Marx Balky Mule, 1925

MARX 1925 Balky Mule: 10-3/4” long X 5” high

            The metal Balky Mule toy consists of a mule-drawn cart with a driver and dog. The mule is gray with yellow, red, and black blanket, although a variation has a red and blue blanket. The driver is dressed in a burgundy shirt and hat and tan overalls. The dog is brown and white.

The driver and dog sit on the carts burgundy seat. The carts curved sides have a wooden grain, burgundy exterior and blue interior. Six milk cans are attached in the back of the cart. The wheels are green with lithographed yellow spokes and edges, and the variation has pale gray or white wheels edged with red but without the lithographed spokes. A small balance wheel is at the front of the cart. Lettering on the back of the cart reads “Hee Haw, Louis Marx & Co., New York, USA, Pat’s Pend’g”.

The windup mechanism is between the wheels with the key underneath the toy. As the cart rolls forward, the man moves rapidly up and down on a pivot.  The mule’s ears and legs and dog are all movable. The 1926 Fall/Winter Sears advertisement further describes the action as follows: “Mule backs up when he should go forward and rears up on his hind legs so that the poor driver doesn’t know what to do”.

The Balky Mule was also advertised in the 1925 Fall/Winter Sears catalog. But the cart advertised drawing differs from the actual toy. In addition, the ad described the driver as “Old,” though the driver does not appear to be aged. 

In the 1926 Fall/Winter Sears catalog, the advertisement drawing is much more realistic and the word “old” has been dropped from the ad copy. The toy sold for 43 cents in 1926. Ads for Balky Mule toy continued until 1940 when it disappeared from catalogs until 1948.  

Except for the hat and lithography, the Balky Mule driver is the same as that of the Snoopy Gus eccentric car and the American Tractor Toy. The large wheels of the cart are the same as some of those on the early eccentric cars, but with different lithography. The dog is also found on the early eccentric cars, except in the Bulky Mule toy he is shorter, lithographed ears.