Help with 1990’s military play set toy line.

[frankell05]

Hello everyone.

im trying to figure out the name of an old 90’s toy line.  It was a series of weapons , like a gun and a granase, that opened up to reveal soldiers and play sets inside.  The little soldiers were about an inch in height. It was similar to micro machines but bigger In scale. 

 

Can anyone one send me in the right direction?

 

thanks! Not being able to remember is driving me Insane. 

[renegadeleader1]

Army Gear is what they are called. The canteen was an aircraft carrier. 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2018 by renegadeleader1

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Yep, Army Gear was my guess too.

[JB0]

Like XPanders, but with more play potential.

[frankell05]

Yiiiiiess!!! Thank you!!!!!!

[sumyumgoy]

I love these classic commercials.  Reminds me of my Saturdays....

[M'Kyuun]

Me too- I miss Saturday cartoons.  As for Army Gear,  I vaguely remember those toys; I never had any of them, but the cool factor can't be denied. You'd never see toys like this today, at least not in the US, but back in the 80s, guns and military were cool and provided fodder for any number of toys. Interestingly, Galoob also produced the Micro Machines toys, several of which I had.  One of the coolest I had was a military tractor-trailer hauling a Cobra helicopter. 

[David Hingtgen]

“Mega Force” was my fave line of the era.  Had pretty much the entire Triax military.   Loved those toys.   

http://www.toyarchive.com/Megaforce/Series1.html

 

[M'Kyuun]

I'm not at all familiar with MegaForce; that was around my senior year, and I was busy with school and joining the military, so it may have flown under the radar, so to speak. Looks like the designers were familiar with both American and Soviet hardware of the time- lots of influence there. The huge vehicles are pretty cool. Shame it was cancelled.

Makes you wonder why toys like this aren't being made today, maybe with a more sci-fi leaning since military toys just don't seem to be in style anymore. Very few toylines grab my attention these days- aside from larger playsets for Hot Wheels, I rarely see large scale playsets with any kind of a military-esque theme. I love stuff that opens up and deploys other stuff- there's something inherently cool about it, but today's toys rarely reflect it from what I've seen. So glad I grew up in the 80s- it was a really unique time period with a lot of imagination on display in toys, movies, tv, music, etc.  Enter the 90's and it all started fading away.

[renegadeleader1]

9 hours ago, JB0 said:

Like XPanders, but with more play potential.

Both were made by Galoob who went on to make the action fleet line for various properties including Starship Troopers which reused the Xpanders figure molds for the heavy weapon troopers.

[F-ZeroOne]

MegaForce I remember, though I was bit old for toys by that time <cough>ignores display cabinet of, ahem, collectable action figures just to the left of where I'm typing this<cough>. The thought that military vehicles could be so huge they could use Hind gunships as , essentially, cannon fodder.

"Army Gear" I don't recall at all, maybe we never got that in the UK?

Edit: Hmm, in my memory MegaForce used Hinds and other real aircraft but I see looking at the images they appear to be fictional designs with only vague resemblances...

Edited August 25, 2018 by F-ZeroOne

[Chronocidal]

I've actually still got a pair of the MegaForce vehicles stashed away, the big blue swing-wing bomber, and the Triax jet bomber that carried a big missile-launching tank (I feel like they were called he Stratofortress, and Backlash ), along with a handful of the tiny diecast fighters.  

The little delta-winged Triax jets were always one of my favorite designs, and more than once I've considered building digital versions for use in a flight sim

Edited August 26, 2018 by Chronocidal

[Sildani]

I have a few of the MegaForce toys I think. They were really nifty designs, and I bought more than a few of them on clearance from Golden Circle years ago. 

As for Army Gear, I actually owned two: an M1911 pistol that opened up to make a cruise missile launch silo, and a large flashlight that opened to become a helicopter base. Good stuff. 

As for lack of military toys, or a sci-fi toy series, the military is out of vogue for kids and LEGO pretty much owns the rest of it. 

[innuendoz]

I vaguely remember something similar that resembled a folded fmg9 with a working flashlight.  I can't remember what it opened up to.

[pengbuzz]

Anybody remember Air Raiders?

[Big s]

4 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Anybody remember Air Raiders?

Yes, lots of fun

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I had the Army Gear Canteen..  the jet was pretty cool,  was an SD F-14.

I also had the M16,  but my parents started taking all my gun stuff away when cops started shooting kids in the 90s for having toy guns. 

 

[Big s]

5 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I had the Army Gear Canteen..  the jet was pretty cool,  was an SD F-14.

I also had the M16,  but my parents started taking all my gun stuff away when cops started shooting kids in the 90s for having toy guns. 

 

I’m pretty sure cops were popping kids with pop guns back in the day as well, but it really gathered a lot of attention back in the early 90’s.