COMIC BOOK TOY SOLDIERS
" 3D " REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS !
Like the original Flats, the 3D Set came in Red and Blue with identical molds shared by both armies except for two figures - only the British had the Hessian Troop, and only the Americans had the Minute Man.
The Comic Ad above was found in a 1979 Battlestar Galactica Comic from Marvel. Note that the popular and colorful "Battle Scene" Ad for this Set is almost exactly the same as the original Ad for the Revolutionary War Flats version (which was first drawn by famous comic book artist Russ Heath.) The differences in the two Ads are subtle but important.
First, the fine print description omits the words "up to 4 inches long." This is because the 3D version of the Set actually had smaller figures than the earlier Flats version. The longest piece in the original Flats Set was the Field Cannon piece which measured 4 inches in length. The 3D Cannons were only 2 1/2 inches long.
The second difference in the 3D Ad compared to the original Flats version is that the original artist's initials ("RH" for Russ Heath) have been covered over. They used to appear down in the lower left corner of the Flats Ad drawing. In the later 3D Ads the initials are totally covered by the "Imaginary War Scene" disclaimer. The original artwork is also obviously recolored and retouched a bit.
In the image above, each figure from the 3D Revolutionary War Set is shown. There is also an insert just above the Box showing a "close up" of two figures from the Set for better detail. It seems the sculpting for the 3D Revolutionary War Set fairly decent for such a small scale, however, the actual mold production process was often unfortunately sloppy compared to the Flats version of the Set. The 3D Sets often had a lot of extra plastic left around the edges of the figures which had to be tediously removed by any young Generals who insisted on their Troops looking their best.
The 3D Sets also usually contained some Troops who were damaged somehow during the mold production process. This led to some special and unique looking members of each army - a few ended up with crooked backs or bent necks or missing body parts - which only added all the more character to the individual figures.
Top Row: Dragoon (Cavalryman), Shooting Infantryman, Marching Infantryman.
Second Row: Crouching Infantryman, Fifer, Charging Infantryman, Sharpshooter.
Third Row: Cannon Loader, Drummer, Mohawk Indian, Officer.
Fourth Row: Field Cannon, Minuteman, Hessian Troop,
Bottom: Original Box from Lucky Products which contained the Revolutionary War 3D Set. There is no graphic art anywhere on the plain box. Note that the Lucky Products return address is still in Carle Place Long Island which is believed to be their original address. They had at least two other addresses over the years - one was Westbury Long Island, another was Atlanta Georgia.
Below the box are two unusual figures shown for size reference compared to the box. These are examples of "Mold Color Mistakes" in which the wrong color was used for the Minuteman and the Hessian Trooper. Sometimes, the 3D Sets would contain one or more of these oddball troops in the wrong color. The Minutemen of course were only supposed to come in Blue and the Hessians only in Red. But it seems that the makers must have done a batch in the wrong color on occasion and they evidently just tossed them into the Sets anyway.
I suppose the oddballs could be utilized as Spies hiding in the enemy Ranks or as Traitors fighting for the enemy! The "Red Minuteman" and the "Blue Hessian" are shown above for amusement purposes only as they were certainly never meant to be part of these Sets but they did in fact exist on occasion.
