Marx 30mm - HO Figures

[Lee]

I am sure lots of you knew this, but we always see or learn something new at every Johnny West Convention in Wheeling. Before going this year, I had no idea that Marx made figures they considered to be HO scale.

I had even seen pictures of the 'Mini Playsets' and just thought that meant smaller box and fewer accessories. It actually meant 30mm scale (about 1 inch tall). There are apparently a number of re-issues out there too. I got some cowboys and calvary men loose at the show and have found some others on eBay.

They are about a head taller than true HO scale (1/67 - less than 3/4 inch), and we have been mixing in a lot of 1/72 scale figures (normally between 3/4 inch and 1 inch tall) from various model makers. So with the possibility of having actual Marx figures on the train set, I am very willing to suffer through another slight compromise in scale to introduce the 30mm figures which are roughly 1 inch tall.

Looks like there were mini-playsets for Noah's Ark, Fort Appache, Custer's 7th Calvary, and Iwo Jima. There were probably more, but those are the set names I have seen since the Marx Convention.

Lee

[fortapache]

The Marx Miniatures? They are painted and are made from hard plastic. I had the knights and castle in the long ago and hope to have it again.

[terryschimm]

I have only a vague recollection of the Marx ones, but I had some of the other miniatures, I guess they were the dime store variety.

Terry

[Lee]

Yes, they were originally the painted ones and came from China. I had seen Marx miniatures, and 'Disneykins', but did not realize that they made miniture representations of the figure usually found anywhere from 45 to 60 mm playset size. These are the very same sculpts pantographed down to 30mm. Sound like they were normally done in the hard plastic and painted over seas. The most frequent complaint seems to be that they were not painted well -- big black dots for eyes, etc.

[terryschimm]

Yeah, seemed like most of those handpainted figures, regardless of scale, were horribly done. I can understand though...I would imagine quota far outweighed quality, lol.

Terry

[fortapache]

I like those badly hand painted figures. Especially the Disneykins.