Army Men, Part 13 - The Great Rescue!!

 Way back in the 1960s I was living in a house in the Ivywild area of Colorado Springs.

Back in those days families were allowed to burn paper trash and yard leaves in a backyard incinerator. The above illustration is one I drew from memory of the incinerator at our house.  This was a purplish-color clay structure. One built a fire in the bottom and loaded the trash into the opening at the top. An air vent/smoke escape was at top rear.

When I was old enough, it fell to me to assume the chore of emptying and burning the household paper trash. This was great for a ten year old kid, because it amounted to sanctioned playing with matches and fire!

Anyway, one afternoon I went out to burn a load of trash. Just after loading the paper products, I bent down to light the fire when I noticed something colorful among the ashes at the bottom.

Upon closer scrutiny, it turned out to be one of my Tuareg toy soldiers. I plucked it out and noticed the presence of a couple more figures.

What??

It turned out my entire army of French Foreign Legion and Arab soldiers was there at the bottom of that incinerator!

I don't have an idea about why they were there, but I suspect that sometime during the week I might have pissed off my mom or older sister, and the disposal of one of my favorite toy sets was my vengeance- driven punishment. 

The insidious part is that I would have unknowingly been the designated executioner!

Nobody ever copped to this deed, and, to this very day it remains a mystery.

Needless to say, I pulled out all the trash, dug through the ashes, and retrieved every single one of those soldiers!

With my army completely rescued and safely moved to a shoebox in my bedroom, I returned outside and cheerily lit a fire in the ol' incinerator.

Army Men, Part 12 Desert Warriors

Now for the highlight of my army man collection.

This highly colorful set of soldiers also dates back to the late 1950s to 1960s.

These are standard sized French Foreign Legionnaires and Tuareg Arab warriors, probably inspired by the film 'Beau Geste'.

Interestingly, they all came from cereal boxes as the featured toy prizes.

That was back in the days when cereal box toys were actually substantial...and cool.

Moreover, one did not have to mail in box tops or a proof of purchase label and a dollar to get them.

Nowadays, cereal boxes only have dumb jokes and puzzles printed on the back of the box - and no toys.

Nope, back in the day, you had cellophane- wrapped prizes that you had to wait to get to the bottom of the box of cereal in order to retrieve.

My mom told me she remembers that these army men came from boxes of Special-K, which she bought regularly.

I seem to remember the soldiers coming in packs of four from each box. At first, my older brother and sister (by 7 and 5 years) glommed onto them, but as they grew older, and developed other interests, the figures passed on to me.

I've since learned that the figures were manufactured by Lido.  Each army is represented by four different poses, some being officers/chiefs, and the rest being rank and file soldiers. 

The figures are molded in many different colors and shades of plastic, some even being a mix of two different colors.

This collection consists of 39 figures from each army for a total of 78.

They are definitely  the veterans of countless bedroom floor battles.

For my Alamo re-creations these guys were placed in the role of Santa Ana's attacking Mexican forces, even though their appearance is not even close to being historically accurate.

Thank goodness for the miracle of adolescent imagination!

These soldiers had two common points of breakage: The Tuareg swordsman would often lose his raised sword, and the F.L. bayonet fighters would lose the musket stock.

For one of the latter, I attempted to make a new pose by cutting parts of the musket away to make a form of short sword or dagger. Using a match, I used the flame to softened his arm and bend it into a forward position. The blackened scorch marks still remain.

Even after so many battles, only 10 of these figures are broken in the above manner.

Needless to say, these armies have been long-retired!

Cheers...

Army Men!, Part 11 - How Revolutionary!

This multi-colored set of soldiers dates back to the early 1960s, produced by the Lido toy company.

The set appeared in my Christmas stocking from 'Santa Claus' when I was perhaps 7 or 8 years old.

It is, of course, a set of American Revolutionary War regular army soldiers.

Originally, there were nine figures in the set - an additional kneeling- with-musket soldier in yellow, and a drummer in light blue. 

Both of those guys were lost somewhere along the way.

In my playtime battles, these men were usually used as defenders of the Alamo in those particular re-creations. One of the sword-weilding officers was the closest I could get to a representation of Colonel Travis!

A quick story:

I think it was in 3rd grade, around 1963, that our class was studying some U.S. history, specifically the time of the American Revolution.

As a small extra project, I volunteered to make a show-and-tell diorama using this group of plastic soldiers engaged in the Christmas surprise attack on Hessian forces following the Delaware River crossing.

I made a detailed cardboard base with some landscaping rocks and trees on which I could set up my brightly-colored army in battle formation. It looked pretty cool and I was proud of my work. 

To my surprise, I was actually derided by some of my classmates for playing with toy 'Cowboys and Indians'!!

What?

I was astonished at the ignorance displayed by these individuals.

Anyway, my teacher liked it.

And, yes, now around 60 years later, I'm still playing around with plastic toy soldiers - no cowboys and Indians, though...

Cheers!

Army Men! Part 10 - Old Soldier

 Today's post will be rather short, focusing on a single figure in the old collection.

This is one of the original 1950s U.S. green army men produced by, I believe, Lido.

He's a bit larger than the more standard 54mm soldiers that appeared later. The sets that this guy came in consisted of around 10 differently posed soldiers. None had plastic bases under their feet. 

More to come....

Army Men! Part IX - A Pair of Crocketts

 These two figures are favorites of my collection - two different poses of famous frontiersman Davy Crockett.

The brown one was originally owned by my grandfather. I played with it so much when I was at his house that he finally let me take it home and keep it.

I'm totally in the dark about when or where I acquired the red version.

I have scoured the internet to see if I could find out the history and manufacture of both figures, but have been so far unsuccessful.

Nevertheless, both of these figured prominently in my playroom battles with toy soldiers.  I was particularly fond of setting up recreations of the battle of the Alamo, using my extensive set of wooden blocks to build the fort's structures and ramparts.

One amusing note: These toys were definitely not based off of the 1960 film version of  'The Alamo'.

Neither one even remotely resembles John Wayne!

More to come....

Army Men! Part VIII - The Old Guard

 Now that I have completed my random ramblings about the Civil War set, I think it's  high time that I re-visit the collection of little plastic soldiers from my childhood back in the early 60s.

The collection is housed in wooden cigar boxes packed in a Rubbermaid plastic tote buried within the deepest, darkest recesses of the subterranean depths of my home.

Here is a quick look at the pile of the many-colored vintage army.

The next several posts will describe these guys in depth. There is much history and a lot of interesting stories associated with this pile of molded plastic figures.

Stay tuned!

Army Men, Part VII - Rolling Thunder

 The final segment of this series on the Hobby Lobby Civil War Value Pack focuses on the included artillery pieces.

These cannon are a very good representation of the Napoleon 12-pounders used extensively in the war by both sides.

These models are well detailed, with working wheels which are easily removable.

The best part is that each field piece comes complete with an attachable limber carriage.

The limber is detailed with an ammunition chest just like the real thing. It also features the hitch rail to which horse teams can be attached.

The 12 pounder Napoleon was a definite workhorse artillery piece in the Civil War. Most batteries had at least one or two in their line-up.

It had a bronze barrel weighing a little over half a ton, 5 and a half feet long, with a four inch diameter barrel size.

The piece was capable of propelling a 12.3 pound iron ball at a little over 1400 feet per second. The accurate range was in the 1600 yard distance, with a maximum range of 2000 yards.

All manner of ordnance was used with the guns: solid ball, timed-fused shells, spherical case shot, grapeshot, and canister. 

The guns were highly mobile and could be moved quickly on the battlefield using a team of six horses. Along with each piece and limber was an additional caisson, a four-wheeled carriage that transported two additional ammunition chests. These were also pulled by a 6-horse team.

Typically, a crew of six or seven artillerymen was required to operate one of the guns, each man having his own specific task. A well-trained and experienced team could load, prep, aim and fire the piece twice per minute.

In addition, there were two drivers tasked with moving the pieces, one for the gun/limber, the other for the caisson.

This concludes my assessment of the Value Pack offerings. Overall quality is very good, and the set is perfect for regular play.

As pointed out in the past few posts, some modifications may need to be made for those who wish to use these soldiers for historically accurate dioramas.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the set.

Cheers!

Army Men! Part VI - Flags and Officers

 This part of my review of the Hobby Lobby Civil War Value Pack focuses on the additional figures.

First, the mounted horsemen:

Both the Union and Confederate mounted figures are well done. These are great for representing either regimental colonel or even brigadier generals.

The Union officer is typical, wearing a sword and a kepi for headgear.  

The Confederate officer is also well-rendered. Same riding configuration as the Union version, except that he wears a slouch hat, much like the infantry figures in the set. 

The horses are well modeled, featuring such details as a bridle, harness, saddle, and blanket roll.

The flag carrying figures are OK, but there are some issues here.

On the rebel side, the staff seems to be a bit too short, and the flag itself is rectangular. The typical Confederate flag was 4x4 square.

On the Federal side, the glaring error is that the color guardsman is carrying a 50-star flag!

What's up with that?  

$7.99 Chinese-made set, no doubt.

More to come....

Army Men, Part V, Billy Yank

 The soldiers in this set which represent the Union army are very well done.

No complaints here. 

The uniforms are pretty much correct, all of them are wearing forage caps, and no knapsacks are being worn in combat mode. 

Unlike the Confederate soldiers, these men have varying facial features: some are bearded, and others clean shaven.

Well done!

Army Men!! Pt. 3 The Civil War Set

 Oops, I goofed!

This post was supposed to come before the last one.   Senior moment...

Anyway, here goes. 

The Civil War Value Pack from Hobby Lobby has been opened and is ready for examination.

In a nutshell, the set consists of 34 soldier figures (17 each Union and Confederate), 2 horses, 2 cannon and 2 limbers.

At first glance this is an awesome little set.

There are enough individual poses to make things interesting.  It is my understanding that these packs are populated with random quantities of the various poses. It's very cool that the the poses of the soldiers are not duplicated between the two armies.

Viewed from a few feet distance, the soldiers and features are quite representative of the typical Civil War soldiers.

Here are photos of the two opposing sides all set out:

And the artillary:

There were no missing or broken pieces in the bag.  The only issues are that some of the muskets are bent. 

A quick, careful hit with a hair dryer gun can take care of that.

Overall, this set is not a bad buy at the $7.99 price point. I will likely head back to Hobby Lobby and purchase a second bag.

This will give me enough soldiery on each side to comprise a 'Company' unit.

In Civil War unit hierarchy, a company was supposed to be a group of 100 men. The majority started out with those numbers.

10 companies made up a regiment (1000 men). As the war progressed, most companies that were combat-ready at any given time typically numbered between 30-50 individuals. This was due to attrition from battle casualties, enemy capture, illness, and desertions.

Companies were given designation letters A through K. The letter J was not used, as it was easily confused with the letter 'I'.

Companies were typically led by Captains, their subordinates being the non-commissioned officers - sergeants and corporals.

So now that I've given a short history lesson, here is a fun fact:

If I wished to set up a somewhat historically accurate diorama of Pickett's charge at the battle of Gettysburg, it would require 706 of these Value Packs at a cost of $5,650.00 before tax.

General Lee sent over 12,000 men on that ill-fated assault on the Union center.

Next post: A closer look at the soldiers in this set and why a lot of it is not historically accurate.

Cheers!

Army Men!! Part IV

 In today's post, I will focus on a number of the individual pieces in the Civil War Value Pack.  This assessment will be through the lens of historical accuracy.

I'll start with the soldiers of the rebel army.

