Old Soldiers Never Die

These are MPC ring hand figures.  They are in this glass display case because they are the oldest figures that I got new.  My parents gave them to me in 1958. 

When I was a kid, one of my friends down the street also had toy solders.  We used to play together.  In order to get our own army men back after play, we each marked them.  I used a marker to draw a black line around the middle of each figure, like a belt.  My friend, Jim, used a marker to draw an X on the bottom of his figures.

The figure in the jumpsuit has that mark clearly visible, and the one in the trench coat still has a very faint bit of ink around his waist.  After 55 years of hard campaigning these soldiers have been retired to a place of honor in my war room.  Of course, they still get deployed for the occasional special mission!