Doll-A-Day 2017 #20: Jamie West from Marx's Best of the West

  Yesterday we saw Jane West from The Best of the West series. Today we're looking at Jamie West.

  Jamie is one of two sons in the West family.

The painting isn't great on Marx figures. They were meant to be action figures, and those just weren't as detailed in those days. The sclera (the white part of the eye) isn't painted, and the hair isn't fully filled in.

 

Like all the Marx figures of this type, Jamie has painted hair with molded detail.

He's 9" tall.

 

 The same size as Skipper and her friend Ricky,(seen here with Jamie.).

Notice how much more detailed Ricky's face is.(And excuse the fact that he was in such a hurry to get his picture taken that he misplaced his shoe.)
Jamie is about 2" shorter than his mother Jane.

  As with everyone else in the family, Jamie has molded clothing. And, like everyone else, he also came with extra, molded rubber clothing, like a vest, a neckerchief, and a of course, a cowboy hat.

He has the Marx logo on his back.

And some pretty nice detail in his molded clothing.

  He's fully jointed.

  One of the major problems with the Marx figures like these, is that the hands had a round knob at the end that fitted into the wrists, meaning they could be pulled out of the wrists. That's why so many of these figures are found without hands.

The hands are a bendable vinyl. They're firm, but moveable, so they can hold their accessories.

 Occasionally the heads fall off too. Marx remade some of their classic figures about 20 years ago. We bought Fuzzy a knight. He was great, with a full set of removable armour, and weapons. The only problem was, his head came off almost immediately! On the other hand, my childhood Mike Hazard is still in one piece. I fear he might shatter if I dropped him though. As I said yesterday, that happens with the old Marx figures.
  I'm sort of proud of myself right now. I know I keep saying I'm going to let go of some stuff, and I am. It's just not happening as fast as I'd like. I'm still having a hard time letting go of most things. While working on this post I decided that, although I've had Jamie in my collection for the past few years, and he takes me back to my childhood,(Or, more accurately, the childhoods of other people which happened to be at the same time as mine...), I don't really like him that much. I'm going to let him go! He'll be traveling out of here with his mother, Jane, so at least he won't be alone. If anybody is interested, the accessories are going with them.
Join us tomorrow for Shrunken Saturday.

Doll-A-Day 2017 # 19 Jane West of The Best of the West by Marx

  Today's doll is Jane West, from Marx's Best of the West series of toys.

  Jane was introduced to the line in 1966, a year after it was introduced.

Even though I never owned any of this stuff as a kid, it's so familiar to me, and takes me back to my 60's childhood. The commercials were constantly shown during Saturday morning cartoons,and I think my cousins owned some of the figures. I definitely remember being around them.

 Jane was the wife of cowboy Johnny West, and the mother to their four children,Jay,Jamie, Janice, and Josie. (This family had a thing about 'J' names.)

Jane with son Jamie.

You can watch the commercial for the Best of the West HERE.

The Best of the West line was introduced to compete with Hasbro's GI Joe. When Marx's line of military figures and their secret agent Mike Hazard (Read about my Mike Hazard HERE.) failed to do well against Joe, they decided they needed to go a whole other route, and they decided that route led to cowboys.

When I was a kid I always thought Johnny West was the kid.

The West line had horses, a wagon, a buffalo, a villain, Native Americans, and loads of accessories.

Jane stands 11" tall, and has a very jointed blue plastic body. The early 70's version of Jane has a salmon coloured body.

Jane's box claims 'she will pose for you 1001 ways', which I think puts an awful lot of pressure on Jane, and frankly, I just don't think she can live up to the claim.

  You can tell mine is not the first issue Jane, because, sorry to be blunt, but that one was much more homely than this version.

Original Jane. Poor Jane. She apparently made a trip to the frontier plastic surgeon and looked much different in later years.

Also, the first release Jane had brown soft accessories. They were changed to cream colour (Like these) later.

Because she's a female, Jane got lots of clothing changes, including a belt, three different hats, two different skirts,(fringed and unfringed) two different vests,(again, fringed and unfringed. You know sometimes you have those days where you feel fringier than others...),and 2 bolo ties.

Fringyness! Plus a bolo tie.The paper towel is so you can clearly see the vest, which kept rolling up on itself.

Plus she also had girly accessories like a purse,a compact, and a lip stick! (In the old west? I thought only saloon girls wore 'paint' in those days!) The lipstick is particularly hard to find these days.
  Of course, she is a 'tough gal',so she also got a branding iron,spurs,a bullwhip, a gun belt,a Colt Peacemaker pistol, a Winchester rifle,a Derringer, a Bowie knife,and a strongbox.

Note the Bowie knife,strongbox, and branding iron.

