Adventures With My Marx Cowgirl Action Figure

Those of a certain age remember Marx toys. They made everything from Western playsets to tin dollhouses to the original Big Wheel and Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

Marx Fort Apache Cabin. (Source: Ed Berg http://toyconnect.blogspot.com/, via Wikimedia Commons.)

Not everyone remembers Marx toys. But collectors like the fans behind Stewart’s Attic and Marx Collector remember. Not to mention the Marx Museum, Marx Lane, and Ed Berg’s Toys and Stuff blog.

Marx Playsets

When the Sears Wish Book came, I would flip through the toy section. Like many kids, I studied it as if it were the Voynich Manuscript.

I was fascinated by Marx playsets. Vast forts filled with cowboys. Western towns. World War II playsets with tanks and hills. Space exploration playsets. Worlds you can learn about on Rick Eber’s Marx Playsets site. To an imaginative kid, they spoke of adventure.

My parents nixed the idea of getting a playset. They knew they would end up stepping on sharp little soldiers and astronauts.

Then, the Marx Johnny West “Best of the West” action figures ambled into town.

Johnny West in the Original Box. (Source: Stewart’s Best of the West website.)

Meet the Johnny West Toys