{"id":3337,"date":"2011-07-18T04:44:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T09:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=3337"},"modified":"2019-11-25T20:10:48","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T01:10:48","slug":"roman-legions-for-1-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/07\/18\/roman-legions-for-1-98\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Miss About Comics Roman Legions for $1.98"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>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!<\/em> 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 .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This company could have altered this playset slightly, added a few characters, and they could have cashed in on The Passion of the Christ.<\/em> If the movie was released in the 1970s, they probably would have.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Old buddy and friend to the site, James, wrote this response to this post on Facebook:<\/p>\n

I got the Revolutionary War soldier set ..They were tiny plastic toy soldiers, half of em red , the other half blue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[335],"tags":[359,312,511,509,510,347,336],"class_list":["post-3337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-ad","tag-comic","tag-playset","tag-romans","tag-soldiers","tag-toy","tag-vintage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-RP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37973,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/22\/what-i-miss-about-comics-perfectly-legitimate-ads\/","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":0},"title":"What I Miss About Comics – Perfectly Legitimate Ads","author":"Joe","date":"June 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This along with a number of other classified style advertisements for perfectly legitimate products and services appeared in Marvel Spotlight No. 25 published by Marvel Comics in 1975. It was a comic adaptation of Ray Harryhausen's 1958 fantasy epic The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. My guess is that Marvel was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AUTHENTIC-LOOKING.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17146,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/08\/26\/instant-arsenal-of-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":1},"title":"Instant Arsenal of Power","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I chuckle at how crude the ads were in comic books with their utter lack of finesse and marketing acumen, but when I think about it, I realize that these advertisers didn't have to rely on focus groups or demographics. They had their audience perfectly pegged. Young males with power\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Our-Army-at-War-1974.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Our-Army-at-War-1974.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Our-Army-at-War-1974.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5647,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/12\/19\/comics-toy-tie-ins\/","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":2},"title":"What I Miss About Comics…Toy Tie-Ins","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the early to mid-70s, the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle was the hottest toy in the country. Manufacturers couldn't keep with with demand. It was on my younger brother's Christmas list, and he had to make due with the Evel Knievel Scramble Van. My brother had to console himself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13965,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/07\/29\/id-like-to-sell-the-world-some-seeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":3},"title":"I’d Like to Sell the World Some Seeds","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Miss Jackson was one in a seemingly endless army of satisfied sales-children happily selling seeds to friends, family and neighbors and reaping the rewards of CASH-money or really BOSS prizes. The seed company must have done all right with these advertisements because they ran in comics for decades. I always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/American-seed-ad1-e1590196328613.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14674,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/10\/23\/bag-full-of-horrors\/","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":4},"title":"Bag FULL of HORRORS","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"They're TERRIFYING! SCARY, too! AND they obey your commands! Can you imagine it? I used to drool over ads like this in the comics and would have gladly drained my moon bank of it's contents to have a BAG FULL OF HORRORS, but cooler heads prevailed. My sensibly frugal parents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/BAG-FULL-OF-HORRORS-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/BAG-FULL-OF-HORRORS-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/BAG-FULL-OF-HORRORS-det.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17105,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/08\/19\/double-shot-of-o-j\/","url_meta":{"origin":3337,"position":5},"title":"Double Shot of O.J.","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If the boot doesn't fit, you must...oh, never mind. The 1970s and '80s must have been pretty good for Orenthal James \"O. J.\" Simpson because he seemed to be the king of all media back then. He was all over television and movie screens while his cartoon image adorned comic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/dingo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}