TOY SOLDIERS - INVASION of the PLASTIC PLAY SET by TONY K

Toy soldiers were amongst the most widespread toys of the 20th century. They were part of our childhood culture. 

Cheap-rack soldiers from Hong Kong, fought alongside Britains, Timpo and Airfix. New plastics made them cheap to produce and affordable for kids. 

It began in the UK in December 1947, when 'Toy Trader & Exporter', featured the first advert for Airfix plastic soldiers. Airfix General Sales Manager, G.E. Perret, declared that the days of the traditional toy soldier, which had been made from metals, were numbered! 

 Prophetic words which cemented the Airfix name firmly to the exciting world of plastics.

Over the ensuing decades, Airfix put millions of fixed-pose plastic soldiers on table tops, in flower beds, and all around the colourfully kitsch carpets of no mans land.

But Airfix wasn't all guns and grenades! Airfix was a world of diversity. Soldiers rubbed shoulders with Robin Hood, The High Chaparral, Tarzan, Civilians, Farm Animals, and Astronauts.

Airfix products were instantly identifiable, not only by the logo, but more importantly by captivating box art.

Artists, like Roy Cross, would set the scene, illustrate the action, and capture the kids imagination. 

Play sets were in the 'birthday present' category; expensive, but giving a world of self-contained, focused fun!

 Airfix entered the scene in the 1960's, producing HO/OO play sets, such as, Attack Force; which included plastic figures, vehicles, and a fragile vacuum-formed battleground base.

 As well as popular WW2 themes, other favourite play sets included castles, forts, and a zoo.

 Airfix advanced into the 1970's in spectacular style, with their lavish HO/OO scale Assault Sets; Gun Emplacement, Pontoon Bridge, Coastal Defence, and the monumental, Battle of Waterloo.

 These supersize sets came with opposing armies, armoured vehicles or horses, accessories, and a snap-together strategic structure.

 All best sellers, and all packed in large meticulously illustrated boxes.

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By the mid-'70s, Airfix unleashed two 1/32 scale Combat Pack, play sets. The first, Combat Pack, was a rural battleground for action-posed Paras, and Wehrmacht.

 The second, Desert Combat Pack, saw Desert Rats facing the sun bronzed plastic of the Afrika Korps.

 Both sets included a two-piece playmat, populated with press-out card trees and barricades, two armoured vehicles, and a snap-together fortified building.



But these weren't the simple static play sets kids had seen before! The ingenious selling point of Combat Pack was the introduction of pillboxes, which packed a powerful punch for more playability!

They fired spring-loaded plastic disks, capable of toppling a charging plastic soldier at a thousand yards.

Okay, maybe not a 'thousand yards', but they did offer the thrill of putting kids in the firing line with real ammo... as dramatic box art showed.

Matchbox (Lesney), entered the war during the mid-late seventies. In the wake of their amphibious Beach-Head Assault play set, Matchbox released their 1/32 scale Counter-Attack Playkit (number PK-1001).

This snap-together set represented a 1940's European street scene.



The centrepiece of the vignette was a battle-damaged café. The set was more detailed than its Airfix counterparts, incorporating a watchtower, a spring-loaded delayed action mine, period decals, posters, and plastic props, including a classical sculpture caught in the crossfire.

This time, a brotherly band of Wehrmacht wine connoisseurs were entrenched in the bijou 'Watterinck X Café'.



 They were desperately holding out for last orders against a platoon of thirsty GIs, hell bent on liberating the wine cellar.



 Anticipating a standoff, the GIs brought in their tripod mounted 10 round rapid-firing cannon with missiles, and a mortar/grapple firing armoured car.

Energetic box art showed both weapons fired plastic projectiles, powered by simple press-down air-pumps... 'For air powered action!'

From the energetic to the enigmatic.



Currently, the only source of information about Matchbox 1/76 scale Rocket Attack'Playkit (number PK-1002), can be found online at, 'Plastic Soldier Review'.

 Author and expert, Victor Rudik, illustrates his unique review with photos, and a 1979 catalogue image of the box. The catalogue caption misidentified the set as, "Rocket Launcher". Was this a pre-production typo?



How long was the set in production, and how many were made and sold? Why is so little known about this set, and why is it that hardly any have surfaced today?

 One thing is for sure... it was an imaginative toy! The attraction of this snap-together playkit was launching and shooting down two V-1 flying bombs. Using a simple air-pump, a strong tail wind, and a bit of luck... a doodlebug could be launched up the ramp for a wobbly, flying nose-drive!

 However, with compelling box art, and a child's primed imagination, even snap-together plastic could soar flawlessly through the sky.



The fragile air-pump cannon from Counter-Attack, was re-deployed in an anti-aircraft role. Plastic shells provided essential ack-ack for winging V-1s in mid-air.




 As if that wasn't enough; a foldout playmat, a selection of American and German troops, a storage barn, a V-1 utility cart, and the observation bunker, completed this significant set.

As a product, Rocket Attack may have mysteriously fallen from shop shelves? But as Victor Rudik states, it's almost impossible to find today!

In conclusion, all three play sets share a familiar period formula of box art. The kids are painted as giant omniscient duelling generals, shouting the shots with excited smiles and seventies hair styles.

Back then, boys perception of war was shaped by the manufactured myth of square-jawed old war movies, Commando Comics, Warlord, Hotspur and Victor. Young lion-heart minds were hot-wired for action.

 In the aftermath of childhood battles, nothing was for keeps and plastic platoons were always resurrected to fight another day.

There was no death, only plastic glory, and brief snapshots of how carefree kids played in the sixties and seventies.

Tony K