action man ruled!

I may have loved space and monsters as a kid but I also loved action man.

It's hard to explain how much joy Palitoy's fighting man gave me. I adored everything, the boxed figures, the stars you cut out, the blister carded sets and the bigger boxed vehicles.

I can't think of much I didn't have from Palitoy in the Sixties. Many of the uniforms and accessories were favourites.

Particularly special were the German Stormtrooper, the Grenadier Guard, the Canadian Mountie, the Australian fighter and the Russian soldier. I could name all the early uniform sets though.

Certain sets were simply wonderful: the medic with the stretcher, stethoscope and field first aid case; the radio set with the morse code unit and headphones; the rifle rack with all the different rifles and the Lifeguard with curved sword, cuirass and plumed helmet. I had the horse for this figure and it may have been my number one looking back.

But Action Man was a whole world. I'm forgetting how much I played with the amazing astronaut and his capsule; all those accessories like the silver mitts and the black plastic thing He carried round ( not sure what it was). And who can forget the racing car driver and that huge plastic racing car. His green striped overalls and helmet were just so cool. Sport was also represented by the ace footballer with plastic stand and the fabulous cricketer complete with stumps.

Then there were water based sets: the magnificent deep sea diver with its lead boots, sheathed dagger, buoy and the vast helmet with opening face hatch: and what about the frogman and his rubber suit. I had the shark too and they often scrapped in the bath. Frogman was sometimes rescued by the Australian or maybe it was the Polar Adventurer. Either way they had a plastic boat with working outboard. It was the bees knees.

Thinking about it I could probably have a whole separate blog about action man I liked him that much. I have nothing left from those days a half century ago, not even one of those lovely orange sticks of dynamite. Nada. All fading in the window box of time.

But the memories are still alive thank God. Alive with my old buddy the poseable fighting man from Palitoy.

How about you readers?

PS. More on action figures coming soon from Tony K.