Plastic troops in the back of comic books (1 Viewer)

[Currahee Chris]

Hey fellas:

So Ive been reading some of my old Sgt. Rock comics and it has been nostalgic. One of the funny things about my childhood was the way my dad would "block" some of my purchases. He used to buy three packs of football cards every Sunday when we would go grocery shopping-he got to keep the Dolphin players (As he was a fan) and the quarterbacks. One of the cards he jerked from me was the Joe Montana rookie card (which I now have- he gave it back to me 10 years ago lol).

Additionally, in 1985 we were at a card show and a dude offered to sell me a Jim Brown 1958 topps Rookie for $6. I only had $5- I asked my pops for a buck and told him Id do extra work but no dice- no Jim Brown card for me and no sale for the dude.

But in the realm of toy soldiers he used to "block" me EVERY time I'd try to order one of those plastic toy soldier sets in the back of the old comics. You had to mail a check so I was at the mercy of him cutting the check- which he NEVER did lol. His argument was that they were "too small" and it was junk that I'd lose or he'd step on in the morning- looking back it made sense.

Soooooo, I'm curious- did any of you guys ever buy any of the toy soldiers from the back of the comic books?? I'd be curious to see what they actually look like. I notice that they never mention the scale- the ad's were just AWESOME full color, full page battle scenes- God I wanted the WW2 and American Revolution figures soooo bad I could almost taste it- but alas, it never came to fruition.

At any rate, was just curious if any of you dudes ever got any of those sets. I think they would come with like almost 200 pieces for $2.98 or some other price.

Regards
CC

 

[theBaron]

That's interesting that you bring them up, Chris. I remember those ads, too. They made the set look so cool. But I was never moved even to think about sending away for them.

I have seen them, however, since taking up collecting, at shows like the East Coast show, and online on eBay.

Nothing in the set was to scale. The soldiers were small, and if I recall, they were what we'd call semi-round. They were no bigger than 1/72, and probably a little smaller. The vehicles and aircraft were not to scale, and everything fit in a cardboard box, printed to look like a footlocker or ammo crate, about eight or ten inches on the side, about three or four inches deep and three or four inches from front to back. The large bomber, vaguely based on a B-52, had a wingspan around two inches and a length of about two-and-a-half. There were ships, too, of similar size.

It was a cool set, but I'm sure a lot of kids who sent away for it were sorely disappointed when they got it, after seeing that great full-page ad.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Currahee Chris]

Cheers Brad

Yeah, I had assumed at that price point they were probably 1:72nd scale. I get that Dad probably did the right thing (lets face it, back in 1981 I was pulling down, at best, 50 cents a week helping my mom with the dishes lol) but I did (and still do) have a very vivid imagination and could easily have used those troops to create those epic battles in the comics.

Prost!!
CC

 

[ccdc11]

I wanted them too and never got them. There was a little display of toy soldiers in the city of Joliet IL at the historical society and someone had taken the comic book ad and blown it up to poster size. They were at Chicago show one year but I can't recall who they were. I think they were with the model show that is a few weeks after the toy soldier show.
It was really cool and brought back a lot of memories. If I had a chance to get a unopened set I probably would, just to finally get them if they were cheap enough. But any set I've ever seen on ebay was bits and pieces.

I don't know of anyone ever having a set as a kid but someone must have bought them. They were in comics for years and years.

 

[BlackHat]

I remember seeing those ads too. Back in the 1970s, I had Britains Deetail figures. I saw those ads and couldn't believe that you could get so many toy soldiers for such a low price. One of my friends did get the AWI set. I remember that it was rather disappointing. He also had 1:72 Airfix (or maybe Matchbox?) AWI figures, and the soldiers from the big mail-order set were definitely smaller in scale, perhaps 1:87 (which I think matches HO gauge railroads). Also, they were not very detailed, having much less detail than the 1:72 figures. This thread brings back great memories, though.

 

[Obee]

These are the ones that I remember as a kid .......





bring back memories ???

John

 

[rahway]

I had the knights. They were brittle, and some broke under normal handling.

Lucky Products' comic book ad artwork was done by comic book artist Russ Heath (1927-1918).

The AWI sets are still used by a few people for wargaming.

https://thegatlingsjammedandthecolonelsdead.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/a-gentlemans-war-at-cold-wars/


http://dougssoldiers.blogspot.com/2009/03/old-flat-comic-book-soldiers.html

 

[Warrior]

The AWI set was one of the first toy soldier memories I have, it came in a small brown box, the figures are 1/72nd scale, right in my wheelhouse, I still have the in the original box, they aren't bad.

I also got several of the "wargames" they used to sell, one was a tank battle with exploding tanks, one was called Woods Edge, another was Chickamauga, they used miniature versions of the Marx WWII and ACW figures, they are great, I still have all of them too...…………………..so there you go.

