Here's a sample of what a child would get if they sent in for a set of toy soldiers.
Kids no doubt expected fully fleshed out figures, but often times ended up with 'flats' similar to these. I know now of course that 'flats' are a time-honored tradition in the toy soldier world (and new production military figures can still be bought), but when I was kid, these would have been disappointing.
Personally, I remember having a set of Little Green Army men as a youngster. All that said, I had bought these American Civil War flats many years ago but ended up selling them a year or so ago.
Did you get any of these?
From Vegas Base
Ed
An interesting piece of comic book history. Like most toys based on the American Civil War, the Union and Confederate figures and artillery pieces are the same, just moulded in different colours. However, the Ironclads are different - Monitor or Virginia.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Old school toy makers didn't like spending money on army-specific poses. Occasionally they would include figures specific to one side or the other but generally each side had the same sculpts - just molded in different colors. The thing that irked me as a kid was when the only figures offered by a company were U.S. GI's - and no opposing forces. Those would finally come later though.
DeleteI had green GIs, tan Japanese, and gray Germans. The sculpts were different. Lucky I guess.
DeleteMarx started doing that in the '60s. Unfortunately, not all companies followed suit, Today's market is awesome and there are plenty of soldiers from all sides and all era's being made.
DeleteI saw this and similar ads, but didn't own this. I got the Six Foot Tall Frankenstein Monster with Glow in the Dark Eyes (a poster), the Remote Control Ghost (plastic sheet and a string), and the Mad Scientist Laboratory (some packets and a few test tubes from a chemistry set, didn't even come in a box). Caveat Emptor.
ReplyDeleteA 'remote control' ghost operated by a string! That's hilarious. Awesome! There sure were a lot of hucksters back then.
DeleteI was always amazed at the comic book ads, being in Blighty and getting the comics second hand, way after their publication date, I marvelled at the offers for boxes of hundreds of army figures, with soldiers, planes and tanks! I bemoaned the fact that Airfix 1/72 sets only came with a handful of figures and no vehicles. If only I had known the truth! Bill
ReplyDeleteI only had one set of Army man flats and that pretty much turned me off to the whole mail-order thing. It was just better to go to a store and see what you were getting.
DeleteWow, those are cool but would have been really disappointing to an eager child! SFZ
ReplyDeleteThey were. I hear so many people complain about it when reminiscing in the Meta (facebook) groups.
DeleteThere is a book called Mail Order Mysteries - Real Stuff From Old Comic Book Ads, by Kirk Demarais, which covers this subject. I recall borrowing it from the library some years ago. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds interesting Paul.
DeleteIt was fun in Blighty to simply stare at the American ads and dream. I dreamt of distributing GRIT newspapers! No idea what they were!
ReplyDeleteI remember those ads too! My father told me to ignore them, they were around when HE was a kid.
ReplyDelete