Early Action Man 'painted head' figure in US Marine's garb.

Action Man British WW II Infantryman wearing service respirator (gas mask) and armed with a Sten gun.

Action Man close up of head in peaked cap. The famously distinctive scar was in fact an attempt to protect the doll from being copied (it not being possible to copyright the human form). Any unauthorised reproductions appearing on the market featuring the scar would have been a clear breach of copyright.

Action Man Lifeguard and Blues & Royals figures, from Palitoy’s Ceremonial Range, 1970–76.

Four very collectable Action Men dolls - a Japanese soldier, Australian jungle fighter, British infantryman and German 'Storm Trooper' dating from the late 1960s. The figures are standing in front of a rare 1973 vintage 'Command HQ', a scale building of pre-printed ply construction that could be easily slotted together. These were often used as store display items.

Action Man Special Operations SAS Commander figure inspired by the Iranian embassy siege of May 1980.

Forty years ago, in January 1966, ‘Operation Action Man’ began when he first reported for duty at the 13th British Toy Fair in Brighton. His invasion was carefully co-ordinated by Palitoy, a Leicestershire based company, and his mission was simply to infiltrate and conquer the UK toy market. This task he accomplished with remarkable ease and such was his impact that, following his launch, he was awarded the National Association of Toy Retailers ‘Toy of the Year’ Award.

He was a huge financial risk for Palitoy, and nobody at that time could ever have imagined that, forty years on, he would still be so popular with boys and girls of all ages. Over the years he has become a much loved household name and there are not many people who have not heard of Action Man. Sadly, in Action Man’s fortieth year of faithful service he has once and for all been honourable discharged and is now no longer to be manufactured. However, his appeal to collectors of all ages still lives on and he is widely collected, with original figures and accessories being highly sought after. To understand his phenomenal success and popularity forty years on one needs to look at his history and how he took the toy world by storm to become an international icon.

His amazing story begins in 1964 when his brother, GI Joe, first appeared at the American International Toy Show in New York City, exhibited by Hassenfeld Bros., Inc., Hasbro, Inc. He was an immediate success and when the first four figures produced, Action Soldier, Sailor, Marine and Pilot, went on sale in US toyshops stocks sold out the same day. This came as a shock to everyone, as to reach this stage had not been easy. Overcoming the stigma of a ‘doll for boys’ in 1960s America had required very clever marketing from Hasbro, who had taken the risk and rose to the challenge.

From day one, Hasbro never looked upon GI Joe as a ‘doll’ but rather as a 12" (30cm) tall fighting figure/soldier, with twenty articulated movable joints which could be posed in various positions. He had character as well as being a heroic man of action – not only in his role of, marine, soldier, sailor, pilot and later adventurer, space explorer, etc. but also in the way he could move.

The idea.
The idea of producing a soldier/military-style action figure for boys was first thought of by Larry Reiner who developed games for the Ideal Toy Company. He had taken note of the amazing success of Mattel’s Barbie and Ken dolls and, as Ken was not popular with boys, he saw an opening in the market. Larry put this novel idea to Ideal and was immediately turned down. Luckily, he met Stan Weston, a Licensing Agent, at a toy fair who saw potential in the idea. It was decided that Stan would put forward the ‘action figure’ idea to toy companies he visited and if successful then they, Larry and Stan, would share any profits 50/50. Stan Weston had his work cut out for the reasons listed above, and when he approached Don Levine, the Creative Director of Hasbro, he had a tough job convincing him that the idea had potential. After many discussions, and numerous doubts, Don Levine eventually presented the idea to Hasbro’s President, Merrill Hassenfeld. Initially, Merrill had serious reservations, but still gave the green light for the project allowing GI Joe to be born. Considering that their company had lost a huge amount of money with the recently launched, and failed, ‘Flubber’ toy it was a huge gamble. Such was their financial loss with ‘Flubber’ that they had to borrow millions of dollars to set up production of GI Joe figures.

During the development of GI Joe one of Hasbro’s biggest obstacles to overcome was how to stop other toy manufactures copying their idea, as obviously a ‘doll’ or the human form cannot be patented or trademarked. It was decided that a distinctive mark was needed so GI Joe would be instantly recognised and any patent infringement easily spotted. The scar to the right hand side of GI Joe’s face served this purpose and added even more character to his already rugged ‘man of action’ looks. In this way he was protected in the event of potential patent infringement.

Conquest in the UK, defeat in the US
During a visit to the USA, Palitoy’s sales director Hal Belton saw GI Joe exhibited at a toy fair and brought one back to the UK as a gift for his grandson. The figure provided so many hours of fun that Hal Belton approached Palitoy’s Managing Director, Miles Fletcher, with a view to marketing and selling the toy in the UK. Some research was needed, so Miles obtained further GI Joe samples from the USA and gave these to Palitoy employees’ children to guage their reaction to the new toy. The response from the employees’ children was very favourable, leading to Palitoy approaching Hasbro, Inc. with a view to obtaining a license so they could sell the figure in the UK.

However, the name GI Joe was not at all suited to the UK market, being too American and military in nature. A new, more suitable, name needed to be coined. Les Cooke, the production Manager of Palitoy, suggested the name Action Man following the success of the UK television series ‘Danger Man,’ which starred Patrick McGoohan.

