Johnny West Versus the X Men!

Were you a kid in the 1960's? If you were, you probably remember Johnny West, Jane West, Geronimo, Captain Action or GI Joe. The 1970's? Lone Ranger, Star Wars. The 1980's? Ninja Turtles, Batman, Marvel Super Heroes. The 1990's? Superheroes.

The West family was produced by the Marx company until the early 1970's. It included many fine figurines (Johnny, Jane, Geronimo), horses (3), and an excellent assortment of accessories that made even the most enthusiastic collector drool. Stagecoach, western town, western fort, Indian village, moveable horses, solid plastic 12" figures, solid rubber or plastic accessories all made an excellent package which still commands good prices in the antique market today. If you have a complete Johnny West with horse-look for around $125-175 us! You'll get it. The more complex pieces are the most rare and the most desirable.

The Captain Action series was produced by Mattel. Captain Action himself was made into a comic series by DC comics which lasted only a few issues, but the doll itself could be made into a wide variety of characters. You could buy the Lone Ranger outfit (and last year could do so again), the Tonto outfit, and of course, the original Captain Action clothes. Not widely popular with collectors, but the sheer versatility of the doll made it a mainstay of the figurine marketplace.

GI Joe ruled the toy figure roost for the longest time. From the 1960's to the present. GI Joe has been one of the most popular series ever produced. A toy that I received in 1969 was the GI Joe space Commander Doll-complete with space boots, helmet, and voice! Pull the string and hear the voice. Somewhere in my boxes in storage lies this treasure (I even kept the box). The early dolls were 12", like the West series, and very flexible. The later figures got smaller, and most of the ones available now are 5" or occasionally 8". The accessories too were neat. Jeeps, guns, cannons, forts, jets, rockets, tanks, and any other war device possible, you could get. Today, the Joe can be still bought, but the new dolls are a far cry from the original dolls.

The Lone Ranger became a hot item again in the 1970's and the early 1980's. Marx toys, fresh off the Johnny West pattern, produced a full gamut of Ranger toys from figures, to towns, to forts, and so on. There never was as full a range of items, with the Ranger only getting the 3" and 5" treatment. Most of the other figurines were from the 1981 " The Legend of the Lone Ranger". For a brief while, the Ranger rode again!

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