A trip down Memory Lane or
45 mm flats from Comic books

Dated December 12, 1998, updated 12/13, 14, 15, 16/98. Updated with scans.

Occasionally, some people will write in and ask about those plastic toy soldiers advertised in the back of those comic books oh so many years ago. Today one did, so I decided to follow up on it. I did order a set of those figures when I was about 12, but those things are long gone now, just a memory, but I'm sure many of you also share those memories.

So what to do? Comic books I know are collectibles, so a comic book store was my first stop. This store was in an upscale part of town with a salesgirl to match. I was unhelpfully shown to the 'old' comics section but the oldest comics there dated from only '83 or so. I was next unhelpfully informed that no other comic book stores existed in town. Like hobby stores, I knew that comic book stores have been closing down due to increased rents (doubling in some cases) and decreased interest. I wondered when Barnes and Noble would start carrying these things and put the final nail in the coffin.

The phone book was more helpful and I discovered 2 other comic book stores in town. I chose the closer one to home as you all know what traffic is like on a Saturday 2 weeks from Christmas. This one was in a much older part of town, where Main Street really was the main street, where they have lodges (like Masonic lodges) and where parking is free. It really was on Main Street and had a 'hole in the wall' appearance from the outside. It was one of those tiny stores you hardly ever see anymore, cluttered and packed with stuff, the rear entrance blocked by 2 pinball machines (for sale). There was about 10 fire code violations that even I could see. The proprietor was a dead ringer for that one handed guy in the movie 'Adventures in Babysitting' but he was nice and friendly and knew exactly what I wanted. He even helped me take the magazines out of their jackets and look for the ads. 5 minutes later I found what I was looking for.

1) Remember this? This is the Roman set. Click on it to get the full sized picture.


The artist was probably responsible for 80% of the sales. I know I was enticed, entranced by the artwork. And it was cheap, $1.98 for 132 Romans soldiers, and it even included postage!

Being older and maybe a little wiser, the drawing no longer entices me as it did. I see now the inaccuracies of the armor, the improbability of the chariot riding into battle, the impossibility of the catapult mounted on top of the siege tower. I also now see for the first time the disclaimer 'Imaginary War Scene' at the bottom.

The figures themselves were a huge disappointment. They were flats and not only that, being of hard plastic and poorly boxed, about 1/2 of them were broken and hors de combat, spilling out of the broken box when they arrived. The figures were about 45mm high and maybe 3 mm thick, in blue and yellow. The cavalrymen, chariots and catapults were all one piece. The working catapults fired a round ball by flicking them. For a 12 year old boy, play value was minimal since they couldn't be handled roughly and they were in a strange scale.

2) This is the Revolutionary War set, much the same. Again, click on this and the other pictures to see an even bigger picture.

These were some figures that were bought from a collector, can anyone confirm that these are the Rev War figures?


3) In this format, I believe there was another set, a WWII set, one with figures, a playmat, and possibly buildings. I coudn't find the ad for this last set. These are apparently the figures (flats) from that set.


4) This one seems different. Though apparently from the same company, based on the wording, these figures appear to be of soft plastic.


5) This last is not one of figures, but of the largest item you were likely to find in the ads, you must have thought about ordering this too! And the greatest deal, for $6.98 you were getting a sub that 2 kids could get into, controls that worked and only 75 cents for shipping! At that time I thought it was a real working sub, but now I'm not sure if it could even go into the water.


6) This is a scan of some ACW flats from a set that is apparently from the same comic book series. WWII and ACW flat scans courtesy of Kent Sprecher.


If anyone has more information on the figures (especially the Polaris sub!), or maybe even scans or pictures, please e-mail us and let us know!

Well, here's some feedback from our readers:

When I was an about 10 or so I bought the Roman, Revolutionary and W.W.II set. I still have all of them too. I painted the Romans and gave them a little life but they were odd. They didn't go with any other figs I had. The Revolutionary figs were a lot better. They were in 1/72 scale and I think there was about 50 or so of each. The Rev. set included cannons, that were done very well. At the time I had no ideal that there was a company called Atlantic or Esci or Airfix making the figs I dreamed of having. I thought they were only made in Metal or lead and those were way out of my price range at age 10. I also bought the W.W.II set, which was a real disappointment. Everything was in about 6 mm and I don't remember any soldiers. Everything came in a box that was about 8" x 6". I will try to dig them up when I visit my parents house this Christmas. I don't have a scanner or a digital camera. I will take some pictures of them and mail them to you, If you want. It's kinda funny that this was even thought about, I was just thinking about it the other day. Tom Young, dated 12/13/98.

