1/96 Marx The Clipper Ship Swordfish (Sea Witch) - 'Marx Museum Quality Models'
Plastic Model Kit, Box Condition: Fair
Rare and beautiful kit in an ornate box with billowing sails. Imagine you are back in the mid 1950s. The only large sailing ship models available are made from wood and can take years to complete. It is still 6-7 years before Revell's 3 foot Cutty Sark is released. Louis Marx, the huge toy manufacture, saw that with the new injection molding processes, he could produce a masterpiece model of a large clipper ship that anyone could build. Marx spared no expense in their entry into the growing field of plastic models - this kit measures 33 inches long when assembled and has over 500 parts. The model claims to the first time that anyone could build a museum-quality large ship at home, and the claim is correct since this easily predates all larger plastic sailing ship kits by many years. Prior to this model, only wooden kits were available of this subject, which required a great deal of skill and craftsmanship. A great deal of thought went into the design of this large and complicated kit to make it easier to construct. Many colors of plastic are used (black, dark brown, tan and white) to minimize painting, while the deck was dealt with in an exceptional fashion - lithograph printed metal! The three main decks were tin lithographed, which means the decks are completely finished with the overall color; the boards are divided by perfect, thin black lines and all holes are factory predrilled. These decks are in near mint condition with only the lightest wear. This is the second or third issue of this kit, which contains the more realistic light (weathered) teak color lithographed deck. The kit has never been started. All parts (except the factory assembled hull and billowing sails) are still in factory sealed bags. Also includes rigging materials, decals, flags and more. The instructions are a work of art themselves. They are a very large and well-produced affair with numerous photos of the assembled kit, enlarged drawings, detailing tips and rigging instructions. NOTE: the box has heavy wear. Much of it is held together by clear tape (most of it on the inside) and there is a chunk of cardboard missing on the top long side. Another of Marx's rare ground-breaking kits is the large Chris Craft Constellation. It also has fantastic detail but suffered from a high price as did the Swordfish (Sea Witch). Due to pricing, sales were poor and the kits quickly faded as Marx dropped the plastic kit line completely.
This item has been sold.
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