We Boomers grew up with the greatest toys ever made. Indeed, the 1950's-1970's has been hailed as the Golden Age of toy manufacturing by more than one authority. And those toys were brought to us by a number of manufacturers who, sadly, have disappeared from sight.
I've already written about Kenner. Today, we cover three more beloved toy makers who have regrettably slipped below the waves of history and live on only in the memory banks of Boomer children.
The first is Marx. "By Marx!" used to sign off all of their commercials, eagerly absorbed by many a 1960's-era kid on a Saturday morning, the prime time for TV to show such ads in order to reach their maximum demographic. This Big Rail Work Train ad is one I remember well. It seemed that Marx's specialty was BIG toys. That meant that it would take a special occasion to talk mom and dad into springing for one.
Marx was founded in 1919 in New York City by Louis Marx and his brother David. The brothers looked for innovative toy designs produced by others, bought the rights, and improved upon them. The strategy worked well. By 1922, both had become millionaires. Their business actually thrived during the Depression, and by 1955 Time magazine had declared Louis Marx the Toy King.
In 1972, the now 76-year-old Marx sold the company to Quaker Oats. In 1975, they in turn sold it to Dunbee-Combex-Marx, a British company. In 1978, that company went under, and so did the Marx name.
The Ideal Novelty and Toy Company was founded in New York in 1907 by Morris and Rose Michtom after they had hit it big creating the Teddy bear in 1903. The Teddy bear, of course, was invented to cash in on an incident in which Teddy Roosevelt refused to kill a bear which had been captured for that purpose.
In 1934, Ideal introduced Betsy Wetsy. Other triumphant Ideal toys included Battling Tops, Captain Action, Gaylord the Walking Bassett Hound, Ker-Plunk, the Magic Eight-Ball, Mouse Trap, Tip-It, and their final smash hit: Rubik's Cube.
In 1982, with Rubik's Cube riding high, Ideal sold out to the CBS Toy Company, which almost immediately itself disappeared. Thus was the inglorious end of the producer of some treasured Boomer toys. Many of its familiar creations continue to live on, though, particularly the one that started it all, the Teddy bear.
That brings us to our third vanished toy company: Remco.
Remco was a relative latecomer in the Boomer toy manufacturing biz. They showed up sometime in the 40's.
Among Remco's contributions to our childhood memories were the official Beatles, Batman, Munsters, Lost in Space, and Monkees toys we played with. Remco managed to sew up the toy rights to these very lucrative franchises.
They also produced the famous Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater play figures of 1964. What, you don't remember them? That's okay, neither does anyone else. ;-)
Another obscure Remco toy that must have been absolutely amazing to see was their 1959 Movieland Drive-In Theater. According to Wikipedia,
(It) consisted of cars, a drive in board with car spaces, a place to list "Featured Movies" along with blue and white double-bill cards that slid into the marquee; the "movie" was a film strip that projected by a battery operated light bulb onto a 4" x 6" screen that attached to the drive in. Titles included Have Gun Will Travel, Mighty Mouse, (and) Farmer Al Falfa.
Can you imagine a 1959 kid setting up that puppy in his/her darkened bedroom? Wow!
Remco was acquired in 1974 by Azrak-Hamway International, Inc. The name held on until the apparent final product was released, 1994's Swat Kats action figures. Never heard of Swat Kats? Maybe your kids did, they were aimed at their generation.
1994 is the last mention I could find of AHI/Remco, so I assume their demise must have occurred about that time.
Thus are the fates of three toy giants that fed our relentless appetite for playthings in the 50's through the 70's. They should stand as a stern reminder to big companies everywhere that no matter how well things are going for you now, you are only time away from becoming the subject of a nostalgia blog's remembrance of something that disappeared when you weren't looking.
Comments (13)
RIP to all those great toy companies! I always enjoyed looking through the Montgomery Ward catalog toy section, especially at Christmas. I had a Tow Truck Big Bruiser! Wasn't that a MARX product? I loved that tow truck. Oh those remco radios! Just too cool! I had also forgotten about that Haunted House game! But Green Ghost was also pretty cool! I still have a rubix cube and embarrased to say, have never solved it. The eightball was always a classic! I have to agree Ron, 50s to the 70s was the golden era of toys!
Posted by Rivers End | January 31, 2010 3:11 PM
Posted on January 31, 2010 15:11
i remember when my mother used to get the spiegel catalogs in the mail and my sister and me would lay on the floor and go through them. ohhh the toys were so awesome. i always wanted, the red spinning wheel, the vanity, mouse trap, those doll houses anf OMG to me the toys today cant even hold a candle to the toys we had. im african american, and i so wanted a tressy doll, and the libby little chap dolls. not saying there werent any black dolls back then cause there were. my father bought my sister and me our first walking doll and they were black. and she was almost as tall as me. lol. and i loved her to death. tressy was the doll who you could make her hair grow. lol. i had fun beak then.
