Go West Young Man

[GordoCrisp]

I was digging through my folks' basement last week.

Found my old Johnny West figures; West, Calvary Guy (forgot his name), and Geronimo.

Man those are big hunks 'o plastic! Forgot how great their faces are too! Found a few of their weapons and clothing accessories, though I know a lot were lost.

Think my favorite is the coffee pot Johnny likes to take a swig off!

[ddgaff1132]

Marx really made a great action figure with Johnny West and the Mid-evil Knights & Viking figures also. They packed each figure with so many accessories. It made them ready for hours of play right out of the box. Unlike 12" GI Joe who required the purchase of additional accessory sets for play fun. Sadly on the collector end, Trying to gather together a Johnny West and accessories so as to own a complete one has gotta be a major choir.
I also like to think that J West was the inspiration for later toy-lines that Incorporated a sculpted clothing look to their figures, IE Star Wars and 80's GI Joe's. instead of cloth outfits. To my knowledge the only figures that were completely sculpt, clothes and all were the static-ly posed little green army men. Marx also was a maker of these.

[GordoCrisp]

Cool! I did not know about the Marx history; Knights and Vikings sound pretty rad.

I think I remember Johnny West scale horses too (?)

Geronimo rode a paint.

[convoy357]

Yeah the Johnny West stuff was cool! My older sister had a bunch of the figures and stuff when we were kids. I had the Knights and still have the silver knights horse here from my childhood. One thing any kid who played with those old Marx figures will remember is how they pinched your fingers in the joints when you were trying to pose them.....youch! I am a big fan of vintage Marx. I have a modest collection of Marx Buddy Charlie and Stony Smith and I have sold alot of Johnny West items and have a few choice pieces here. The Johnny West figures were so popular and were made for so long that they're not all that hard to find. Just certain items are rare, just like collecting Megos. Heres a combo boxed set I picked up recently:

[torgospizza]

This is a phenomenal line. I have a few pieces--not nearly so many as a lot of the guys here--but one of my highlights in my entire toy collection is a complete Geronimo w/ box. I really need to get a complete w/ box Johnny at some point, too. It's amazing how detailed the sculpted clothing was for the time--just check out the fringe on the buckskins the Indians are wearing. I wish someone would bring back this style of figure--with that sort of detail and accessories like the vikings and knights had, they could make a really impressive line of (f.ex.) King Kull versus Serpent Men figures or really any sort of sci-fi or fantasy-type line. And they're durable as heck for kids to play with. "Big hunks 'o plastic" is right!