 

[marco55]

I had the AWI,actually got them 2 or 3 times and had a ball with them.I remember seeing Wee Willie Winkie and thought the British pith helmets were the coolest so I took matches and melted the tricornes and shaped them into pith helmets.I actually got pretty good at shaping them.^&grin I didn't ruin too many.:rolleyes2:My grandmom would yell upstairs to me asking what that smell was.{eek3}.So I had soldiers with 18th century uniforms with 19th century helmets but I didn't care.
Mark

 

[ccdc11]

I love the fact that George still has them 50 years later. Mark I find it amazing that someone would start to modify plastic toy soldiers at such a young age.
My modifying was running a string thru the parachute Marx figures to have him slide down it. Not quite the same...

However I, was also yelled at for strange smells coming from my room as a teenager.(normally to the strains of Black Sabbath or Led Zep)

I remember the WW2, ACW and AWI. Wasn't there a Roman set as well I think?

 

[rahway]

Here is the Roman ad.

The games were done under the name Helen of Toy. Giant supplied the fully round figures in the games. I remember playing the Gold Crown castle attack game.

 

[NEVINSRIP]

Count me as one of those disappointed kids who were rightly pissed off when the package arrived.
I dutifully sent away for the AWI set and was heartbroken when the two dimensional, hard plastic, junk figures showed up.

The original figure sets were in a hard plastic that broke when you looked at it to too long.

Oddly enough, I ran into a large bag of them at a flea market not long ago.
A friend, Howard Whitehouse, actually collects and paints them, so I donated the bag to him.
He has his painted versions on some of the Toy Soldier FaceBook pages.

Worth a look.

 

[Partner]

These ads confirmed my memory of "No Canadian orders".
I guess the graphics and dreaming of these figures were better than the real thing !
Kirk

 

[marco55]

I think I had the Romans too.I really didn't care what shape,scale or anything about them wasn't right,all I knew was they were soldiers and I had toys to play with.To change the subject a little bit my all time favorite Christmas present when I was little was Mr. Robot.I think I got him 3 years in a row because I always broke him.{eek3}^&grin
Mark

 

[Terp152]

I also had a set of the Romans and disappointed when opening the small box. Two working catapults were included and did have some fun with those. Chris

 

[CHuDWah]

I didn't get my set from a comic book - found it in a dollar-type store for a couple bucks. But it had all the characteristics of comic book sets - cylindrical screw-top box with great graphics, 1/72 or so hard plastic flat figures in several colors, and a paper terrain map. The different thing is, it was the Little Big Horn battle - never seen another with that theme.

 

[theBaron]

What's funny to consider today, when I see that ad, is realizing that it prints the dimensions of the box right there. If you stopped and thought about it, you'd realize there was no way anything all that large and exciting as the illustration showed, could be in that little box. But as kids, we paid no mind to that.

Prost!
Brad

 

[rahway]

The Gibbs Custer's Last Stand set was not part of the comic book flat series. I had a set. The Gibbs set is much more sought after today.

http://oldtoyfigures.com/gibbs-1959...s-playset-80-figures-playmap-original-box.php

 

[Warrior]

I love the fact that George still has them 50 years later. Mark I find it amazing that someone would start to modify plastic toy soldiers at such a young age.
My modifying was running a string thru the parachute Marx figures to have him slide down it. Not quite the same...

However I, was also yelled at for strange smells coming from my room as a teenager.(normally to the strains of Black Sabbath or Led Zep)

I remember the WW2, ACW and AWI. Wasn't there a Roman set as well I think?

Even though my collecting has evolved into painted metal figures by the thousands, there are things from my childhood that I won't sell/give up. For a time, the ho/oo boxed Airfix sets went for big money, I'd say mid 1990's through about 2005, then the value started to drop. I have multiples of every Airfix set ever made from my childhood, never once thought about selling them.

Same with the figures from those comic book ads. I also have a **** ton of Britains Swoppets, Deetail and Timpo swoppets; as a kid, relatives bought me those as Christmas/birthday presents, they did not know I was into ho/oo; to them toy soldiers are toy soldiers. I have loads of offers over the years to sell them too; nope, not going to happen and like the ho/oo sets, the value has tanked on those items too, which is fine by me.

Too many great memories for me to sell them...……………..amazing to think those swoppets were made in the 1960's...………..I also have the Marx Heritage Alamo, sons of liberty, blue and the grey, fort apache and battleground from when I was a kid, had offers on those too.

Nope, no dice.

 

[Warrior]

I had the AWI,actually got them 2 or 3 times and had a ball with them.I remember seeing Wee Willie Winkie and thought the British pith helmets were the coolest so I took matches and melted the tricornes and shaped them into pith helmets.I actually got pretty good at shaping them.^&grin I didn't ruin too many.:rolleyes2:My grandmom would yell upstairs to me asking what that smell was.{eek3}.So I had soldiers with 18th century uniforms with 19th century helmets but I didn't care.
Mark

I never performed surgery on mine, but I did use them for French and Indian and Napoleonic battles as well as AWI ones...………………….back then, I had few choices for Napoleonics until Airfix stepped up their game.

Borodino, Waterloo, you name it, those AWI troops fought there...………….I also used Airfix AWI Colonials as young guard, British grenadiers as old guard, WWI British in the soft caps as Prussian Landwehr, you had to do what you had to do back in those days...…………:wink2: