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!
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