Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 17 45mm GI's Overview

Of all the various components of the Payton Army line of toys, piecing together the 45mm figures took the longest. There were quite a few fits and starts to the process but after a couple of years I got the real gist of it. Payton's line of 45mm Little Green Army men are nearly identical to Marx BUT there are distinct differences. It's been said that perhaps Marx and Payton used the same tool-&-die maker for these and, if so, then it certainly shows.

Ed

Figure Sets

Marx complete set of 45mm GI's = 17 poses

Payton complete set of 45mm GI's = 11 poses

Bases

(L) Payton (M & R) Marx

ALL of Payton's figures had thick bases (except of course for the Prone Firing Rifle, Kneeling Firing Rifle, Seated figure, and K9).

Early Marx figures had no bases at all, while later versions had a very minimal base. Much later versions of Marx finally had thick bases.

Molding

(L) Payton (R) Marx

-On Payton figures, the creases in the uniform, as well as the pocket outlines and web belt, have much deeper folds and creases. 

-The Payton figures did not have camouflage netting molded into their helmets

-On the Marx figures, all of those are shallow-to-nonexistent.

-Also, any Payton figure that is molded in a slightly hunched over pose tends to have a more pronounced 'hunch'.

I'll show comparison photos for each figure as they are posted (except for the K9 - Marx didn't make a K9 for their Little Green Army Men).

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 16 Jeep & Modified Howitzer - Dark Green SP

Here we have the modified howitzer being pulled by the Jeep. As I said in yesterday's post, in real life this would have been an unlikely pairing but Payton's other vehicles weren't designed to haul the howitzer (or anything else for that matter) leaving only the Jeep to get the job done.

Ed

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 15 Jeep & Howitzer - Olive Green SP

It's funny, but when I first got into vintage toy collecting some 34 years ago, it was the Payton Little Green Army Men from my childhood that I remembered most vividly as an adult, and they were the ones I wanted to acquire first. But then I got distracted and it took me forever to finally get a decent representation. This was one of my favorite lash-ups as a kid: the Jeep pulling the cannon. I know now though, that in real life this was an unlikely pairing as the cannon would have been too heavy for a Jeep. It probably would have been towed by a halftrack, but Payton never made a halftrack and neither their Centurion tank, M42 Duster, or troop transport truck had provisions for hauling the cannon. So we're stuck with the Jeep!

Ed

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 14 Payton Industries Anti-Aircraft Gun (Howitzer / Cannon) With Shortened Hydraulic Pistons - Olive Green SP

This version of the Payton howitzer has truncated hydraulic pistons. I've seen this mostly in Miner Industries boxed sets but I do have one original header bag set of Payton Army men which includes this piece with the shortened pistons. That tells me that the tooling was changed before Miner Industries got a hold of it.

Ed

(L) Original Payton (R) Modified Payton 

(T) Original Payton (B) Modified Payton 

All the detailing is the same on both

That little piece of plastic sticking up at the rear of the arms is just a piece of stray mold release plastic/flash I didn't bother to remove.

Payton Products, Inc. Little Green Army Men - Pt 13 Payton Anti-Aircraft Gun (Howitzer / Cannon) - Olive Green SP

Sooo, why am I calling this an 'anti-aircraft gun'? Because on the only boxed set of Payton Army men I know of, Payton themselves referred to it as such, however, would probably be better classified as a howitzer or cannon. It measures 5" (12,7cm) L x 1.75" (4,44cm) W x 1.5" (3,81cm) H (when barrel is parallel to ground). At some point during the life of the tooling, the hydraulic dampening pistons that stick way up on the original were shortened. Perhaps there were problems with releasing the part from the mold and they decided to modify the tooling and it's this shorter version that always appears in sets from Miner Industries. Don't take that as gospel, it's just a guess.

Ed

Google search image culled from the Internet

(L) Marx (M) Original Payton (R) Modified Payton