Plastic Toy Army

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.
In addition to army men, other inexpensive, plastic toy figures are also commonly available. Toy cowboys and Indians, farm sets, spacemen, knights, dinosaurs, firemen, police officers and other playsets are often sold alongside army men.