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>> “We used to use lead soldiers.” <<
I’m betting they were tin or aluminum. I had some, and they were definitely too hard and stiff to be lead.
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I made lead soldiers by melting fishing sinkers and pouring them into a mold.
No, ours were lead.
In the early 50s in NYC it was easily attainable. We’d get it from TelCo splicers for one, scavange from scraps left over when the NYC Parks Dept was using it to make anchors for lag bolts into large conglamorate concrete like benches or scavange from plumbing of houses or building demolition sites. One kid’s Dad had a mold and he would melt and pour it for us. Tin, which we’d get from ceilings in old buildings, was sold.
One of my uncles was in WWII and he came back with some German souvenirs. We buddy and I found them in a box in our basement. They were some sort of paper mache on a wire frame. Not the best German engineering. Nice paint jobs, though.