More Action Man

Today we are going backwards and yet into the present by returning to my favourite toy ever and the world he and I lived in.

Here is Action Man in one of the many uniforms I dressed him in, neatly to the point of getting his cap on right pictured next to the legendary Field Radio which used small multi grooved discs that when the push to talk button was pressed he'd issue a command.

The Red, Blue and Yellow discs were the initial set although others were available which I aquired at the time.

Had the Palitoy Action been around in the Two Thousands's this would of been a iTunes file but as it was 1976 we had a double sided cassette which featured an adventure  story which we'd play on our recorders to play with our figures with.

Helpfully down the side of the cassette case it told us what equipment from the range we needed to get out to reenact this adventure in our play.

I had several of these tapes and recently rebought this one.

The Action Man Intelligence Manual came out from 1973 through to 1979 and was a useful small pamphlet full of information that related to the Uniforms and Roles of the character our Action man was playing.

This was the space for your to personalize it in rather the same way you did with your Warlord Secret Agent kit you had and yes I had both.

The first sections covered each uniform for the character you were playing and had bought the kit for - you normally bought one Action Man fully dressed with accessories and got the others which stores had in stock.

The next group of pages would feature equipment available that went with them such as the Landrover, Support Rafts, search lights and so on

We then had features on the weaponry typically used by British, French Foreign Legion, German and US Military during WW2, replicas of which were available for realistic play.

The Search light at the rear had a built in Morse Key for sending messages but we neeeded to learn Morse Code so helpfully the booklet has a code page we can use 

That was the end paper.

I bought a replacent to one one which with all of my original childhood Action Man set was taken from me when they decided  I no longer played with it although I did and the issue was more one that tey felt I shouldn't in my mid teens.

It is obviously well handled with folds when it was used during play by the boy who original had it but frankly I'd soon have one used and loved by a boy in that condition than some pristine artifact kept in a draw by some collector type who doesn't get the fact toys matter because we play with them and they are made to played  with.

To share a toy used by another boy in your return to your own childhood is above all act of love, the love of being that boy, carefree playing, having fun.

Embrace it.