Copyright 2003 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
The ancient world was not as much a part of our toy battlefield as might have been expected. Few companies produced much in the way of Romans, Greek, Egyptians or Gladiators. This, despite the fact that there were loads of "costume dramas" playing in the movies. While Steve Reeves ran wild in the cheap Hercules flicks of the day, Cecil B. DeMille's epics emerged one after another. Spartacus, Ben Hur, the Ten Commandments and adventures such as Kirk Douglas's Jason with the Argonauts. Kids felt cheated by some movies, which spent too much time with a plot and too little time on sword fights. Let's face it: if it weren't for guys getting bashed in chariots and a boat fight with flame-shooting catapults, Ben Hur would have been a flop with the kids.
We felt that some of the ancients were sissified, what with guys running around in skirts. We couldn't tell the difference between a Roman tunic and a skirt in those days. Others looked like guys running around in their underwear, hence the nickname for heroes of Hercules and similar flicks: naked underwear guys. And that's what it looked like: men in underwear fighting with swords. The boys could accept that, but not the skirts. So it was that a simple matter of attire made Hercules and Spartacus okay, but relegated the Roman army to the sissy bin.
We didn't mind that the old Hercules flicks were badly dubbed and had cheap special effects. We didn't mind that hundreds of half-naked gladiators could fight with swords, yet there wouldn't be a drop of blood to be seen anywhere. We didn't mind that in chariot fights, horses generally made it through okay but charioteers got run over, crashed, or chopped up by blades of the hubcaps. And we knew that if your chariot had blades on the hubcaps, you were a bad guy. A good guy could still crash your chariot, despite the blades.
Marx made a Ben Hur playset and a few Warriors of the World and Goldmarx Romans, Egyptians and Gladiators. Aurora issued a Spartacus model, plus one of another gladiator. The only big toy from the Ancient World was the Big Caesar Galley, a battery-operated Roman ship with oars that could roll across the living room floor. It came with marching Romans and a few other things. ( There was a smaller version that was hand-operated.) Thomas Toy had produced a few marching Romans and chariots/ From American makers, that was about all play the Ancient world received
Giant produced its own Roman sets in 20mm scale ,and they included a four-horse chariot. The figures were miniaturized copies of Herald Greeks and Warriors of the World Romans. A few places imported the Herald Greeks. These were sets with a chariot and charioteer, cavalryman on horse and five footsoldiers. Even with all the movies, there were few Ancient figures for us.
With only a playset, a big boat and a few figures, the Ancient world had very little presence. Rare and unusual were the pieces made for it, and though not a big genre for us, we enjoyed them nonetheless.