"Hellen of Toy Tank Trap game" Topic

back in the late 60's and early 70's, the Hellen of Toy company used to put ads in the back of comic books. I myself as a kid purchased the WW 2 "Woods Edge" game and the Civil War "River of Death" game. The games came with HO scale Marx figs. I always wondered about the "Tank Trap" game that was supposed to come with exploding tanks and hunter killer teams. Anyone out there ever purchase one of these games? And if so, could you describe the tanks for me? I had with my "River of Death" game exploding bridges that were a real let down. That is what makes me wonder what the tanks looked like.

From BoardGameGeek: link

I remember those ads as well but thought all them were
come on's.

A couple of years ago I ran across a site that showed the actual pieces but cant find it this morning.

I did find some info here.
link

Hope this helps.

Coabeous

I don't think I have any of the tanks left but I still have a few of the infantry and some ships from their Task Force game. Basically the tanks were relatively flat square blocks split in two pieces in the middle and held together by a rubber band. The turrets were molded as part of the overall tank. They roughly resembled a Panzer IVD about 1.5" w x 2" l x 0.5" h. I always wanted to order more games from them but they only shipped a couple to Canada. They weren't great but they were in my price range back then.

I remember those…

I tried getting one of the games once as a kid, the "Task Force" game. They ended up sending me their castle game, and only after many letters and complaints did they send "Task Force," which by then had been redesigned around plastic Flats as opposed to 3D figures. Oh well.

They had a war of indepedence version and also Roman civil war set but wouldnt ship to Canada at that time.One thing i did get was the 100 piece footlocker or soldiers ,they were thin 2 d silhouettes except the aircraft which were nondescript.

They also did US civil war battle of Chickamauga,werent the backs of comic books great then.I have a few old comic books that had addresses where you could buy german helmets ,Luftwaffe ,Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine officers caps ,japanese soft caps .Ever present was that damned seed selling scam add.

And the little sea people, that showed a sea horse family hanging out… That actually looked nothing like brine shrimp.

Ever present was that damned seed selling scam add.

Burpee seed company! LOL! I never did get my bike from it, but did sell enough seeds to get a walkie talkie.

I had the "Tank Trap" game and sent away for the "Task Force" game; unfortunately they were out of stock for "Task Force" and sent me the DELUXE version of "Supreme Commander". A friend of mine had "Woods Edge" and that game was the closest to a skirmish game I had played at that time. I remember one ad illustration in the comics for "Tank Trap" that showed "Tigers" versus "Shermans" battling it out and one "Sherman" actually melting! Ah, the memories…

I had the Rev War figures. 200 figures about HO/00 scale,3D,though the early ones were 2d. Truly bad figures.All the same just in blue and red. Dragoons that couldn't stand up.You see this set on ebay quite often.
Those adds looked a LOT better than the reality unfortunately.And yes there is a site that shows the components to these sets and a history of Helen of Toy.

My Dad ordered me one of the sets,and like 6 months later we get a notice saying we owed them 35 cents for shipping! I had lost interest by then!

Bob

Had Tank Trap and Task Force. Used the ships fro Task Force for many years in naval war games. The tanks in Tank Trap weren't very good but I used the infantry a lot when aded into my collection of Airfix.

Cash trap,plain and simple.

As a Kid I ordered Tank Trap out of Boys Life magazine – after several months, I got a copy of Task Force instead. I just sucked it up as my first of several disappointing mail order experiences (I also ordered the 'Italian style stiletto' knives that turned out to be 4" long) – in that day & age it didn't even occur to me to complain – given that misery loves company, I guess I'm glad I wasn't alone in my disappointment.

My my my how times have changed, that wouldn't fly now with the advent of e-mail and our culture of instant gratification – I'd be on the company like 'white on rice' & would give the offending magazine some 'what for' as well. I haven't thought about this experience in decades – now I see where my cynical streak had its origins.

I have a bunch of the Fighting Ships minis.The DDG,FFG and
sub fit in well with 1/3000 ships.Believe it or not the DDG is very stealthy with a large twin mount forward.It is also
nuclear powered.I've converted several with helo decks,vls,
and radomes.Same for the FFG.The FF is better for WW2.The CVA is huge,1/2400 at least.The PT boats are near 1/1200.
The BB is OK,sits a little too high out of the water.Wish I was better with Xacto!The BB is something like the Italian
Project 28 offered by Navwar,as is the BB from Task Force.I
guess the Task Force BB should be a BC,as it has 1 less
turret than the Fighting Ships BB!

I had Tank Trap. The figures were the HO knockoffs of Marx and Monogram. The tank traps and pillboxes were also those dime store blister pack Mark knockoffs.

The tanks were badly done two jobs held together by a rubber band and if nudged the wrong way would "explode".

A lotta great memories though!