Action Man vehicles

[AeroplaneDriver]

I too was part of the 70s Action Man fad.  We had a big battleground in our back garden and all the kids on our street would come for some epic battles back there.  I had 3-4 Action Men, one with a beard.  I also had The Intruder, a kind of brutish bad guy with gripping arms.  As far as vehicles...I didn't have that many.   Just the Jeep and the helicopter backpack type thing. I think I was too interested in buying uniforms and weapons so never saved up enough pocket money for vehicles.  But I did get the Training Tower for Christmas one year which was one of my absolute favorite toys as a kid. 

[Weaver]

if i remember right the one with the beard in the uk was in a navy uniform with a white submarine jumper.

Yes. The other big theme for the beared ones was 'explorer', particularly Arctic/Antarctic Explorer. Given how doggedly they pushed the explorer thing, it's a bit of a shame that they never really brough out any vehicles to go with it. Some kind of snow-cat would seem easy enough to do.

[AeroplaneDriver]

This thread got me searching online for old Action Man catalogs. Lots of nostalgia browsing through them.  I forgot I also had the Sea Wolf submarine. 

[Mossie]

Being in North America we had G.I. Joe, the original action doll

As NARSES2 mentioned in another thread I'm one of the babies of the UK bunch and young enough to remember it coming full circle.

Action Man (and GI Joe) started to wain  in the 80's as Star Wars came in. Palitoy brought out Action Force with very similar figures and vehicles. GI Joe followed a similar path but with figures that were brighter, more exciting and had more articulation.  The UK introduced these figures into the range mid-80's.

[McColm]

I had the deep sea diver with weighted boots and the Bionic Action Man which could fit on the Evil Kenevil wind-up motor bike toy which was great doing stunts one handed.
My mum like so many mums at the time made uniforms and my stepfather made a watchtower.
I passed my Action Men onto my little sister, the motor bike and side car went to a friend who took the sidecar off. He turned the sidecar into a boat,by removing the outer wheel.

[lenny100]

i think i see a group build here

[Weaver]

So looking at all this, I had a couple of idea for Action Man vehicles that never were. I think these were doable using the production techniques and materials available in the 1970s. Whether you could sell them at a viable price is another issue, but I don't think they're implausible, given the things that were produced and did sell.


1. Bren Carrier

There are two ways to approach this. If you want a reasonably 'realistic' one, then I think it would have to be made from clip-together injection-moulded plastic like the Landrover. The upside of this is that it allows for sharp detail and intricate shapes, the downside is that it's fragile. You'd definitely want to cheat the tracks by making the wheel system much simpler than the real thing though.

The other approach would be to abandon realism and make a generic 'tracked carrier' that could have a blow-moulded body (much tougher, but soft detail). This might have a body a bit like a miniature, open-topped Stalwart. Two crew would sit deep in the front hull, while at the back, the load bed would sit above the tracks, the implication being that the engine is underneath it. This would probably be cheaper to produce and more flexible to play with, given that the layout of a real Bren carrier is awkward enough in real life.


2. 'Warthog' multi-role APC

This is based LOOSLEY on the Panhard M3 VTT:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panhard_M3



The Action Man version would have a blow-moulded body, with three identical square cutouts in the sides and rear, and two identical circular ones in tandem in the roof. You'd have to tweak the shape of the M3 a little to make the roof flat, the side doors bigger and the rear door single-piece (the real M3 has twin rear doors). Other features would be a mounting point on the front somewhere and spacer between the front wheels and the body (you'll see why later). The same injection-moulded door frame and door would fit in all three side cutouts, while two of the same gun-ring moulding with hatch and pintle-mount would go in the roof holes. The doors would have clips on the inside and out to hold various things, and likewise the door frames would have slots at top and bottom.

The basic 'APC' version would have three plain doors and two pintle-mounts with one HMG and one LMG. You then sell 'Mission Kits' separately which convert it to various roles (these vary in size and price):

Command Kit:
Fabric/plastic 'cloche' tent which attaches to the rear door frame when open, and folds up to hang around it when closed.
Radio and map table (single moulding) that hangs on the inside of the rear door so that it's inside the tent when it's open.
Plastic disc that fits in the rear roof hole, with two telescopic poles, one a radio aerial, the other with a small radar dish on top.
Commander markings that clip on the outside of the side doors.

