contents
Back to the Main Table of Contents

   
60mm Civil War figures

 Although Marx did not release a Civil War Playset until 1958, it began making soft plastic Civil War figures in 60mm scale in the mid-1950s.  These figures consisted of a group of 8 Union and 8 Confederate soldiers.  These were sold individually for 10 cents in dimestores, as well as in boxed sets and -- in a few instances -- in an American Heroes series with figures of appropriate military leaders, as explained later on this page.

The figures were sold unpainted, but Marx encouraged buyers to paint them, going so far as to sell paint sets to do so.  As might be expected, the Union figures came in blue, and the Confederates in gray.  Collector Josh Petrie reports that the initial figures came without bases, both in vinyl and soft plastic.  These baseless figures are seldom seen today.

     Union figures
       PL-587
1.  Mounted officer
Re-issue figure
Photo courtesy of Larry Tomikel		 2.  Mounted with flag
Re-issue figure
Photo courtesy of Larry Tomikel
Recent Price Lines I have noticed
Pose 1, mounted officer $35 March 2011 Ebay



3.  Standing, firing rifle 4.  Standing, firing pistol

5.  Messenger 6.  Marching
Photo courtesy of Larry Tomikel

7.  Avancing, rifle held at chest
Note the unusual split base.		 8.  Bugler

     60mm Confederate figures
       PL-588
1.  Officer with hand on belt
re-issue figure		 2.  Officer saluting
re-issue figure

3.  Standing with ramrod
re-issue figure		 4.  Marching
re-issue figure

5.  Advancing with rifle at waist
re-issue figure		 6.  Reloading rifle
re-issue figure

7.  Standing, shooting rifle
re-issue figure		 8.  Mounted, sword overhead
re-issue figure

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 American Heroes Civil War Series
   PL-?
 
In the mid-1950s, Marx produced a set of 30 figures depicting U.S. military leaders.  Primarily of 20th Century generals, these were called the American Heroes and were sold individually from bins of figures for 15 cents apiece.  The 60mm figures were made in white hard plastic with bases that displayed the figures' names.

 In a few instances -- at least 13 -- one of these figures was combined with 60mm soldier figures from the appropriate era and sold as a boxed American Heroes set.  In the 1960s, a few were painted and included as the centerpiece figure in boxed sets of Warriors of the World figures (see the photos later on this page).  They were also marketed in the company's "paint your own" sets.

 These figures included four Civil War generals, as shown below.  PFPC Issue 15 provides additional information on the 30 American Heroes figures.

Louis Marx created these figures as a result of his close friendships with President Dwight Eisenhower and several U.S. generals.  Two of his four sons had names of U. S. generals, and the middle name of a third was Dwight, after President Eisenhower.  Louis was concerned that these generals would be forgotten, and to help them after World War II was over, he even sold them shares in his European cosmetics firm Charmore for little or nothing.  Of course, Charmore later got into the toy soldier business, at least administratively (see Page 5 of the Wild West section of this web site).  
1.  General Robert E. Lee 2.  General U.S. Grant

3.  General Pickett 4.  General Sheridan
Photo courtesy of David Schafer.

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Warriors of the World Figures

 When Marx finally released its line of Civil War playsets, it was not with the existing 60mm figures, but with its new, smaller 54mm figures.  But in the 1960s, a strange thing happened.  The company's Hong Kong branch began producing the popular series of Warriors of the World, which were small groups of painted, hard plastic figures in a wide variety of themes.  Among them were Civil War figures, made for the most part from the 60mm poses described above.  These Hong Kong figures were sold both 1) individually in small, attractively-designed boxes and 2) in larger boxes of two or more.  In fact, Civil War figure sets made in Taiwan were sold in window boxes that included painted versions of Generals Grant and Lee from the American Heroes series described above.  Examples of packaging are shown below.

 Figures similar to the Warriors of the World were made in Germany, Holland, and Taiwan.  According to collector Josh Petrie, German and Holland Civil War figures were made before the Hong Kong WOW figures.  The German versions were well-painted hard plastic figures that were sold individually in plastic bags as bin toys.  Small stickers identified them as "Germany."  Josh reports that Holland figures were made with molds created from Marx figures rather than original Marx molds, so are slightly smaller than German and Hong Kong versions.  Holland figures are soft plastic, so do not hold their paint well and have not held up well over the years.  I am not aware of Civil War WOW figures from Taiwan, though it is possible, because they did produce some WOW figures there.  More information on Marx operations in these countries can be found on Page 5 of the Wild West section of this web site.

