Yeah, I would have assumed that the volumes purchased by kids outweighed collectors by a ton and so the peak would be in the late 90s to coincide with Toy Story 1 and 2
My guess is the vast majority of those were/are cheap, generic, Army Men types, usually clones of clones of some 1960's Airfix sculpts. You could buy those in large bags in toy stores in the 1980's and these days you can get literal buckets with hundreds of them online. Much cheaper than the hobby boxes.
I remember as a child I managed to convince my parents to buy a box or two of real Airfix figures in some hobby store, but the bulk of my old collection are generic no-name clones.
Army men came in various sizes, and one of the most common one was always close to 1:72, or at least that has been the case since the 1980's.
I remember one of my friends had larger, maybe 40mm army men, but my collection was only the smaller size ~1:72/22mm. Same sculpts and colors. Various random no name toy brands.
The green army men of Toy Story and (for example) the Army Men video games were (searches) 1:35. The ones that were that shade of green (or a particular shade of tan—gotta have the other side) and in those poses with those exact sculpts, that every toy aisle or toy store had (in the ‘80s and ‘90s, in the US) even if they did also have others.
Can’t edit, so self-reply: the legitimate current producer of this style appears to be called “timmee toys” and a search turns up a whole bunch of exactly the army men of that type, plus a ton of vehicles and such made from the same type of plastic that look familiar from decades past.
