1959 Marx White Hook Ladder Fire Truck In Original Box
Amazing!! Pressed steel Hook & Ladder Fire Truck by Marx. Very scarce white version. Unused, unplayed, and unsold. Only recently out of the box for the first time. Comes complete with its three original Firemen figures in their original Marx "figures" bag, plus both inserts, plus (of course) its immense illustrated box. Grades an incredible near mint+ to mint condition!. Intricately designed fire truck was extensively detailed using white as the predominant background color. Every detail, no matter how small, shows up against a white background. I'm sure the engineers at Marx realized this and took full advantage of it. Scrollwork, not normally found on a fire truck, was included on the front hood, cab roof, rear cab window, and inside each segment along the tailer's exterior walls. Unfortunately white will also show even the slightest amount of wear, or the tiniest scratch. Details like fender and roof lights, lithoed door handles as well as handles used to "pull" yourself up into the cab, windshield wipers, gas tank gauges with cross-hatching safety steps above each tank, and shadowing of the cables on the back of the cab wall all blend in to make it one of the most beautiful trucks ever produced. And that's just the cab. The trailer includes lithoed hand-held emergency lights, four stacked racks of yellow ladders, fire extinguishers and of course the Marx logo. This particular truck has the cab and trailer permanently joined. They can't be unhitched which means that the hitch area can't be scratched up while trying to take them apart. It has two red lithoed steel ladders. The lower section which is joined to the swivel in back of the cab has 5 slotted positions. It's raised manually, by hand without a crank. It comes with its original 17" separate extension ladder. The extension is still wrapped in the original waxed paper. It too is red lithoed steel. I took it out only to photograph it and carefully replaced it back into the paper. This particular model also has an automatic ringing bell located underneath the truck behind the rear axle. The ringer is attached to the axle so that it strikes the bell every time the rear wheels turn. Best of all it works great! The wheels on this truck are thick black vinyl. There's six of them and each has a raised, black, red, and white lithoed hub cap. It comes with its three Firemen figures; sitting, waving Fire Chief 3½", sitting rear driver with arms spread open 2¾", and standing man with fire axe 3¾". The two helmeted figures have the number 9 embossed on the front of their helmets which matches the number on the truck! The trio come with their original blue and white Marx bag marked "FIGURES". The huge box was illustrated with nearly panel-wide long views of the white truck from both the left and front right sides. It was printed in white, black, and red to match the truck. It's complete with all 8 original endflaps and has both of its original cardboard inserts. Size: Truck 26". Box 28". Date Sold: Oct. 2009
Price Sold: $ 621
