MARX HISTORY TRAIN TUNNEL TOY COLLECTORS MARVEL THE MUSTANG BATS & BOATS EISENHOPPERS TOY POETRY BALL POINT PEN WHITE HOUSE Rock 'Em Sock 'Em

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Image:  In our never ending search for fun toys with a story,we present more boxing toy pictures. The MARX ROCK-EM  SOCK-EM robots revived the interest in boxing toys and, it seems, the hype has continued !!The BATTLING RAPTORS is a licensed product made by Milton Bradley in 1995. The T-REXS take batteries and make sound when in use.  The FROGS are ball-point pens !! They were made by Raymond Geddes & Company Inc. When you push the two levers on the back, the arms move just like the Rock-Sock toys. The pens do write also. The pictiure of a box is a toy licensed by Disney- Pixar featuring BUZZ LIGHTYEAR & the bad boy  EMPEROR ZURG !!! The toy was made by Mattel in 2000. We did not want to open the box--real toy collectors will understand !! They use batteries also and make fighting sounds !!! All three toys were made in China. Sure wish they said MADE IN AMERICA !!!!!!!    We hope you enjoy seeing and reading about toys as much as we do. The Louis B. Marx Company was known for looking at other toy manufacturers products, on the market, and perhaps, producing a similar toy that, of course, was superior in function, quality and price !! HOWEVER-- When MARX (the designers) had an original idea, IT WAS A BLOCK BUSTER !!  This brings us to our next story--THE  ROCK-EM--SOCK-EM    This one toy, by Marx, might be one of the most copied toys ever made. We have, over the past couple years, found at least eight variations of the -- Pugelistic Pounding Performers !! We will start with the following four toys and then add more.   Picture #1 is made by Mattel (you can tell it's Mattel-It's swell). This R&S is about 30 percent smaller than the Marx R&S. It was made around 2001 and except for size, is identical in function and assembly. The box has printing in American, Spanish and French and the toy was made in China.   Picture #2 was sold by WENDYS restaurants and called Kids Meals ROCK'EM  SOCK'EM. It is a bagatelle style toy that has a spring plunger and four steel balls.The object is to try and hit atriangle (red or blue) on the backboard and when hit, the head pops up. It also has six pockets that you may count your score. It is 5 1/2 inches long and comes with instructions.   Picture #3 shows a blister package with four FINGER  Rock'em & Sock'ems.It was sold by Tara Toy Company, Hauppauge, N.Y. and made in China. The idea is to place a robot on your finger and have an another person do the same. You then box each other until one head pops up. There are levers on the back to make the arms move. The instructions show one person playing by using thumbs to move the levers. The parent company is Mattel and produced in 2004.   Picture #4 is a tree ornament made by Hallmark, the card people, and is from their Keepsake collection. This is pretty neat. The heads are held on by springs (bobble heads) but it has buttons for each robot and the arms move  just like the original R&S  and the robots may be moved back and forth !! The ornament was sold in 2007 and had a retail price of $15.00 U.S. dollar.   We will take more pictures of other R&S toys and then take a picture of all of them including the original ROCK'EM SOCK'EM by MARX !!   do you have all of them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Image:  LOUIS B. MARX, and his faithful employees, made millions upon millions of toys for more than 50 years. Some were soon forgotten and some were master pieces of invention. All makers, in the toy business, copied each other and the competition was firece. There have been many storys, and theories, of who copied whom but here is an example of pictures that proves the fact that --- ROCK-EM  SOCK-EM  was a winner for MARX !!!!!   The pictures tell the story. Here are some of the boxing toys we have in our collection and on display in museums. We have more pictures, of boxers, and will update this story in the near future. We start with WACKY-WOBBLERS BY FUNKO, CHINA  they are bobble heads ----ROCK-EM SOCK-EM party favors by Tara Toy,China, you put them on your thumb and use a finger to move the arms ---- KEEPSAKE HALLMARK Christmas tree ornament ---- WENDY'S kids meals (it works!!) ---ROCK-EM SOCK-EM by Mattel, this is almost identical to MARX but it is smaller in overall size so it required all new molds, we bought 8 sets at a discount store for $9.00 each !!! ---- ROCKY BALBOA we slipped this hand puppet in just for fun, the arms work like the RE/SE ---- WWF RAW WAR is a stretch but they do punch each other --- and the original ROCK-EM  SOCK-EM  by  MARX !!! ---- we found the 2 men boxers in a corner in an old store, they are marked ENGLAND, you hold each one seperately and they fall over when a good upper cut is thrown ---- another MARX toy are these 2 bears and they also will fall over when hit with the club.   Well----that's a good start of the boxing toys. We are working on the update for the BIG WHEEL and have a great surprise to show via pictures. We feel pictures tell the best story !!   until next time ----------- HAVE FUN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Image:  WELL-- we bought some more boxing type toys. The picture of the box toy was made by Milton Bradley. We did not want to take it out and assemble it. Maybe some day, when we're old and feeble, it will become a collector item. The other two are made by Goldlox and Hasboro. The next two boxer toys we feature (we hope) will be from Ferdinand Strauss and the Louis B. MARX Co. We try to update on a monthly basis so HAPPY NEW YEAR  !!!!!!!  Image:  MORE BOXERS--- The two pictures show the effort made by Quaker Oats Company for a variation of the ROCK-EM-SOCK-EM:  The toy is called -- CLASH of the COSMIC ROBOTS -- On the box is written -- ROCKING DODGING PUNCHING ACTION -- MARX TOYS is printed in the Q.O. style. The toy was produced in Girard, Pa. 16417 in 1977 so it was molded one year before the closing of the TOY WORKS building since the auction was in 1978.  We wonder if Empire Plastics got these molds and, after their bankruptcy, what happened to them!