Its a face thing.
I always wanted a beard like my Action Man when I was a kid and - maybe - even his honorable cheek scar.
It took many years of puberty to get the first sproutings on my tender chin. This was universally known as bumfluff.
Pleasingly this initial foliage quickly bloomed into a proper bush in my late teens, but by this point my real hair Action Man had gone to the barbers in the Palitoy sky and I couldn't show it off to him.
My beard was never the neat trimmed suede of Action Man, which always seemed to have had bits of cotton and dust stuck to it like a record cleaner. Mine was a large scraggy pillow of hair, which I frequently rubbed. I also had a mass of dark thicket on my head and the overall effect will have been like a walking fur-ball. Imagine Chewbacca with cords on and wearing specs!
I kept my full beard for a good couple of Prog Rock years in the late Seventies and early Eighties. It was a warm hippy friend and Palitoy would have been on a winner if they'd had not just put real hair on their fighting man but real 'growing' hair like mine! Even old soldiers go to seed!
Beards are on my mind - and on my chin - as I have grown a new one this half term break. No longer the fine Lion's mane I once sported alas but a beard nonetheless. In fact its much more like a Palitoy record cleaner this time round as I am follicly challenged in my late Fifties! Its also the colour of aluminium! If I was issued by Palitoy I'd be the Silver Fox [with slipping hands]! I never did get that scar though.
So Action Man, wherever you are in the retirement home for plastic vets, here's to you and your perfect Palitoy beard. I hope you're keeping it trimmed and fluff free! I salute you.
Was your fighting twelve inch man bearded?
It was always Action Man Adventurers and Sailors who stood out from the rank and file of lesser flocked faces, Woodsy. Weren't they brilliant when they appeared in toy shops in the early seventies! Although their realistic beards sometimes made them fair game for kids armed with shaving foam and a razors :)
ReplyDeleteFlock! Yes, I'd forgotten that word Tone! Those Sailors would have been flocking to the barbers on shore leave. For some reason I always think of the sailor on the front of Capstan cigarettes packet when I think of the Action Man seventies sailor. Cigs were everywhere when we were kids weren't they. I'm surprised Action Man didn't smoke!
DeletePlayers were also prolific in their use of an iconic bearded sailor to advertise their popular Navy Cut cigarettes, Woodsy. Wonder this was the familiar inspiration for the 1971 Action Man Sailor square rig box art? :)
ReplyDeleteI may have been thinking of Navy Cut Tone. I can see the white packet now with the blue drawing. My brothers collected matchboxes as kids and some of those were naval I think. I suppose the nautical zeitgeist influenced all packaging back then. We don't seem that nautical anymore.
DeleteYou were right as well, Woodsy! Capstan also used the popular nautical sailor theme at one point in their advertising history. Although perhaps Players Navy Cut is the one most of us remember, matey :)
ReplyDelete