But remember, she's female, so she also got a frying pan, a coffee pot, and a cup.(To be fair, I'm pretty sure Johnny came with this stuff too.)

That's a branding iron and a spur next to the coffee pot.

The thing I dislike about these figures is their molded on clothing. They must always wear the same pants, even though Jane came with a skirt.Even Jane's hair is molded.

Another thing is,sometimes the accessories were molded in some strange colours,or at the very least, in single colours,with no accent colours. At least the figures did come with lots of accessories though.
  These days the Marx figures have often become brittle with age.They develop cracks,especially around the joints. I once shattered poor Johnny West when he hit the floor after I tossed him to Emma and she failed to catch him.
  Tomorrow we'll see another member of the West family.

Doll-A-Day 8: Mike Hazard,One of the Best Presents I Never Asked For

  Today's doll is Mike Hazard,Double Agent by Marx toys.

The International Top Secret Operative! As long as nobody reads this box!

  Of course these days he would be called an 'action figure', but the term hadn't been invented yet back when he was made.  Mike is 12" tall, and has the same type of hard plastic jointed body as the Best of the West figures, like Johnny and Jane West. My cousins had them. But Mike was better!
  I got Mike for Christmas, I think. He's one of my favourite things I got as a kid that I didn't actually ask for. At least, I don't remember asking for him. He's just the type of thing that I would have asked for though. If I didn't ask for him, whoever picked him out did a great job!

'Blow up luggage'! Who could ask for anything more?!

  From what I can find, he was made from 1966 to 1968.So I was somewhere between 4 and 6 when I got him. It's amazing that I still have his box, and as many of his "Over 50 pieces of equipment" as I do.

He had so much cool stuff. There was a  false beard,a mask,a wig, glasses,a false nose with attached glasses,various hats...

Anybody remember Michael Caine as the spy, Harry Palmer?

Corn Flakes? I guess even a spy has to eat.

...a bullet proof vest, guns, a bazooka!,a transistor radio that transforms into a gun!, a camera, hand grenades, a key ring with detachable keys,a stiletto that fitted into a secret holder on the back of his tie!,a gun you could put together that had a telescopic sight, a secret listening device,and two, count 'em,TWO exploding cases!

There was a brief case and a Gladstone bag. Both used real caps and 'exploded' when thrown or dropped.(Setting the snap on that brief case could take off a finger! It was like a mousetrap! I loved it!)

Ok. I've got a gun! Somebody set the snap on this briefcase right now!

  Actually it was really hard to set that briefcase, especially without snapping yourself. I usually asked Mom to do it.

  The briefcase concealed another knife. And he even had a tape recorder in the inside of his hat!

    And of course, the obligatory trench coat, (with hidden pockets!).There was so much stuff, and much of it was so tiny, it was almost impossible not to lose at least some of it. Those bazooka missiles particularly were hard to find once you'd shot them off.

Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and a really cool attache case booby trap!

  I was a child of the 60's, and spies and secret agents were all the rage. My sister and I watched The Avengers, Mission Impossible, The Man from Uncle, and even The Girl From Uncle. We played spies. I even had a tiny trench coat,which I called my 'spy coat', and which I paired with an old felt fedora that came from who knows where, which scratched my forehead, (and occasionally drew blood), with the loose wire in it's band. In my fedora and Spy Coat I went on many a mission in the confines of my house and yard. I also have to confess to going on secret missions in first grade. I would ask to use the restroom, which in my tiny school of only 4 classrooms, (Two kindergarten and two first grade.), was in the basement, along with the tiny 'cafeteria room'. Alone in the basement I would peer sneakily around corners and use my communication device: a metal coin holder. Mike Hazard was right up my alley.
  Of course, they wouldn't make a toy like this for kids now days.All the guns and knives and exploding cases with dangerous caps and super snappy devices a kid could get hurt with. Plus Mike even smoked, and came with cigarettes, a lighter, and a pipe, which also transformed into a gun. But you know, I grew up with these kinds of toys, and I still have all my fingers and have never killed anybody or smoked in my life.
  Fuzzy loved Mike Hazard. When he was very tiny he asked, "Can I play with your Kazard?" Whaaat? "Your Kazard.Can I play with your Kazard?" It took a while to figure out he was asking about 'Mi - KeHazard'. (He thought I had called him 'my kazard'.) He played with him carefully and I think we may have lost the last bazooka missile, but that was it.
   Emma and Fuzzy both wore the Spy Coat on their missions too, when they were small. It still had (and has), in the pocket, a plastic bubble gum machine key on a necklace that I used on my missions. Ivy alone remained free of the 'Spy' trap. I have since reclaimed the Spy Coat and packed it away, in case any future agents want to go on a mission.