The Archies (Mattel)

The Archies
Mattel
1977

We touched on Archie, and The Archies in our post based on Marx Toys The Archies back in December 2015. As such, we're not going to dive deep into the overall premise of the band, nor the characters in general as we've already covered that.

Instead, we'll jump right into Mattel's 1977 line of the same name. Admittedly these don't look as good as the 1975 Marx line - Both in quality and overall design. If we had to nitpick, the yellow card back is rather horrendous to look at too. Overall, it's just not the best we've seen nor come to expect from such an established company such as Mattel.

Its interesting that the artwork depicts the characters as their standard design teenager / high school appearance. The figures look more so like what the characters would have looked like when they were in elementary or middle school - I.E. very young.

The series featured four figures, and oddly enough Betty was not one of them. Rather, it was Archie, Jughead, Veronica and Sabrina. This in and of itself is a unique twist to draw in Archie fans as Sabrina wasn't typically a forefront character in the Archie comics - Unless she was headlining her own stories. So to include her in the line was actually a nice treat for fans.

The figures were mostly made out of fabric, to and include their arms and feet. The only plastic that was utilized was for their heads. For the male characters, their hair was sculpted into the plastic. For the girls, they included the traditional doll hair of the era.

These days you can find the dolls here and there, (mind you, they're not in abundance) and fortunately for not all that much money. We've seen lots of the entire set sell for as little as $36.00. However, full sets being sold are a little less common than individual dolls. When buying individually, most sellers list them for around $20.00 to $25.00 a piece - Almost makes you want to just wait for a full set to become available, even if you don't need or want all the characters. You'd almost be better off buying a full set, then offloading the extras yourself.

Now, you can't have an Archie line without his famous Jalopy. Mattel delivered probably the best piece in the line with this one and only vehicle produced for the series. It could easily hold all four dolls between the front and back seats.

Unfortunately, the Jalopy is going to be the hardest piece to track down in the series.Though it's harder to come by, it's not going to hit your wallet too hard if you do find one. Mint in the box ones have sold for as little as $41.00.

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The Archies (Marx Toys)

The Archies
Marx Toys
1975

Archie is as iconic as your classic Batman or Spider-Man, yet he has no super powers or an alter ego in general. He's just Archie Andrews - Best friend to Jughead Jones...Oh, and womanizer.

Yes, for some reason not only is Archie the most popular man in Riverdale, but he's also got two of the hottest women not only pining for him, but willing to accept that he's going to see both of them at any given time with benefits that include snuggling and kissing.

He's usually broke, has a Jalopy that like his financial situation is always broke, has no regular job, and has proven time and time again to be a complete disaster in terms of his ability to go from point A to point B without completely screwing it up in the process.

He's clearly the catch of the century!

Archie has seen his share of merchandising since starting in comics. He's come and gone in animated series, been plastered on every form of novelty toy one could think of, and even had records released with talented singers assuming his (and his friends) identity for the group, The Archies - Mind you, that's not even the tip of the iceberg in terms of Archie related merchandise.

Marx Toys wasn't the first toy manufacturer to tackle Archie related dolls, but they'll certainly go down as one of the many that did a fantastic job on them. Despite the definite room to grow, the line was kept fairly contained to just four dolls, six sets of additional clothing, Archie's Jalopy and a carrying case.

 Archie*Jughead

 Betty*Veronica

The clothing, or The Archie's Fashions - Respectively - were designed to be interchangeable between the guys and girls. As you can see on the packages, the guys clothing had a sticker on it that prompted buyers that the clothing was for both Archie and Jughead, and vice versa for Betty and Veronica on the girl's clothing.

 

 The Archies Fashions

First three (left to right) are fashions for Archie and Jughead. The remaining are fashions for Betty and Veronica.

 The Archies' Jalopy

Carry Case

By 1976, Montgomery Ward was selling the dolls directly through their catalogs. Interesting enough, they did away with the cardbacks, and instead opted to ship the dolls in plain brown boxes. These versions are slightly harder to come by than the actual carded ones.

Speaking of the cardbacks, there was nothing on the back. Instead, it was just a plain white cardback. What was featured on the back was two small holes which housed the twist ties that held the figure in place under the plastic bubble.

For as popular as Archie is, it's interesting to find that these dolls don't hold much value on secondary markets. Mint on card dolls can sell for as little as ten dollars, with the outfits and carry case selling for as low as a buck. While the Jalopy is much harder to come by, it generally sells for about $40.00.

Join us next time when we take a look at Guardian Goddesses!

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