Louis Marx and Company was founded in New York City in 1919 by Louis and his brother David. Marx’s toys included toy soldiers, toy guns, toy cars and trucks, dolls houses and model train sets. They made lower price toys as well as costlier toys for department stores and catalogues.
In contrast with many companies, Marx prospered during the Great Depression and opened factories in hard pressed industrial areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the UK. By the 1950’s, Marx was the largest toy manufacturer in the world.
However, in 1967, Dunbee-Combex, a British conglomerate, purchased Marx UK but continued producing toys under the name Louis Marx and Co. Ltd. until 1976. In 1972 Louis Marx retired and sold the company to the Quaker Oats Company who also owned Fisher Price toys at the time. However, Quaker Oats struggled to make a success of the larger company and in 1976 sold off the Marx division to Dundee-Combex. Dunbee-Combex-Marx continued to manufacture toys until February 1980 when losses in the US forced the company to fall into bankruptcy. By 1981 all the Marx factories including the one in Swansea UK were closed.
The Marx assets were liquidated by Chemical Bank in the early 1980’s with the trademarks and most toy molds purchased by Jay Horowitz of American Plastic Equipment, who later transferred all rights to American Plastic Equipment’s subsidiary, American Classic Toys.
However, Marx toys continued to be produced after 1980 by the Plastimarx company which started off as a Marx subsidiary in Mexico selling products into South America. Plastimarx made both plastic and metal toys. When the Marx company was sold off to Quaker Oats in 1972, Plastimarx came under the control of Fisher-Price. When the Marx division was sold off to Dunbee-Combex in 1976, Plastimarx was not part of the deal and so when Dunbee-Combex-Marx went under in 1980, Plastimarx continued to operate in Mexico.
After Dunbee-Combex-Marx went bankrupt, Plastimarx acquired some of the Marx molds to manufacture additional plastic figures. Ultimately, a poor Mexican economy in the 1990s put an end to the company, possibly, in 1991.
The original moulds for the six inch soldiers were probably transferred to other companies after the demise of Plastimarx and further re-issues produced but the exact whereabouts of the moulds now is unclear.
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