This officer of the 12 inch Army has joined me at Moonbase. I bought him for a Euro at a German Flohmarkt over Easter. Not sure what rank he is. Anyone?
Closer inspection of him revealed that the military doll is a cheap soft-headed Action Man knockoff. The uniform, complete with shirt, tie and shoes, is from Action Team, which in Germany was from a company called Schildkrot. Does anyone know which uniform it is?
The three smaller action figures are from a German charity shop called Diakonie. I've yet to identify them. On a nearby shelf in the shop was a huge collection of Masters of the Universe figures with a few vehicles, which were all very tempting, but at 5 Euros each it was just zu toyah [too dear in German!].
Last and possibly least is this set of plastic cooking toys I found at a local car boot sale last Sunday for the princely sum of 50p. I had thought they might have been from the Sindy doll range, which I used to buy and sell stacks of [my biggest Ebay sale ever was a Sindy item but that's another story!]. The items include food mixers, cookers with strange red containers attached on strings, pots and pans. They are too big for Sindy or Barbie and maybe of Indian origin but once again they remain without a name.
Your action figure doesn't appear to have a rank, Paul. Officers of most nations have rank badges on their shoulder boards, where it appears your chap has none. (You could cut some out of gold-coloured sticker paper - wikipedia has pages with rank symbols)
ReplyDeleteOn his collar he has a grenade badge, which is generally used to indicate a branch of service. The US Army uses that symbol for the Ordnance Corps, other armies can use it for Grenadiers or other specialised infantry depending on that army's history and traditions.
His medal ribbons also will be fictitious. They don't represent anything I can find amongst US or UK decorations, and I doubt a low-budget toy manufacturer will have taken the trouble.
Best -- Paul
Thanks for that Paul. Very informative. When I was a wee anklebiter collecting Action Man I loved all the medals and ribbons. Ranks fed into my obsession with heirarchies, which I think I still have! I used to love staring at military rank tables in books, comparing the top brass ranks in the UK and US like Five-Star General, First Sea Lord, Rear Admiral, Colonel-Major and Brigadier-General. I forget most of them now. I remember being so excited when I discovered that the rank of Field Marshall was only used in times of war and overarched them all. Boyhood bliss!
ReplyDeleteThe dolls look a bit like She-Ra, but are too big. My sisters had cooking sets like that, with a little cooker that used tiny flammable tablets of camphor, you lit them and cooked the dolls tea. Imagine doing that in the nanny culture now!
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