Back in the 1950s and 1960s, comic books were the preferred form of printed communication for children. As with any other type of periodical, comic books were supported by an assortment of advertisers. You might see anything from "X-ray" glasses to potato pistols to opportunities to sell an obscure publication called "Grit." Looming large among the advertisements were those promoting various sets of army men and games. The sets looked as if they were huge. The ads listed an assortment of troops and accouterments. It looked as if these would be enormous.
They weren't. The soldiers were either flat plastic figures of HO sized troops with tiny tanks. Nothing spectacular. Most of the HO sized troops and the tiny tanks and ships and planes could be bought for 50 cents a bag in any toy store.
One of the more memorable ads promoted a "Footlocker" with 100 pieces. There were soldiers, tanks, and other weapons. The figures were actually hard-plastic flats.
A few years ago, a gentleman named Elliot showed up on the toy soldier scene. He founded the "New Helen of Toy Company." The original Helen of Toy was one of the old comic advertisers. Elliot was also promoting his new version of Footlocker. It had 100 tan and green army men and a few printed goodies packed in a printed green box marked footlocker. Elliott and his products were well-received by the toy soldier hobbyists. The man was creative. He had gotten a load of small olive drab rucksacks and sold soldiers by the backpack. He also acquired used ammo cans and sold the soldiers by the can load. A take-off on the message in a bottle was a set of soldiers that came with balloons and message cards. All you needed was a small helium tank. Tie a soldier and a message card to the balloon and off he went.
With our consent, Elliott copied some of the Sandy Hook Battle Game rules from the Army Men Homepage, printed them up and packed them in with his toy soldiers.
The last item Elliott offered was a twelve-inch action figure of a disabled soldier. It was his way of honoring wounded veterans, and he made donations from the proceeds to veterans' causes. Elliott was a generous guy. He used to donate Footlockers to the childrens' wards of hospitals.
Elliott and I communicated via email. On his website, he had an article about his son Reese. The boy was severely disabled. It was obvious that Elliot really loved his son. I also got the impression that the severity of the disabilities were so extreme that the boy was already living on borrowed time. He was in the hospital more than he was out. When Elliott shut down the New Helen of Toy Company, I think it may have been because Reese took a final turn for the worse. Eventually, Elliott shut down his site and ceased all communication with folks in the hobby
One thing we have is his work on the comic book toys. Before he closed shop, he gave me consent to use his material. I am reproducing what I have of it here. Elliott's work covers an interesting part of our hobby's history.