The assault begins
Palitoy invested a large amount of money at their Coalville factory to make tooling and moulds in preparation of the launch of Action Man. Initially Action Man, his equipment and accessories were straightforward copies of GI Joe, starting with Action Soldier, Pilot and Sailor. Everything was now ready, or so they thought, and in 1966 Action Man’s first, 1966-1969 painted haired period, assault began on the UK toy market when he was exhibited at the 13th British Toy Fair in Brighton. Just as had happened in the USA his instant popularity took Palitoy by surprise and stocks in toyshops sold out almost instantly. Palitoy could not manufacture figures quickly enough and had to import several thousand GI Joes to fill the gap. These figures were all repackaged upon arrival in the UK and the only visible difference was the position of the stamp to the rear of the figures. GI Joe figures had a stamp on their right buttock whereas Action Man had a stamp to his back.

The Golden Age
The period 1970-1976 saw Action Man building on the firm foundations laid in the first period and he grew from strength to strength. Bill Pugh, one of Palitoy’s designers and often referred to as the ‘father of Action Man’, was responsible for the toy between the years 1966-1979. His Research and Development team knew that they could not be complacent as the figure needed to keep improving in order to appeal to the toy buying public. Bill and his team were responsible for taking Action Man to a whole new level with their revolutionary new ideas. It was not only new outfits and accessories which were being developed, but Action Man’s appearance underwent some changes as well.

Fuzzy hair and gripping hands
The first of these new ideas took form in 1970 when Action Man acquired a more realistic ‘crew cut’ hairstyle or as it is also commonly know ‘flock’ or ‘fuzzy’ hair. For the first time, Action Man’s appearance differed from his US brother with flock hair eventually being adopted by GI Joe ‘across the pond.’ The origins of the flock sprayed hair came after Bill Pugh had seen an episode of Tomorrow’s World in which a process known as flocking was featured. Flocking involved spraying nylon fibres on to a wall for acoustic purpose. Bill contacted the BBC who put him in touch with the company featured and they, Dacron Ltd, agreed to experiment for Palitoy. Following many teething problems, and many cases of Action Man apecia, they were eventually able to attach flock sprayed hair to Action Man and his new look was unveiled.

1973 saw another revolutionary feature from Bill Pugh and his team when Action Man’s hands were transformed into ‘gripping’ or ‘Kung Fu’ hands. Before this, Action Man had always struggled holding objects, but now with the new gripping hands he could hold his accessories with reasonable ease.

During the 1970-1976 period Palitoy produced some of what I would consider to be the most stunning of all the outfits and accessories in the Action Man range. Two of the most awesome come from the Ceremonial Range and are the Lifeguard and Blues and Royals figures. The quality and attention to detail is second to none and that any of these fragile and delicate pieces have survived to this day is astounding.

A New Age Man
In March 1993, after nine years in retirement, Action Man suddenly re-appeared at Hamley’s famous toyshop in London. Hasbro (UK) Ltd brought him out of retirement with a new logo, revamped body as well as a whole new range of outfits and accessories better suited to his new environment. Gone were the military based themes, which were no longer politically correct, and in came the new modern day adventure outfits, accessories and vehicles. Once again he could be enjoyed by girls and boys of all ages. Action Man the hero had returned and was ready to do battle with his new modern day enemy Dr X. Action Man continued his mission right up until this year when it was decided to stop production. Another era in his fascinating history had come to an end.

An Epilogue
Action Man’s amazing success story was due in part to him being not just a wonderful toy but also to the people who worked behind the scenes at Palitoy. Their obvious love for the product kept him alive through changing generations by continually thinking up new ideas for outfits, accessories and vehicles as well as updating his body and head - his 'Eagle Eyes' and 'gripping hands' being especially significant. The meticulous attention and detail they put into all items made each one an authentic reproduction of the original. They also always seemed to get Action Man to capture the feel of the period in which he lived, for example the 1981 SAS figure following the storming of the Iranian Embassy.

In conclusion there is such a wealth of information relating to Action Man that it could never be covered in one article. Bearing this in mind each era of Action Man’s history will be covered in more depth in future articles as too will care of figures, where to buy and what to look out for. Due to the unprecedented success of Action Man it is obvious that replica figures and accessories will, and have started, to appear in the market place.

However, these items will never be original items and for a true collector I cannot see them holding any appeal. They may be reasonable priced but what most collectors love is the thrill of hunting down that elusive last piece needed to complete an outfit. Some original figures and accessories command very high prices and many collectors will pay ridiculous prices for that ‘missing piece’ The replica items are also going to become a problem in the future as may novice collectors will not be able to tell an original item from a replica and many unscrupulous sellers will not tell them otherwise. This topic will be covered in more depth in a future article.

Happy collecting!

Bibliography:

1) Baird, Frances, Action Man – The Gold Medal Book for Boys 1966-1984 (New Cavendish, 1996)

2) Harrison, Ian, Action Man – The Official Dossier (Collins, 2003)

3) King, Kevin, Action Man – The Real Story 1966-1996 (Cairo Café Publications Limited, 2000)

4) Santelmo, Vincent, The Complete Encyclopedia to GI Joe-3rd Edition (Krause Publications, 2001)

A fuller version of this article can be found on http://collectingfriends.com