If this doesn't satisfy your patriotic appetite, our first batch of dead Presidents is HERE and the second HERE. I could have titled this post Forgotten Presidents if not for old Teddy down at the bottom. Some of these guys are so forgotten I couldn't even remember their first names. One I did not have that problem with is Chester Arthur, because I once named a cat after him. (Well, actually I named the cat after Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf, who was named after the prez. That's almost the same, isn't it?) Did you know that one of these dudes served two non-consecutive terms? I know it now because it said so on the back of his figure's base. Collecting toy soldiers has redeeming educational value.
More Toy Soldiers HERE.
I got this set when I was a kid. My mom ordered it out a Parade magazine. As a kid, I was into politics and history (still am), so I loved it. The presidents came with a Styrofoam stand with columns (which have long disintegrated). The set I had (still have, actually) went through Nixon.
ReplyDeleteThe set of white plastic guys I found at a thrift store twenty-five years ago came with a hard-plastic take-apart White House (not to scale) and went through Eisenhower. The badly painted guys, which I acquired I know not where, go up through Kennedy. I can do without Tricky Dick.
ReplyDeleteAwesome collection. I have never seen these and didn't know they were even sold at one time.
ReplyDeleteWell I knew about the non-consecutive terms. There were also a Mamie Eisenhower and alternate Ike poses. Hubert Humphrey got a pose, too. Maybe Marx thought he'd win. I'm trying to remember if there was also a Goldwater but I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteI'm back. No Goldwater but they made John D. Rockefeller, Ronnie Reagan, and Bobby Kennedy, plus an unpainted Jackie Kennedy. Them men at the time (1968) were considered contenders.
ReplyDeleteThe men, not Them men. Lousy typist.
ReplyDeleteI certainly feel redeemed, just looking at the post. So where's Herbert Hoover? Did I miss him? I had no idea there were sets of presidents sold in sets. Were they really intended as toys, for kids to play with, or some kind of educational display?
ReplyDeleteHoover will be along in Part 4. Teddy R, last in this batch was no. 26, and Herbie H was 31.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I suppose they were for whatever purpose kids (or grown-ups) wanted to put them. Like army soldiers and cowboys, they could be strapped to bottle rockets, but because they were hard plastic it would have been hard to bite their heads off.
ReplyDeleteHow disappointingly plain Rutherford Hayes is. I've been reading his Civil War letters to his wife and he's a lot more dashing in print.
ReplyDeleteLooks like old Rutherford is about to pull a gun on a convenience store clerk.
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