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MARX WESTERN PLAYSETS
See news & reviews page for more information about Marx display boards. Picture courtesy of George Kroll and Mike Handley.
Marx Western Ranch Set. Circa 1951-53 Boxed Bar-M ranch with metal Bar-M cabin. + rubber like vinyl and hard plastic pieces. Set has hard plastic Bar-M gate, 22 fence pieces, 12 pieces inside furniture (+ PVC stove pipe), 12 pieces outside accessories (making 9 assemblies), scraggly tree, & cactus. In rubber like vinyl there are 9 figures+ 5 animals. Has instructions as well. Missing are the paper bags that some of the items would have come in.
Marx Roy Rogers Ranch 3990 playset. Circa 1953. Set appears to be complete with perhaps extra fence pieces. Has litho metal cabin. In hard plastic there are; the Roy Rogers gateway, 24 pieces of white fence, 8 piece rodeo chute, 12 pieces outside accessories (making 9 assemblies), red wagon wheel, cactus & A tree. In rubber like vinyl or soft plastic you get; Roy Rogers standing with pistol, 8 ranch cowboys, 6 sets saddle & reins, 1 set PL-325 horses; bucking & rearing horses + calf no brand, 1 set PL-460 animals; 2 stopping (bracing) horses + 1 longhorn & 1 shorthorn steers. You also get the string to be used as a rope (usually thrown out and missing), instruction sheet, + 4 bags (3 marked; saddles & reins, cowboys and ranch accessories). Box has dividers. A great set!
Marx 3616 Fort Apache Stockade playset MISSING TIN CABIN, has complete HP stockade with two six piece guard towers and intact gate. Four ladders have usual hook damage. Has the HP set of six famous Americans; sitting Bull, Custer, Buffalo Bill & Daniel Boone are all mint, Crockett has a broken rifle but there for you to repair. Kit Carson has a broken and missing gun barrel. Complete 12 figure set of 60mm cavalry, 2 six figure sets of stockade Indians + one eight figure set of skinny Indians (Kneeling bow shooter missing feather, wounded man missing arrow). Normal cannon replaced by Marx due to shortage with space cannon. Has flag and some HP accessories. Three horses with riding saddles & reins but two are missing tails and a hoof. Teepee missing top piece. Has instructions and real nice box with dividers.
Marx Fort Apache set 59775 circa 1967. 59775 label covers box number which is 3681. This is the harder to find transition set where Marx went from the Ft.Apache/Alamo pioneers to the new 7th Cavalry figures. The older sets came with two sets of 10 Ft.Apache/Alamo pioneers for a total of twenty figures. This transition set gets one set of 16 foot 7th cavalry + 1 set of 9 mounted 7th cavalry for a total of 25 figures. The set also has one 16 piece set of Indians with totem pole like the earlier sets, but it also had 5 extra Indians for a total of 1 totem pole and 20 Indians. The older version only needed 4 horses and although this version needs 9 only 4 were included. So perhaps instead of 5 extra Indians they meant to put in 5 extra horses but who knows. This set hardly looks played with. It has; box, instructions and litho flag & metal cavalry supply building with brown hard plastic parts (porch hooks STILL INTACT), figures as mentioned above, one Indian pony, Fort with gate & 2 doors, 2 L shaped walls, 2 walls with ledges, 6 walls no ledges, four ladders and two 2 piece blockhouses. Also 1 tan 2 piece teepee & black hard plastic shooting cannon with 9 shells (missing one). Box has dividers. Very nice and complete set missing only the one cannon shell. Note this version did not contain any outside accessories.
Fort Apache 3681 Playset NO INSTRUCTIONS OR BOX DIVIDERS. Photo box one corner split and crayon on the backside. Tin building has all plastic parts (hooks off of porch). Redbrown fort; gate with two doors, 6 walls, 2 walls with ledges, 2 "L" walls, 2 scaling ladders & two 2pc guard towers may be a put together job. Two complete sets of 10 pioneers in aqua blue + One 16 pc set of Indians with revised poses in caramel. Four cavalry horses + one Indian pony. Shell shooting cannon (NO SHELLS) + 10 piece outdoor accessory group & 2 piece teepee in flesh. Nice lot of stuff.
Fort Apache Carryall circa 1970. Has metal case with hard plastic towers & ladders + a vacuform building. These sets would come with a set of nine mounted 7th cavalry and either the ten figure Ft Apache pioneers or the sixteen figure foot 7th cavalry + one 16 piece set of Indians with totem pole. We have included BOTH the Ft Apache pioneers and foot 7th cavalry for 35 defenders and a SECOND set of Indians + ALL FOUR revised poses for a total of two totem poles and 34 Indians. Plus 13 horses, cannon and stockade accessories (dipwell broken and no pot on sticks for cookfire). Case is in superior condition, A GREAT BUY.
