RETAIL TRADE: The Little King

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Lou Marx, whose toys spread synthetic love as well as old-fashioned fun from Hamburg to Hiroshima, can well afford his lavish standard of giving. This year he will gross more than $50 million (and net $5,000,000), produce some 10% of all toys sold in the U.S. Marx's output includes every type of plaything (except bicycles and dolls), from plastic baby beakers to $2.98 toy sports cars that can be assembled by a seven-year-old. More than 10% of the 5,000 items made by Marx are mechanical, e.g., a clockwork Bonny Braids, who ambles realistically across the floor, an electric bingo game, a xylophone- playing Mickey Mouse. His 1955 best-sellers include:

A battery-powered robot ($5.98) that clanks forward and backward, hurls a baby robot to the ground, grunts in Morse code, flashes defiance from light-bulb eyes.

A plastic-covered shooting arcade ($4.98) with moving ducks for targets.

A 7,500-piece kit ($9.98) from which skilled children and patient parents can make a 2-ft. clipper ship with bellying plastic sails. Assembly time: 100 hours.

Hot Dolls & Thunderbirds. This year, for the first time in history, more than $1 billion worth of toys will be sold in the U.S. Few industries have soared so high so fast. Until 1914, inexpensive German toys reigned unchallenged in the U.S. When World War I pinched off European imports, U.S. makers, who had specialized in expensive dolls and ingenious metal playthings, whirred ahead with a legion of low-priced toys. American production methods proved more than a match for postwar foreign competition. Since 1919, when 644 domestic toymakers produced goods with a retail value of $150 million, U.S. toydom has grown to include some 2,000 manufacturers.

Under U.S. Christmas trees this year there will be such high-priced items as a 5-ft., battery powered Thunderbird ($395) that whisks two children along at 5 m.p.h.; a monkey ($250) that puffs cigarettes; a lion-sized lion ($300) with a man-eating roar; a 9-ft. giraffe ($250); an 8-ft. marionette ($300) that hangs from the ceiling and shimmies like sister Kate. Lionel Corp., No. 2 toymaker (1955 sales: $23 million), has a $100 model of the crack Congressional. A. C. Gilbert ($12.5 million sales) has a forklift truck and driver ($12.95) that swings oil drums from loading platform to flatcar. There are Teddy bears in storm coats ($24.95); a robot-driven bulldozer ($9.98) that backs up when it hits an obstacle; a mamma whale ($2.49) that swallows a baby whale; a remote-control Continental ($6.98); a Playskool lockup garage ($6); and aluminum armor for $125.

Ideal Toy Corp. ($20 million sales) has a "Magic Lips" doll ($15) that purses its mouth for kissing, and a 13-in.-long rocket car that blasts off at 20 m.p.h.; Lynn Pressman has a "Fever" doll ($5) that turns a sickly scarlet.