"Plastic wargames advertised in comic books?" Topic

Remember those full-page color ads from the 60s and 70s? They were located on the last page or the back cover of comic books and gave you the opportunity to be in "supreme command." I remember playing with World War II, ACW and AWI.

These sets, in their "foot locker trunk" show up on eBay quite often.

I used to drool over those as a kid. I'm tempted to try to track some down now, but I know it would ruin the magic.

yeah same here

Had the WWII set. My brother and I called them "squashy flats". Also remember getting a game called "Task Force" that played like Battleship and had little tanks, airplanes and warships.

I recall saving allowance money for weeks and having my mother order the AWI set for me. When they came there were red and blue figures close to 1/72 scale. Maybe they were a bit smaller in scale. Those were my first figures,and that was back in the late sixties.

Mike

I do.

Those were very cool, and quite nice sets for a very reasonable price.

still available
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Ah, yes, Helen of Toy.

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I always wanted that set.

The ones at RavenscraftCybernetics link, however, are not the ones that came in the original footlocker. Those looked like this:

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I had that one, but don't particularly miss them.

Yes! That is the ad I remember. As a day dreaming nine year old I was expecting the figures to be painted. I do recall asking my self "what am I going to do with all these marching guys?"

Mike

There was also "Task Force" from Helen of Toy Company. The miniatures were similar to those used in the Axis & Allies games. The minis included BBs, DDs, CVs, jet fighters, tanks (looked like tiny JS IIIs) with little rotating turrets, and some other stuff I can't remember. It also included some vacuformed, painted islands.

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Flintloque, those are the "squashy flats" I remember. My brother got a box of them also. The tanks were my favorite figure and we had many a battle with them, shooting them with our cork cannons. It was considered cheating if you set them up edge on.

Toshach, my copy of Task Force just had two identical paper maps with three islands on them. Wish I'd had the 3D islands.

Many a Saturday afternoon was spent on the rug in front of the TV watching either baseball with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese announcing or reruns of Henry Aldritch.

I had a neighbor give me the Romans set. He was way more into comics than even I was. Funny thing is that I got more of the yellow Romans than the blue Romans. Would have made for an uneven battle to say the least! The profit margin on these must have been incredible…

And yes, the posters above about tracking them down. The magic would be gone once you got them. Really don't stand up well to the test of time. Either then or now ;-) But nostalgia does tend to paint a prettier picture of things….

I for one still love the Heritage Napoleonettes. They are actually nice figures but unfortunately don't mix well with more modern lines. I still love the parade uniforms and I don't care if they wore them on campaign or not! lol

I believe I've got the RevWar figures (plastic flats in red and blue) up in my parents' attic. If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to sell them for a modest price to a good home. Please contact me offline at Jschnak950 AT yahoo AT com.

Jeff
Alexandria, VA

And 'here, here' on the Heritage Napoleonettes. The Civil War line was also very nice. Does anybody know what happend to the molds/rights?

I had "Tank Trap" and "Supreme Commander", while a friend of mine had "The Woods' Edge". I sent away for "Task Force" but was told byHelen of Toy they were short of the game, so they sent me two "Supreme Commander" games, instead. Ah, the memories!

I had the Rev War set. Saved allowance money to get it. Fond memories-the advertising really pulled you in.

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

Here's an interesting parody by the same artist who did the 204 Revolutionary War Set: