Here's a good example of one these helicopters as you'd find it out in the wild: missing landing gear, hook and string, tail rotor, and stickers. I was lucky to find it with the main rotors intact!! I cheated a little for these photos in that I had three spare landing gear pieces from wreck copter, and placed those on the body. I may end up painting them to match.
Ed
I featured the metallic blue 'Mojave' without winch back on 26 May and that post was the catalyst for starting this series of Marx military playset pieces. Marx essentially made a metallic blue and an OD version of these helicopters, with and without winches. The metallic blue versions are common to the the Cape Canaveral / Cape Kennedy playsets, while the OD versions are what you'd typically find in the Battleground sets. These are commonly found missing the separate landing gear piece (two long and one short), the tail rotor, as well as the hook. The hook is a common Marx piece used in its 3-rail O-gauge train sets, as well as tow trucks, cranes, etc. Usually missing as well are any of the stickers on the sides.
Ed
Marx's Flying Helicopter was part of a fad during the '60s. It started with launching rockets and missiles and firing cannons in the '50s, and by the '60s Marx, MPC, and Lionel trains all had launching helicopters. And none of them were all that good. They would launch up into the air a couple of feet and as fast as they were airborne, they came crashing down again. And that of course would be the logical outcome for any aircraft (or rocket) which didn't have it's own power plant built in. For that kind of excitement you would need to buy a Cox gas motored plane, or an Estes rocket. This particular toy was introduced in the 1961 Sears Wishbook as part of a Battleground playset but they would soon be found in other playsets as well. The fuselage measures 5.75" (14.60cm) L x 1" (2.54cm) W x 2.25" (5.71cm) H with a 6.25" (15.87cm) rotor span.
Ed