1.  1955 Mercury Mark 55 40 HP. This is the first Mercury K&O made and it's of the 40 HP Mark 55.  Notice the airplane style decal on the top of the cowl which distinguishes it from the 1956 and 1957.  Not rare.  Notice the original box looks just like the box that the real motor came in!  Thanks to Joe Cain for the first picture.

2.  1956 Mercury Mark 55 40 HP. Green and cream color. Mercury started making motors that could be ordered with different paint schemes so, for this one year only, K&O did the same utilizing three color schemes. Not rare but rarer than the red and cream below.  Thanks to Joe Cain for the first picture.

3.  1956 Mercury Mark 55 40 HP. Green and Silver color.  This is the same motor as above except with a silver lower unit.  Not rare but rarer than the red and cream one below.

4.  1956 Mercury Mark 55 40 HP. Red and Cream color. This is the most common of the three 1956 motors and very easy to find in general.  Probably the easiest Mercury to obtain.  Has the arrow through the Mercury decal.  Notice that the lower unit is slightly different than the 1955 because it has two cavitation fins instead of just one.  Thanks to Joe Cain for great pictures.  The last few pictures are of a K&O Mark 55 sitting on top of a real 1958 Mercury Mark 58.  Thanks to David Doyle for those great pictures!

5.  1957 Mercury Mark 55 40HP. This is also a very common motor and easy to find.  Notice the "wavy decal" on the top of the cowl.  That distinguishes it from the 1955 and 1956 motors.  The box is very nice with the original instruction sheet.

6.  1957 Mercury Mark 75 60 HP. All cream color motor. This is a very weird motor.  K&O was usually very good at copying the real motors but Mercury never made an all cream colored outboard in 1957, yet for some reason K&O did. Strange looking motor with the same red front decal as the normal Mark 75 below, that really doesn't look right for this motor,  but has white decals on the sides.  This is a Very Rare motor.  A special thanks to Steve Richards for the pictures!
I'm looking for a Mint condition version of this motor if you happen to have one for sale or trade.

7.  1957 Mercury Mark 75 60HP.
The first 6 cylinder outboard ever made. Mercury shocked OMC with this motor. A neat motor to have.  Not that rare, but very desirable to collectors.  Has the arrow through the Mercury decal instead of the wavy decal used in 1957, though I'm told that the arrow decal, not the wavy decal,  was used on the real 1957 Mark 75 motors from mid-year on and continued with the 1958 motors.

8.  1958 Mercury Mark 55 40 HP.  Green and cream. Another weird motor.  This is not the same motor as the 1955, 56 & 57 Mark 55's above.  This one and the red one below are really Langcraft motors that K&O somehow used and put the correct 1958 Mercury decals on it!  I've seen the original box and it's definitely K&O. Very rare but not that desirable.

9.  1958 Mercury Mark 55 40 HP.  Red and Cream version of the one above.  These motors have much smaller lower units than the normal K&O Mark 55.  Almost looks like a racing length but doesn't have the racing Quicksilver lower unit. Too bad they didn't do that with this motor.  Very rare.

10.  1958 Mercury Mark 78 70 HP. This is a close cousin to the Mark 75 above.  To tell the difference you'll have to look at the front decal to see that it says "Mark 78".  Not that rare but very desirable.

11.  1959 Mercury Mark 78A  This is the regular motor and not the very rare gas tank motor. Notice the first time for the white motors.  Neat looking motor with blue decals.  Not that rare but very desirable. The difference between this motor and the gas tank motor below is the wire coming out.  This motor has the standard white K&O wires and the gas tank motor has a very long single black wire to reach the gas tank. The first two great pictures were taken by Joe Cain.  Thanks Joe!

12.  1959 Mercury Mark 78A Gas tank motor.  This motor is the same as the Mark 78A above except that it was sold as a drink mixer, not a toy motor.  You were supposed to put it on the rim of your glass, connect it to the gas tank, which held batteries and turn it on to mix your drink!  Cool idea!  The gas tank is often missing but you can tell it's the gas tank motor by the very long heavy black wire coming from it.  Very rare motor.  First two great pictures taken by Joe Cain.

13.  1959 Mercury Merc 200 20 HP with it's colorful box and instert. The first year they made the small Mercury.  Cheaply made of tin instead of diecast.  Often don't run. Has the bluish green decals.  Not rare.

14.  1960 Mercury Merc 800 80 HP.  This starts the truly rare Mercury motors.  The 1960 has red Mercury decals on the side and has the hour glass shaped lower leg.  Very Rare motor and one of my favorites because of the black and chrome color wrap around cowl.  Thanks to Joe Cain for the first picture.

15.  1960 Mercury Merc 200 
20 HP.  Another of the cheaply made tin motors.  The 1960 had the red decals.  The boxes are not as nice as the 1959 but still neat.  Not rare.  Neat picture of the motor running in the last picture.

16.  1961 Mercury Merc 800 80 HP.  Notice that the lower unit is different from the Merc 800 above.  This one is much fatter, comes straight down, has a through hub exhaust hole in the propeller and not as sleek as the prior year Merc 800, just like the real one.  Notice the yellow Mercury decals.  A very rare motor.

17.  1961 Mercury Merc 60 6 HP. Last of the cheaply made tin motors.  This one has a totally different lower unit and cowl from the tin ones above.  Not rare but harder to find then the  Merc 200s.  They can be hard to find in mint condition because there is such a large decal on the motor that it's easy to scratch it.

18.  1962 Mercury Merc 1000  100 HP. Dubbed the "Tower of Power" the real motor has historical significance because it's the world's first outboard to be rated at 100 HP! The Mercury decal is along the wrap around instead of on top of the cowl. Compare this toy motor to Bob McLenaghan's real Merc 1000 and you can see what a great job K&O did with it.  Rare and very desirable to collectors. This motor came two ways: in a box and blister pack.  The blister pack and original box are shown here.  Thanks to Steve Richards for the box pictures!