Marx Fort Apache 4202 from 1978. Has box and nice 7 piece brown hard plastic blockhouse with matching brown hard plastic stockade; gate with 2 doors, 11 walls no ledges, 4 walls with ledges. One set of 10 hard plastic outside accessories making 8 assemblies. Box says 30 cavalry and Indians. It had one 16 piece set of totem pole and 15 Indians, one set of 10 Ft.Apache/Alamo pioneers (turkey man's turkey broken off) + 6 duplicates for a total of 31 figures. Also one 2 piece teepee, one Indian pony & 2 cavalry horses & paper US flag. Box had divider.
Marx Miniature "HO" scale western town playset lot; 50+ figures in the poses seen above, 10 horses, 4 cows, 1 dog, 3 cacti, 6 hitching posts, 1 anvil, 2 barrels, 25 tiny fence post bases, 8 rail fences, 5 wall fences, wagon, stagecoach (NO HITCH), 2 roofs & a few other building pieces. All is hard plastic with the usual short weapon damage.
BEST OF THE WEST
SIX INCH FIGURES
3.00 Pioneer, MISSING KNIFE.
Indian with spear photo courtesy Steve Thompson.
4-5 Inch mounted cowboy. 
Four inch wagon driver SP; . 
Large scale wagon as seen above.
Four inch wagon set, green.
6 Inch steer.
THREE INCH FIGURES
CEREAL PREMIUM CHARACTER FIGURES
Both sets have been said to be by Marx. A careful examination of the Marx mold list erases this thought as there is no evidence that Marx made either of the following two groups of cereal premium figures. Early toy figure dealers knew that Marx figures sold for higher prices and so labeled these figures as Marx. We do not know who made them but we do know that Marx did not. The same problem exists on ebay as many many auctions label nonMarx figures as Marx in hope of getting a higher sale price.
Some of the poses are copies of Marx figures which added to the speculation that they were made by Marx. We do not know who made them but we do know it was not Marx. There are nine different figures in the set. They are about 54mm in size and were made in white and cream colors.
SEE PREMIUM PAGE FOR AVAILABILITY
These were not made by Marx either, but perhaps by the same maker who made the copies of Marx fish also used as cereal premiums.
WESTERN CHARACTER FIGURES
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Marx made Roy Rogers playset figures in both 60mm (older) and 54mm scales. The earliest 60mm figures are made of a rubber like vinyl and do not have bases. There were two foot and one mounted pose of Roy made in 60mm. The two 60mm foot Roys and the 60mm Pat Brady are harder to find as they were not included in every playset. The 54mm figures were later and not made in nearly the amount as the 60mm figures. The 54mm Dale Evans, Pat Brady, and Bullet have their names under their bases (belly) while none of the 60mm figures are marked.
5 Inch Pat Brady
MX319 Davy Crockett, 45mm, waxy cream, no marking under base.
Blue background pictures courtesy Rich Koch. Johnny Ringo picture courtesy of Eric Johns, Miss Kitty picture courtesy Mike Handley.
- Flint McCullough.
Wyatt Earp, 54mm, gray from the old landfill. 
Rare prototype Mark McCain holding rifle. 
Photo courtesy Rick Koch
Old original hard plastic square base characters
Photo courtesy Mark Hegeman.
RECAST Character 60mm FIGURES
RECAST Six Famous Western Characters as seen above, Made from an old mold found at the ex Marx Hong Kong factory. No names on the bases. Made in brown.
- Simpsons was Canada's Sears affiliate -
Set of 24 different flat figures about 30-35mm, includes marked Davy Crockett. These were sold under "Romper Room" header cards as well as in a small boxed set by Marx.
Ranch Kids
Ranch Kid, cowgirl sitting. 
Hard to find ranch kids may have only come three at a time in some early ranch playsets. Some of the children were modeled after Roy Rogers & Dale Evans children.
WESTERN/ REV WAR/ CIVIL WAR/ ALAMO HORSES & CATTLE
The 60mm horses are a varied lot and can be confusing. Instead of putting an entire "mold shot" into a playset these animals were put in by piece count. By studying the old PL mold list we have sorted them out into the molds in which we believe they were made. We have confidence in our sorting but could be wrong.
These were the earliest western animals made about 1950 and were put into the early ranch sets and sold individually from counter displays. The mold ended up in Mexico and RECASTS exist. The mold has two each of the trotting horses and one each of the other four animals.
This mold is interesting in that the top three animals were included in the early 1950-53 farm playsets while the large horse was in early ranch and western town sets as the first draft horse for the buckboard. We have heard that the mule with pack can be found in early western sets but have never seen a playset that included one. All of these animals were sold individually in store counter displays. The top three animals will be listed with the farm items for sale. This mold was sent to Mexico and RECASTS exist.
Marx put the 60mm horses without saddles in three molds. PL-324 had eight cavities that had three each standing and running horses + two calves with "bar M" brand. The standing horse was designed to interact with the 60mm town cowboy "mounting", but was also as a buckboard draft horse replacing the earlier version in PL-162.
"bae M" Brand 
SALE 15.00 (REGULAR PRICE 22.00) Reissue PL-324 60mm horses mold shot of 8 animals as seen above in your choice of; white, black, brown or cream.
PL-325 was the second mold with 60mm saddleless horses. It also had eight cavities with three each rearing and bucking horses + two calves without the "bar M" brand. This Bucking/rearing mold was sent to Mexico and RECASTS exist.
The last 60mm western animal mold made was PL-460 RODEO ANIMALS. The PL list shows this mold having 8 cavities to make 2 sets. This mold has four stopping (bracing) horses + two short horn steers and two snorting, head left long horn steers. These steers replaced the phased out chubby longhorn steers. This new snorter (or new version of) was also made in two different 54mm molds as the 60mm animals were phased out.
About 1954 Marx made a set of 54mm western animals and started phasing out the bigger (more expensive to make) 60mm animals. These horses came with integral saddles with basically Marx copying one pose from each of their three 60mm western horse molds. The mold also contained a copy of the 60mm snorting steer. The 54mm version is the same size as the 60mm version, but with much better detail and muscle definition. This mold had two of each poses for a total of eight cavities. We will list the 54mm steer with PL-1067 below.
In 1959 the two steers were removed and made part of the new all steer mold PL-1067 (see below). They were replaced by two copies of the stopping "Ben Hur" horse without saddles. We will list this horse with PL-865 (see below).
About 1956 Marx made a six cavity mold of horses without saddles to use with their 54mm western ranch playsets. They used the same separate saddles and reins as the earlier 60mm horses. To collectors they are known as the "Ben Hur" horses as they were used as chariot horses in the Ben Hur playsets. The running horse has his head tilted to his left but a variant with head to the right exists. We think these "head right" horses were pulled from the mold while still warm and the head shifted before cooling.
In 1959 Marx took the two "old Snorter" steer cavities out of PL-610 and combined them with the new skinny steer cavities to make mold PL-1067. The Marx PL mold list shows the cavities as 5/10/15 which is odd, but as one of the skinny steers is harder to find than the other we can assume the mold had either five cavities or multiples of the five each with; 2 old snorters, 2 skinny head left and one skinny head right.
This mold has 4 cavities making two of each pose.
Cavalry Horse mold had 4 cavities all of the same pose. This horse was used for both 60 & 54mm figures.
Another 4 cavity mold.
A one cavity mold this horse was used sparingly in Civil War and western playsets.
For some of their bigger western sets Marx made a special wagon hitch that took two oxen. They have been reissued. Photo courtesy Mike Handley.
A nice 9 cavity mold. The pack horses were not used often and were very rare until RECASTS were made in the 1990s.
Marx made a very nice fallen horse a rider set in mold PL-1153. This set was only found in larger Civil War and Western sets as well as the 1963 Custer set. This set was only made in cream and gray, but was copied in the 1990s and other colors exist with the copies.
HARD TO FIND MOUNTED "POSSE" COWBOYS
Made in mold PL-328, 18 cavities, these figures look like a posse to us. Some of these unpainted mounted cowboys showed up in the Marx warehouse and a few have been reported showing up in early Bar-M ranch playsets. Larger picture above courtesy of David Schafer shows four figures in three of the known poses made in rubber like vinyl The smaller photo Cowboy on left (4th known pose) has had his PISTOL CUT OFF that he was holding up. We think the two examples in the smaller photo may have been made by the U.K. Marx affiliate as the are made of an English like waxy polyethylene and are painted. The Marx PL list has a PL-328 Riding cowboys, 18 cavities and PL-324A (Cowboy figures (to be used in PL-324 shoe) 6 cavities, 3 sets. These are the best two choices for the mold that these figures, ad perhaps there are more than four poses...
