The return of Cliff Sabre.

The return of who? Well thats the trouble! When I rescued my VAM from the loft in 2008 I took Joe and Hank out of the box and never bothered with the rest of my childhood guys. While Joe and Hank got plastered across half my forum posts the other guys laguished forgotten in my old toy box. Well all that is about to change and here's the 1st of the rest of my old guys fresh from his recent rebuild..

Clifford Sabre.




The name? It is a bit Max Power I suppose but I was only 9 when I named him! My aunt was a huge Cliff Richard fan which might have had something to do with my choice. I have a sneeking suspicion Hank got named the same way. So Cliff it was. Where did Sabre come from? I half remember an item on Blue Peter or Magpie about fencing and thought Sabre sounded suitably militaristic and macho.

Cliff reported for duty at SKJ HQ easter 1971. It was perfect timing as my cousin (and chief AM playing partner) was staying with us for the school holiday. Cliff was my 1st 'free with 21 stars' mailaway figure. I'd sent the completed star card to Palitoy what seemed like a lifetime ago and was amazed when he finally turned up. I remember saying 'Thank you' to the postman..I was such a polite child!

I can even remember the 1st adventure Cliff had when he joined Joe and the team (Hank wouldn't turn up for another year and a half). The team were exploring the Amazonian jungle when they discovered the ruins of an Aztec city.


(modern re-enactment!)

They were immediately attacked by strange flying 'Wraiths' who were guarding the city. After battling the wraiths, the team discovered they were in fact robot defence drones controlled by a long abandoned underground alien computer.


(For the alien wraiths I used some 'Mexican god's eyes' we'd made at school...and would you believe I still had one up the loft!)






Cliff and the team destroyed the alien computer and escaped the city just before it exploded. It was all the usual sort of thing we saw Captain Kirk do every week on Star Trek. Looking back, you have to remember it was the early '70s. 'we've discovered an alien computer beneath an Aztec ruin' (possibly the greatest discovery in the history of mankind) 'Lets blow it up!'  

Cliff's performance in the jungle must have impressed the higher-ups as he was soon promoted to 2nd in command of my team.  About a year later he assumed command when the then team leader 'Richards' was medically discharded with terminally snapped elastic. He served with distinction and it couldn't have been easy being Joe and Hank's commanding officer!

The Reunion!

For Joe and Hank meeting your ex-boss nearly 40 years later must seem wierd. Especially when he was your superior at a time when you were young and reckless and his main concern was ensuring you didn't do anything stupid! However, the passage of time can do nothing to bonds forged in the crucible of battle. Once a brother in arms, always a brother in arms.







We're the old timers now. Operational duties-wise, Cliff will command the urban camo'ed Tactical Response Team and Joe will run the field platoon. As for Hank? He isn't even in the army, he's a sailor and  the legitimacy 40 years later of a temporary secondment from the Royal Navy is anyone's guess!

This is Cliff straight out of the loft in 2008.



'armless and definitely the worse for wear. 'Playworn' is probably the term but a bit of an understatement.



After a visit to the OneManKid hospital for a re-string (many thanks Ralph!). His broken limbs can be seen in the background. Also check out his dodgy flock. I'm a believer in the theory that Palitoy quite often used 'seconds' and quality control rejects for thier star scheme freebies. Cliff had this flock problem and my other 21 star guy a little later had a moulding defect on his hand.



Maybe I was trying to add a bit of maturity to my team leader because around 1973 I tried to give him 'Reed Richards' style gray temples using Airfix paint. I wasn't that successful but luckily now we live in the future and have 'Flocktastic'...



I'm really please to have Cliff back on active service and would like to thank everyone (you know who you are!) who nagged me into rebuilding him..and I'm now definiely a Flocktastic fan!

Wow Steve, Cliff looks terrific !!!, love the re enactment shoot and that new flock looks terrific !. Great to see joe and hank seem happy with his return too.
In your thread you mentioned other old soldiers, I look forward to seeing these guys back too !,     

I look forward to their new adventures together   

He looks effing fantastic Steve, what a difference from when he came to Tom K HQ for some new body parts, he looked in a sorry state indeed! I could barely look at him...  Now I might just steal him off you... 

What a great makeover and story... 

He looks fantastic SKJ, great story   

What a great story Steve and good memory .
Love Cliffs man hug from Hank !
Some nice photos too

P.s I've thought about giving my old fellas a revamp but just can't bring myself to go for it .
Might start with my tom stone , but need some missing limbs .

good to see him back in action

fantastic steve ! cliff sabre ,what a great name , you have done him a great service he looks awesome mate !

Great work Steve, good to see another of your childhood VAM back in action! Great set of pics too, well done to all involved in the restoration.

Exciting and inspiring. Always good to see another oldie reporting back for duty!!!    

Great stuff Steve!!!! The hugging photo brought a tear to my eye.. Great background and brilliant resurection of 'cliff'

Great Photos Steve, nice to meet Cliff Sabre   , awesome upload look forward to future stories of Cliff and the gang    

Cliff looks great! You're putting those 21st uniforms to good use as well!

-Nate

great photos , I enjoyed the background to Cliff's history , thanks for sharing

It's a great thing to find and restore an "old soldier," but it's kinda strange to think the way we treat our Joes and A/M, they will out-last all of us in the real world.   

Pics repaired! . . and am I going to be miffed when post-image pulls the plug in a few years like photobucket just has!

Nice one Steve!

Great restoration of the restoration photos, Steve!

Let's hope Post-Image treats you better.

Flickr is very safe, I class it as the "Safe House" of the free photo hosting websites.

It's nice to see folks reposting their missing photos.

Well done Steve, great work!

What a fantastic story. I've been inspired to look out my old Action Men. I'll post pics once I have time to get properly started!

Great stuff Steve!

blackbrazen wrote:

What a fantastic story. I've been inspired to look out my old Action Men. I'll post pics once I have time to get properly started!

Sounds awesome! we love the old vam stories here