I mentioned in a comment on this blog a few months ago that I still had some Action Man figures from the 1960s, so I'm grateful to Kid for this chance to say a bit more about them. The four that I still have are pictured above - they're lying flat on their backs because the internal elastic has become so loose they can't stand up on their own. Apart from that, though, they're in pretty good condition given how much I used to play with them. One of the brown-haired figures is missing a foot, and the yellow-haired one is minus both hands, but otherwise they've survived the years pretty well.
As you can see, these are all "first generation" Action Men with painted-on hair - originally bought circa 1966-67 when I used to play with them constantly with my best friend of the time, who was the same age as me and lived in the same village. We were continually swapping toys between us, so the ones I ended up keeping weren't necessarily mine to start with. My own first Action Man was the yellow-haired one (who, as you can see, quickly got stereotyped as a German), though the oldest toy in the photo is the black-haired one on the left, which originally belonged to my friend and subsequently came to me in a swap.
At one point I also had an Action Man "Talking Commander", which I never really liked, as well as a Tommy Gunn - an Action Man clone from a different manufacturer (Pedigree), which I also didn't like much. I suspect I ended up swapping one or other of them for that black-haired Action Man, which was always my favourite.
Technically, in fact, that one isn't an Action Man at all but a G.I. Joe - the original American toy from which the first generation Action Man was copied. You can see this by comparing the inscription on the black-haired figure with one of the others:
The first one reads: "G.I. Joe reg. T.M. copyright 1964 by Hasbro (R) Patent Pending Made in Canada", while the second one says "Made in England by Palitoy under licence from Hasbro (C) 1964".
As discussed recently on this blog, Action Men weren't cheap - the equivalent of over £30 in today's money. But many years later my mother told me that, after initial misgivings about "boys playing with dolls", she and my father decided it was the best money they'd ever spent on me, because I played with them constantly from age 8 right up until I was 11 or 12. By that time I was too old for toys as such, but (with a new and more sophisticated circle of friends after starting high school), they became more like today's modern action figures for adult collectors, being put on display with different uniforms and equipment. I even remember adding stubble to one of the brown-haired figures to make a "Sgt Fury" lookalike!
Back in their early days, however, the figures really got their boots dirty fighting endless back-garden battles. Here's a couple of photographs from that era:
As you can see from the second of the above garden pictures, I used to have an Action Man "frogman" outfit in those days, complete with wetsuit and scuba tank. None of that's survived, but I do still have a few miscellaneous accessories - of which the most interesting (to me) is the spacesuit pictured below. The silver fabric is reminiscent of the iconic Mercury spacesuit (1961-63), but I think it's actually meant to be a Gemini suit (which would have been bang up to date at the time I bought it), because it includes a hand-held manoeuvring gun like the one used by Gemini astronauts on spacewalks.
Many thanks for posting this, Kid. As always, your adeptness with formatting makes it look very professional. I'll look forward to seeing any other comments that come in!
ReplyDeleteAs will I, AM. Surely everybody had an Action Man when they were a kid so it'll be interesting reading about their memories of them.
ReplyDeleteNice trip down memory lane Andrew. My first "Action Man ( dark hair) was also a G.I Joe, my next one was a brown haired sailor , then a yellow haired Pilot in an orange jump suit. I remember being a tad annoyed he never had the pilots helmet as he was shown on the box with, but my gran bought me that uniform later . I remember getting the scuba outfit and nearly tearing my Action mans legs off trying to take it off as it was so tight. I remember scanning the Action Man fold-out sales manuals with my brother looking at outfits and accessories to save up to purchase or to ask for as presents, great days. Sadly I have nothing left of my Action man collection, except great memories.
ReplyDeleteAnd memories are great, even if that's all we have, McS. However, as you know from your re-acquired comics, memories are even better when we have a tangible reminder to make them clearer and closer. I'm sure AM will respond to your comment when he sees it.
