MEN OF '76 - MYSTERY SWOPPETS
"On June 16, 1775, over a thousand American farmers hiked together through the
warm night air carrying old and odd weapons, they wore homespun clothes as uniforms. They marched to fortify the Charlestown Peninsula, apiece of land that lay across the Charles River from British occupied Boston. Once the men of the soil started to use their spades, they worked quickly throughout the night."
Everyone likes to solve a mystery. There is a line of swoppets - figures molded in different colors of plastic with no paint at all, which are made in separate body segments to allow the figures to swivel into various positions like an action figure - which exists only in an American Revolutionary War line. If you have such figures which are clearly not either Britain's or Timpo, they may be Men of '76, an unusual line distributed only during the Bicentennial of the USA in 1976 at places like gas stations! Most of us have perhaps one or two, and pick up another here or there from a dealer, currently priced around $4 per foot or $10 per mounted figure.
Somewhat cheaper looking than the severely artistic and delicate Britain's or the interchangeable balletic Timpo ARW swoppets, they can be distinguished by a plug at the end of the musket stock that usually fits into a hole int he arm, therefore remaining more or less in place even though the gun never quite sits comfortably in the arms of the figures! They also have very unusual "character" poses - individual figures meant to be specific persons or unusual types.
After collecting the entire line and beginning to get multiples to form units, I as a wargamer finally found a part of original packaging that I did not throw away in glee (and perhaps stupidly, as this always increases the value of a set, even if not MIB - Mint In Box). It is a 16 page booklet that is the key to the entire line. Written by one Robert Lynch (are you out there, Robert?) and printed in Hong Kong, it is also copyright 1972, 73, 75 Innovative Promotions Inc. (Do they still exist?). With beautiful color plates worthy of American Heritage magazine, the booklet tells a summary of the ARW and is entitled "Men of '76: America's Struggle for Independence." The cover is white, showing clockwise around the Liberty Bell in the center: Independence Hall, a Continental bluecoat firing, Washington crossing the Delaware, a colonial militia type flagbearer advancing up a hill toward the rear of a battery of cannon.
But perhaps the most important part of the booklet to us collectors, which I received as part of a complete set, is the back page, which catalogues the entire line. And now, for the first time anywhere that I know of, I share it with you.
Set One: George Washington (mounted with sword), white horse, standing firing minuteman (light brown uniform), standing bluecoat; 3 stands.
Set Two: Cornwallis (mounted with sword), black horse, field cannon (brass colored barrel, trail, two wheels), marching redcoat/cannoneer; 2 stands.
Set Three: Paul Revere (graycoat mounted), brown horse, Indian scout, kneeling (firing) redcoat; 3 stands.
Set Four: Field cannon, Molly Pitcher (carrying bucket), kneeling (firing) minuteman (brown uniform); two stands.
Set Five: American Lieutenant (bluecoat mounted), brown horse, kneeling (firing) bluecoat, kneeling (firing) redcoat; three stands.
Set Six: American trooper (Black man; bluecoat with hands at sides), field cannon, standing (firing) redcoat; two stands.
Set Seven: British Lieutenant (redcoat mounted), brown horse, kneeling (firing) Hessian (greencoated Jaeger), standing (firing) Frenchman (white uniform with purple trim), three stands.
Set Eight: Standing (firing) redcoat, kneeling (firing) redcoat, Indian scout, standing (firing) bluecoat, kneeling (firing) redcoats- 5 stands.
There is also pictured a gray fort "with flags, gate, jail, etc." shaped like a typical Vauban Star Fort, which looks fragile, as if made of cardboard or perhaps thin plastic. This I have never seen in real life. Above the photos and contents listings of the sets on the back page is a battle scene with all the figures and the fort in color on brown terrain with vegetation.
The stands are in dark green, the mounted stands for horses being easily identified; they are long with round ends. The front of the stand turns into a wide bulb or circle just at the front. While most of the figures are wearing tricorns, the British, including the mounted, wear tall fusilier/grenadier hats. One last figure not mentioned (added later?) is a Daniel Boone figure in a coonskin cap!
Yet another distinguishing feature on most figures is a bib type front piece which includes the trim color on the edges of the coat. Unlike the other makers of swoppets, the muskets and body parts tend to pop off with great frequency! One is tempted to glue them in place once and for all - but then they wouldn't be swoppets anymore, now would they? Still, the Men of '76 have their own charm, and completing the series is a challenging, nay patriotic, occupation.
"At two o'clock in the afternoon of October 19, 1781, the British Army, over 7, 000
strong, surrendered. Between the French, handsome in their sparkling uniforms, and the proud black
and white Americans, the British marched while their band played 'The World Turned Upside Down.'
America was free."
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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