It doesn't take a close scrutiny of the Confederate figures to notice a number of problems.

First, all of the figures are clad in what I call 'Senior Officer' garb. These are supposedly rank and file infantrymen, but all of the figures are wearing long officer-style clothing, riding boots, and narrow-brim slouch hats.

All of the figures also have a knapsack strapped to their backs.

In reality, the typical Confederate regular infantry soldiers wore a huge array of different clothing. Jackets, usually shorter in length, were in various shades of gray or butternut, many being home-spun. Same thing with trousers - there were many different variations - some soldiers wore gray or light blue army-issued, others wore loose trousers in butternut, brown, red, blue, pretty much what ever they could get ahold of. 

Headgear consisted of a mix of slouch hats and army forage caps, again, in various colors and forms. The slouch hats were not the prim officer style, rather wide-brim farm-type affairs that could be bent down to provide better shade for the soldier's face.

High-top boots were definitely not a feature of the typical rebel soldier. The vast majority wore whatever shoes they could acquire. As the war dragged on, many of the Confederate troops had to settle for no shoes at all, instead resorting to wrapping rags around their feet, or even going barefoot.

As for the knapsack, this would not have been a common feature of the Confederate soldier. At the beginning of the war, Southern units were issued packs in many forms, but as time went on this practice stopped as the army supply resources dwindled. Rebel soldiers largely resorted to wearing blanket rolls around their necks, in which they carried whatever extra clothing and personal effects they had. These were affectionately called 'horse collars'.

In both armies, backpacks were virtually never carried into combat, due to their weight and bulk. Officers commanded that backpacks be left piled in the rear before soldiers were moved into battle formation.

Doubtless, many of the packs were lost, stolen, or never retrieved after a battle.

One final issue I have with the Confederate soldiers in this offering is that every single figure has the exact same facial features: a long mustache and beard!

Overall, this group of so-called infantry soldiers has the appearance of a company of clones of some brigadier general!!

It is definitely obvious that the mold designer(s) for this set had no clue of what the rank and file Confederate soldier looked like.

Hint: the bottom of the figure bases are stamped with "Made In China". 

That might be a clue.

This is, after all, a $7.99 Value Pack....

Anyway, next post will be all about the Union troops.

Stay tuned...

Army Men!! Part II

 It frequently seems that interaction with my grandkids tends to spark new or renewed interest in toys and activities that I either did as a kid or have never encountered before.

That's exactly how my involvement with LEGO building got started a little over a decade ago.

Since I have recently been enjoying spending time with my youngest grandchild immersed in army man play, I've sort of rekindled an interest in that particular subject.

Yesterday, I ducked into the local Hobby Lobby and was delighted to find a 'Value Pack' of American Civil War plastic soldiers.

Since I am an avid student of Civil War history, this set is square in my wheelhouse!

Can't wait to tear into this bag.

Jeez, I'm becoming a 70-year-old 8-year- old!

A review of the set will be the subject of my next post.

Cheers!

Army Men !!

Recently, my wife and I have been spending Mondays watching our soon-to-be 4 year old grandson at our home.

It turns out that this young lad is quite interest in playing with toy plastic soldiers.

As soon as he enters the house in the morning, the first thing he asks is to play with army men.

So, to accommodate this request, I have pulled out my shoebox of vintage green U.S. army soldiers. These date back to the early 1970s and are the typical green guys that every kid from that era had.

The soldiers of my collection are all solid veterans of many battles! Over the course of the past several decades, they've definitely been knocked over countless times by rubber bands (small arms fire), and heavy artillery (Nerf gun bullets)!

My own kids and grand-kiddoes have also played with them over the years, but I'm usually around to insure that they don't get treated too roughly or lost. 

The soldiers, that is.

So, just the other day, my youngest grandson and I built a large fort out of many-colored Mega-Bloks and spent the entire morning setting up and knocking down my beleaguered vintage green army!

Cheers!