The mold has been found and RECASTS have been made. The mold has 18 cavities making three of the pose on the left and five each of the other three in the photo above. Looks like a posse to us. Although collectors call them "chubbys", they fit best on the 60mm horses that take separate saddles that were for the cowboys made after the chubbys series.
COMMON 60mm COWBOYS
Marx made four different molds of 60mm cowboys for their playset line. Some of these poses were also used for the hard plastic painted "warriors of the World" style figures made. The chubby cowboys are among the first figures made by Marx circa 1950.
"CHUBBY" COWBOYS
"SPECIAL TOWN" COWBOYS
Most commonly found in a redbrown or tan in a rubber like vinyl. They were also made in a medium brown soft plastic. These figures were put into only some of the western town sets and are harder to find.
- Recast reissue seated cowboy.
"RANCH" COWBOYS
These eight poses replaced the "Cubby" cowboys in the Marx ranch playsets. They had much better detail and were popular with kids. Early figures are made of rubber like vinyl, while later figures wwere made with polyethylene soft plastic. Early figures were made in yellow, brown and cream while later figures from bagged sets (perhaps from Mexico?) can be found in red, green, blue and gray.
"TOWN" COWBOYS
Marx made a nice set of 14 cowboys for their western town sets. The mold had 16 cavities to make one of each of the 14 figures + 2 separate rifles, one of which can be held by the crouching cowboy. Originally made of rubber like vinyl in yellow (most common) brown and cream colors. Later figures were made of polyethylene soft plastic in yellow, brown and perhaps other colors.
Made in Germany and Hong Kong in hard plastic and factory painted. Heimo a German company made some of these and used some of their own poses in the production.
9.00 Cowboys - RECAST from the Ukraine, old WOW mold, 60mm, 8 in 8 poses, charcoal color.
Five Cowboys made in Russia. They may be from an exMarx German partner Heimo mold or nice copies. Black SP.
Marx made 3 sets of 60mm Indians for their playset line. Early figures were made in a rubber like vinyl and standing figures did not have bases. later figures were made in polyethylene a soft plastic and bases had been added to the standing figures for greater stability. About 1958 the 60mm Indians were phased out for the new 54mm poses. With the great information available in PLAYSET MAGAZINE and PLASTIC FIGURE AND PLAYSET COLLECTOR we have been able to sort out our stock of Indians into their proper mold groups as follows;
STOCKADE INDIANS
CAMP INDIANS
SKINNY/SLIM INDIANS
The third 60mm Indian set appeared in 1954. We also think that the other two molds were reworked to include bases for the standing figures about this time. Perhaps influenced by the Walt Disney movie TONKA one of the new Indians has been shot with an arrow. Most kids (myself included) easily removed this arrow so that the figure could appear to have been shot by our cavalry figures. These figures are usually found in polyethylene soft plastic although I imagine rubber like vinyl examples exist. Unless noted all figures for sale will be SOFT PLASTIC.
WARRIORS OF THE WORLD STYLE INDIANS
These were made in Germany and Hong Kong by either Marx or companies with a license such as HEIMO of Germany. Some were part of the Warriors of the World Series, while others are not Marx poses at all.
9.00 Indians - RECAST from the Ukraine, old WOW mold, 60mm.P>
Marx made six different pioneers for their early Ft Apache stockade sets. Early figures are made in rubber like vinyl. Marx added bases to most of the standing figures for stability. These "revised" figures are usually seen in later polyethylene soft plastic. These figures were phased out about 1958 with the introduction of the 54mm western figures.
Examples of early vs revised poses - 
Photo courtesy Ed Borris & Mike Kutnik.
- Revised with base running with rifle and powder horn, SP.
Most 60mm cavalry figures were sold in Rin Tin Tin playsets but some could be found in small figures sets including the General Custer figure.
Cavalry
Characters usually found in cream, 7th Cavalry in metallic blue (several shades exist). Characters have been found in light blue and the cavalry figures in light blue and tan that were used in headercard bagged sets. The picture represents one "mold shot" or grouping and multiples of this grouping would be found in playsets depending upon size.
54mm FIGURES
One of the nicest accessories Marx made for their western sets was this 54mm wagon. In the picture above the removable seat has been placed "buckboard style", but it also can be clipped to the front edge when paired with a covered wagon top. The wagon mold included five separate small accessories; barrel and box to clip on the wagon sides plus a lantern, pail and wash tub.
SEE ACW PAGE FOR WAGON AND WAGON PARTS AVAILABILITY`.