Posted by vera | January 31, 2010 3:18 PM
Posted on January 31, 2010 15:18
remember those comercials where the guy says,:ROCK AND SOCKEM ROBOTS BY MARX. LOL
Posted by vera | January 31, 2010 3:19 PM
Posted on January 31, 2010 15:19
Oh, I forgot all about Tip-It. That’s funny. I recall Mouse Trap as well. Was that Ideal? I remember Which Witch in the early 70s. That was fun cause of memories of laughing when a player made the wrong choice.
Wham-o had superballs, mentioned elsewhere on this site. Frisbee, too. But they also had this goo you mixed up that had a funny texture and you kept it in the fridge. Super slime was a more liquid like state of the same stuff, I think.
But toys ran into 2 problems. First, companies sought to buy out other companies so that they could get all the profits and have monopolies. But in addition, many toys were sort of gimmicky and did not last. Kids were quickly changing then as now. Now, kids prefer electronics to toys.
As well, I think companies were not that good at identifying what would really connect with kids. Things have improved. And too, no one ever foresaw collectors and collectables in the 60s. Now everyone buys with the single goal of saving and never even opening it.
I recall an episode of the Simpsons where Comic Book guy kidnapped Lucy Lawless, a.k.a. Zenna or something like that? And he was fighting her and grabbed one of his packaged light sabers and unwrapped it, and she pointed out that he destroyed the value which caused him to falter.
And then there was that nasty political correctness which said guns were bad and would cause kids to kill, which is utter nonsense. But there were lots of fond memories of those senseless toys. Really the metal tracks and cranes and dozers were pretty cool. I would have loved room and money for a train set.
Electrical Race car tracks were frustrating due to cars always flying off. HotWheels Jucier and motorized Hot W. were mildly fun. Matchbox had the best track in many ways. A spring moved around in a track and cars didn’t fly off but you could not vary individual speeds but making cars crash was unbelieveable fun. I did not turn violent as a result, either, although brain damage is possible ;-) Great times, though. Would never trade them for anything.
Posted by Scott Irv | February 1, 2010 2:04 AM
Posted on February 1, 2010 02:04
Gosh, I did not know these three toymakers were gone!!!
When you mentioned Ideal's Gaylord the Walking Bassett Hound, I had a sudden flash and vividly recalled the TV ad! I had Remco's Movieland Drive-in. It "lived" on a shelf beside of a lithographed tin Texaco Service Station-- another cool, realistic toy. The Drive-In and Texaco Station were among some toys (all with original packaging) that I gave to a younger good friend, in the 1990s, who is an avid nostalgia toy collector. I could never sell them, but I preferred giving the toys to a person who wanted to also keep display and treasure the toys!
And I leave you with this 50s TV jingle:
You can trust your car to the man who wears the Star, the big, red Texaco Star!
...boy do we need him now!!!
Posted by NCeddie | February 1, 2010 6:50 AM
Posted on February 1, 2010 06:50
I could sing that Gaylord song for you. "...He's Ideal... he'll walkety walkety walk with you!"
I liked the little jingle at the end of the toy instrument commercials:
Jimpin Jiminee, it's by Eminee!
Posted by Sandra Dodd | February 3, 2010 8:16 AM
Posted on February 3, 2010 08:16
Sandra Dodd........
Thanks for the audio memories!
Posted by NCeddie | February 3, 2010 8:30 AM
Posted on February 3, 2010 08:30
i forgot about FISHER PRICE,and i think another one os spelled,SCHAPPER,OR SCHAPHER toys.
Posted by vera | February 6, 2010 11:54 AM
Posted on February 6, 2010 11:54
What's amazing is how many toys back then ran on electric current....no prob worrying about Jr. getting zapped whatsoever....electric football tables, easy-bake ovens, lit-brite, toy trains with power transformers that conducted current on the tracks, slot cars with current......way way pre Amber Alert days.....and best of all were the injection plastic mold "factories", where you would literally burn plastic toxins into the air, all for a set of vampire fangs"Fright Factory"......I vaguely remember a candy factory as well, with the benefit that you could "eat" the semi-toxic goop.....prob why i'm headed for the chemo ward now.....ah for the days when parents didn't freak out about their kids...
Posted by scott kuzminski | February 8, 2010 5:42 PM
Posted on February 8, 2010 17:42
***Scott Kuzminski***
Yeah, that was before adults became too irresponsible to raise kids AND lawyers dreamed up precedent-setting lawsuits to cover their dumb asses by shifting blame! The older I get, the smarter I think my generation's parents, and those before them, were!
Posted by NCeddie | February 9, 2010 3:32 AM
Posted on February 9, 2010 03:32
i forgot to mention coleco toys.
Posted by vera | February 14, 2010 2:03 PM
Posted on February 14, 2010 14:03
Its a sad day when Woolworths the greatest toy retailer in the UK has gone bust. Christmas will never be the same again!
Posted by Carl Release | February 23, 2010 4:43 AM
Posted on February 23, 2010 04:43
If any one has the film strips and marquee signs for the remco drive in theater I would like to buy them! I have the toy but need the film! contact me at kenny478@yahoo.com
Posted by kenny | March 8, 2010 6:47 AM
Posted on March 8, 2010 06:47