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Saturday, May 9, 2015

Marx Toys Cars of The Future - Green HP - No. 1

***************Amended to read 'Green HP' (HARD' Plastic)******************

Back in the early-to-mid 1990s I was transitioning from trains to toys and just kind of feeling my way around the whole world of toy collecting. These Cars of The Future caught my eyes and I had ordered sets of all three colors that were available: gray, green, and silver. The gray ones were a little drab looking in my opinion so those got sold, but not before posting them here on Toys and Stuff back in Mar & April of 2012. I finally got around to taking photos of the green set so here they are. These were some of my earliest space/futuristic style toy acquisitions and the re-awakening of my childhood space toy interests.

The toys themselves are repos made by Marx Toys, Inc.out of Miami, Florida, the firm started by Jay Horowitz back in the late 1980s. Marx Toys, Inc. made many repos of former Louis Marx & Co. toys (their playsets included repos of other makers and include some all new products as well). The repos are done in a soft plastic while the originals were hard plastic. For some reason none of the cars made by the newer firm had original style wheelsets and the ones included with the newer firms' plastic vehicles had the somewhat crude wheelsets you see here in the photos, perhaps because the tooling for the original wheels had been damaged or lost. There were four different cars in the series, this car, No. 1, measures 4 7/8" (12.4) L x 1 3/4" (4.4cm) W 1 1/4" (3.2cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina




Somewhat unusual packaging: a header bag inside a box!


The four car fleet


Here's the type of wheelset included in Marx Toys, Inc. plastic vehicles. The firm had some problems with quality control as can be seen in many of their products, especially playsets. This would never have passed muster in the original Marx offerings. Unlike the wheelsets to the original hard plastic cars, the wheels rest inside the axle supports (see last photo)


The green tint is very light and almost looks silver under a bright sun but when held next to the silver version it's more noticeable





















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