Comics used to run full page ads for inexpensive military playsets that promised an incredible list of soldiers and armamments. The hook of these ads was the incredibly action-packed tableau illustrated by a competent comic book artist. They were usually World War II themed, but I remember ancient knights, Civil War, maybe a Revolutionary War Set around the time of the Bicentennial and the Roman Soldier set pictured below. I always wanted one. My mind was blown by the enormity of it all represented in those drawings! Look at everything you get, and it’s only two bucks! Couldn’t my parents see what a tremendous bargain it was? My pleas for the greatest toy sets in the world were always denied. As it turns out, my parents were right to turn me down. What I imagined would be a collection of plastic soldiers turned out to be images printed on pressboard. My guess was that they were a far cry from the illustration, but that never stopped them. These ads ran for years, and I guess it was worth their while. There was always a fresh batch of kids reading comics back then .
This company could have altered this playset slightly, added a few characters, and they could have cashed in on The Passion of the Christ. If the movie was released in the 1970s, they probably would have.
ADDENDUM
Old buddy and friend to the site, James, wrote this response to this post on Facebook:
I got the Revolutionary War soldier set ..They were tiny plastic toy soldiers, half of em red , the other half blue.
So there is somebody who bought one of these sets, and his soldiers were plastic! I have heard tales of them being printed on a heavy cardstock. Maybe somebody else will chime in with a further description.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Some kid bought this set, and grew up to be featured in a late nite infomercial telling people they could buy a house using the BANK’S money.
Or invented the thing you wrap around your waist before bedtime and DREAM AWAY those extra pounds.
Hey buddy. I surrender. How about I whittle you a set of Revolutionary War figures out of fallen tree branches, and you stop with the commercials ?
Same guy sold me a case of spray-on hair!
A whole CASE ?
How big is your head ?
The guy told me it’s always safe to have extra for frequent touch-ups!
I fell for the Sea Monkeys scam. I was devastated when I discovered that they didn’t look anything like the illustration in the magazine – not one of them wore a crown! Speaking of crowns, I still feel hoodwinked by the Imperial Margarine commercials.
There’s a guy on E-bay that sells bags of dirt, ostensibly from a diamond mine in South America and you can sift through the dirt and find diamonds. (maybe).
He posts pics of diamond jewelry, asking how you would like to find diamonds like this ?
He neglects to mention that when diamonds come out of the ground, they don’t look like the diamonds you see in jewelry stores, and they don’t come already attached to rings and necklaces.
He also has pics of a hole in the ground, which could be in anybody’s backyard, and that’s the mine.
He states that an old timer went down there, dug up the diamonds, then left, and “forgot” to take the diamonds.
And now YOU can reap the benefits of his labor by buying a bag of dirt.
When I read the part about how the miner “forgot” to take the diamonds, I laughed so hard, I almost fell out of my chair.
So, if all you bought was a case of spray paint, or a sea monkey, or a chia pet , or a magic rag, you got off lucky.
There are creatures with bigger fangs out there.
Amazing!
Back in the ’70s, Warren magazines used to sell necklaces with an attached casket shaped charm that was filled with dirt. The dirt was Guaranteed to be from the Carpathian Mountains where Count Dracula lived. They were sold through Creepy and Eerie magazines as well as Famous Monsters of Filmland.