Missile kit:
New rear 'turret' has front and side shields (the open hatch forms the back face of the 'turret').
Spring-loaded missile launchers on each side shield.
Control panel and sight on the inside of the front shield.
Racks that hang inside the doors and hold extra missiles.
Missileer markings that clip on the outside of the side and/or rear doors.

Engineer kit:
Dozer-blade that clips onto the front axle inboard of the wheels and is held up by a catch clipped ot the front mounting point.
Crane that replaces the rear gun ring.
Tools on a rack that hangs inside the rear door.
Jacks that hang inside the side doors and extend to brace the hull when the crane's in use.
Engineer markings that clip on the outside of the side and/or rear doors.

Recovery kit:
Winch that clips onto the front mounting point.
Towing hook that clips onto the bottom of the rear door frame.
Towing cable that hangs inside the rear door.
Tool racks that hang inside the side doors.
Mechanic markings that clip on the outside of the side and/or rear doors.

Rifle Racks:
Rifle racks that clip inside any of the doors. The racks are generic, with a boxed in bottom and an elastic strap to hold the weapons steady. They're sold individually with various contents:
- Empty rack
- Anti-tank set with two launch units and four tubes that clip to them (disposable ATRL style)
- Anti-aircraft set with two launch units and four tubes that clip to them (Stinger style)

Door badges:
Sets of markings for various units that clip onto the outside of the doors.

[Nick]

Another thing I remember is you could buy new uniforms and outfits for him.  I occasionally got these but my mum would knit and sew them for me from patterns in Women's Weekly. She'd offer them as prizes at the village tombolas, went down well!

My gran would knit outfits for my Action Man using patterns from her Knitting Magazine! I had a cricket kit and a red football kit for him at one point.
https://flashbak.com/knit-one-purl-one-kill-one-1970s-emasculating-action-man-knitting-patterns-2-17504/

Thankfully we never got to this point    https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/93273694/vintage-action-man-or-ken-dolls-knitting

[Weaver]

Heh - now the biker leads to thoughts of politically incorrect Action Man figures and accessories:

Hippy Action Man, complete with bong

'70s Biker Action Man, complete with Iron Cross badges, chains and knives

Riot Control Action Man, in authentic Northern Ireland gear with a riot shield, baton, rubber bullet gun, CS gas grenades, etc...

Freedom Fighter Action Man, with suitably vague 'ethnic' clothes, choice of straw hat or 'wrapped scarf' headdress and an AK-47.

Skinhead Action Man: unmodified figure, white T-shirt & blue jeans.

Mod Action Man: 'authentic' scooter with lots of mirrors (real chrome!), zoot suit, parka with an RAF roundel on the back with THE WHERE printed over it.

[McColm]

Does anyone know what scale the Action Man was and his accessories?

[Weaver]

Does anyone know what scale the Action Man was and his accessories?

Usually quoted at 1/6th isn't it?

[Rheged]

Heh - now the biker leads to thoughts of politically incorrect Action Man figures and accessories:

Hippy Action Man, complete with bong

Surely a transcendentally meditating hippy figure smoking "certain substances"  would qualify as an  " Inaction Man"

[jcf]

Surely biker's outfit would need to be knitted from 1mm black leather cord.

https://www.rings-things.com/Products/Goat-Skin-Leather-Cord/Leather-Cord-1mm-100yd-Black.html

[jcf]

Does anyone know what scale the Action Man was and his accessories?

Usually quoted at 1/6th isn't it?

Yep, and there's a subset of modellers who work in the scale.
Tanks, armoured cars, soft-skins and various accessories including
light and heavy MGs - I've seen a couple of lovely Lewis guns, etc., etc.
Eye-watering prices for the vehicles, which is to be expected.

[Mossie]

There's some very talented stuff going on that scale, many modellers resculpt and repaint the heads and make their own clothes and accessories.

I've got a figure modelling book that shows some figures done by a modeller named Lee Dobson. He has a NI paratrooper similar to what Harold mentions, I first thought it was a photo.