coolest army men

[riverbravo]

Im sure most of us had plastc army men sets as kids.

What was youre favorite.

My aunt got me a killer set for christmas.Germans and US.It came with rubble buildings,treelines,barbed wire and a couple vehicles.The germans were grey and the US were green as usual.I got many a years play outta that one.

Then next christmas my mom got me a Iwo Jima set.With a big mountain with big artie guns sticking out that had 3 levels and an open back to put the japs in.it even had a trun crank elevator.The japs were a yellow/tan color with the US standard green troops.

These two sets were my favs....no doubt.

I even painted them to add flavor.

Later in life a 4th of july attack with roman candels and black cat firecrackers along with german nebelwerfers(bottle rockets) claimed them.

We also,like idiots,destroyed our GI Joes with the same method.

All for one and one for all.

[David Heath]

I had the Guns of Navarone Game set...... one of the best toys I ever got.

[Aztek]

River I got that same set one Christmas when I was around 9. The Germans had an authentic 88 and pillboxes to add to your inventory of stuff it came with. The americans also had 2 landing craft. Wow that was one of the best Xmas gifts ever. Countless hours playing with it.

My favorite soldiers of all time tho were the "historama" kits put out by Airfix.

They had a battlefield of some sort, a vehicle and a set of 40-50 Ho scale troops.

First one I bought was "Pearl harbor" it can with a Val divebomber and had a wrecked P-40 in its diorama base. The soldiers were WWI americans.

The second was "Battle of the Bulge" and came with a Halftrack and US paratroopers.

The third was "Guadacanal" and came with a Grant tank and Japanese infantry.

I could never afford the big kits on my allowance they were over 40 bucks. There was one I always dreamed about buying the was called "Omaha Beach" that had many vehicles and troops and a huge battlefield. I would pay very well If I could ever find any of those kits now.

[ShermanM4]

I could never afford the big kits on my allowance they were over 40 bucks. There was one I always dreamed about buying the was called "Omaha Beach" that had many vehicles and troops and a huge battlefield. I would pay very well If I could ever find any of those kits now.

If you pick up a copy of Military History magazine on one of the first pages you'll find an add for all of those sets you listed and more. I think the Omaha beach is now $400.00! Shoulda bought it then! I think its amazing they put that stuff in a magazine, I mean who would spend 400 bucks on plastic army men for their kid?

When I was little I remember getting huge buckets full of WWII Americans, British, Germans, and Japanese and Vietnam US and NVA troops and tanks. Wow what a blast..........wait I'm having a flash back: I also seem to remember digging huge trenchs and holes for them in the back yard while tearring up sod

(sigh) those were the days!

[Randy]

Back in the 60s I got one of those military set ups from Sears (when it was cool to play army stuff). It had some Germans and US (hard plastic,but painted)
and some halftracks, tanks, arty, and LCVPs. I still had a ton of Airfix guys, all the WWII sets including Aussies, German FJs, and mountain troops. Plus tons of ROCO Minitanks.

[Aztek]

Ahhh Good ole Roccos.

I had huge infantry armies supported by Roccos. Of course I had leopards and marders mixed with M-60s and panthers but hey who knew =p

[Karnaaj]

A lot of those cool toys are still available - I know I've seen a big D-Day playset at undert $200 new, with 88s, Tigers and Shermans. (All appeared to be correct-scale for the troopies.) You'll have to dig around some, as I managed to shuffle those websites somewhere non-obvious in my Favourites list. <sigh>

There's also some awfully cool historical ones in the same scale, but the pricing is "modeller"-class, as opposed to "toy"-class. H'wever, those Boer War/Zulu/other colonial/WWI things look pretty good...

[ravinhood]

Hey me too. I even had the LIME GREEN soldiers at one time. They all got killed in the war though and got buried in the sandpile in the backyard. Heh and one day while mowing, I actually found one of the old lime green soldiers, the lawnmower chewed him up pretty good though, so I buried him again! lol

I even had a set that had a "shooting" artillery piece. Shot lil plactic balls out of it against the germans pillboxes. Was pretty kewl.

I was into all kinds of minatures when I was young, anything, cowboys and indians, had one of those Fort Apache's also. I would get a sack of rubber bands and my brother made me one of those wooden pistols that you used a clothes pin on and could shoot rubber bands with and I would take turns shooting the fort soldiers and indians to see who would win. Heh, funny the Fort Soldiers always seemed to win, hard to hit some of them, easy to hit the open area indians! lol

[benpark]

Airfix HO soldiers. Bucketloads of em. I loved that they had specific sets like British Commandos and German WW1 soldiers. Great times. Gotta dig em out...

[tmac]

Most of you are describing Marx playsets from the 1960s. I too had germans , japanese and allied soldiers along with the great accessories that came with them. I also inherited the US Civil War set from my older siblings, that was way cool too. I salivated for the Guns of Navarone set but it was way too expensive for my parents (5th of 7 kids with father working in post office and a mother who was a housewife). Get a copy of any toy collecting magazine and look at the ads within. An original copy of those sets in good condition is worth a fortune, but the molds have been sold (and I think recopied) so you can buy repros of all these sets. Some are actually quite reasonable in price. One of these days I will get some for my nephew (yeah right, lol). Hope this helps.
Tim

[Randy]

I remember going through the Sears Christmas book to look at the newest army set they had. My friends got Civil War sets or the Cavalry and Indians. I think they quit carrying these sets during the Vietnam War. I guess they thought it was evil to play with army men.