"Who Still Has Their Childhood Toy Soldiers?" Topic

I still have my Giant Blue and Gray playset by Marx that I got for Christmas in 1961. The discussion about Comic Book Flats got me wondering about who else has their childhood toy soldiers.

So, What do yo have and when did you get it?

My Blue and Gray was given to a younger cousin when I became sidetracked by other interests (read: Girls).
About 10 years later, I was at my Aunt's home when I asked her what happened to the set. To my surprise. she said "it's in the basement. Do you want it?

Hell, yes!! I had regained my toy soldier interest by then.
Even better was the fact that her son (the cousin who got the set from me) had received another Blue and Gray set for his birthday from some relative or other. And that was mixed in. I strolled out with 3 shopping bags full.

Even with casualties, like chewed figures and broken or lost pieces, I was still able to make a complete set with some extra parts and figures left over.

I still set it up on my home made board with a map drawn like the plastic playmat that came with the playset.

Like you I have parts of my Blue & Gray set. Missing the plastic and metal mansion but have exploding bunkers and the cardboard record with the Rebel Yell. Great stuff!

I still have an eclectic colletion of figures. Most of the playsets are gone. I do have a few figures from the Lincoln Log sets, a number of Timpo knights about 2 dozen WotR Swoppets and some random AWI figures. I purged all my Airfix except Foreign Legion a few years ago.

Yes still have some Marx " Fort Apache " figs--most are
Dog chewed and have broken Guns but still ready for a Fight
these are the Hard Rubber 60mm ones.
Also some 45mm figs from one of their 1950's Army sets, the
one with the Airforce,Navy and Marching Marines.

Most of the MARX stuff got traded for AH games when I was in High School. The Airfix went who knows when and where sometime in the 80's. Still have my Archive Conan though

Indeed, I wish. I got Marx playset every Christmas and Warriors of the World for good report cards.

Still have most of my cowboys and indians ( Timpo, Britains and Airfix ) stashed away somewhere, and my Timpo Prarie Rocket.
Then there are the tins full of 1/72 soldiers and vehicles safely stored in the garage, funny how they didn't make it out for my boys to play with – very strange that. One day they will be dusted off and receive some paint as I'm getting back in to things. Started making some birds as targets ready for an axis raid on a desert airbase. ( link )

My original ones were green army men and then Arifix but I don't have either.
I still do have some from my youth, some marching soldiers cake toppers.

I still have my original Marx Alamo circa 1965 and a few Airfix. I recently sold my original Airfix Roman Mile Fort with figures and Sherif of Nottingham Castle with figures for next to nothing. They were going to a youngster who was going to play with them like I used to do. That's the best use for them.

I'm afraid that just about all of my old toy soldiers and tanks are gone. The 1/72 Airfix figures, the beat-up 54mm Britains Civil War plastic figures, the two "Helen of Toy" comic book games that my brother and I bought (against our mother's advice!) . . . gone, all gone.

Saddest of all is the loss of our uncle's "Johnny Tremain" play set by Marx. My parents kept it in a hot Corpus Christi garage for years, then eventually gave it away.

If nothing else, my family has treated its old books with greater respect.

Jeff

I practically cry thinking of all I had. Airfix 1/72, battalion of green army men, cowbows, indians, civil war soldiers, and 1/32 military models of virtually every German tank made.gone, (quietly sobbing)

I have a smattering of Marx soldiers, knights, and cowboys left from various playsets, but nothing substantial.

TMP link

here you go lads

I still have a few trees from my Fort Apache set!
And a box of my roco minitanks just returned to me after 30 something years!

Tons of them. Now my son and I play with them.

I still have a bunch

I got my first figures when I was 3, in 1958, MPC 60mm ring hand figures. I still have a few of them.

Most of today I spent time repairing and detailing some Roco that is decades old.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Had most of the Marx sets and a lot of Britains. Never thought of storing or keeping them, unfortunately :(

I still have my Timpo Wild West City, the Ranch house and a box full of (gradually plastic rotting) figures. I also have the Timpo Captain Scarlet Figures – Captain Scarlet, Lieutenant Green and Colonel White. My Dinkey Toys from the same show and the UFO Interceptor and Shado Mobile, also by Dinkey.

Now do any of you collectors out there remember Timpo doing a Captain Blue? I have a vague recollection that I had one as a kid in the mid '60's.

Mike

I still have bits and pieces of my Marx ACW set.Some are partially painted . I also have some Timpo ACW and ECW along with Swoppets modern British infantry. I used to dig forts in the back yard and play the Malayan campaign using WW2 Japanese for Chinese guerillas

I collected a lot of plastic 54mm-ish figures (Britains ACW, Swoppets – wish I still had those, Timpo, Herald and Warriors of the World). Eventually I went all in for metal Britains. The metal Britains were always "the Good Guys" and the collective hoard of plastic figures were always "the Bad Guys". I had many an epic battle between the Good and the Bad.

I also collected lots of the Airfix HO figures: WW2 Germans, British, Russians and Americans which I paired up with Rocco Mini Tanks. These became the "Outdoor Soldiers" that my friends and I played with in the sandbox or in the dirt garden. We would build all manner of pillboxes and entrenchments for our battles.

I also seem to recall that Airfix made some WW1 Germans and British too – is this correct?

One day we set up all of our Airfix/Rocco forces in the garden and doused the field with gasoline and watched them melt (kind of cool that) and die forever.

I think that I gave my remaining 54mm figures to my nephew so that he could play with them.

So I have nary a figure left from my childhood days, but I sure do have a lot of 28mm figures of all kinds now!

I also seem to recall that Airfix made some WW1 Germans and British too – is this correct?

Absolutely correct!

Firecrackers, BB Guns, Dirt Bombs and Gasoline all inflicted heavy casualties on our brave plastic men.

A few years back my father gave me a Marx Union soldier with no torso. Apparently, he lost a battle with the lawn mower.

I even more miss all my matchbox cars, I had dozens and dozens.
I'm sure what I had were Airfix but remember they were British desert rats some in shorts, There was one running with a Brent gun. But 45 years is a long time to remember.

Airfix made the British and Germans for continental Europe and a separate Africa campaigns range of figures.

No longer have the old Blue and Grey set, Still play with my 1/72 Airfix.

I am old school.

I have a hundred some of the lead Britains I had in my youth, in 1950's. I have been recreating the full collection and now have replaced about 100 sets.

My large Marx collection and MPC figures with interchangeable weapons is but a few now, due to my pyromaniac younger brother.