Dave Barnacle, Palitoy Box Artist

I know there are many Action Man fans among Moonbasers, so I thought this You Tube video would be of interest.

A look at the work of Palitoy box artist Dave Barnacle, who sadly passed away this month, April 2025.

He did many of the Action Man boxes in the 1970s, as well as other lines, such as Planet of the Apes, and Star Wars.

There is even a look at some concept art for figures that never made it in to production.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdkC7yN-fJc

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Vintage Otley Outing

 With the Missus and a mate, visiting my favourite vintage toy shop round here, in Kirkham Arcade in Otley, I was really pleased to bag a few great collectables for the Moonbase collection.

The haul comprised of a smart loose JR21 FAB1, a neat re-issue Corgi Black Beauty and an Action Man Rifle Rack along with the golden grenade launcher. I had all of these as a kid and it was great to get them back and a snip at £30 the lot.

In the town's charity shops I bagged an old hardback copy of Brave New World, a paperback horror by Shaun Huston and a hardback Adventure Annual with Pyro toy designs on the cover. 

My final item was a cool multi-rotational tin globe. It rotates on two axes! 

All in all a great day out.

What do you reckon? 

More on all of them to follow.

The Rugby Post!

 I've had this idea for ages, how else to use a shop rack I have.

Eh voila!

Action Man rugby conversion! 

Behind the scenes! All the action! 

C'mon Castleford Tigers! 

Lips Manlis and the Sunny Smile

A recent car booting trip proved fun. I bagged this trio of vintage toys that came back to Moonbase with me.

The two carded figures are the only two carded figures I own and at £15 for the pair I couldn't resist. 

I've been aware of Playmates' Dick Tracy figures for decades, including the fabled Blank and this Lips Manlis is a trip down memory lane.

Captain Power is not a line I know at all really but this carded Chase figure was in such fab condition I got it as well.

The huge green Action Man tank is not the Cherilea original but the later Sunny Smile release, which I think is the same as Strike Force. It just needs a dusting and some of the decals re-glueing before going on maneuvers. A snip at £4 I thought.

Are these toys you know readers?

JOHN NOAKES MAKES AN ACTION MAN QUARTERMASTERS STORE ON BLUE PETER 1977

 The great John Noakes tells you how to make a neat Action Man store on Blue Peter in 1977. Perfect for Christmas!

[courtesy of TimeTunnelToysUK]

Did you ever make one? Did you ever make anything from Blue Peter

Here's one I didn't make earlier.

Space Ace Weapons Mystery

 As soon as I saw this I knew I'd seen those 1984 Space Ace rifles before. But where!

Bingo! They're the Action Man Space Ranger rifles aka Space Arms! 

But why?

Toys: A Short Film by Roman Kroitor and Colin Low

 https://www.nfb.ca/film/toys/

This is an unusual and old film with a macabre spin on Action Man/ GI Joe toys from the National Film Board of Canada. Looking at the date, 1966, it was made when the toys were first out in the shops.

No doubt you'll decide for yourself what you make of this if you watch it.

I understand the debate about military toys generally and its one I have come across often having a grandson. 

All I can say is that personally my own Sixties and early Seventies childhood was completely filled with Action Man and I loved every minute of it. I reckon I turned out more or less OK too now I'm in my Sixties.

SWATS THAT?

I'm seeing SWAT and Police Cars with Action dolls all over the place!

This is a Japanese Hema toy AMERICAN Alfa Romeo Police car I saw online on Ebay.

Maybe those figures are Action Team? Have these GI Joe Action Men got stockings on their heads? These fighting men get everywhere!

Have you found them in strange places readers?

and here's LJN's SWAT set from 1976 courtesy of RetroWaste. Are the HEMA guys SWAT too?

Those SWAT figures, here close-up and courtesy of MYMEGOLIKE, look like little Action Men! Anyone got any SWAT toys. Was it a TV show?

and here's LJN's similar Rookies too courtesy of Plaid Stallions. Was that a TV show?

Have you a Police Car with action dolls like these or Action Man/GI Joe readers?

SPAIN'S ACTION MAN GAMES

 

I'm pretty sure I had an action man board game as a kid. These two Spanish games caught my eye on Todocollecion, both branded as Falcon, although I'm unsure what that is. Adventure Team?

This second one, Falcon-80 Contra Torak, could have a space theme, as there's an alien loitering behind the men.

The two games were released by Estrela

Have you anything like this?

SELBY SATURDAY SAUNTER

 On Saturday the Missus and me went on our first urban mooch since getting back to Blighty last week.

We like Selby, the no-nonsense market down just over the border in North Yorkshire. Its got a a huge Abbey, a great Department store café and lots of charity shops. What's not to like!

The Missus was looking for more modern stuff for the Grandkids. I was looking for old stuff, none of which I got but it was all fun to see.

This Action Man bundle caught my eye. Later additions to the annals of action I think the jeep and trailer are Sunny Smile releases rather than anything older. The man in the basket had very chunky rigid hands. 1990's?

This UK Monkees Annual is always interesting to see. From 1967 it was released by our old pals at Century 21 Publications, the literary wing of Gerry A's C21 organisation. It reminds me of those must-have annuals from his TV shows and my beloved Project SWORD annual. I assume it was printed by Jarrolds in Norwich like most if not all their others that year like Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet. I have this book in the attic along with most of the C21/ Jarrold annuals so I must check.

