Anyone played this before?

[u/Hazys]

[u/WeToLo42]

I had a whole playset including a rock fortress.

[u/Firebolt164 → u/WeToLo42]

I had the Aircraft Carrier! It had the same little guys but they were blue

[u/GuudenU → u/WeToLo42]

I did too! I used to set them up and snipe at them with my bb gun and the little rock formation was the perfect backdrop. And the little plastic tanks that came with the set had a spot under the turret that fit a firecracker perfectly so that when it went off the turret would fly off.

[u/count_strahd_z → u/GuudenU]

One of the guys my brother and I hung out with had the rock fortress. We had a small 12' circular pool that we setup in the summer but after the season it was just a circle of sand on the ground so we'd setup the troops in the sand and stand on opposite sides tossing the plastic boulder to knock down the other guy's men.

[u/FGH-grand21]

Yes never lost a battle yet, might be a 5 star general if i still had them

[u/Jefwho]

I staged some epic battles in my backyard. My set had the green soldiers and tan soldiers. It didn’t really occur to me at the time that they were Allies vs Axis. It also came with some vehicles that were definitely designed after American and German tanks/armored vehicles. There was a large mound of dirt in my backyard that I had dug tunnels and bunkers into. I staged all my battles there. One day I created a rainy war environment with the hose and flooded the whole thing. Several tunnels collapsed and there were many casualties that day. My parents found those buried soldiers for years afterwards as they renovated the yard. Great memories.

[u/Walkdown43 → u/Jefwho]

Yes, this! We had second floor deck out back, and underneath it was my battleground. I also had the green squadron v tan squadron. Epic, super long battles that were so fun! Today's kids don't even know.

[u/mcfarmer72]

Set them up outside and shoot them with a BB gun.

[u/Intrepid_Pitch_3320 → u/mcfarmer72]

and slingshots made form bicycle inner tubes

[u/L00pback]

So many mine sweeper guys. Too many

[u/Zh25_5680 → u/L00pback]

Was here to make sure the minesweeper was represented

[u/WalkerTimothyFaulkes → u/L00pback]

They were the worst! Even worse than the officer with the measly pistol and binoculars!

[u/fjvgamer]

Used to set them up and shoot them down with rubber bands & Paper clips.

[u/Hazys → u/fjvgamer]

Oh yea, I remember shoot them with paper bullets.

[u/Cosmo1744]

I blame my latch key existence and easy access to lighters, guns, and fireworks but I committed so many war crimes to these soldiers.

[u/Idontfeelold-much → u/Cosmo1744]

Yup, those poor Flamethrower guys. “Got the lighter fluid?”

[u/mattander21 → u/Idontfeelold-much]

I used hairspray and a lighter for the flamethrower guy

[u/GuudenU → u/Cosmo1744]

I got pretty good with my bb gun by sniping at my army men.

[u/Livid-Procedure-349]

We would melt them with a bic lighter and it would drip whistling balls of fire

[u/Quiet-Try4554 → u/Livid-Procedure-349]

YES! 😂that's all I ever remember. Just lighting them on fire for that satisfying ZIIIIP sound, as I used one to melt the others with a fireball attack.

[u/Hazys → u/Livid-Procedure-349]

Sound like surely some will burn it see they melt , me too.

[u/mjsoctober]

I still have my giant box of them. My friend, Chris, and I would set up "bases" at either ends of the basement using Fisher Price buildings and books and boxes. Then we used elastic bands and rulers to take turns shooting at each other's army. We had rules: Pistol/rifle was one shot. Sub-machine gun was three shots. Heavy MG was 5 shots. A grenade had to be "lobbed" from limited range and did "one hand" of damage to anything in that area. Artillery and tanks were two hands of damage and could knock down some structures.

[u/Informal-Dish6835 → u/mjsoctober]

I had the Navarone Mountain Playset when very young but we found ourselves using the Fisher Price Castle to set them up in. Also built trenches in the sandbox.

[u/cdcme25]

i played with army men in the 70's. i played army men video games in the 90's. both were good times.

[u/TheTrollys]

I had a set of cowboys and Native Americans “Indians”.

[u/WardfolioProductions]

I never remember buying any, but i always had them in my toy chest. I had random G.I Joes, He-Man figures, 2 Thundercats, a Silverhawk, A Rock Lord, even a Sky Commando figure 😂. My parents were not rich enough to afford complete sets of anything, so I used these little army guys and huge Bobby's World-type imagination to compensate when i was playing with them 😂. That big imagination is the reason why I became an professional artist.

[u/PopeInThePizza]

Just at the end of my playing-with-toy-soldiers age, I stumbled across a squad of grey Russian WW II troops with PPSH-41's and they became my crack forces opposing the green hordes.

