Marx 1975 Johnny West/ Best of the West Catalog

[PNGwynne]

Yes, exactly. I think I first read of that at Stewart's Attic. Some day...

Thank you for the pic, too!

[knight errant00]

I've admired Marx' figures, I'd like a custom James (Wild Wild West) West

Maybe you you knew this already, but "all" you need to do it are a Sam Cobra body and a Captain Maddox head -- From what I understand, WWW was intended to be part of the JW line at some point and then didn't happen, but the parts were repurposed into these two characters.

This article shows the prototype.

And here's somebody's painted-up one, with a custom Artemis (although the ones I've seen left in the Sam Cobra colors look just fine, too):

157179033_-johnny-west-style-wild-wild-west-james-west-artemus-.jpg

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Thanks for looking into it. I guess the caramel color explains Chief Cherokee crumbling in his box at least!

I know Captain Action weapons have been known to "melt" in their rubbery holsters as well.

Chris

[apes3978]

When I get some time, I *might* try to contact the guy I sold my stuff to, and ask him his experiences with the Marx stuff (he was a major collector, and had everything from all over, and I believe he dabbled in selling as well)... If I can dig up his contact info, I'll see what I can find out-But that may take awhile... In the meantime, I hope there are people on these forums who can tell us if their stuff became decrepit over the years. I am curious about it, because I always thought that the figures themselves at least were built like a tank, solid and indestructible.

Well, I contacted the collector I mentioned in my earlier post, and this is what he had to say regarding the Johnny West/Best of the West figures:

The caramel colored figures that Marx made are very prone to crumbling because of a chemical breakdown of the caramel color pellets used...
However, the Canadian and UK figures don't do this as they used a different color chemical.

On the accessories, some will leach the plasticizer used to soften the poly vinyl to be injection molded... It happens a lot with the Princess Wildflower items, but it can happen with all. This is the process that causes the tack to melt the styrene of the horses and wagons, but never melts the figures. If it starts, washing them in Dawn dishwasher liquid helps for a while but it will come back.

As to extremes in temperatures, he said nothing has ever been confirmed, but he does think it can play a part in the stuff breaking down.

[Mikey]

The few Johnny Wests that made it into my adulthood stayed pretty well intact --- not including their horrible face discolorations.

General Custer turned green and Geronimo went super ruby red.

Strangely, Sam Cobra is totally fine to this day ---

BTW, still thinking of making a Forbidden Planet Dr Morbius custom using Cobra's head -- It's pretty much spot on

[rykerw1701]

The is one of those lines I look at and think I need to start collecting them. Then I come to my senses and decide not to open that can of worms.

As for condition, my only experience with Marx is with the Silver Knight, Sir Stuart, which I've had since the early 70's. He's been in storage for a while, but last time I looked he and his accessories were fine. The only thing I've noticed is that there is a lot of high quality repro accessories out there. I bought a reissued Silver Knight maybe 20 years ago, took what I needed and mixed his stuff with my originals, and i couldn't tell the difference. Looked great, but had I spent a bunch of money for all original, I would have been frustrated.

[apes3978]

One more thing about the figures and how well, or badly, they held up thru the years- Did any of you guys see the episode of Me-TV's "Collector's Call" from this last season, I forget the guys name, but I think the gist of his huge toy collection was that he wanted every day to be like Christmas or something like that... Anyway, one of the things they featured on the show was his original Marx "Best of the West" store display, complete with figures and horses, and all of the stuff looked to be in excellent shape.

I don't know when it would have been filmed, but I would imagine maybe a year before it aired, so recorded probably sometime in 2019.

[apes3978]

The Canadian/Mexican color variations always had me super jealous.

I would have KILLED for a molded white Sheriff Garret

Not to mention a blue Sam Cobra

Sheriff Garrett seemed to be a hard one to find around here-The only one I ever ran across was at a yard sale with *zero* accessories.

Since we had some extra "BOTW" figures that we picked up along the way at sales, etc. we would switch their heads onto the different bodies to create alternate figures. For instance, we had one of the bearded Knight figures- We took the head off the body, put it on an extra white Geronimo body we had, and we had an instant "Mountain Man/Fur Trader". And I remember we had two of the brown bodied Chief Cherokee figures, so we swapped out the Chief Cherokee head and put a Geronimo on the body, so we had Geronimo with a brown body, etc.

