Copyright 2003 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
This is the first set of Marx 54mm American soldiers. They were quite a step up from the Marx 60mm soldiers, in matters of poses, animated sculpting and details. The Marx soldiers remain one of the foremost, if not the best 54mm 20th Century soldier figures made. They were included in playsets, for the most part. A few stores also had them in bags of fifty figures. This set has 16 figures in combat poses. Marx later added another set with 16 poses, and another set of Marines.. (We will include some of them as we acquire them) The particular figures shown here are recently cast from the original molds. The plastic is a little dark, but you can clearly see the quality of these figures.
The set has its peculiarities. There is an unusually high percentage of men with M1 Carbines. These were usually only issued to officers, artillerymen, and non-infantry front line troops. A folding stock version was issued to paratroopers. Not only are they here, but they are being used for a bayonet charge. Also, the machine-gunner is actually operating either a German weapon OR the post-World War II M-60 machine gun. The US had no machine gun of that type. ironically, the Germans rarely used a tripod, and when they did, their mount was a very different design than the one on the figure.
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"Follow Me" officer. |
Soldier firing Thompson submachine gun |
Man loading mortar. A hard plastic mortar was included in early playsets. |
Firing light machine gun on tripod. The gun is either a German MG42 or a U.S. M-60. The M-60 did not appear until the 1950s, so this is probably meant to be the German weapon. |
Kneeling rifleman with M1 Carbine. |
Radioman with pistol |
Bazooka man. |
BAR gunner / automatic rifleman |
Throwing hand grenade while holding a Tommy gun. |
Standing and firing M1 Carbine |
Marching soldier |
Mine sweeper |
Charging with M1 Carbine #1 |
Charging with M1 Carbine #2 |
Charging with M1 Carbine #3 |
Striking with M1 Carbine |
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