Marx Windup Crawler

Author: Ralph Roggenbuck

One of the fifties toys that I remember best was my Marx windup crawler. I have been trying to locate a reasonably priced one to replace the one that seemed to go “MISSING” on me in the early 50’s. This is not an easy task. The ones that are still around are either mostly “JUNQUE” or extremely high priced.

I am also fussy as to what I want. The one that I had was yellow without an operator or blade; from when it was new. Most of the ones around don’t have an operator. A few do! I would buy the right one with operator & blade. I don’t want the wrong one; but, if I can’t find the right one eventually I will purchase a different one.

These were an absolutely wonderful toy! No BATTERIES needed! Lots of fun! They were capable of pulling about any toy on wheels that your parents would let in the house.

Mine was yellow, had black wheels and a red plastic stack. The on lever was up by the stack. The wheels were V grooved and made of metal. It wound up very hard for a 7 year old kid! It had a hole for a drawbar. This and binder twine attached a lot of things behind it to pull!

The tracks were rubber, fit in the V- groove and had rather soft teeth on the top. It would climb right up and over a cheese box. At that time cheese boxes were actual wood and had lids that slid into a groove. All kids loved empty cheese boxes as they became everything from storage to barricades for the Marx to crawl.

It at first would spark out the stack when running; it seemed to quit that quite soon. This was an extremely played with toy, while I had it. I do not have any idea when or how it disappeared. I just know that it did.