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These MPC figures were produced from about the time Louis Marx stopped production in 1964, until sometime in the 1970s. The MPC lineup was peculiar. Most of the figures were essentially cheapjack pirates of the Marx figures. But some were original figures (or at least weren't copied from Marx originals). Clearly MPC was capable of making figures which were both original and of good quality, and it's annoying that they didn't do more of it. Note that contrary to popular belief, none of the MPC figures were in any sense "reissues" of the out-of-production Marx figures. Other companies (well, at least one other - Superior, in the 1980s) have manufactured figures from the original Marx molds, but MPC wasn't one of them. The quick way to distinguish MPC from Louis Marx is by color. The Marx figures were muted grays, greens, browns, and tans, with a few metallic greens and silvers thrown in. Red, incandescent green, bright robin's-egg blue, and metallic blue are diagnostic of MPC production. On closer examination, more differences are apparent. The MPC figures are almost always smaller than the Marx originals; sometimes only a few percent smaller, sometimes only about half the size of the Marx version. Even when nearly the same overall size, the MPC figures are skinnier and much stingier with plastic. The poses were often modified so they could be made with simpler (2-piece) molds.
Click on the figure of interest above. Or, to go through all the MPC pages, start here. To Site Index |
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