ReplyDeleteI never had an Action Man but I did have some Star Trek and Planet Of The Apes action figures. I might have had Space: 1999 action figures too but I'm not certain about that. I remember my gran saying to me "I didn't know you played with dolls" and I protested "They're NOT dolls!!"
ReplyDeleteAnd you were right, CJ - they're NOT dolls. Dolls are figures with extremely limited points of articulation, whereas Action Man had 20 moveable parts. Curiously, it claimed 21 points in the comicbook ads for Hasbro's G.I. Joe, but I still can count only 20.
ReplyDeleteThanks to McScotty and Colin for their comments. Starting with Colin - the only Action Man sized media tie-in I remember having was an "Alan" from Thunderbirds. That really was a "doll", in that it had stiff arms and legs, so you couldn't really do anything with it.
ReplyDeleteI heartily agree with McScotty about the pleasures of looking through catalogues in search of future goodies to buy or ask for. And he raises another point I didn't mention, which is the original outfits the figures came with. The two earliest ones shown (black hair and yellow hair) were definitely both soldiers. You can see the original uniforms in the picture, one on the black-haired figure and the other (with an additional field jacket and other equipment) on one of the brown-haired ones. But I definitely had the sailor and an orange-suited airman as well. I'd guess those were the two brown-haired figures, unless they got changed in a childhood swap.
I don't have the original sailor or airman suits any more. But I do remember making some modifications to the orange overalls, putting them on backwards, adding a home-made saucepan as a helmet, and calling it "Forbush Man" from Marvel's Not Brand Echh comics!
A Forbush Man action figure - Marvel missed a trick there, methinks, AM.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post.Happy memories indeed.Managed to swap some comics(sacrilege!), for a damaged Action Man Centurian tank and a smaller scout patrol vehicle.Loads of fun and yes back gardens were the perfect backdrop.Was there also a figure with a beard?Possibly Royal Navy!
ReplyDeleteYes, TF, there was one with a flocked 'hair' beard. Never had that one, but I saw it around somewhere. I used to play with my 2nd-hand Action Men (and Tommy Gunn, as well as cheaper action figures) in the back garden of one of my former homes. I'm glad I got photos of it a few years back (long after moving out) as the current owner has since decimated it.
ReplyDeleteThanks to FF follower for his comments! Having done a quick online search, it looks like the first bearded figures were a sailor and an explorer who made their appearance circa 1970/71, a bit after my Action Man collecting days. There were a few vehicles around in the 1960s, but I never owned any myself. But I think the friend I mentioned (whose parents were better off than mine) had an Action Man jeep - I mean, I know he had a large jeep toy, but I'm not sure if it was an official Actyion Man one.
ReplyDeleteI never had any of the vehicles either AM. The only ones that would probably have appealed to me would likely be the lunar module and the helicopter, though I can't recall if I ever saw them at the time. Probably just as well as they'd have been beyond my price range.
ReplyDeleteHad many an Action Man and uniforms! My favorites were the military ones . They looked quite keen standing on the shelf. Alas now long gone. Wish I had kept them.
ReplyDeleteThere's many a thing from childhood I wish I'd kept, PS, which is why I've spent around the last 40 years of my life replacing as much of it as I can.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Phil S that, at the time in question (around 8 to 10 years) I was utterly fascinated with the Action Man military uniforms and equipment. And looking back, they were all very accurate, which meant that in a sense they were educational as well as fun to play with.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if those who talk about 'toxic masculinity' would include young boys' fascination with military-themed toys, AM? Any views on that?
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago I learned that it's best not to talk about politics online, Kid! But I will say that the toys in those days - such as doll's houses for girls and toy soldiers for boys - were undoubtedly much more polarizing than they are today. It's probably healthier that both sexes now tend to play with the same kind of toys, video games etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a shame that the subject of toys now seems to have been politicised, AM. Back in 'those days', girls and boys got given the kind of toys they had because that's what they wanted and that's what they asked for - I don't think it was an attempt to 'polarize' them. The modern agenda of blurring (or eliminating) the natural distinctions between genders is a 'woke' idea in my opinion. Crazy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that's not what prompted my question. I just wondered whether you thought that military-themed toys could be considered one of the reasons as to why males are perceived by some as being more 'aggressive'. Wasn't thinking of it in 'politicized' terms. Not to worry.
