Johnny West
Canadian Johnny was issued in several versions:
- Mailer Figure - Various Colors
- Movable Cowboy - Dark Carmel Body
- Campfire - French Inscription - Dark Carmel Body
- Campfire - in New Mod Colours Bilingual - Dark Green Body
- Campfire - in New Mod Colours Bilingual - Bright Green Body
- Campfire - Yellow Square Bilingual - Bright Green Body
- BOTW Bilingual - Carmel Body
JWA Johnny was also distributed in Canada but all JWA boxes are exactly the same as in U.S. They simply put a sticker on the box with the inscription "instructions en français à l'intèrieur" (instructions in french inside)
It's quickly becoming apparent that Marx Canada would initially get a shipment of US figures and put them in very generic brown cardboard mailer boxes. Probably until they could start their own production.
Here you see the first Canadian Johnny in his own department store mailer box. This box was likely used throughout the years in Canada, therefore, you will find many different color combinations of Johnny and his accessories in this box.
This version is the darker carmel Johnny with Brown soft and Dark Brown hard US issued accessory sets. The Movable Cowboy box is just like the US version but has French language top and bottom flaps.
This version is the darker carmel Johnny with Brown soft and Dark Brown hard US issued accessory sets.
This version is the Dark Green Johnny (1965 stamp) with Black or Bronze soft and Silver hard US issued accessory sets. Rivets in shoulders and hips. Production probably started in 1970.
This version is the Bright Green Johnny (1965 stamp) with Bronze soft and Silver hard US issued accessory sets. Rivets in shoulders and hips. It is also very possible that some turquoise colored Johnny(s) were issued in this box. Check out page 42 of Tom Heaton's Encylcolpedia of Marx Action Figures
This version is the Bright Green (lighter color) Johnny with Bronze or Brown soft and Dark Brown or Silver hard US issued accessory sets. His date stamp is 1973. He was issued with either the regular spring or the heavy, 'post 1974', spring.
The sides of the box showed the accessories with both french and english names.
-All green Johnnys Bruno has seen, have rivets in the shoulders indicating they were all produced between 1970 and 1974.
[box art shows no rivets on the green version]
Johnny West ™
LE COWBOY ARTICULE
LOUIS MARX INDUSTRIES (CANADA) LIMITED
SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO"
This is the transition Johnny from the Mod Colours to the BOTW versions. It is likely that not too many of these were made.
Back to the future for Canadian Marx, this version is carmel Johnny with Brown soft and Silver hard accessory sets issued in the bilingual BOTW box. This is the last version issued by Scarbough. Some JWA Johnny(s) made it to Canada but these were shipped from the US and had the 'French Language' sticker applied.
- The "In new mod colors" Johnnys usually came with bronze and silver accessories while the yellow square boxed Johnnys more often came with regular brown accessories. However, some green figures also came with black accessories
- Bruno has one that he bought from the original owner that came with black soft accessories and brown hard accessories
- Bronze accessories came in 3 major variations: See-through, olive green and dark bronze. Olive green seem the more common bronze color while dark bronze is the rarest
