{"id":386653,"date":"2025-11-18T03:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/386653\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T03:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:16:21","slug":"army-men-figure-of-pioneering-combat-photographer-helps-kids-process-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/386653\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Army Men’ Figure of Pioneering Combat Photographer Helps Kids Process War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

War Toys has worked with the estate of the late, great photojournalist Dickey Chapelle<\/a> to create a remarkably accurate and detailed 1:32 scale figure of the photographer. This figure, which includes Chapelle\u2019s trademark glasses, earrings, and Leica and Nikon cameras, will join a larger set of noncombatant figures for an educational board game that focuses on the people who work for peace in war and combat. <\/p>\n

What Is War Toys? <\/p>\n

Acclaimed, award-winning photographer Brian McCarty<\/a> loves toys and believes strongly in their power to enrich children\u2019s lives and the vital role that play can have in helping children grow into healthy adults. Alongside his lengthy career as a photographer in the toy industry, he is also the executive director of War Toys, a nonprofit founded in 2019 that gathers and shares children\u2019s firsthand accounts of war, as experienced through art-therapy collaborations. <\/p>\n

Back in 2022, PetaPixel featured some of McCarty\u2019s work in which he recreated drawings<\/a> children who experienced war made using toy photography, often photographed by McCarty in active war zones. McCarty\u2019s photography work with toys goes back much further, though, as this PetaPixel feature in 2012<\/a> demonstrates. <\/p>\n

\"APhoto from War Toys series by Brian McCarty <\/p>\n

In a recent interview with American Journal of Play<\/a>, McCarty explains the impact that play had on him as a child. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy childhood was challenging at times, and long before I understood anything about play therapy, I learned to use play organically as a tool to understand better the world around me,\u201d McCarty says. <\/p>\n

The photographer recalls back in 1984, when 11-year-olds David Delgato and Omarr Hern\u00e1ndez were gunned down outside a McDonald\u2019s in San Ysidro, California. They were killed along with 19 others in one of the first modern mass shootings in the United States. This happened just days before McCarty\u2019s 10th birthday, and he recalls being unable to stop looking at the photos of the dead kids on the ground next to their bicycles. <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t stop looking at the photos, trying to understand not just the massacre but also who took these pictures and why,\u201d McCarty tells American Journal of Play. \u201cImagining being there with a camera made the event more accessible and therefore less scary.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although he likely didn\u2019t realize it at the time, when McCarty took his new birthday present, a Kodak 110 camera, out and pretended to be a photojournalist, he was processing trauma through grief. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo most outside observers, I was just playing with my toys,\u201d McCarty says. \u201cIn reality, I was filtering the world around me into smaller, safer bites and using the camera to reenact and explore everyday life with a degree of separation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Empowering Children Through Play <\/p>\n

This intricate connection between photography, art, toys, and play has persisted throughout McCarty\u2019s life and career, carrying forward to the work he does with War Toys. <\/p>\n

As he grew up and began working as a professional photographer, McCarty returned to the concept of working through life experiences through play and toys, particularly as it relates to war and military-like toys. In collaboration with mental health professionals in war zones and other artists, McCarty\u2019s series, \u201cWar Toys<\/a>,\u201d depicts horrific tragedies through children\u2019s eyes, which gives the stories all that much more power and depicts victim experiences and tragedies unlike anything else. <\/p>\n

\"AAn Iraqi boy draws a tank killing an ISIS fighter. | Photo from War Toys series by Brian McCarty<\/p>\n

Traveling around the world and seeing children process grief and terror through art and play has opened McCarty\u2019s eyes to many things, he says, not the least of which are the disparities in access to toys in different areas, but also how the form that play takes can inform children\u2019s views on war itself. <\/p>\n

\u201cWar Toys\u2019 entire toy industry program began with a seemingly simple idea: we should add a photojournalist to bags of little green army men,\u201d McCarty says. \u201cThat tiny change can create huge ripple effects \u2014 giving kids more play options than \u2018us versus them\u2019 while subtly promoting more peaceful ideals like freedom of the press.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pioneering Photographer Dickey Chapelle <\/p>\n

This ties directly into the latest addition to the War Toys\u2019 catalog: Dickey Chapelle. <\/p>\n

\"ADickey Chapelle <\/p>\n

Dickey Chapelle (1919-1965) was a combat photojournalist who began her career in World War II, working in Iwo Jima. Over the next two decades, \u201calways wearing her trademark pearl earrings and harlequin glasses,\u201d Chapelle covered conflicts around the world, including the Korean War and the Hungarian Revolution. During the Hungarian Revolution, Chapelle was even arrested by the Red Army for alleged espionage. <\/p>\n

Tragically, while on patrol with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam in 1965, she was killed by shrapnel from a booby-trap. Chapelle has the sad distinction of being the first female correspondent killed during the Vietnam War, and the first American woman photojournalist ever killed in action. <\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

She was an incredible photographer and a remarkable pioneer. <\/p>\n

She was buried with full military honors. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was one of us, and we will miss her,\u201d the Marines said in a statement in 1965. Dickey Chapelle was made an honorary Marine in 2017. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Dickey Chapelle figure, sculpted in exceptional detail by David Lea with the support of Chapelle\u2019s estate and the Wisconsin Historical Society, features Chapelle\u2019s trademark earrings and glasses. The 1:32 scale figure also includes the K-bar knife a Marine gave Chapelle at Iwo Jima, plus her Leica M3 and Leica IIIc cameras. She also carried a Nikonos-I camera for her \u201cWater War in Vietnam\u201d assignment for National Geographic, which is shown in the figure. <\/p>\n

Dickey Chapelle was a trailblazer, and now, through the figure for War Toys, children can play as her \u2014 a pioneering woman photographer who was associated with war in a vital noncombatant role. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chapelle\u2019s figure, along with other noncombatant war figures, including photojournalists, frontline workers, and aid workers, will be available worldwide as a set of plastic \u201cArmy men\u201d soldiers. War Toys is sharing the designs and molds with global toy-producing partners, ensuring they will be accessible to children worldwide. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will impact millions of children through established markets and distribution streams, fostering more positive play betters and a better understanding of war and the people who work for peace,\u201d War Toys says. <\/p>\n

\"TwelveDickey Chapelle joins 11 other noncombatant figures in Evac Ops. <\/p>\n

War Toys also has an associated board game, Evac Ops<\/a>, a co-op game for three players. Each assumes one of the three noncombat roles: photojournalist, rescuer, and aid worker, and works together to play war in a way that focuses on those who work for peace, not destruction. War is a sad, harsh reality for so many children around the world, and War Toys works hard to ensure that children can process their trauma through healthy play and art. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe photojournalist project has grown into a proof of concept for the program, and instead of one figure, there are now twelve. We\u2019ve created a series of noncombatant army men\u2014combat photojournalists, frontline rescuers, and aid workers. They are based on actual women and men known for their work on the frontlines<\/a> (with their support or support from their estates),\u201d McCarty explains. Through Evac Ops, made in collaboration with socially conscious game designer Nashra Balagamwala, \u201cchildren to work together as noncombatants to save civilians in a war zone, encouraging continued role play long after the game is won.\u201d <\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> War Toys, Brian McCarty <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"War Toys has worked with the estate of the late, great photojournalist Dickey Chapelle to create a remarkably…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1037,648,1032,184519,184520,6802,1033,171,5039,184521,25249,67,132,68,131,184522],"class_list":{"0":"post-386653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-arttherapy","12":"tag-brianmccarty","13":"tag-combat","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-play","17":"tag-playtherapy","18":"tag-toys","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-war","23":"tag-wartoys"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115568534955746111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}