In regards to your article on the comic book flats, I purchased a complete set of the Revolutionary War soldiers at the San Diego Toy Soldier about this time last year. I was roaming around the tables when they caught my attention. The vendor had them displayed in a zip lock bag with the actual drawing mounted on a thin piece of carboard. The figures themselves have very little detail, soft plastic, 1/72 scale, and they are not flat as opposed to the 100 Toy Soldier set with footlocker, which I remember buying about the same time. These I recall being of a harder plastic, more of a polystyrene type. The Romans, which I also managed to send for, I remember were flat, and came in two teams of blue and yellow but of a softer plastic. The Helen of Toy company was the maker for most of these and I recall I recieved a mini catalog with each order. Some of these other items was a naval wargame, which I bought, and a Civil war game called the Battle of Chickamuaga and a World War II set. I do wish I had held onto them since this is how my fascination with the hobby began! SloJoe 12/14/98

art for romans/rev war by john severin (sister marie sverin) both long time artist (pencil/inkers) for marvel comics from 50s to 80s, w/some work seen now and then to this day. rev war/romans/g.i.s (ad. shown) flats - 4th flat set "100 dolls" off white stiff plastic, an odd grouping of people from many walks of life, more then what i would think of "dolls" (i still recall the smell of my roman flat set) i think the army set noted was a war game not the flats shown (sold in comics at same time) flats gave way to "true 3d figs" mid 60s to 70 (check comics) mpc and giant/other hong kong co. mpc had a few diff space sets, 60mm ring hand. giant had civil war, knights, romans etc (you have them on view) mpc's wwll 25mm figs nice-germans copies of marks - back issues of pfpc covered much of this (w/minor errors and some missing info) best, chris 12/14/98

No, I was getting these things in the 70s, and by then many of them had SP figures in them. The Cannonball Game (the Civil War one) had copies of Giant ACW figures in it, but they were a little more crude (obviously copies, not recasts), sometimes they read just "Made in Hong Kong" under the base, but most of them read "Made in Taiwan". I also had Tank Trap, and Woods Edge games. They had copies of Giant US and German WWII Infantry. So far, I've only seen them read "Made in Taiwan", and again, they were a little more crude. I still have some of them, but lost most of them in the early 80s. I bought the Revolutionary War set on at least two occasions. The earlier set had much better detail, the latter set was absolutely horrible. I have also since found figures from this set that are somewhere in the middle as far as detail goes. So the molds must have got worse as time went by. These were unique to this set (Giant never made Rev War figures). They aren't at all like Giant figures (though some people think they are Giant). These are bulky and very crude. The tricorne hats look like huge "cheesehead" hats like Packers football fans wear. But I've never had a set with flats, though I understand at one time even this set had flats. I'm not sure when the transition took place, but at some point in the late 60s, Helen of Toy (or whatever the name du jour would have been at the time, it changed a few times, but the address was the same) must have realized, what with Marx and even Giant out there, that kids wanted 3-D figures instead of flats. The games appear to have been the same, but the figures changed from flats to 3-D. 12/15/98.

I purchased several of the sets that I saw in comic books back in the mid to late seventies. I still have many of them.
The Revolutionary War set I was quite happy with when I was ten. There were some figures that it took me years to figure out what their poses were (the cannoneers, for example).
The toy soldiers in the footlocker were flats like the Romans. The "footlocker" wasn't much more than a 3"x3"x6" box. The soldiers were taller than the tanks and ships etc. that came with them.
I have another set that was called "Cannonball." this was a Civil War set that came with a strange mix of figures, and not many of them at that. The figures were 1/72 scale versions of the Marx Blue an the Grey, as manufactred by Giant I suppose. The Union figures were excellently molded, while the Confederates were blobby and full of flash. Also included in the set were some Napoleonic figures; several were flag bearers, some drummers and one kneeling firing infantryman. The set came with what I believe was a plastic game mat and red paper markers, although there were no instructions. It also included what were advertised to be exploding bridges, which were simply brown plastic planked bridge segments about an inch long. I never could get them to explode. There were several odd looking three piece cannons and some type of fort blockhouses, also in soft brown plastic. The blockhouse consisted of a floor about 3/4" square with tabs on three of the corners that I assume were supposed to be inserted into a wall at a corner of a fort. Then there were four plastic poles that fit into holes on this floor to support a roof. By the way did I mention there was no fort?
I also have a set that I believe was called "Task Force" which was composed of of two tiny soft plastic navies, one in silver and one in olive. The PT boats were less than half an inch long. There also may have been another naval set which involved a beach assault. If I'm not mistaken, this had aircraft carriers with tiny jet planes, various capital ships, landing craft etc. The defending army consisted of tiny tanks and absurd looking pillboxes.
There was one other set that remember being advertised that I never ordered and it supposedly contained "exploding" tanks. 12/16/98.

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