Little Plastic Army Men

Of all the little plastic men in my big barrel, the Plastic Army Men are the most abundant. I have Army Men in several shades of green and dozens of poses. I had fun playing "Desert Storm" with Army Men as a kid and I loved playing the computer game in high school.

 These two solders with their guns slung over their shoulders were trades off a classmate when I was a kid. I actually think I had a third, but customized the figure into a casualty model for the table top battle game Warhammer 40,000. A strategy game played with metal or plastic miniature SciFi Armies and lots of dice rolling.

These two soldiers seem to be dressed and armed as World War II Infantrymen. I'm not a military expert, so don't jump all over me if I get something wrong.

These two figures are the lightest shade of green out of all the Army Men I own. They are very yellowish.

The next two soldiers are Vietnam era troopers. One is crouching while talking on a a radio pack. The other is waving on his platoon members while holding an M-16. I know it's hard to tell from the photos, but they are a shade or two darker than the first figures. They seem to be the same sculpt or at least poses as the Tim Mee figures that came with Helicopter I bought at Christmas Time.

This next Army Man who is kneeling while aiming his M-16 has some of the worst detailing of any of the little plastic men I own. I can't remeber if he came from a vending machine or a party favor bag as a kid.  He's a little darker green, and maybe a shade gray. His helmet has some texture to it.

The photo below shows off a variety of different Army Men from my collection including the Breakfast Cereal Promotion figures mentioned in an earlier post. There is one figure in the photo that will be coming up to a little later in this post.

The next two photos show off one of each figure that came in a bag of Army Men I bought at US Toys when I was in college. My buddies and I went there to look at all the weird party junk they sell in the hopes of finding stuff to us in our stop motion animations. I bought a lot of stuff on that visit.

They have a decent amount of detail, but it's all sort of soft. No real deep lines in their sculpts. The other most interesting difference to note is that their bases all have a lip on the underside. These soldiers are a deep green.

The top photo shows a commander, a kneeling sniper, and a standing soldier. The second photo shows a soldier with a grenade as well as two different running soldiers holding rifles. Based on their weapons these troops that I bought in the early 2000's are supposed to be WWII soldiers.

This next batch of pictures are of Army Men that I've had since I was a kid.They are a medium green and have some fairly fine details. The first photo shows off a Commander, similar to the one is the set above. He is accompanied by a trooper  throwing a grenade. The grenade soldier is completely different from the one from the above set. I really wish I knew more information about these figures so I could call them by brand name.

These three soldiers are all various poses with a rifle. Standing, lunging, and kneeling. I like the way these three display together.

The last two figures from this set are more passive looking. Perhaps on guard duty. One is standing with his rifle across his chest and the others is held more upright.

This next photo shows three different brands of Army Men all in very similar poses. The first is the style I mentioned above that I bought at US Toys, The second is one of my childhood troopers, and the third is the first figure I'm showing from another style of Green Plastic Army Men I bought on that legendary trip to USA Toys. The last figure is made by a company called Kid Fun.

Here are those same three figure with their corresponding grenade throwing figure. I have included them to show the lip on the base of the first batch of figures I bought at US Toys

Here are some more of the Kid Fun Army Men. They are a shiny medium green They almost look like the color of the Nickelodeon TMNT Ooze. Pictured here are the grenade thrower, a trooper on guard duty and a running riflemen.






Next we have a pair of soldier laying on the ground. One is firing a machine gun and the other one seems to be feeding the bullets through the weapon. The loader also, would work for a casualty of plastic battle.

I bought several bags of these Kid Fun Army Men because I had plans to make a music video for the They Might Be Giants song "Pencil Rain"  I wanted to have rows and rows of army men all standing at attention for my little video. I eventually decided I didn't really like the idea so I never made the film.

The last brand of Green Army Men I have to show off today are made by Toysmith according to my research. These figure have been around for a while, and are nicely detailed. They are a little bit lighter than many of the other figures.

The first photo shows off a bazooka trooper, a kneeling riflemen ad a standing solderer with a sub-machine gun.



The next photo shows off a Commander figure who is remarkable similar to two other figures arlready showed in theis post. The figure next to him was one of my favorites as a kid. He has the look of an 80's action star. He's running while carrying a machine gun.

I wanted to take a picture of a large group of figure all standing up, but I was starting to feel like I was playing with the popular 90's toy Domino Rally/