I think we're actually saying much the same thing, but interpreting it in a different way. I was thinking that in those days (and back all the way to Victorian times) "society" tried to mould boys to grow up to be soldiers, and girls to grow up to be housewives, by encoraging them to play with completely different types of toys. Whereas I think you're saying that boys have an inborn inclination to be soldiers and girls to be - if not housewives, at least more domestically and family-oriented. Thinking about it some more, you're probably right that the latter is the more fundamental thing.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I hadn't actually considered Victorian times, only reflecting on my own experience of childhood in the '60s, but that's an interesting point, AM. Did boys' love of toy guns and toy soldiers come from Victorian fathers trying to mould their sons, and girls' love of dolls come from mothers trying to prepare their daughters for motherhood? I can't say yes or no, 'cos I don't know, but I suppose it's natural for each gender of parent to pass their own interests on to their offspring, whether unconsciously or not. Or, as you allow for, maybe that's just the way kids are. It's an interesting subject for exploration I suppose - on a wider scale than just the confines of this 'ere blog o' mine.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. Well this post stirred up a few memories, which unsurprisingly are very similar to other commenters. I was fascinated by Action Man. I remember there was a stop-motion TV sequence on a BBC children's show (either Tom-Tom or Vision On) that really captivated my attention. I think it was designed to subtly show the futility of war, but had the opposite effect on this impressionable lad. It made me want to animate my one Action Man on 8mm (which I later did).
ReplyDeleteI was first given a Tommy Gunn for my 8th birthday , but despite it being a superior toy, I really wanted an Action Man. I believe my first action man was the soldier (with dark brown painted hair) at the next Christmas. The next AM was a freebie from collecting 21 stars from various accessory packets. That one had tan coloured hair, but being a "second" not all the joints were flexible. Then I got the Action Man sailor (like McScotty being very disappointed to find AM in an Orange jumpsuit), and finally a talking action man that had been broken in two and dropped in the waste basket at Junior School; I took it home and my Dad mended it, along with the speaking mechanism. That one had brown hair, but I painted it yellow gloss. I never had the Jeep (my cousins had that) nor the Space Capsule (my pal Steve had that).
I do remember getting given sets of Action Man clothes which were perhaps knock-offs (they were in non-descript packaging from seaside giftshops), or perhaps they were just seconds from Hasbro themselves?
All of my interest in Action Man disappeared when American comics commanded my attention around age 12 or 13. But I still have a few bits and pieces (a pistol, a hand, a grenade, a brochure, etc) that I'm hanging on to.
Actually, reading that, B, I'm almost jealous of your childhood - it sounds great. I've now got well-over 70 'action figures', though I forget how many of them are actually Action Men. I didn't get my first brand-new Action Man until 1984, when I was 25. What a big wean, eh? I love comments like yours and I'm sure Andrew will, too.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's a great comment, Baggsey. When you talk about "knock-offs ... in non-descript packaging from seaside giftshops" I remember the sort of thing you mean. There were very cheap Action Man sized dolls called, rather ridiculously, "Combat Johnnie" which had accessories you could buy as cheap alternatives to the real thing. I call them dolls because (like the Thunderbirds "Alan" doll I mentioned earlier) they only had four points of articulation, at the shoulders and hips. That made them useless for playing with, but they could serve as "Germans" whose only purpose was to get shot and fall down.
ReplyDeleteI'd call those 'knock-offs' dolls as well, AM, but some had more points of articulation than just 4. Some had jointed elbows and knees as well as the limited movement in the hips and shoulders, and the hands turned at the wrists. Had loads of them, bought usually from Woolworth's and also end-of-isle displays in Safeway's.
ReplyDelete