Action Man

Seeing as I posted Action Man fiction last week, this week I thought I’d post some Action Man fact.  And the fact is, I don’t know that much about Action Man.  I’ve seen them in books and in photos – a friend has an amazing collection of vintage figures that I hope one day to see in person – and I’ve come across vintage dolls at fairs but haven’t wanted to pay the prices asked for them.  And that’s about it for vintage issues.  However, I do own a couple of the newer releases.  I’d like to tell you that I found them both at an op shop and wouldn’t buy one new, but I did.  I’m a doll nerd, he was cheap. I was curious, he was mine.  And although I do quite like these newer guys, there are issues.

Action Man was released by the British company Palitoy in 1966, and was basically the British version of GI Joe – Hasbro, GI Joe’s parent company and Palitoy were both apparently owned by the General Mills Company.  There are a couple of websites (see below) that have details of the older figures (yeah, they’re for boys, so they’re action figures, not dolls), and the book ‘British Teenage Dolls 1956-1984’ by Frances Baird has a brilliant chapter on them.  These older dolls (oops!) look to have amazing poseability, some talk and some have the somewhat freaky, moving ‘Eagle Eyes’.  Their military costuming and accessories are just mind blowing in their quality and detail.

And that brings me to my dolls.  Not so mind blowing.  Not at all really.  Although both do have interesting faces with a lot of character.  One of my dolls is marked 1993, but I found him at the op shop for a couple of dollars, so I’m not sure exactly what year he was issued.  I’m assuming he’s wearing his original outfit, it all fits perfectly and the tee shirt has the Action Man logo on the sleeve.  It’s actually a pretty nice fashion of jeans – fashionably ripped, but slightly Harry Highpants-ish – tee shirt, boots and a hard plastic flak jacket-looking thing with a police badge.  If anyone knows more info on him, please let me know.  He has flocked hair and a tilting head joint.  I actually really like his face.  He reminds me a bit of Hymie from Get Smart or the crazy intelligence officer in M.A.S.H, Colonel Flagg.  I even like the scar on his face (perhaps because I spent most of my younger years with one too).  He’s not terribly poseable, his legs are vinyl and bend at the knee, but not very far.  His arms are also vinyl and bend at the elbow with a twist upper arm joint and Action Man logo ‘tattoo’.  He has huge hands, shaped to hold accessories.  His hip section is blue – resembling undies – and connects to a twisting, rotating waist joint.  His torso is very muscular with very pronounced nipples (WT?), while his back looks like it’s about to burst with Gremlins.  No way to get muscles like that without some serious steroid abuse.  And they say Barbie creates an unreal body image.  Hmmm.

Dolljunk’s amazing Action Man repaint – last photo.

My second doll I bought new. He was under $10 at a toy sale, so I couldn’t resist.  He’s Action Man Street Patrol from 2001, and very different from the earlier guy.  He came with a huge rocket launchy, gun thing, so Heaven only knows what streets he’s patrolling if he needs fire power like that. He has a new body, now made from hard plastic with jointed ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbows, upper arms and shoulders, making him slightly more poseable than the earlier edition.  His tee shirt is now moulded/painted on, complete with logo on one sleeve. He’s not as muscular as the earlier figure, his body shape is more realistically sculpted (but still pretty unrealistic).  This version has moulded hair and a new face, still with scar but unfortunately he’s lost his tilting head joint.  He now looks much younger, his face is longer and more angular.  A friend has repainted one of these dolls, and I have to say, I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  If ever I come across another of these, it’s going straight off to John for a makeover.  You can see more of the repaint here.  His fashion is now just a pair of cheap black shorts, complete with handcuffs, and huge black boots.  They’re so huge, he looks like he’s stuck his feet into novelty plant pots.  They’re really hard to get off too, almost as hard as removing a doll’s head.  They seem to have a flange of plastic inside that the foot gets stuck on.  I had to heat them with a hairdryer to remove them, and then cut some of the plastic away so hopefully next time they’ll be easier to get off.

I actually think these two look like father and son.  Perhaps being Action Man is a bit like being The Phantom, it’s a mantle handed down through the generations.  Maybe one day, I’ll find some of the older dolls, but I’m happy with the dolls I have. They make great bystanders in dioramas and add a little variation to my collection.

More on Action Man can be found at http://www.actionman.com/ and http://www.actionmanhq.co.uk/pages/history.html.

(C) Jennifer B – All content is subject to copyright and may not be re-published or reproduced without written permission.