I had one of these as a kid…very cool and very rare nowadays. It’s amazing what Marx accomplished. I have no place for it on my layout, but maybe one my fellow Marxists do…a little pricey for me inasmuch as I have already stretched the budget a bit…well…more than a bit. My wife says, you’re not looking at more trains are you? No, no, I was looking for a hammock. Insert wink and nod here.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110677968474&category=733&_trksid=p5197.c0.m619
While that price could go higher, I’d think if the sale price was under $100 it would be a steal! Nifty-looking train.
Of course, you’re right…Two words came to mind…Flash Gordan… if I had somewhere to put it, I would be throwing cash at it like branches into the mulcher…I have never seen one pop up before…it is so retro and unique, that every time I see it I have to count to ten before pushing the bid button…whew…that was a close one. I knew you folks would appreciate it as well.
Wow is that nifty. The battery compartment is pretty beat up though…
Marx really put our some very nice tinplate toys for its time. To bad that there is not a Marx Company around today.
Couldn’t have said that better myself. A really creative bunch that did more with less.
I’ve never seen one of them before, simply amazing! Have no idea where I would put it, but trust me, if I weren’t saving for a barn next month I’d not only have to have it, I’d find a place for it.
One of the benefits of living alone is there is always room to expand without annoying anyone!
Sad but true.
If I can be permitted to postulate on that subject, I would suggest that American consumers were (and still are to some extent) the #1 reason for the decline of tinplate toys made in the Marx way. To be more specific, we (society) decided that lithographed tin toys were “dangerous” and shouldn’t be put in the hands of children. Cries like “those edges are sharp” and “that could cause tetanus” overwhelm toy makers and they answer back by changing everything to plastics. Then consumers cry that the toys “look cheap” so they stop buying them in the quantities the companies need to stay profitable. In the end, magnificently creative companies like Marx had no choice but to close their doors.
Once upon a time kids learned lessons from playing with toys. Little Tommy learned that if he jammed his cast iron Ives locomotive into his mouth he was going to end up with some broken teeth. He may also have learned that if he poured the “magic sand” into the glass jars to create electricity for his trains but then stuck his hand into the solution to pull the lead plates out he would end up with a pretty bad burn. Yes, tinplate trains have sharp edges. Cast iron locomotives are heavy. And they can also rust and cause lockjaw. But hopefully little Tommy’s parents were bright enough to teach him a thing or two rather than relying on the toy manufacturer to do the parenting for them. And I guess we can say that Marx just couldn’t handle the task of reading the minds of ever
And in the pre-oil-crisis era, plastic was cheaper… [:(]
plastic Marx isn’t that bad…
Oh, I agree. But since Marx was ahead of the curve in the market, they got branded with the stigmata.
I want one I can ride in. Soo cool!!!
Kev.
I’d say it’s more like American legislators than consumers. It’s the American legal establishment that’s responsible for nourishing the litigation frenzy that sent tinplate toys off the shelves. Other than that, I agree with all that you say.
As for the monorail itself, it looks a lot like one I got for Christmas when I was about seven (that was in 1955, in case anyone’s wondering). But mine, to my great disappointment, never ran. My father and I set it up, put in a pair of fresh batteries and turned it on…and nothing happened. The motor was certainly getting power, because it would hum and move the monorail car forward a few inches, but that was it. It was as though it was just too underpowered to haul itself.
I don’t know whether my parents returned it or what, but it disappeared not too long afterward. I’m not even sure, now, if it was by Marx or some other tinplate toy manufacturer. I’ve always thought it would have been a great toy if it had actually functioned.
WOW I bet the guy selling it loves this post because you can get a lot of train for $300.00 and the bid is still not over.
Took all of the fun out of it for me. Come on it is a rusted POC.
Just my thought.
Kevin
It may be a rusted POC, but its fairly rare to find a complete and running set, and the rusty bits can be polished away carefullyI’d love to have this but its just been taken out of my range, I would have gone $100, $120 tops if it was in better shape, but not that high…never!
I think the price reflects it’s rarity and unique quality and it’s obvious that the bidding as far as it being simply a rusted POC, well…there is some obvious disagreement on that valuation .Would I pay that much? …No. To a collector, who wants at least one of everything, price can be a secondary consideration. I ran mine as a kid constantly and always wanted more “track” …even went so far as to try to do it myself which of course was a dismal failure. It was fun just watching it do loops. More with less makes this a good example of Marx as the preeminent maker of tin lithograph…but…if I saw a unique Art Rock Island Set as shown in Rodger’s book, price would be secondary…or the AF Vista Dome Limited Set ( ranked #2) second only to the Lionel SF diesels…the sky is the ceiling…whats the old saying? one man’s trash is another’'s treasure…