Word: toye
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Robot Knock-Off. The gentle art of toy piracy consists of changing a competitor's successful design just enough to evade paying royalties to its originator. "When they copy you, it's piracy," cracks Lou Marx, who pays no royalties in the the U.S. "When you copy them, it's competition." When Marx "competes," he often cuts the price, but he always makes small improvements, e.g., when he "knocked-off" Ideal's bestselling mechanical robot, he put in a battery motor...
...best idea in the world, a toymaker still takes a tremendous gamble. To put a new narrow-gauge train under Christmas trees two years from now, Marx will invest $500,000 in dies and materials. Unlike most toymakers, Marx finances his operation out of capital, thus can push a toy into production faster than anyone in the industry...
...machine layouts to cut wasteful operations. "When we find a machine that will do a 30-second job in 25," he says, "we'll scrap the old one, even if it's new." Marx was one of the first U.S. toymakers to switch to plastic. Though the first plastic toys broke too easily, he now makes most small toys of polyethylene, a durable material that can be turned out up to 64 times faster than metal. Unlike most toy manufacturers, who virtually close down for six months when the Christmas lights go off, Marx sells 90% of his output...
...addition to collecting culture, Marx is frequently accused by competitors of "collecting" generals. Actually, he has known most of his brasshat friends since they were young officers. His love affair with the military started in the early '30s, when he was able to give a hard-to-get toy-train switch to the late Air Force General H. H. ("Hap") Arnold, who was then a major at Bolling Field. Arnold introduced Marx to General Walter Bedell Smith, now vice chairman of the American Machine & Foundry board, who was then a captain. Said "Beedle" Smith recently: "If anyone had asked...
Marx says he has never received one good idea for a toy from the generals. But Marx was one of the many who kept telling Ike about his political future. "You're on pages one, two and three of every newspaper," Lou told Ike in 1946. "You're the political Coca-Cola." His proudest possessions: an oil painting of the West Point chapel-Ike's first picture-and a portrait of Marx in a frame inscribed "Dwight D. Eisenhower-American-Born...