Annual Missouri Guard toy display ignites visitors' holiday spirit

By: Will Tollerton
Museum of Missouri Military History

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Continuing what has become a holiday tradition at Ike Skelton Training Site since 2002; the Museum of Missouri Military History recently opened an exhibit of military-themed toys in the Kiefner Building.

Since its inception in 2002, the military toy exhibit has delighted visitors of all ages. Rows of camouflaged plastic Soldiers just a few inches in height and intricately detailed miniature battleships are hard for the young and young-at-heart to pass by without a second glance. The exhibit's creator, Charles Machon, Historical Services Coordinator for the Missouri National Guard, relates how it all started seven years ago.

"Now-retired Sgt. 1st Class John Viessman and I had the idea of military toys, and the exhibit was so popular that it has now become a tradition for me to do it every year," Machon said. "It usually takes me a week to put the display together."

The finished product contains toys from several decades representing hundreds of years of military history.

In one corner, armies of diminutive Union and Confederate troops prepare to do battle on the checkered ground of a wooden chessboard. Above the platoons of G.I. Joes, a Japanese Zero and an American P-38 Lightning dogfight . Meanwhile, suspended from a fine fishing line a couple feet away, a German Messerschmitt goes into a desperate dive to escape a British Spitfire.

A set of three dioramas depicting scenes from World War II provide the viewer with an amazing array of detailed landscape features to wonder at. Hand crafted by the late Terry Calvin, of Jefferson City, the dioramas portray invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. The sets were donated by Richard Wakeland of Taos, Mo. in 2008.

Machon believes that the display is popular at Missouri National Guard headquarters because so many of the Soldiers once played with those same toys.

That's certainly the case with Chief Warrant Officer 2 Steven Stovall. Stovall is especially attached to a 1960s-era J.C. Penney catalog advertisement for a toy bazooka. Stovall recalls many of the military models and toys he played with as a child, but he says that was his favorite.

"That near-life-sized toy bazooka was the best of them-very authentic," Stovall said. "It came with three harmless rubber shells and could launch them some 30 feet or so."
For Sgt. Danyell Canady, the favorite toy is an Army-themed Barbie doll. Canady remembers when her father, then-Staff Sgt. Robert Hart, gave her the doll when she was a child in the early 1990s. She later went on to join the U.S. Army in 2003, and now serves with the Missouri National Guard. She hasn't seen her own Army Barbie for some time, but the one in the case is still brand-new in its box.

Of course, military toys were around long before Barbie was issued her combat boots and rifle. The iconic Christmas image of the nutcracker Soldier delighted children in the 19th century, with its ramrod stance and brightly painted martial uniform. Toy soldiers, and especially ones made from lead or tin, were popular toys dating back well into the 18th century. Military figurines have even been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs.

It is a testament to the increasing popularity of the military toy displays that as many as 8-10 people currently share their unique items. The objects for exhibit come almost exclusively from loans solicited from the general public.

Master Sgt. Veronica Hoffman, of the human resource office, is one of those people who has loaned toys this year, especially airplanes.

"I think it is kind of a neat thing" Hoffman said. "This is the third, if not fourth, time I have brought things in. I think it is cool to have a good representation of the aircraft."

Machon said this exhibit will continue to be an annual fixture at Missouri National Guard headquarters well into the future. Any person with a unique set of military toys is encouraged to contact the Museum of Missouri Military History so that new items can be featured in years to come.