Battle Mountain Playset

Battle Mountain Playset

"The American Toy Soldier Playset is back! The TimMee Tan vs. Green 'Battle Mountain' includes 50 olive green and 74 tan 'plastic army guys', a tall mountain, a tan rescue chopper, and a green armored scout vehicle. All pieces are proudly manufactured in the United States from HDPE plastic with medium detail and just a little flashing. There are 12 different figures and all your old favorites are here, including the minesweeper, bazooka man, radio operator, 60mm mortar, machine gunner, kneeling rifleman, flame thrower, crawling rifleman, prone rifleman, bayonet fighter, and officer with binoculars and handgun. Figures stand up to 2.1 inches tall (54mm). The Mountain features plenty of cliffs, ledges and even a couple of caverns. Cast in medium gray color, the Mountain measures 14 inches wide, 6 inches deep, and stands and impressive 15 inches tall. Tan has air support from a Sea King Helicopter that features spinning main and tail rotors and stationary landing wheels. The fuselage measures 13 inches long, 3.25 inches tall and 3.75 inches wide. Green's secret weapon is their Military Armored Reconnaissance Scout Vehicle, modeled after the Lockheed XM800W that features rolling wheels on metal axles and turret that rotates. Scales from 1:32 to 1:48. Playset arrives packaged in a plain box optimized for shipping directly to you. These are real toys, meant to be set up, knocked over, picked up and played with for years to come. 'Little Green Army Men' have even been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Snap-together assembly of the helicopter requires some hand strength, so adult assembly is recommended. Recommended for ages 5 to 105!"

- Jeff Imel (victoryBuy.com)

Now available for order from amazon.com

The Last Hurrah

The armored vehicle on steroids

When Processed Plastics closed its doors in June, 2005, the remaining inventory was either shipped out as quickly as possible to retailers or packed away in preparation of the ensuing public auction(s) that would dismantle the nearly 60 year old business. Among the few products left behind in the warehouse was the armored vehicle. A small quantity (fully assembled) were sold on both Amazon.com and VictoryBuy.com. This year, an undisclosed amount were discovered sporting the larger wheels from the #739 Willys MB Jeep. This was mostly due to available parts being used up in whatever manner possible as production in the factory began to shut down. And now they're being made available for purchase on VictoryBuy's Ebay Store. While this variation of the armored vehicle (aka, Scout car, Scout vehicle, Armored car, Recon vehicle) may look more like a monster truck with a gun-turret that'll blow up whatever it can't run over, it's more than likely the swan song from the Processed Plastic Company...unless something else is discovered hidden away in a dusty create. 

Army green

Desert tan

Click here for more info about this vehicle.

A Clone Worth Mentioning

TimMee (left) • Larami (right)

We're all too familiar with the various TimMee tank clones that Chinese companies have been spewing out since the 70s. Other than the tank and the Vietnam Era soldiers, they've left everything else alone. Or so we thought.
Enter the Larami Corporation. A toy company founded in 1947 and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was acquired by Hasbro Inc. in 1995 and officially retired in 2002.
In the 1970s, Larami sold a bagged military playset with header card called the 'U.N. Border Patrol Combat Set.' It included a Patton tank, Willys Jeep and 12 Vietnam Era soldiers. It was manufactured in Hong Kong then shipped back to the U.S. for distribution. The tank is your typical Chinese clone with disproportionate aesthetics and (in this case) stilts for axles. I kid you not. However, it did have the trademark horizontal crease found on the TimMee Patton tank. A feature found on no other clone. The Willys Jeep, on the other hand, bares a striking resemblance to the TimMee version and even sports the embossed star and circle on the hood. The dimensions are a very close match . The only real difference between the two Jeeps is the severely shrunken steering wheel on the Larami version (see pic below). This was obviously done to avoid any lawsuits.

TimMee (left) • Larami (right)

Header card

So there you have it. Yet another example of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Or toy designers being incredibly lazy. Hopefully it was worth mentioning either way.

New Artwork

Here's the new artwork for the Tim Mee Armored Scout Car (courtesy of Tim Mee Plastic Army Men). This will be used in the illustration on the back of the instructions for the new batch of Hercules C-130 sets, which will include an Armored Car instead of tank this time. The release date for this set (and others) is scheduled for next month.

TimMee Scout Car artwork