Although unmarked, based upon playset box art it has been determined that the figure on the left represented Daniel Boone. The mold consisted of 18 cavities containing two of each pose. The small Boonesborough playset contained only half the mold set. This mold still exists and although the originals were only made in a light tan color, recasts have been made in 10 or more colors including the redbrown seen above.
This mold contained 10 cavities. There were two of the mounted pose and one each of the other eight poses. When the Boonesborough pioneer mold was not ready for its intended playset Marx removed the two mounted figures from the Alamo/Ft Apache mold and inserted the "Daniel Boone" and shot with arrow poses to go with the other eight figures for the earliest Boonesborough playsets. The Alamo/Ft Apache figures were made in at least 14 different colors over their history. The location of this mold is currently unknown.
7th Cavalry
As you can see the Marx 54mm 7th Cavalry mold has 16 cavities. It has one each of the first eight and two each of the last four poses. Playsets would then have multiples of this group of 16 figures depending upon size.
As seen above each set would have one each of the first three poses and six of the figure with "arms at his sides". Large playsets might have multiples of this group.
As seen above the long coat cavalry set consists of five figures with arms at sides and one each of the other four better poses. Some have been found at the old Marx dump which has dropped prices in half of what they were 8-10 years ago as these used to be very hard to find.
>Marx made three molds of "54mm" Indians. The first PL-787 made about 1957 had one totem pole and fifteen Indians in nine poses. The second mold PL-919 made a few years later also had sixteen cavities and was the same as PL-787 except four of the duplicate figure poses were replace by four new "revised" figure poses. These new figures are closer to 45mm in scale and may have been left over from an aborted attempt to redo the 45mm Indian mold (45mm Indian with scalp may have been part of this mysterious group as it surfaced in the later runs of the 45mm mold). The 3rd mold duplicated the first two molds and had 32 cavities. The Indian molds were used for many years and at least one of them survived to have recast produced. The Indians were first made in yellow and copper (redbrown), a few were made in wine red and cream. In the sixties the color was changed to butterscotch/carmel colors while at the end they were made in oranges.
- Header bag with 52/53mm copies of 54mm Indians in orange and six inch cowboys in blue, about a dozen figures.
Marx's Hong Kong factory made flat window box sets of cowboys and Indians. Interestingly all of the figures are copies of British makers such as; Britains, Crescent and Lone Star.
This set had nine different poses and the mold contained 18 cavities such that two complete groups of nine were made at a time. Eventually this mold was somehow merged with the Miners, Trappers and Cowboys mold. At this time one mounted sheriff, one man with whip and two each of the other seven regular cowboys were added to the 16 cavity Miners mold to make a 32 cavity mold. This mold was run for at least the storage box sets in which 1/2 of each "mold shot" made it into each set (so the sets did not have every pose). The original cowboys were made in grays, browns, and tans, and then in butterscotch for the storage box sets. They have been recast in several colors.
The Miners, Trappers and Cowboys mold had 16 figures in 13 poses. As can be seen above there were two each of the last 3 poses and one each of the first 10 poses. There was also a separate sack (not pictured) for the figure on the far left to be carrying. The originals were done in tan and gray and then in butterscotch after the merger with the standard cowboy mold.
This figure was first made in the late 1950s. Usually made in cream, light blue was also used for the 1963 Custer and large Ft Apache playsets. It was made in "lime green" in the 1970s for small western storage box sets. The mold was found and RECASTS were made in the 1990s in darker blue and waxy gray. The old Marx landfill has turned up a few and the cream usually has changed to off white or light gray from being buried.
4104 Red River Gang;
What we have came from an ex Marx employee these may have never been sold on the US market. Made of early 50s rubber like vinyl.
The Rodeo animals were made in mold PL-360 which had twenty cavities making two sets of ten. As there are only seven poses, one or more is duplicated in the set. This mold is in Mexico and recasts are being produced in a cream soft plastic (originals we have seen are all rubber like vinyl). Photo courtesy Isashi the Galaxy Pilot.
RECAST 45mm CAVALRY
45mm COWBOYS
With the exception of the "odd pose" the other 12 Indian poses seen above made up the early sets. Later sets also had the "odd pose", man holding scalp and tomahawk. We do not know if this meant an earlier pose was deleted or if the mold was altered. Also the man kneeling was supposed to be using a paddle, but Marx decided to remove the paddle to avoid putting a canoe in every set. Some early examples sometimes have part of the paddle shaft as seen above. Without the paddle he becomes a drummer using one of the small accessory sprue pieces.