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Posted on 02/18/2005 10:40:53 PM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 There are many ways to enjoy Army Men. The simplest and most common involves a sandpile or dirt backyard, small garden trowel and wood twigs. You can dig bunkers, fortifications and trenchlines.  Using them with electric trains (only larger O and G scale trains!) is fun. Soldiers ride in hoppers and gondolas. Do not stuff them in boxcars because it is hard to get them out. Note that a train can crash a tank, but a tank cannot crash a locomotive. So don't be a dummy: never put tanks on train tracks. Outdoors, soldiers can be bombed with 'enemy dirt bombs." Small, dry clumps of dirt will seem to explode upon impact.  The cheap spring-loaded firing cannons sold with Army Men don't pack much punch. Many cannot knock down a single Army Man from three feet. You can buy the heavy metal cannons by Britains if you want to shoot and be assured of a knockdown. The best is the cannon marketed as a 4.7 Inch Naval Gun. It is accurate to nine feet. South Street Rules These are an unwritten set of rules that were generally accepted in 1962. Updated info is included, but not noted as such. Amendments were added whenever there was a new real war. Allies and Enemies:  By the rules, the following troops can be used for the following armies: US soldiers: US Army, US Marines, Norwegian Army, Danish Army, South Koreans, ARVN, Canadians  Germans: German Army, Swedes. Some companies now sell green Germans as modern US troops in the new helmet. British: British Troops can be used for Israelis if they are molded in Green, and Arabs if they are molded in tan. In some areas in the Northeast, British soldiers are considered enemy troops. It's an Irish thing. Even though the Canadians used to have British uniforms, it is considered prudent to use US troops for The Great White North's army. Foreign Legion: in a pinch, Foreign Legionnaires can be used as Union troops. Civil War: Union troops can substitute for foreign legion. Grey Confederates can substitute for Germans. Cowboys can also be used for Alamo Texans.  Russians: Russians can substitute for Poles, North Koreans and Red Chinese Japanese: it is allowable to use Japanese for Red Chinese, North Koreans or VC. Mexicans: Alamo Mexicans can be used as War of 1812 guys. Blue go with the US, red with the British. Napoleonics: What? Napoleon guys? NOT HERE! This is traditional American Army Men, and we didn't have no stinkin' Napoleon Guys! Pirates: Pirates can be used as Revolutionary War and Civil War sailors, and as Alamo Texans. Commandos: a small group of soldiers, if molded in a distinctly different shade of green than your regular Army Men, could be used as Commandos or Rangers. Special Forces: it was allowable to paint ten soldiers' helmets red and designate them as Special Forces. They acted as Commandos. A medic can heal a man who was shot by taking out the bullet. He cannot do this if the guy was bayonetted or bombed or fired up. Vehicles and their Protocols  Both sides had to have a fair share of vehicles. Green vehicles were generally US, and grey were German. Later, some tan vehicles were also German or Japanese. If you had only green vehicles, some had to be given to the other side. A few companies molded them in blue or other colors. Blue could mean Navy or Air Force, but usually they became the Enemy. In a pinch, which was most of the time, they enemy had Green vehicles, too.  Jeeps: a machine gun could knock out a jeep, but jeeps could drive many places. The power of Jeeps increased after the series Rat Patrol made its debut, and then a Jeep with a machine gun could knock out a half track or open self-propelled gun. You could mount a machine gun, mortar or bazooka on a Jeep. You could tow a cannon with a jeep, but not mount a cannon on it.  Trucks: trucks only carry men and tow cannons.  Half Tracks: they can go anywhere and run over Jeeps and Trucks. Half Tracks can even mount a cannon. The second best vehicle on the battlefield.  Tanks: Tanks can go anywhere, knock down any building, run over any other vehicle except another tank or a train. To blow up a tank, you need another tank, a big cannon or a bazooka. Self-propelled guns: they are like tanks, but they have an open top and can be blown up if a guy throws in a grenade or drops a mortar on them. Helicopters: these are rare. They could carry soldiers and drop bombs (remember - we hadn't seen Hueys gunships or Cobras yet!). They could be knocked out with machine guns or cannons. Airplanes: airplanes could carry paratroops, strafe and drop bombs. They could be knocked out by machine guns and cannons. Rockets and Missiles: they had the same firepower as cannons, but could be shot up and come straight down into a bunker. Armored cars: like tanks, but could not ride all over and were vulnerable to having their tires shot out. Armored cars could only go where trucks could go. Firepower Weapons have distinct powers and liabilities. Know them, and make sure you have enough when you go to battle! A rifle could shoot one guy at a time. A submachine gun could shoot up a bunch of guys or a jeep.  A machine gun could shoot up troops, jeeps, trucks, half tracks and aircrafts. If fired from above, like on a hill, it could also blow up a self-propelled gun. A mortar could drop bombs and blow up anything but tanks and aircraft. A small cannon could bomb anything except tanks.  A big cannon could blast anything. Of course, its crew was vulnerable to everything out there. A bazooka could blow up any vehicle. However, it did not blow up a bunch of troops. A flamethrower could burn out a tank. A missile was like a big cannon. Hand grenades are like a mortar, but they are thrown at close range. Airplane bombs could blast anything except tanks.  