Action Man was a multi-jointed action figure who came with a whole range of cool weapons, vehicles and other accessories. The basic figure, first released in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy was officially a licensed version of Hasbro's American G.I Joe for three years, at least up until 1969. G.I Joe wasn't really a competitor in the UK, however, as it went head-to-head against Tommy Gunn, manufactured by Pedigree Toys, the makers of Sindy.
The basic Action Man had a short and fuzzy haircut (real fuzz not painted on) and signalled the first action figure to include a flocked hairpiece rather than a pure plastic paint head. Later on he also had a pair of y-fronts and a pair of "Eagle Eyes" that you could move left and right with a little lever sticking out the back of his head.
Like G.I Joe Action Man also had a prominent scar on his cheek. The first Action Man figures came in three different varieties; Action Soldier, Action Sailor and Action Pilot. All of these different service types were available in four hair colours: Blonde, Red, Brown and Black and were kitted up in full Second World War uniform. All of the early Action Man figures came bundled with a thin steel dogtag similar to G.I Joe.
There were various different incarnations of Action Man, some of the earlier models had rubber hands which perished quite easily and the fingers dropped off. Some had bigger muscles than others, some had scars, some were blonde and some had voiceboxes with a pull string.
You can still get Action Man figures today but they don't bear much resemblance to the early figures.
Do You Remember Action Man?
Do You Remember Action Man?
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daveyuk1
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I remember Bulletman. It was when action man got kinda silly. Going from real down to earth sabateurs and helicopter pilots and soldiers and stuff to superheroes.....nah! Didn't go for that! Had the Helicopter Pilot and the Soldier (Jim and Neil by the way) along with tanks and stuff, they sure don't make 'em like they did. Kids these days have absolutely no idea :)
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ziggy1a1
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My main memory of Action Man is of me dragging my Dad over to the local park to throw my AM up as high as possible dressed in his paratrooper gear to see him "float" (plummet more like) safely back to earth.Happy, happy times!!!!!
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urtoy
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I remember dressing them in desert fatigues, and standing them in front of an electric heater, just to see how they handled the heat. In the end I was left with 2 blobs or rubber at the end of his arms, they looked like pre formed boxing gloves. I think he ended his days, after a bin-bag parachute accident, wrapped around our neighbours phone line.
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Action Man
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I hate to admit it but one of mine succumbed to execution by airgun. What other grisly ends did Action Man meet ?
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JimboCC
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I don't know why but when I got to my mid teens I can remember building a tower block out of cardboard boxes, about 6 feet high with windows cut out etc and setting light to it with 6 or so action men in. I was the fireman and kind of put the fire out. A few charred and scarred action men spelled the end of my affair with the action figures..
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Action Man
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I've still got my talking Action Man. His other command was "Enemy in sight, range one thousand" My favourite was "Mortar attack...dig in"
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spacejoon
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I had a talking action man, you pulled his dog tag out to one of about 5 black marks on the string and depending which mark, he said a different thing. I can remember a couple.
1) "Action Man patrol... Fall in"
2) "Hold your fire until I get the order"
3) "THIS IS YOUR COMMANDER SPEAKING" (My favourite one for some reason!!
4) "Mortar attack...DIG IN!"
5) "Volunteer needed for special mission"
I left it at my cousin's house and they snapped his leg off. I tried to mend it and the voice box came out and that was the end. However, I did see inside, the voice box was a tiny record player with this needle on a tiny see through yellow record. Cool!
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littlepmt
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my younger brother had 'atomic man. the eye used to light up and was supposed to be for sending morse code. a copy of the code came in the box. also you could rotate his hand 360 degrees. the coolest action man to get was the diver because he came with a plastic shark in his set
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eagle eye 361
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I had the bearded AM who I always put as the German for my cool eagle eyed AM to attack...he always lost. Zip lines from your bedroom must have been mandatory!
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eagle eye 361
on
My favorite AM toy was the assault boat with working outboard motor. I still have all my old 70s AM in a starsky & Hutch bag in my cupboard altough the heads have fallen off most of the figures. I used to get a new special operations bag every summer as a treat...does anyone else remember them?
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