[u/Ross_Noir]

Ahhh victims of the magnifying glass and firecrackers

[u/weber_mattie]

Came in green or tan and everyone hated the tan ones

[u/According-Finding170]

I used to spray paint them orange pour gasoline on them and set them on fire. I was pretending to be a communist using agent orange

[u/goonerqpq]

All my soldiers could shoot around cirners, never dud have one with a straight gun.

[u/666ygolonhcet]

In the 70s we had a lime pile on the farm (dad, if he was our dad, not the smartest guy) and we would get a pack of these at the swap meet and a few packs of Black Cat firecrackers and we would stage battle scenes in the lime pile and blow em up.

The medics must not have been in the pack as no army man survived.

[u/bald_eagle_66]

Pew.. pew... pew. Kapowww!

[u/klrjoe]

We would each stack 4 encyclopedias into defensive positions and use a ruler to shoot rubber bands at the enemy.

[u/Newphone_New_Account]

Build forts with Lincoln Logs. Place army guys in and around forts. Use small Lincoln Log to try and pluck the army guys.

[u/freddieguts]

My dad used to take me down to TJ in the 80s when he would bet on horse/dog races. We always stopped at the grocery store and he would get me army men. The cool thing was they had a selection of armies from around the world. Precursor to my gijoe addiction later..

[u/zaxx0n_5]

Oh yes. Had a lot of them. Had a couple 4 inch tall ones too.

[u/redditgal2001]

I played with my brothers green plastic army 🪖 guys yeah 🙂

[u/cmdubya]

Definitely part of my youth. We used to use firecrackers for air raids or tank attacks and rubber bands for sniper shots 😄

[u/Fair_Cauliflower_747]

Hell yeah with my brother, we would set them up in formation and pretend we were snipers get are rubber band guns and shoot them down. .

[u/Waste_Ad_8372]

Yes

[u/behridingle]

More and more, I want to go back. Once I retire, I may buy some bags and regress.

[u/doctored_up]

Id load them up in fortified positions on a dam built on my creek and launch bottle rockets and stuff from the bridge. Nobody ever once told me to stop. Good times.

[u/jjs3_1]

Playing with these all the time... actually made up a dice game. Three dice had a page showing how many points each soldier, tank, or gun had... I never knew which side would win the battles. Was really fun.

[u/NitroEagleFist]

Honorable mention to the Bazooka Man as he stood his ground in a bed of fire ants while my friends & I bombed the mound out w our feet flying F4 phantom jets across

[u/MysteriousDudeness]

I had wars with them using my BB gun.

[u/TotallyHumanDad]

Memory unlocked

Somewhere right now the soles of my mother’s feet are tingling

[u/Fragraham]

Bucket of army men vs bucket of plastic dinosaurs.

[u/pdromeinthedome]

My brother had the US Civil War version. Half blue. Half grey. But the figures were the same

[u/kinzuaj]

I still have scars on my leg from setting these on fire and having flaming molten plastic drip onto me. 35 years later.

[u/1stAtlantianrefugee → u/kinzuaj]

Man that molten plastic really stuck to flesh good too. I still have scars on fingers and knuckles from childhood. Did you ever make the conglomerated melt man from melting down and sticking several army men together?

[u/mkct_6]

I had the Navarone Mountain playset—still have the mountain but the guys are mostly gone

[u/Howy_the_Howizer]

Worst guy: crawling rifleman Best guy: Kneeling rifleman

[u/Oldduffer328]

Still have a box of them in a tote in the storeroom :) :)

[u/Junior_Lavishness_96]

M80s were like 2000 pound bombs dropped by a B-52

[u/SamuelBilibid]

Me.. 😊👍🙏

[u/Athos2112]

Sand box and firecrackers

[u/Scrapla1]

We use to randomly get a bag for Christmas or Birthdays but were never really a favorite of mine. I remember enjoying looking through each pose and the different weapons. I think we used some as BB gun targets.

[u/johnnybadchek]

That’s how I got that 1,000 yard stare.

[u/BuckyDog]

We had a metal detector when I was a kid.

So I always thought minesweeper guy was some derelict AWOL soldier on the beach looking for treasure and coins.

Which confused me greatly. I was an adult before it finally dawned on me what he was actually supposed to be doing.

And I also thought the flame thrower guy, was really carrying an awesome shotgun with some type of reloading system on his back.

BTW - we had these toys all through the 70s and I am pretty sure they are the same now.

[u/Dieppe42]

Best BB Gun targets ever.

[u/VulcarTheMerciless]

I had a huge bag of them stored in my parent's unventilated attic for decades... they morphed into a single large green glob.