Marx 1939 Pursuit Plane

The following information is based off of the Greenberg’s guide to Marx toys volume two.

Marx pursuit planes late 1930s 6 ¾“ long x 8”wingspan. This toy comes in at least four versions each with stripes on the wings and one metal propeller, the sides of the fuselage have three bars and “U.S. “ Army lithographed on them.

First version:  This airplane has a cockpit that is tabbed into the top of the fuselage, it is similar to the cockpit on the flying fortresses and some of the other bombers. It moves and turns around by wind up mechanism under the wing. The wings are lithographed in red white and blue with the US Army air Corps insignia on either wing and the number “712” toward the rear, it has a red Rudder and balloon wheels that read “balloon 15×9.00”.  This airplane does not have guns mounted on it.

Second version: Colored like the first version, this plane has a lithograph cockpit and, in addition, two twin red sparking machine guns mounted on the wings. The red machine guns are lithograph with black and white stripes. The plane goes in a straight line rather than a circle. The black wheels have read hubcaps.

Third version: this plane has a blue fuselage with white and black markings, a lithograph cockpit, and a red Ryder. The blue and white tail is lithograph with black markings. The red and yellow wings have two twin sparking machine guns, lithographed in red with black and white stripes, mounted on the top of each wing. The tires are white with blue hubcaps and, like the second version read “balloon 15×9.00”.

Fourth version (pre 1939): This version is lithographed in khaki and yellow with blue stripes on the wings & the US Army air Corps insignia on each side along with the 712 markings. The fuselage is marked “U.S. Army” the rudder is red. Unique to this version it has two single barrel machine guns mounted on the wings, all of the other army pursuit planes like this if they have guns have dual machine guns on each wing. 

Interestingly to date this fourth version you must look at both the box and the toy. In 1939 Marx changed their logo by adding “Made In The United States Of America”. This is used in a concentric circle around the Marx logo. Prior to 1939 the logo just said Marx in a circle with toys under the Mar, this can be seen on the box. The combination if the two logos leads me to believe that the Pursuit plane was in production through the logo change which dates it to 1939.