[apes3978]

So what's the story on these falling apart? I know very little beyond the basics about the line, but I have seen more crumbling than intact in my toyshow/antique mall hunts over the years.I picked up a big bag full of 60s figures/accessories at an antique mall in Knoxville TN about 20 years ago, with Marx figures, including Johnny and a gold knight. Both were just in pieces.

Is it humid climate? Is it a certain run of figures that are prone to disentegrating?

Chris

I wish I had an answer for you, seriously...

Reading about it in this thread is the first I'm reading ("hearing") about these falling apart/disintegrating-In addition to your post, I'm now reading a few more and I'm pretty confused by it actually... I have no doubt about what you (or the others) were saying, I was just posting my own personal experiences with the figures.

As I said, when I sold mine, they had been in a storage shed with no climate control, so exposed to the various hot/humid and cold/sub-zero weather we get around here... Eventually they were moved into a spare room here in the house, but that was after years of the way they were stored in the shed. All I can say is my stuff was just as it had been before it went in to the shed. When I sold it, there were no issues with it, and the guy I sold it to was quite happy with it.

All of the stuff I had was from when it was marketed as "Best of the West", except for the later "Johnny West" version of Chief Cherokee and Jamie West, so I don't know if anything changed between lines as far as the plastic they used, etc... But at the time of sale, the "BOTW" and "JW" stuff was all in good shape. Now granted, I sold the stuff about 12 years ago, so what might have happened to the stuff in that time span is beyond me.

When I get some time, I *might* try to contact the guy I sold my stuff to, and ask him his experiences with the Marx stuff (he was a major collector, and had everything from all over, and I believe he dabbled in selling as well)... If I can dig up his contact info, I'll see what I can find out-But that may take awhile... In the meantime, I hope there are people on these forums who can tell us if their stuff became decrepit over the years. I am curious about it, because I always thought that the figures themselves at least were built like a tank, solid and indestructible.

Edited to add- My Jed Gibson figure was also from the "Johnny West" series of figures.

[Earth 2 Chris]

In regard to Earth 2 Chris' post about the stuff disintegrating, I never had that trouble with any of my stuff... I stored it for several years in a storage shed with *no* climate control, exposed to extremes in heat and cold (but it was never exposed to direct rain, snow, sunlight). When I went to sell it, everything was as it had been all those years before, intact and nice condition-No issues with any of the stuff falling apart...

Those figures were extremely durable.

So what's the story on these falling apart? I know very little beyond the basics about the line, but I have seen more crumbling than intact in my toyshow/antique mall hunts over the years.I picked up a big bag full of 60s figures/accessories at an antique mall in Knoxville TN about 20 years ago, with Marx figures, including Johnny and a gold knight. Both were just in pieces.

Is it humid climate? Is it a certain run of figures that are prone to disentegrating?

Chris

[Mikey]

The Canadian/Mexican color variations always had me super jealous.

I would have KILLED for a molded white Sheriff Garret

Not to mention a blue Sam Cobra

[J.B.]

I was in pretty bad shape after having my tonsils removed, so on the way back from the hospital my Dad drove to my favorite toy store, Toyville, and told me to pick whatever toy I wanted. Here's Johnny!

Had I not been so loopy, I may have gone for one of the stupid expensive Corgi's that were behind a locked glass cabinet, but I'm glad I chose Johnny.

[PNGwynne]

I've admired Marx' figures, I'd like a custom James (Wild Wild West) West and secret agent Mike Hazard.

The disintegration of some figures, especially of certain colors, is well-documented--but I did not know about concerns with the accessories. They seemed so durable to me.

[Werewolf]

I think these would get even more love than they do if they didn't disintegrate now.

Yeah, they are wonderful toys but do not age well. My Mother had a large collection of these and all the rubber accessories melted on display in an airconditioned room. Any rubber parts (saddles, vests, etc.) looked to have chemically reacted to harder plastic of the dolls and horses. The additional accessories that were not in contact with anything else also got all sticky and gooey. It was kind of a depressing mess.

[TrekStar]

Those water pistols look neat.