Was a gift for my grandson. I trained him in tactics with these, then bottle-rockets (w/safety goggles) to attack each other. Great bonding tool.

Hours of fun In one bag

TimMee's army men are classics dating back to around 1968, but ever since their models were used in Toy Story these toys have represented the category of army men for most kids growing up in the 90's. Once readily found in toy and department stores, TimMee's original production ceased in the early 2000's. The toy soldier, once a staple item in every boy's toy box, lost its luster during 9/11 and the ensuing wars in the Middle East. Growing antiwar sentiment pushed guns and soldiers from the realm of child's play to more mature areas such as video game consoles, and even these TimMee army guys were associated with games featuring digital toy army men put out by 3DO studios--despite the fact they would not be on shelves much longer.

Eventually military toys began to make a slight comeback, yet the excellence of TimMee was still noticeably absent. To fill this vacuum many stores began stocking cheaper army men made in China from low quality, stinking plastic. These were not much to compare with TimMee's quality control. Soldiers were brittle, had pieces broken off, were still attached to pieces of sprue, lacked detail, and were produced in incredibly thin shapes to save money on plastic. Hodge-podge mixes of copies of Airfix's World War 2 soldiers and copies of modern soldiers made for inaccurate playsets and even TimMee's M16 soldiers shown above were copied in cheaper plastic with slight changes to their poses and sold from dollar stores.

But now TimMee is back thanks to the efforts of people willing to go through the company's original molds and reproduce these iconic figures. I was personally thrilled to see that the M16 soldiers would be coming back, and even in new colors! (TimMee had produced their army men in a range of fluorescent colors in the 70's, seeking to soften the image of the army man due to antiwar sentiment, but never released these in large quantities). As a fan of the 3DO games I had always been on the hunt for blue M16 army men, and now I can have them.

These reissues are nearly the exact same as the originals with one noticeable fault. It seems as though some production runs of these new soldiers are made with a more rigid and cheap feeling plastic than the original TimMee soldiers were. I bought a bag of tan vs. green and gray vs. red and found that the tan vs. green guys were made of a different, harder plastic, while the gray vs. red still resembled the slightly softer plastic of the originals. You can test this by taking one of the soldiers and gently pushing one of their rifles. If it slightly bends and slowly moves back to place, then it's the same formula as the original TimMee. If it resists and also if the soldier makes a sharp sound when you tap him on a hard surface, it's the lower quality plastic. I hope that the new TimMee only sends out the higher quality and more faithful versions in the future, but sadly there's no telling which you'll get through Amazon. That's the only thing holding this back from five stars.

I had previously bought these as one of my son's Christmas gift. Since they were of such good quality and bigger size compared to others, I ordered more to put in his soldier birthday party goodie bags. Kids loved them!

Made from good durable plastic that doesn't crack easily. Great detail compared to other Army guys available today. Just wish it came with standing riflemen too, like the old packs. These only have kneeling and prone riflemen.