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Back in the 1950s, the Louis Marx Company issued the first of its "Army Training Center" sets. These came with either a tin commnder's office or tin barracks, both representing the older wooden type Army structures. I remember them because many were still in use in Fort Dix, Fort Hood and later in Fort Drum in the 1970s.
The first run of soldiers were small, crude figures that stood between 40mm and 44mm. Marx's set included a range of poses. The figures were copied by Payton, who sold them as bag soldiers. Payton's set had fewer men than Marx.
The Payton sets usually came with a small truck or Centurion type tank with the early turret.
Castings, Inc copied seven of the Payton figures and used them for two molds. They were marketed as "marines." This set comes from a mold of four figures: marching rifleman, officer with binoculars, grenade thrower and prone rifleman. In the original Marx sets, the prone rifleman had a bipod, making him a BAR gunner. Payton dropped the bipod. The other mold has a standing firing rifleman, bazooka man and standing rifleman at port arms
Castings copied the Payton version of the soldiers, as evidenced by the thicker bases.
Facial details are crude to the point that they cannot easily be enhanced with paint.
The poses are somewhat fluid.
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Marching men - a classic pose  |
O.D Green and Khaki Tan  |
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Binoculars! Officers or Forward Observers.  |
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Grenades! This pose could be right out of the manual.  |
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Prone Rifleman in Khaki Tan and Sage Green  |
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The Army Tin HQ by Marx
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The Tin Barracks.  |
You can compare these soldiers with a 1/50 scale M47 tank and a 54mm soldiers.
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