Plastic Toy Army

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.
In 1958 Beton saw the future when they found their figures cheaply pirated by Japanese manufacturers and went out of business.Today most army men are cheaply made in China and do not include the extensive accessories that were common in Marx playsets. They are a little smaller on average, often not much more than 2.5 cm (one inch) high. Most of these figures are generic imitations of model figure sets from such companies as Airfix and Matchbox. They vary widely in quality.