http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...y_id=62128

Classic.

Nice.

But the guy's an idiot if he doesn't know the dude's dropping a mortar shell into the tube.

Yah, the mortar guys were cool.

Remember the Iwo Jima and Navarone playset mountains? They had German and Japanese soldiers, too. Loved the flamethrower guys.

Dead guys..?..

I never had dead guys.

I got jipped...

It seems to me there was actually a guy with a mortar-tube in those sets. If you paired him with the mortar guy, it made sense.

These were the ones I had. The mortar guy has the tube as well.

The Mortar guys I had, had the tube also, but I think thats why he had the actual pictures of his. That was hilarious. Also, he realizes what the guy is doing that and he explains that in the caption.

He called it "some kind of Korean War-era artillery device." Are mortars no longer used?

They are definitely still in use Brian. Quite a nice weapon actually, if you don't get stuck carrying the base plate.

Yes, they are, but it was easy to tell from his tone that it was all in his comedic writing style.

Wow, does that photo ever bring back memories. When all of us boys on the block combined our soldier sets, we could stage a huge battle. As I recall, no casualties came with the set, which made them a little unrealistic. We solved that problem with my Dad's Zippo lighter (itself a relic of WWII). I guess that's proof I haven't always been a peacenik hippy pinko fag...

Steve = Sid

Went to Wal-Mart tonight and had to look for army men, they only had 3 pack's of 55 men, with air support. No dead guys, white germans only one machine gunner. But I did buy all 3 packs that I found. Got to love a boy's life lol

We set up scenes, then rained down hell with the BB gun. And fire crackers. Never had dead guys, we made our own. Sadly, I doubt my kids will ever know that fun.

[This message has been edited by M T Zook (4/29/2010)]

I always preferred the 1/72 scale military figures from hobby stores. The level of detail and accuracy was always better than the bigger stuff you could find at the grocery store. Name a conflict, and chances are you could find all sorts of specialized units from either side.

From the comments on the article Kyle posted:

Worst Cowboy: The cowboy riding the horse, after you lost
the horse.

Truer words were never spoken. Talk about bow-legged!

[This message has been edited by Steve Craddock (4/30/2010)]

I remember my army men and cowboys and Indians embarking on a disastrous expedition across the top of the wood stove during winter once. My parents were NOT impressed.

NICE!

This place takes toy soldiers to the max.

http://www.classictoysoldiers.com

http://www.classictoysoldiers.com

My brother had the molds to make his own army men with "Plastigoop". Does anyone remember that stuff? Our house always smelled like burning plastic!

Even worse, skoh, back in what I guess were the middle sixties, my older brothers had a lead-melting kit with army-men molds. The molds looked like they were the same ones used by the manufactures of the army men discussed in this thread. I can't think of a better toy for nine or ten year old kids. What could go wrong?

My husband actually has a bunch of these lead army men. I think his uncle poured them and gave them to him. Other than the prehensile tail, my husband's as normal as they come.

Wendy, if those are hand pored, they may have used very rare molds. Those could be worth ALOT of money.

I once had an entire set of lead British redcoats. I melted them down into bullets and used them in my guerilla campaign against Col. Tavington/Tarleton in the low country of South Carolina.

Or maybe that was just The Patriot. I lose track sometimes.

A boy I knew had to go to the hospital to have his stomach x-rayed because he swallowed a staple opening a bag of army men. You never know where danger lurks.