Wee Scottie, Flock covered

1930’s Wee Running Scottie

Wee Running Scottie: 1930s 5-1/2” long.

The wee Running Scottie is a cheerful little black dog that comes in a variety of lithographed styles. The earliest Wee Scottie wears a lithographed blue and yellow-lithographed tassel. When the key is wound, the little dog’s front paws move rapidly as he runs in a large circle.

Lettering on the coat reads “ Wee Scottie” and Made in the United States of America”. The older Marx logo and patent number 1,959,493 also appear on the coat. The patent was filed on January 26, 1933 by Heinrich Muller of Nuremberg Germany.

Like the Scotties to follow, the Wee Scottie has rubber ears and Tail. Two large steel wheels on the toys base are connected to the front paws, and two small wooden wheels on the back of the toy help the dog to run on the ground. This Scottie has wooden front paws, while latter variations have tin.

The description below was taken from “Grand Old Toys” 

(http://www.grandoldtoys.com/toydb_Detail.php?id=417&S_keywords=dog,tin%20litho,wind-up&Search.x=0&Search.y=0)

Just when I thought I'd seen nearly every Marx toy, another completely unknown example pops up. That's the case with this "Flock Covered Wee Scottie". It's not documented in any reference, and not one of the several collectors I asked had ever heard of it before. It's in excellent+ to near mint condition and has it's original key. It comes complete with its original box. This brings the total number of Wee Scottie variations to five.

When I initially found this toy I thought that someone glued flock material onto a Scottie to create their own new version. Then I saw the box. Printed on the short box panels in large, black capitalized letters is "flock covered". That proves that it was a sanctioned Marx product produced at their U.S. plant. Without the box it would be impossible to determine if it was an authentic Marx configuration. It has no precedent that I'm aware of.  

Although it is a bit of a mystery some of it can be "deciphered". Wee Scottie made its first appearance around 1934. The toy was all lithographed metal. It was black with white eyes and had a blue and red lithoed checkered coat with lithoed tassel. The front paws are wooden. Around 1940 and after the war the color was changed using different combinations of black and tan with blue eyes. The blanket color was changed and the tassel removed. Metal paws substituted for wood. The Marx logo was also modified in 1938.

This Wee Scottie has the early logo version which is consistent with the blanket color and wooden paws. Of course, this toy was the first version.......only flock covered. All versions of the toy have rubber ears and tail, but in this case even the rubber components were covered with flock. Only the blanket and eyes were left exposed. The toy comes with its original, correct die cast metal key.

Curiously, the box was printed after 1938. Early boxes were not illustrated. In addition, the logo is post-1938 (which is not the same as the toy). My guess is that early in the production of the post-1938 Scotties some of the pre-1938 toys were  dispersed as excess stock. The differences between the old and new Scotties were obvious so flocking was used. This may have been done to sell off the old stock as a new version, or to cover them up. It's difficult to say why this actually happened. The side panels on the new box were blank so it was a simple matter of adding the words "flock covered" to both sides. The flocked toys may have been produced until the supply of older Scotties ran out, or perhaps there was a problem manufacturing glued flock onto lithographed tinplate. Either scenario would account for its scarcity.

The illustrated box shows a fairly accurate depiction of a real Scottie dog. The black, red, and white blanket he's wearing in the drawing is the same used on the post-1938 toy. The endflaps have identical printing, however one end is "permanently locked" and includes the statement to open at the other end. The opposite endflap is hinged to open easily.