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| ACTION MAN copyright HASBRO |
Above are three Action Man figures, the one on the left from 2018, the middle one from 2016, and the one on the right from 2022. The lefthand figure is often referred to as the T-Rex Action Man because of his stunted arms, and to be honest, despite my previous protestations that AM is not a doll, because of this figure's severely limited points of articulation, it is actually nothing more than that. The elbows, waist, wrists and ankles don't move, the head doesn't go up or down, and although internal joints in the knees allow the legs to bend, it's only by around a few millimetres, so the joints are rendered useless for all practical purposes.
The middle figure is the same as the classic 1966 version, though incorporates the flocked hair and gripping hands of '70s AM (which were first introduced by Palitoy, not Hasbro), making it a composite of the best of the '60s and '70s. One flaw I've found is that the legs don't stay in position when raised in a kicking gesture (perhaps the elastic isn't tight enough), but as this incarnation is made for adult collectors and not for children (the box actually declares this), it perhaps doesn't much matter. Why did I buy a footballer? It was the only version in stock in the shop from which I purchased it a few years back.
The righthand figure is the latest Action Man available, being released only in October of this year. It's claimed that it has 30 points of articulation, but I can't see as many as that. Depending on how you count, it seems to have only between 20-25, but the arms and legs are far more poseable than any previous version. What lets it down slightly is that the head can't really be posed looking up or down beyond a millimetre or two either way (so no sharpshooter posing), and despite having two joints in the torso, the waist doesn't move much up or down either.
However, it's a great-looking toy display item manufactured by Art + Science (under license from Hasbro), but I'm unsure as to whether they're still active as the item isn't listed on their site, and, despite having a 'contact' option, nor do they appear to respond to any enquiries. I had to buy the newest figure through an online shopping site (Booghe), and it was sent in a box an inch shorter than AM's box, which resulted in some damage to it, though the figure was unscathed. I'm currently awaiting a replacement box which will hopefully be in pristine condition.
Anyway, just thought I'd let you know that ol' Action Man is still alive and well in the 21st century.
