It's mission accomplished for little green army men.
The molded plastic must-haves for generations of pretend soldiers were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday, along with the 1980s stumper Rubik's Cube, and soap bubbles.
The toys take their place alongside other classics including Barbie, G.I. Joe, Scrabble and the hula hoop after beating out nine other finalists including Fisher-Price Little People, American Girl dolls and My Little Pony.
The tiny monochromatic heroes have been around since 1938, with ups and downs along the way. Their popularity waned during the Vietnam War but they became big-screen stars with the 1995 Pixar movie "Toy Story," and several manufacturers continue to produce millions of them every year.
Little green army men can easily be found online from a number of makers. Prices vary widely, but you can buy a company-size element for about $12 to $15. A "Bucket O Soldiers" is available from a national toy retailer for $16.99, and includes 72 soldiers and two parachutes.
The army men were finalists two other years before making the cut this time around and getting promoted into the hall of fame, offering hope to this year's also-rans, which also included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Slip 'N Slide, the skill game Operation, paper airplanes, pots and pans, and the toy trucks sold annually since 1964 by the Hess gas station chain.
It's hard to say how many army men have been sold over the years, but fellow Hall of Famer the Rubik's Cube took off in the United States in 1980 and more than 100 million of the six-color cubes were sold by 1982. The cubes, with nine colored squares on each side, can be arranged 43 quintillion ways, according to the Toy Hall of Fame.
A national selection committee made up of 24 experts, including toy collectors, designers and psychologists, vote the winners into the hall each year. Anyone can nominate a toy, but to make it through the preliminary selection process and become a finalist a toy must have achieved icon status, survived through generations, foster learning, creativity or discovery, and have profoundly changed play or toy design.
The toy hall is located inside The Strong museum in Rochester, New York.
Staff writer Kathleen Curthoys contributed to this report.