Civil War, Revolutionary War and Pirate cannons could not harm tanks, half tracks, armored cars or self-propelled guns. Civil War mortars acted like regular mortars. Nukes destroy both sides, so nobody can use them. Civil War  Cowboys, Pirates, Davy Crockett guys and Alamo Texans could be used to supplement either side. If a figure was molded in blue or grey, however, he had to go to the appropriate side. Cannons could blow up anything on the Civil War battlefield. If you used Civil War cannons to supplement a modern war, however, they were not able to penetrate armored cars, self-propelled guns, tanks or half tracks.  Alamo Mexicans could be used to supplement Civil War armies. Blue always went to the Union, Grey to the Confederates, and red to whichever side needed more men. Spacemen  Pistol-size ray guns can take out other spacemen, very small rockets and jeep-size vehicles. Rifle-sized ray guns can take out big vehicles - anything except half tracks and tanks. If you use tanks with spacemen (they didn't make many space combat vehicles) their cannons automatically become super ray guns. You can use missiles, but regular guns and cannons do not work in space. Knights, Vikings and Romans Knights in plate armor are like walking tanks. It takes a lance on horseback, an axe, a mace or a direct hit with a catapult to down one with one shot. Sword and spear guys have to gang up on them and stick them through openings in the armor. Knights in armor cannot swim or ford waterways. If confronted by a gun, it takes 3 shots to knock down a fully-armored knight. A burst from a machine gun works, too. Fully-armored knights are vulnerable to all heavy weapons, including grenades. Flamethrowers wreak havoc on them. Vikings are so cool that they can beat a knight as if he were an unarmored man. Romans only have half armor. They can be used to supplement knights' armies. Terrain Houses can stop bullets, but a hand grenade can blow a door open.  Tanks can knock down any house.  Stone walls stop everything Wood only stops bullets A wood fort can stop bullets and old fashioned cannons, but can be penetrated by grenades, light modern cannons and all larger weapons. Tanks and half tracks can drive through wood forts. The easiest way to beat walls is to fire over them with mortars and grenades.  Some stone forts can be breached by tanks. Big cannons can put holes in stone forts, since a stone fort is not the same as a stone wall. A soldier with a flamethrower or machine gun can fire through vision slits on pillboxes, if he is close enough. Tanks plow through almost anything!  Tents do not stop bullets.      |
My mother was recently hospitalized for her stomach but she wants to go back to eating what she likes against everyones best advice. My mother is very independent and she wants her hot sauce!
LOL. Firecrackers and Army men. Great combination for fun!
Ha! Might as well have been.
Maybe we can get Congress to pass a law.
free dixie HUGS,duckie/sw
!!!!!
Hey sweet cakes!
My wife's Hummingbird Calender says tomorrow starts "Homes for Birds Week"; surely the makers of a Hummingbird Calender wouldn't lie. ;^)
Our poor birdies haven't been fed in three days. We're getting hammered with a major Pacific rain cell and I don't want all my seed/peanuts drenched.
Afternoon stand watie.
I am pictured with my older wiser brother at an undisclosed location during secret war games in the 1950's.
I am flying cover with a plastic jet fighter with wing tanks.
There is a Flash Gordon space tower at the lower left with a segmented dome.
My brother's mounted scouts have arrived at the pressed metal fort.
His cast metal British soldiers man the tower and fort at lower right, augmented by green plastic Army men.
As the years went by congress gradually authorized funds for mounted knights, a castle with towers, moat and drawbridge;
A fleet of Flash Gordon space ships of molded plastic in futuristic shapes;
A stamped metal flattop with hand-cranked elevator outfitted with Corsairs with folding wings;
Kelloggs frogmen in all three configurations;
A plaster of paris terrain field over which his Dinky tanks crawled and thundered;
Any number of plastic scale models of planes, tanks, warships of all types;
Our oldest brother worked his way up from balsa Spads with Testors doped wings to vp of Ford Motor ultimately getting to play with the best toys.
I'll leave you one of only three old photos I still have during the 50's. The start of the spankentruppen legend and of course I'm being carted around by my brother as though I was the queen as they all sport those famous newspaper sailor hats. ;-)
Sounds like you need our new 18" rain guard over those feeders.
Seriously though I hope you don't have any terrible consequences from the weather like we are hearing about in some areas of Southern Cal.
A '55 Chevy, a '53 Buick and perhaps an older DeSoto, children on the sidewalk in non-gang-related activity--
Those were the days.
You know your cars. Could easily be a DeSoto.
Good honest machines, the lot of them.
This is from Centcom.
Notice the eye lock between the Afgan on the right and the young woman sargent. This is very cool. The young lady is an effective asset.
Kelloggs frogmen in all three configurations;
I had them too, the guy with the torch was my favorite.
I had three sisters, who I could sometimes convince to make a half-hearted attempt to go to war. I tried once to make a balsa model, a P-40, it was a miserable failure and I stuck to plastic kits. As a kid, most didn't survive my sisters or ultimately, my firecrackers.
When I got older, the models I had built since High School didn't survive the In-laws attempt to "help" me move them to Oregon.
AWWWW! A little Snippy about it. :-)
The Carthaginians would make a shield wall, and when advancing the elephants open up a fairly wide path in the shield wall for them, perhaps twenty yards wide.
The younger, more agile, and fleet of foot Romans who desired the admiration of all would run around to the rear of the elephant and throw a pilum (mean, heavy javelin with a yard long penetrator and a double sided blade) at the tender spot just under the elephant's tail. This would upset the elephant, and make him decide that he had had enough that day, and the elephant leaving the scene would usually leave through the Carthaginian tightly packed ranks.
Reminds me of this scene from "Lord of the Rings"
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