Copyright 2004 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
In the late 1960s, Tim Mee produced its "M16" U.S. Infantry, known today as "Vietnam-era." They were the first "modern" toy infantry set. Aside from hobby figures from companies like Airfix and Matchbox in the early 80s, nobody else would offer modern figures until the 1990s. The Tim Mee set was representative of Cold War U.S. troops. Poses and sculpting were very good. Troops were armed adequately, with M16 A1 rifles and heavy weapons. The bazooka was the later 90mm recoilless rifle type. The mortar was the outmoded 60mm variant, which was little more than a fancy grenade launcher. Ironically, the light machine gun was an experimental version of the M60 that underwent testing in the mid-1960s for possible jungle use. The experimental version remained an experiment, and never replaced the standard belt-fed M60.
Poses were inspired by the earlier Tim Mee World War II figures.
Sold in bags, the Tim Mee modern soldiers were usually accompanied by a half-scale M48 tank, jeep with cannon, or small armored car. The current fad of molding them in green and tan colors started during the first Gulf War. Previously, they were molded in green plastic, except for one brief time when a few were molded in fluorescent colors.
(There were actually 13 poses in the original set. We have depicted only 11 of them. The officer with pistol and the marching rifleman are temporarily missing. As we acquire the, they will be added to this page)
 |
 |
 |
Minesweeper |
Waving - since the 1990s, open hand has replaced the original grenade |
60mm Mortar man |
Prone rifleman |
Radioman - pose is very similar to the old Tom Mee World War II era set. |
Bazookaman |
Bayonet fighter |
Crawling rifleman - compare the pose to the World War II style crawling soldier by Tim Mee. |
Flamethrower |
Click here to return to the main page
(I am looking to get the three missing poses to add to this site. If anyone can spare some ,we would appreciate it.)