A is for Airfix, E is for Eagle by WOTAN

Star Wars revolutionised sci-fi films and also in turn, it revolutionised toys. Gone were the days of little plastic soldiers and golden astronauts and in came a vast army of action figures, in all guises and roles, toting all manner of weapons and equipment and ready to take over the world - which they very quickly did.

Everyone wanted a piece of the 3.5 inch action and toy companies everywhere copied George Lucas and Kenners shrewd marketing ploys and churned out figures for every show and theme. Even model kit stalwart and sometime toy maker Airfix decided to get on the bandwagon and around 1978 they rolled out a rather odd range of action figures themselves. Eagles were a bunch of 'rescue heroes' comprising of a medic, military policeman, deep sea diver, frogman, paratrooper, solider and the leader - Captain Eagle. Each figure was a characterless mannequin with a solid pvc chest piece and arms, grafted onto a pair of stiltlike legs clad in bizarre rubber trousers. Every figure, irrespective of role had an odd, slightly vacant expression and as much poseability as a rock. The one saving grace for the line was the range of accessories and gorgeous comic style artwork on the boxes - dramatic, colourful and bold - the exact opposite of the toy. Released in Germany also as Action Stars, the line was much larger and included cowboys, indians and the rather much improved inclusion of two space figures - the orange Cosmonaut and yellow Astronaut. The suits and large helmets for these figures are very reminiscent of the bulky environment suits the Nostromo crew wore in Alien. Captain Eagle from the british line was gifted with two vehicles, a weird chair based interceptor arrangement and the unusual 'Fighting Machine' a large rescue copter with winch and integral grab on the front. You could almost see the copter gracing the pages of a Sword strip!