Date Stamps

The Infamous "Date Stamp"

This section of the site is definately a Work in Progress.

Here I will try to tell you about the 'Date Stamp' found on most Marx action figures.

If you have any information or pictures that I'm missing please let me know- this is a real community effort!

General Info

"Date Stamps" are really not what you think of when you hear the words. When an injection machine mold is produced you need to design a way for the part to be ejected from the mold cavity before the next cycle begings (often separated by a few seconds, or faster). The most common way is to have a mechanism called an Ejector pin that pushes into the mold cavity, against the molded part, when the cycle completes - pushing the part out of the mold and on down the line.

In the case of the Marx Action Figures, the Torso mold cavity needed a large ejector pin. On most of these molds the head of the pin was inscribed with a roman numeral year date and the name of the Marx company around the date. The ejector pin would be placed in the mold before casting and therefore whatever was on the face of that ejector pin head would be cast into the part itself.

The above information is based on my study of molds in general. I have not had the opportunity to see an actual Marx mold in operation so I may be 'mistaken' on a few details.

The thing to remember is that this 'Stamp Date' is not the year the part was cast. It just represents when the mold itself was changed enough to require a new ejector pin and therefore a new Date / Marking.

Not every country, figure or combination used the dated ejector pin all the time. I will attempt to show you the ejector pin marking and tell you what figure it was used on. Remember, every mold would have had it's own ejector pin design.