Marx included fictitious names and biographies for the Hong Kong figures on small cards, inserting them into the boxes used to sell them individually.  The only exception of using fictitious persons that I am aware of, at least in the Civil War figures, is Confederate General Longstreet, who of course was a real person.  German and Holland figures did not include cards.

Figures below were made in Hong Kong unless otherwise noted.
Examples of Warriors of the World box and front and back of card
Photos of boxed WOW figures with painted American Hero figures Grant and Lee, made in Taiwan.
Photos courtesy of Frank, Ebay redhooktravel

Although most WOW groups included 8 poses, according to PFPC's 1994 Special Collector Edition, the Civil War figures consisted of 6 Union poses and 7 Confederate poses.  Missing were the mounted figures in the original unpainted 60mm groups.  Unless otherwise noted, all WOW figures shown below were made in Hong Kong.

Of note, the final Confederate pose shown below (Richard Travis III) appears to be the grandson of a Continental officer depicted as a WOW figure (Richard Travis) on Page 2 of the Revolutionary War Section.

     Union Warriors of the World
1.  Mike Burns, firing rifle 2.  Harry Dugan, firing pistol
3.  Richard Golden, messenger 4.  Joe Bates, marching
5.  Herb Tanner, advancing with rifle at chest
Note the unusual split base.		 6.  Bill Mason, bugler
This figure was made in Germany.

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      Confederate Warriors of the World
1.  George Markstone, officer with hand on belt
 2.  General Longstreet, saluting
3.  Samuel Jackson, standing with ram rod
 4.  William Morris, marching
5.  Red Miller, advancing with rifle at waist
Bayonet is missing from rifle.  This figure was made in Germany.
 6.  Gatt Random, loading rifle

7.  Richard Travis III, firing rifle

Store display - American Heroes General Lee and WOW figures
Photo courtesy of Mark Hegeman


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  The Presidents
  PLs - see text
Similar to the American Heroes figures above, Marx produced a group of U.S. presidents that eventually grew to include those from Washington through Lyndon Johnson.  The figures came in several scales, but most often in 60mm hard plastic.  They were sold individually, in partial and complete sets, and in two playsets that included downsized, highly-detailed models of either the White House or the Capitol Building.  A styrofoam, semi-circular reviewing stand that held all the presidents was also available for 99 cents.  The figures came both unpainted (sometimes in "paint your own" sets) and painted.

According to veteran collector Josh Petrie, Marx initially created molds PL-623 (12), PL-624 (12), PL-632 (6), and PL-633 (Eisenhower) to produce 31 presidents.  Washington and Lincoln figures already existed in PL-622, and that mold was eventually revised to include Eisenhower and Kennedy (PL-622A).  In the mid-1960s, the molds were combined into a single PL-1262 mold, including the Johnson figure.
  
Marx also created figures of some first ladies, and in 1968, created figures of all presidential candidates.  The turbulent and unsettling events of the 1968 election seem to have ended the company's production of presidential figures.

The presidents were among Marx' most popular figures and sold well from the 1950s to the 1970s.  Figures of the four presidents associated with the Civil War are shown below.

Playset Magazine Issue 41 includes a feature article on the presidential figure series.
James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln
painted and unpainted		 Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant

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Non-Marx Cereal Premiums

 Although the white soft plastic figures below were identified as Marx by collectors for many years, it has now been established that they were cereal premiums in Nabisco cereal and were not made by Marx.  Veteran collector Kent Sprecher notes that Marx records include no documentation of a mold to manufacture these figures, though it is possible that the sculptor who created them also made figures for Marx.  Included in Nabisco Shredded Wheat cereal around 1960, the set consisted of at least nine historical Americans, including the three shown below related to the Civil War.  They are about 54mm scale and have names on the front of their bases.  Because they are white, the lettering and the figure details are difficult to see.  The photos below have been slightly darkened so that the names are visible, though they are still hard to see.

They are nice figures, fun to collect, and were thought to have been made by Marx for several years...so I have included them here for our enjoyment!
President Lincoln General Grant General Lee


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Contents of this web site may not be reproduced or duplicated for use on the Internet or for commercial purposes without permission by Eric Johns.