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thedrifter
08-23-05, 12:11 PM
Little green Army men grow up
By C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writer

Once there was only the Green Army.

Less than 2 inches tall, with plastic base plates to keep them from falling over, these nameless, faceless toy grunts toiled in our imaginary backyard wars.

The Tan Army soon followed, sworn enemies of our little green troops.

The battles those forces waged were bloody and fierce, and generally were over before Mom called us in for dinner.

It wasn’t so very different from the make-believe wars kids had waged for years, with tiny toy soldiers cast from tin or lead. Then, G.I. Joe showed up, the real American hero with hinged joints and removable weapons and clothes, and suddenly the industry was revolutionized. Boys were now playing with dolls.

Sorry, action figures.

The 12-inch Joe shrank to 6 inches, and the concept took on a life of its own in the ’80s. Cartoons, lunchboxes — even an animated movie — followed, as more and more characters, vehicles and accessories were added to the mix. It was a marketing ambush, and we were surrounded.

Brainwashed as we were from such an early age, our love of military toys hasn’t changed —search eBay for “toy soldiers” and you’ll get more than 9,000 hits — but our demands are greater now.

We want toys that look great standing guard over our desks and bookcases. We want collectibles that take us back to simpler times, reminding us of sunny summer afternoons in the back yard. These toys aren’t just for playing, they’re for being seen.

The manufacturers, for their part, are all too happy to oblige, creating toys so lifelike that you half expect them to jump up on your computer and start calling for fire. Characters that aren’t characters at all, but real people immortalized in plastic.

“They’re for an older audience for the most part,” said Jon Goff, brand manager at McFarlane Toys, maker of popular sports and pop culture collectibles (including characters from founder/artist Todd McFarlane’s “Spawn” universe).

Kids may like neon colors, but grown-ups want realism.

“Something that represents you,” Goff said. “Very few people are going to go to work and sit an ‘action figure’ on their desk, with movable joints and a bright-green painted bazooka.”

That’s why the company came up with its new McFarlane’s Military series, a collection of six detailed models of American servicemen, sculpted to scale with authentic uniforms and equipment. The choices are a basic Army infantryman and a Ranger, a recon Marine and a Marine sniper, a Navy SEAL in full wetsuit and an Air Force combat controller.

A seventh item, a deluxe play set featuring a different soldier with AT-4 rocket launcher standing behind the corner of a blown-out building, is available exclusively at Toys “R” Us stores.

Future figures in the series will include the Redeployed line, due out this fall, which takes the original figures and changes the uniform colors and other subtle details. The 2nd Tour of Duty line will follow, featuring all new figures and poses, and the series could eventually branch out to cover other countries or times in American history.

The six main characters are available online, generally for less than $15 each, and may have already shipped to your local toy aisle or collectibles store. The deluxe play set is available from the Toys “R” Us online store for $19.99, plus shipping.

Despite the military theme, the toys aren’t available in military exchanges — yet.

“It’s something we’re definitely working on,” Goff said. “I know the sales team has been working on that for a while now.”

Another set of toys heading out this summer is coming directly from the Army, thanks to a marketing agreement between Radioactive Clown toys and the service.

Called “America’s Army: Soldier,” the toys are similar to the poseable action figures you remember from childhood, but are drawn from the characters featured in the popular “America’s Army” video games, including “Special Forces Intelligence Sergeant” and “Special Forces Medic.” Toy designers worked closely with soldiers to ensure the authenticity of the figures.

The figures are expected to ship this summer to video game stores, toy retailers and military exchanges, priced between $12.99 and $20. They’re similar to another line the company began producing last fall based on the popular “Call of Duty” military video game.

This fall, Radioactive Clown plans to introduce a second series called “America’s Army: Real Heroes,” which will feature the likenesses and stories of real soldiers who have participated in recent operations and received commendations for heroism.

Telling war stories among friends is one thing, but trumpeting your service records in toy stores around the world is a different matter. The company has had difficulties finding the right soldiers willing to model.

One of the first selected was Army Maj. Jason Amerine, 34, who earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart while leading a Special Forces team deep into Afghanistan in 2001 to help local fighters take on the Taliban in the town of Tarin Kowt. They successfully defended the town in a fierce battle that decimated the Taliban opposition.

About two weeks later, on Dec. 5, 2001, an errant U.S. bomb killed two of Amerine’s men, a military intelligence soldier not assigned to the team, and several local fighters. Amerine and others from the team were wounded in the blast.

Now an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated, Amerine was reluctant to have his likeness and story crafted onto thousands of plastic toys.

“To me, the toy represents the team, and it represents the men who died,” he said. “It doesn’t represent my accomplishments. It represents the team’s accomplishments.”

Amerine said the mission stirs personal emotions in him, and he didn’t want to exploit that.

“It’s a tough thing for me,” he said, showing a prototype for the toy. “But it wasn’t what I did. It was what the team did.”

After serving as a technical adviser for the America’s Army video game, Amerine said, he thinks the toy line can teach others about the sacrifices troops make during war. Rather than playing with fictional characters in unbelievable scenarios, kids can learn about something real.

“I believe in the games, and I believe in the toys, too,” Amerine said. “It shows that we are real people. It wasn’t an easy thing for me to just jump in and do.

“I was happy to lend my face to the cause, but it’s not something I feel right thumping my chest about.”

But current soldiers and former troops-turned-collectors will probably get the point. Toy retailers said average military buyers spend a lot of time and money on the collections they amass.

“You learn history. You learn strategy,” said Grady Page, a salesman at Gamer’s Guild near Fort Bragg, N.C. “These guys, they put a lot into it.”

Whether it’s building replica models of tanks and jets, collecting figurines or creating their own armies — Warhammer 40,000 is a wildly popular take on the classic “army men” game, allowing players to accumulate futuristic figurine forces and wage war across huge tabletop landscapes — service members can’t seem to get enough.

“It’s more of a hobby than [just buying static figurines],” Page said of Warhammer and other tabletop games. “You have to put them together and paint them. Some of the guys put a lot of time into their armies.”

Like the bumper sticker says: “He who dies with the most toys ... wins.”

Ellie
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