Sept 25th, 2019 : Little Green Army Men

[xoxoxoBruce]

Miniature toy solders were cast in lead, zinc, or tin then painted in the uniform desired. These were challenged in about 1938 by
plastic soldiers. During The Big One, WW II, the metal toys came to a screeching halt while the plastics took over the market and
never looked back. The biggest advantages were you could buy a bucket full for cheap and they were practically indestructible.
I'm sure future paleontologists will find plenty of them.



As time went on in addition to men with standard weapons you could also get men with specialized tools, different colors, even
men doing yoga for god’s sake. How about cuff links with little green army men.
I hope the bottom cuff link is a pump shotgun because it’s going to take some pumping to straighten out the barrel.

The key word in all this is men, but Vivian didn’t want men, Vivian wanted women... and not pink.

Financing the design and development of the new soldiers was always the biggest obstacle for the Scranton-based toy company. Imel is BMC Toys' only full-time employee. The production happens in Pennsylvania, Michigan and some of it is completed overseas. "I have to pay the sculptor. I have to pay the tooling. I have to make a down payment on production," he said. "If it's coming from China, it's on a boat for five weeks." "By the time you figure out the cost of everything involved in making an original set of plastic toy figures in this size," he said. "It starts around the cost of a modest new car."

Imel said he had long been kicking around the idea of adding a set of female toy soldiers to the miniature toys that date back to the 1930s. And though "everyone loved the idea," he said budget constraints impeded turning the idea into reality. A customer, retired Fleet Master Chief JoAnn Ortloff, reached out to him looking for female toy soldiers for her granddaughters, which renewed his thoughts on the female set.
"That letter came at a time where I was thinking about getting into new production," Imel said.

Maybe the thoughts of what weird and perverted things little boys do with/to these things gave him pause.
But they’re in the pipeline Vivian, be patient.

link