NOT TODAY, EBAY (27)
By:
September 7, 2025
One in a series of posts via which Josh Glenn will share recent examples of stuff that he was tempted to purchase via eBay… but, heroically, didn’t.
Vintage Lot of 7 MARX WWII Navarone Playset US Soldiers
US $39.99
The Marx Toy Company, in 1976, produced this multi-level mountain fortress, with American and German plastic soldiers. It’s one of the best toys I’ve ever owned, and I still think about it sometimes.
Here’s one of the extraordinary aspects of the Navarone playset: the toy soldiers weren’t the usual lot. There was a fellow doing karate, for example, and another holding a knife. These commandos were inspired, of course, by the 1961 movie The Guns of Navarone. (Note that the sequel, Force 10 from Navarone, would come out in 1978 — after the play set, that is to say.)
And then there were the victims: a wounded man carried on a stretcher, a gut-shot man crawling along while clutching his midriff, a man slung over another man’s shoulders, even a guy being shot — his helmet flying off, his gun dropping from his hand.
How were kids supposed to play with these figures? What Marx Toy Co. honcho gave them the OK? I’m fascinated…
PS: Another Marx play set, a Wild West adventure scenario, featured a dead horse figurine.
MORE FURSHLUGGINER THEORIES BY JOSH GLENN: SCHEMATIZING | IN CAHOOTS | JOSH’S MIDJOURNEY | POPSZTÁR SAMIZDAT | VIRUS VIGILANTE | TAKING THE MICKEY | WE ARE IRON MAN | AND WE LIVED BENEATH THE WAVES | IS IT A CHAMBER POT? | I’D LIKE TO FORCE THE WORLD TO SING | THE ARGONAUT FOLLY | THE PERFECT FLANEUR | THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY | THE REAL THING | THE YHWH VIRUS | THE SWEETEST HANGOVER | THE ORIGINAL STOOGE | BACK TO UTOPIA | FAKE AUTHENTICITY | CAMP, KITSCH & CHEESE | THE UNCLE HYPOTHESIS | MEET THE SEMIONAUTS | THE ABDUCTIVE METHOD | ORIGIN OF THE POGO | THE BLACK IRON PRISON | BLUE KRISHMA | BIG MAL LIVES | SCHMOOZITSU | YOU DOWN WITH VCP? | CALVIN PEEING MEME | DANIEL CLOWES: AGAINST GROOVY | DEBATING IN A VACUUM | PLUPERFECT PDA | SHOCKING BLOCKING.