Doll-A-Day 2023 #11: Marx American Family Dollhouse Boy

**UPDATE: Thanks to our reader, Beth, for letting us know that this boy is from the American Family Dollhouse Family by Marx. Thanks Beth!**   

Today's doll is another little fellow. He's this boy by Marx.

  I don't know much about this kid. He's about 4 inches tall.  

I know he's made by Marx, in Hong Kong.

He has books under his arm.

And as you may have seen, a slingshot in his back pocket.

So are the books just a ruse, to make him appear studious? While he's planning on shooting rocks through your window?

He has white 'sneakers', as they said in the Old Days.

He has some wear. I've heard of digging your heels in, but this kid appears to have dug his toes in. And off.

His hair is molded and painted.

But I have always wondered what set he's from. He doesn't look like your standard dollhouse or playset kid. He has a smart aleck look about him. He reminds me of a Chuck Jones character. (Chuck Jones was an animator and director, known for the later Warner Brothers cartoons, and "How The Grinch Stole Christmas". You know a Chuck Jones character when you see it!)

Looks like he's 'had his nose to the grindstone' too...

In fact, he reminds me a lot of the the animated version of the main character from the movie "The Phantom Tollbooth". 

Not enough hair on the doll though, and I'm sure they didn't make toys from the movie.

  "The Phantom Tollbooth" is a wonderful kids book by Norton Juster. I loved that book as a kid, and read it to Emma, I believe, when she was small. The movie I didn't like as much. (Apparently Norton Juster hated it.) It was directed by Chuck Jones, who had previously directed the Academy Award winning short film adaptation of Norton Juster's "The Dot and the Line", in 1965. "The Phantom Tollbooth" starred Eddie Munster...uh. I mean, Butch Patrick!

I guess Butch Patrick looked a little like a Chuck Jones character himself.

  The story concerned a crabby, bored kid named Milo,(Patrick), who comes home from school one day to find a mysterious package in his room. The package contained a build it yourself kid sized tollbooth and a kid sized car. With nothing else to do, Milo puts the tollbooth together, and as per the instructions, chooses a random place to go in The Kingdom of Wisdom, and drives through it. When he does, his room disappears and he enters into a different world. (In the movie, this is the point where everything becomes animated.) I always got a sort of Alice in Wonderland feeling from it. (The book, not the movie.) The previous "The Dot and the Line" used math to tell a story. 'Tollbooth' uses words. No. I mean it really uses words. It's full of imaginative word play. Unfortunately, not only kids, but most adults these days, might not get most of the puns, but that's all the more reason to read the book! 

  The movie was released in 1970, but filmed in 1968, which still means Butch Patrick was FIFTEEN when he appeared as Milo! No wonder he looks a little uncomfortable in that tiny car!

  A remake of "The Phantom Tollbooth" has been in the works since 2010. No recent word of the likelihood of it ever actually being made.

  That's the doll for today. I kind of strayed off on a tangent, didn't I? Sorry about that! If anybody can identify this kid, please leave a comment. See you tomorrow for another doll.

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.