A good example of how wide Century 21 cast their net for licensing and the Monkees really were massive in 1967 on both sides of the pond. I had their iconic die-cast GTO - did you? - and as an adult I saw them, now much older, in the 1990's. Do you like them?

I snapped this because its new to me. Touchitt, A peculiar name for a board game and one I've never seen before or seen listed in my three board games reference books. It appears to be some sort of indoor table bowls game from a company called Kane Signs of Bognor Regis. It says TV's fastest growing game. I can't find a single reference to it online. This is one rare board game!

This large play table was interesting, although I'm unsure how its used. I always think how I would have whizzed my Hot Wheels around it or set up a Matt Mason/ SWORD/ Outerspaceman scenerio back in the day.  Did you have a table of sorts?

More Action Man in the form of his miniature alter-ego, Action Force. Here's Ladybird's hardback kids book, Flint's Holiday. I was too old for Action Force toys, when they came along and have only got to know them since becoming a toy collector. I've quite a few Action Force figures now, along with its American cousins GI Joe. 

Ladybird were masters of this kind of kids hardback in the 1980's and issued books for all the other top TV cartoons too and are no doubt great to collect: Masters of the Universe, Transformers, GI Joe and Bravestarr. They may have even issued more obscure lines like VR Troopers and Voltron. I'd have to check.

 Have you got any?

A blast from the heavy past, this old friend gave me a thrill to see once again. Judas Priest's Sin After Sin LP. I adored this album and may still have my copy. I had assumed my old Mum bought it me at Brady's in Preston but it was only released in April 1977 and I think she was sadly gone by then.

My favourite track was always Last Rose of Summer and I adored the cover art, the giant Egyptian columns reminiscent of a Hammer horror set.

Back then and even now I always considered Priest to be new kids on the block but then again, Sin After Sin in 1977 was my first taste of them, having for some reason skipped their earlier LP Sad Wings of Destiny. By 1977 I was 16 and totally immersed in Budgie, Rush, Led Zep and Sabbath.

Did you like Judas Priest?

And as its already on the tinselled path towards Yuletide I thought I'd end with a large drumming Santa toy. How cool is that!

I have the bell ringer and he rings it every Christmas.

When will you be trimming up readers? Late November?

SEND IN THE CLONES: ACTION MAN HOLLOW MANNEQUINS IN THEIR BIRTHDAY SUITS

I've been racking my brains for years about strange plastic figures I remember having  back in the Sixties. 

They were dead simple and sort of incomplete. Like bad clones from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I had thought that they might have been cheapo monsters like Frankenstein: a green plastic Frankenstein rings a bell actually.

BUT I think I have it now for the other plain bodies.

The strange unfinished figures look like these I saw on old auctions on Worthpoint.

I was flabbergasted!

Yes, these are what I assume must be outfit stuffers for Action Man/ GI Joe gear.

The bodies are headless and limbless. 

This Deep Sea Diver outfit has a pair of plastic sleeve stuffing arms too.

Yep, these are the odd figures I had too. They must have come in my Action Man stuff.

A form of packaging!

Here's the green version along with more Deep Diver gear.

Maybe it was only the Diver set that contained these bodies?

Anyone know?

Do you remember them readers?

Did they have a name?

PS. I've just remembered that I had a simple green blowmoulded Frankenstein figure like this too! Nothing to do with Action Man tho, but it would have been great, Action Man Monsters!

*

This post first appeared here March 2020 at the start of the global pandemic.

WEDNESDAY WARES

 Further amblings round the Wednesday sale proffered much. In the end I came home with these. See anything you like?

A small medic pack. Action Man?

Airgam Boys Space 3 scooter. I left the jet behind for some reason. Doh!

GoBots Binoculars by Arco

Bought solely for strangeness. Turns out they're called Teutans Heroes from 2014. Those are Mer-Man's legs I'm sure - from the MOTU range! ha ha. They spit balls I think.

Unknown Action Man clone; the kind of figure my Mum would have got me from Zodiac toys back in the Sixties.

Unknown Action Man type air tanks. Soft plastic.

The following four larger plastic vehicles were altogether, one pound the lot! Now that's car boot magic!

International Products London Jeep/ Land Rover

Merit Loco

Unknown blow moulded racer - numbered.... 21!

Friction Mercedes

I picked another battered Amphibious Investigator Car up for a Winter day's messing. The young chap who sold it me had a stall full of vintage toys. We had a chat and it was like talking to my younger self 30 years ago! He told me about the toy fairs he stands at and how excited he is about standing at the NEC in Birmingham soon, one of the biggest in the UK. Interestingly he doesn't bother with Ebay, preferring Vinted and FB Marketplace to sell. He gets his stock from auction houses.

Oh to be young and fit again!

Has anyone any experience of Vinted? I thought it was for selling second hand clothes.

Call the Coastguard!

Action Man DIY Jungle Explorer and River Craft Done!

 With a final push through the bush my home made Action Man Jungle Explorer and river craft are finished and already in the thick of it.

See what you think.

The boat is coloured using paint, card and paper. Rope and crate courtesy of the Missus.

The outfit comprises of a green dyed tunic, home-made hat, home-made oar, machete, neckerchief, holster and belt. Original Palitoy items are the pants, boots, backpack, canteen, pistol, rifle and dynamite.

Get me out of here, I'm bushtuckered!