gort Posted May 9, 2003 Share Posted May 9, 2003 Hello everyone,My name is Joe Markee. I have been a frequent visitor to Brian's web pages for many years although I haven't been registered until recently. My son Brian and I have been collecting toy robots for about 15 years. We have probably bought some from most of you who sell on ebay at some time or other. We collect all styles plastic, tin, old, new and repro's. Anyway I recently acquired this Big Loo prototype and I was wondering if anybody has seen anything like it before and any guesses about a value? It is molded in all silver /gray plastic. The head,arm,legs and base are a hard plastic similar to the production plastic. The chest is of a less hard plastic. It is just taped together (scotch tape) not glued. It doesn't have any of the intenal parts. It does have four wheels that are blue not green, two of the orinal light bulb eyes (but no sockets for them) and three black darts. It has a Louis Marx and company sample tag from the west Virginia warehouse on it with the number 3010 on the back and the remains of some stickers with some hand written comments in spanish with mold numbers. I got this from a guy who lives in Girard Pa where one of the Marx factories was. He said he got this and a bunch of other items which had not been previously auctioned off and had been sitting in the warehouse since the late 70's when the warehouse closed. He said there was a black one like it that is in the Marx Toy museum in Erie Pa. Anybody seen anything like this before? Any guesses of what it might be worth?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboz Posted May 9, 2003 Share Posted May 9, 2003 I heard someone had bought the molds a while back & was actually reproducing big loo's..& selling them as originals for nearly todays prices & that it has been a very low key hush hush kind of thing ..that doesn't mean your robot isn't authentic nonetheless I would research the seller a bit more..& I can't say my info was 100% accurate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jan Posted May 9, 2003 Share Posted May 9, 2003 Joe M. and Brian welcome to the chat. I was thinking about the possibility of Big Loo reproductions when we were voting on the most beatiful plactic robots. He has been on my want list from the beginning. Roboz has confirmed what I remember from years ago. I believe there was a few small adds in Toy Shop offering reproductions. Never did look into it. Jeez. Remenber when you could find things in Toy Shop. Times sure have changed. The above does not mean yours is not authentic. Try contacting the Marx Museum, they might have more information. If it is authentic, the value could be just about any thing you want it to be, with MIB Big Loo's going for $1500 and up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanley Posted May 9, 2003 Share Posted May 9, 2003 I remember the same add in Toy Shop. I also remember some guy at the Kain County Chicago show had them in all different colors a couple of years ago. They were exact replicas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gort Posted May 9, 2003 Author Share Posted May 9, 2003 I saw the toy shop adds too.The company that had bought the marx molds American Plastics Company of Florida (http://shop.marxtoys.com/index.cgi/toys.html?id=BUgA7Yqg&mv_pc=56)has reissued a lot of the original Marx playsets made from the original molds. When they first started remaking some of the playsets they ran several adds in Toy shop and other toy magazines announcing they were going to start remanufacturing Big LOO. They even took orders on their web site and in their newsletter. But after several months they cancelled the project and refunded the deposits, mine included. I have been buying robots on ebay almost from its start and have never seen anything but original color big loo's. The only place I had heard about the Cane County Big Loos was on this web page and I haven't seen any surface on ebay or in Toy shop. The guy I got this big loo from had lots of Marx toys, marx boxes that were still flat, never used. I am pretty sure this is legit.Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted May 9, 2003 Share Posted May 9, 2003 Hey Joe, here's another Marx Toy museum you may want to contact:http://www.marxtoymuseum.com/Their web site was just updated last month, so there should be some response to your inquiry.And, oh yeah, welcome (you and Brian, too) to Alphadrome. What took you so long, Joe??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Origional or not it looks great in silver plastic! Nice to get a post from you Gort, I mean Joe. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissplanet Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Is not possible, that that's a Big Loo conversion made by John years ago...Who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJN Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 About 6 years ago, I was in Farmington, New Mexico, and found a dark blue plastic Big Loo in a hobby shop. (always looking for pinion gears) It came with a generic brown cardboard box, and the guy claimed it had all the accessories and was an original prototype. When I asked why the box had bar codes on it, he got quite belligerant, and made it clear he didn't need my business. He was asking $1600 for it, and, at the time, I had two originals, so I passed. I remember seeing an ad in the Toy Shop newspaper asking if anyone was interested in a repro of Big Loo, but I never followed up on it.I assume what I found was one of these repros, especially with the modern box. (Sorry for the late response to an old topic, but I've been out of circulation for a while.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 I've always wondered why a robot would have such ugly teeth. Is robot dentistry in the stone age? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velocity Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Well, just thinking about it logically, why would robots need teeth anyway?Kinda creepy looking, and especially on this enlarged Big Loo. That's the main reasonI never collected one, actually. He just looks too bizarre with those grinning choppers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothunter Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Just to add more fule to the fire, there's a decorating/furniture store in the village area here in NYC near Astor Place that has a window display currently up with about a dozen Big Loos' all standing in a row. Where in the a window dresser found a dozen of these I'll never know but I will try and make it over the the store this week (it's not that far from my office) and see what I can find out. I'll keep you guys posted. My first reaction was that they had to all be reproductions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robotnut Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Big Loo was after all named after the one and onlyLouis Marx. He certainly must have been a good sportto have his name put on such a freaky item. As forwindow dressers, I've had several requests over theyears for toys to be used in displays and for photographicuse. At first they want to buy the toy until they find outwhat it's worth, then they want to rent. I was once payed$250 for the use of a $100 toy and they payed forinsured shipping both ways. As for a dozen Big Loos ina row, that certainly would be a bizarre sight.Robothunter, if you could, take a picture and post it here.About a year ago there was a guy on eBay buying upevery Ideal Robert, mo matter the conditon or price.I wonder what ever became of the twenty plus Robertshe bought... <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Remember the Robot Commando guy on ebay who had like 30+ of them lined up in a photo. He was selling them one at a time based on condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonny Young Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 Robothunter, where exactly is this store? I would love to take some pictures when I pass through NYC. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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