100 Pc. Toy Soldier Set for $1.75

I always wondered about this ad in old comics. Discussing it with VF5SS earlier, he found this review of the set:
[monsterdad69.blogspot.com]

And it's just incredible how weirdly abstract these things are. Truly a masterpiece of cheapo toy design.

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2011 09:35PM by asterphage.

here's one ad from Tales of Suspense #45

The first thing I thought of when I saw your thread title was the color ad, which I'm glad to see is what the guy used as well. I have also always wondered what this set looked like... wild!

Introducing Prometheus Rising Studio.
[prometheusrising.net]
I make 3D printed mecha action figures.

Aw snap, in the 60s they were only $1.25!

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

Prometheum5 Wrote:
> The first thing I thought of when I saw your
> thread title was the color ad, which I'm glad to
> see is what the guy used as well.

There's actually a high-res scan in there, but because of Google's new image display system in Blogger and Google+, you have to copy the image URL and remove the "/s400":


I love how you can tell that the blue on the flying planes is colored way outside the lines, so the blue prints over the black of the sky - I guess they thought the black would hide it.

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2011 09:53PM by asterphage.

did you notice in the black and white ad, they advertise with an actual photo of the toys whereas the color ad is all artwork

the former ad kind of hides the flatness of the soldiers but the vehicles are clearly more 2d

VF5SS Wrote:
> the vehicles are clearly more 2d

2d waifu superior
3d=pig disgusting

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

There are legitimate production reasons for most of what's called out here.

Real color photo seps & repro was relatively expensive at the time. Also, advertising culture-wise, people were used to illustration, so whereas the modern aesthetic is that product photo is always superior, that wasn't always the case - photos would be seen as inferior/cheap in certain contexts (not here, but, you know). Here it's mostly about expense and technical difficulty.

The overprint of black onto blue (trapping) was to compensate for wildly inaccurate presswork and the cheap paper stock. Plus, HAND-cutting a detailed outline for each airplane - why bother when you have 100 rubyliths to cut this week and this is just a kids' ad? Remember, not computerized, and cheapest press and paper possible for a disposable pulp book.

Interesting - I'd never seen this set in person either! I guess *real* green army men (RGAMs) were so easy and cheap to come by that I always thought, why bother? Turns out RGAMs were vastly superior as well!

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