From the early 50's up through the 70's Marx made some of the most finely detailed and wonderfully entertaining playsets on the American toy market. 

From farms, ranches,and military sets to entire western towns, space and airport sets, Arctic Explorer sets, Fort playsets and sets that recreated the full service gas stations and mechanic's garages of the glorious heyday of America, and on to recreations of Ben Hur, and the Untouchables and other TV series', Marx was the definitive manufacturer.  Down to the tiniest detail, the characters, the accessories,  and the buildings were sheer perfection!

 But the most popular of the old Marx creations were the westerns, the forts, and the farms with their fabulous array of realistic, perfectly detailed cowboys, Indians, and best of all, the playset horses!

The earliest Western Ranch set that came out of Marx's factory was the Bar M Ranch. 

You remember the one with the chubby little cowboys, the short fat little saddled horses with wavy manes and tails, and the rare Marx wild mustang?  From that first endeavor, Marx learned that charicatures were not good enough for American children.  The kids wanted reality!  So Marx delivered.

The oldest Marx Western Town sets like Mineral City boasted the 60mm "bareback mustangs" that had removable rubber saddles and bridles and these are the most sought after playset horses. Their value remains high because of their rarity. 

There were six different poses of "mustangs":

1. walking  * shown above
   
2. running   * shown above
   
3. bucking  * shown above
   
4. rearing    * shown above
   
5. Bar M wild mustang (chubby set) *shown below
   
6. half rearing (or stopping)
   

• The walking mustang was used with the blue Marx buckboard with the rubber harness, and with the cowboy who is the position of mounting a horse (hands out in front of him to go on the pommel and cantle of the saddle, and one leg stepping up to the stirrup).
• The running mustang was the one that the roping cowboy or the bank robber rode.
• The bucking bronco was the one that the bronc rider was having trouble staying on (the poor dude with his hand in the air and the other hand hanging onto the saddle).
• The stopping (half rearing) horse went with the ranch sets, and was for the roping cowboy.
• The chubby wild mustang was issued with a couple of the ranch and town sets, but was first introduced with the Bar M ranch with the chubby saddled horses and the chubby cowpokes.
• The rearing horse was in the Roy Rogers sets, and Roy was usually riding him.  This one was a trifle smaller in size than the 60mm, but still was used with those older sets.

To find these horses in good shape, with tails still intact, and a soft rubber saddle and bridle or harness is not easy, but well worth the search.  The value of these Marx horses remains static at about $20.00 a horse.  Some colors and poses are much more valuable.  The rarest ones are the wild mustang and the stopping mustang.  Often these go for up to $40.00 a horse if the animal is in great shape. 

The later western town and ranch playsets had the 54 mm saddled horses copied from the original poses, but with molded-on saddles and bridles.  These are far more easy to find, since Marx continued to manufacture these types up through the 70's, and after Marx closed, the molds were sold to several different manufactures around the world.

There was one Marx Roy Rogers playset that I recall getting for Christmas in the mid 50's that actually featured the Stuart rearing palomino colored horse with the Stuart RR, PB, DE, and Bullet figures.  I am not sure if this was a short-lived joining of the companies, or if it was a one-time thing.  I still have the accessories from that playset, and those items are in the box with them. 

The very first Marx Farm sets came out with the odd little chubby draft horse and the mare and grazing foal in rubber. 

This was the set with the nursing calf and cow, a lying down cow, a goat, a grazing ewe and lambs, sows and piglets, etc. all in hard rubber.  The Marx Modern Farm Set started out with those horses, but later issues came out with the soft plastic mare (turning her head) and trotting foal, and no draft horse.  I think maybe Marx messed up on the mare, because she sports the genitals of a stallion.  (Or maybe the foal was an orphan, living with its widowed father.)

Later farm sets from the 60's featured the finer sculpted farm animals that are hard to find, and actually more expensive than the oldest sets.  These include the prize livestock animals, and the later set with the "mooing" cow.  The later set was originally molded in brown soft plastic, but even later moldings from those original molds came out in odd colors, even in red and blue!  You can find these with many of the Mexican moldings. The mare and foal from the later set are considered by many collectors to be the finest sculpture used by Marx in any of the horse playset figures.

The earliest Marx fort, Fort Dearborn,

was manufactured in the early to mid 50's and sported three different horse molds.  These were not the solid bodied horses, but rather hollow bodies.  There was the prancing cavalry mount for the officer, the running Indian pony, and the running cavalry mount.  These were in the smaller 45mm size, and are quite hard to find.   Because they got broken easier with the hollow bodies and the lighter plastic composition, there are not many left.  See pieces below.

The Fort Apache sets came out with running cavalry horses that had spindly legs and these had a hard time standing up at times.  There was also a running Indian pony similar to the earlier Fort Dearborn horses, but with a solid body.  There was also a very poorly sculpted standing Indian pony that pulled the travois.  This horse looks like a lop-eared mule.

Ben Hur introduced another type of horse with the chariots.   There were the runners that pulled Ben Hur's chariot, and the half-stopping or half-rearing horses as well.

This soft plastic running or semi-rearing (stopping) horse became a staple in later sets, and joy of joys, back came the rubber removable tack!  

  The Civil and Revolutionary war sets introduced fallen or dead horses.

It is interesting that Marx's 60's large horse and rider sets had horses molded to exactly match the Ben Hur chariot horses in poses and conformation.   The horse below is shown in the Zorro set.  Of course, Zorro was always sold on a BLACK horse.  This one appears to be riding Prince Charming's white horse or maybe Rusty's cavalry horse.  Roy Rogers was almost always sold on a half-rearing or "stopping" gold colored horse, but Marx also sold Roy as a plain, generic cowpoke riding a brown or white horse, as well.  All they did was change the color and the way the horse was running or half-rearing.  Zorro's Toronado was half-rearing or "stopping".  I believe we see Prince Charming's running horse here.

Marx often used horses from other playset manufactures in later years, to save money on molds and to make up new sets more quickly.  In some of the 70's Marx sets, you will find Peyton or TimMee playset horses, MPC horses, etc.  Very few of the playset horses in those later years were actually molded by Marx from their own molds.  Marx found it less costly and more expedient to simply purchase horses from other molding companies during the 70's.

Because Marx believed in high quality products with great detail, the older Marx horses and figures are greatly prized by collectors.  If you find them, definitely buy them.  They will be extinct someday.

Happy hunting!