"Great Big plastic soldiers from the 1960s" Topic

I remember having a few big plastic "Airfix" style WW2 soldiers -US infantry and a kneeling German.
They used to sell them in Woolworths.
They were around 6 inches high
Anyone know anything about these?

I remember them but thats about it.

I remember having some of these too, both WWII and wild west.

So do I , they also did femail 'fashion type' models , I hasten to add my sister had those !

They were made by Marx the same people that put out all the play sets They were 5" tall and both WW2 and western figures were available you can still see them on ebay quite often. Made great BB gun targets fell over but no damage.

Those are Marx, right? I had those as well. Great times…

They're straight copies of the wax masters (no pantograph work to shrink them down). This is the size the sculptor originally worked in. I remember seeing a lot of them on clearance in the '80s, with US, Soviet, German, and Japanese poses available. As I recall they were all made in Hong Kong.

Searching on Marx and 6" (or 5, 5 1/2") brings up several. Thanks for that, quite a nostalgia trip for me!

Just saw some of those in a comic shop nearby my office last week.

I had a bunch of the WW2 figures but only the Americans and the Germans. They also did the Japanese and Russians, but I was never able to get my hands on any of those. We had great fun playing with these in the dirt in my mother's vegetable garden; the large size of the figures meant they were less likely to get lost in the dirt unlike their smaller comrades who would sometimes surface in the spring with the tilling of the garden in preparation for planting.

I also had a few of the 'Knights and Vikings' large figures but not nearly as many of those as the WW2 figures (never mind that the armor the knights were wearing was several centuries later than the vikings, they were still 'cool'!)

Sadly, all of those ended up being given to my young nephew and probably ended up in a trash bin some years ago.

Very fond memories of these, definitely!

Actually, I still seen them in Dollar Stores from time to time. I'm not sure if they are copies of the Marx figures, but they are definitely 6" WWII and Western guys.

There used to be some cool Man from Uncle figures in the line as well. Wish I still had them! Rob

There was also a hard plastic series, the same size as the soft plastic WWII figures, and painted. I only remember ancient Egyptians and Romans in that series, but there may have been other subjects. Good times.

Imagine if they'd come in boxes of 48…
Happy days!!

I had some, too. Lots of fun in the backyard.

I had some… but we also had a dog.
I might still have a head from one somewhere.

This ought to help: link

My brother and I had a large castle with a plastic base and moat (which would hold water) and it came with knights in armor and viking warriors, a catapult that fired small plastic rocks and the drawbridge on the castle would crank up and down.

I believe some of the figures are still being injected in Mexico. I have a full set of the Movie Monsters and the WW2 Russians which were acquired recently.
There were some 6" cavalry made so I have been told and would love details if anyone knows of them.

Nic EUREKA MINIATURES

I remember having some 12 inch Germans that were solid plastic and must have weighed almost a kilogram.

The 6 inch MARX are still available. They are in boxs of 5 figures. Picked up a box of germans, a couple of years ago, at the "Weekend of Heroes" show. They have american, german, russian and japanese that I know of.

Wow, that's a trip down memory lane. As the youngest of four, I got these guys well-used, Americans only… But because they were rare – four out of a collection of thousands of army men – I treasured them.

Good times. These were second only to GI Joe in cool factor. At least until I discovered Airfix. ;-)

Don.

I'm reading this on the British Wargaming Message Board, but most of the input appears to be American.

Which kind of squishes my intended comment about the "remembered" size of the figures being similar to the "remembered" dimensions of good old Wagon Wheel chocolate biscuits! Unless of course, they were sold over there too?
I swear that they were 6inches diameter once upon a time ……

I had ones who had separate helmets and guns too.

Bob

Check with Hobby Bunker – I think they have the mold for those:

hobbybunker.com

Try: toysoldierhq.com

We used to have the WWII US and Plains war Cavalry and Indians. I was thinking that it would be nice to find more to alow my boys to paint them. They are only 4 and six, but are interested in painting Daddy's little soldiers, My thinking is that these larger figures will allow them to gain some consistency in painting so that they can later more to 1/35 and 1/72 scale figures. You know, catch them when the are young.

We had those too here in the philippines! I remember having american, japanese, german and russians. 6 figs were packaged in a plastic bag and sometimes came with those small crossbows with rubber bands:) Wish I had kept some. My mom remembered that I used to bury the "dead" ones out in our backyard.

Someone is making a new line now under the Call of Duty logo. I understand there will be one in my stocking for Xmas.

I remember having some 12 inch Germans that were solid plastic and must have weighed almost a kilogram.

I remember those too. I think that they were large versions of Elastolin 25mm or 30mm hard plastic Germans.

I had a few of them, but I think they got blown up with firecrackers.

I had the bright red and yellow wild west set. Godzilla, the one with the springloaded flying fist, considered them optimal for target practice.

I remember them well, I had japs and British played for days in the long grass (till dad cut it)….

I still have some WW2 Germans that I believe were by Airfix, of about 1;32 or 1:35 scale (54mm).

I have been collecting up the old man from uncle 6" tall guys and also the small flat plastic AWI sets and WWII sets from the comic books.

Chris P.

Don, may I presume you are "the Don Lowry" of Panzerfaiust, and Lowry's mail order? I drove up to your shop in Searsport only to find it closed. But I did go to one of your conventions at the Curlying Club up there and then went on to be a regular at The Toy soldier after you sold it.

Chris P.

Yep, Chris, that's me. Been a while since those days!

I seem to remember the soldiers as being more like 4" tall or so. But the tanks were always Centurions.