Plastic Toy Army

Following World War II, plastic manufacture was seen as an industry with growth potential with many old and new companies making plastic figures that were widely available in the United States. Army men following the war were sold unpainted, usually in a green colour corresponding to United States Army uniforms in World War II and reflecting camouflage face painting. Though some were sold individually where they were cheaper than metal figures whose price had skyrocketed due to the Korean War, the plastic figures were sold en masse in clear plastic bags with an illustrated header card in different sizes and prices since the early 1950s. A popular early manufacturer of army men, was Louis Marx and Company who sold boxed sets of figurers and accessories called playsets, such as in "US Army Training Centre" and the later "Battleground". A rival manufacturer, the Multiple Plastics Corporation (MPC) originally sold plastic figures in various colours with different separate accessories, so the same figures could be kitted out as soldiers (green), farmers, pioneers or cowboys (brown), policemen (blue), ski troopers (white) spacemen (various colours) or American Civil War soldiers in Blue and Grey.
From 1962 Marx gave the American "armymen" actual enemy soldiers to fight such as German soldiers (moulded in grey) in their "Army Combat" set and Japanese enemies (moulded in yellow) in their "Iwo Jima" set that was released the following year. In 1965, a "D-Day" Marx set featured Allies such as French (horizon blue), British (khaki) and Russians. One of their last and largest playsets was the multi-level "Fortress Navarone" mountain set based on The Guns of Navarone, which was available in the 1970s and pitted World War II Americans against Germans.
The economy of plastic sold in bulk, popularity of army men and competition with manufacturers led to army men being sold in large bags by Marx (100) and MPC (150 in two armies) for as little as a penny a piece in the mid 1960s.
During the Vietnam War, sales and availability of military toys began to decline, with the cost of plastic rising due to the 1973 oil crisis.