BOXED TALKING COMMANDER 1970

Action Man Talking Commander 1970. There was a version released in 1968 that had painted hair and a metal dog tag this was released initially as a slipcover that fitted over the Action Soldier box but it 1969 Palitoy printed its own box and the slipcover was discarded. The slipcover especially if still over the Action Soldier box is considered by many collectors as the rarest. Mine sadly is missing the medal ribbon and insignia sheet that also came with the collar bars.

He says 8 commands:

This is your commander speaking
Enemy aircraft Action stations
Enemy in sight - range 1000
Action man patrol fall in
Volunteer needed for special mission
Hold your fire until i give the order
Mortar attack - dig in
Commander to base - request support fire

Nice talking Commander!
Our Gijoe talking Commander of 1970 was different than yours...

jim im curious what was different between the two

Very nice, Dan!  The flocked hair looks immaculate for it's age and the uniform is in top colour condition, too  

The Action Man talkers were the premium figures to be seen with back in the day, and much more desirable than the basic figures. I remember the first painthead talkers came with an equipment fold out sheet. The first unforgettable image to see when opening the equipment sheet for the first time, was the famous scene with the Action Man (GI Joe) figures running along the beach in the heat of battle, that image has stayed with me all this time, it was no doubt carefully chosen to inspire us into wanting to kit our basic soldiers out with the same equipment.

My first painthead talker had the cardboard outer-sleeve, but the box had the correct Talking-Commander graphics, which is a bit odd, perhaps it was a factory mistake?? (probably a friday afternoon boozy mistake) lol! I remember tearing mine slightly to get to the box inside

You could always use a 40th medal ribbon and insignia. I'm looking forward to seeing some more of your postings, similar to this one

(Edit) I've just noticed the tall boots, perhaps they were issued with the very first flocked talkers, my cousin's flocked talker had short boots

Thanks Clive

yes mate very strange but as with Steve and his sailor story these posts are great for getting the original stories out there that differ from what some say was definate. This is what i love about collecting and this is what keeps me going.

More to come thats for sure

Danthecoat wrote:

yes mate very strange but as with Steve and his sailor story

That just sounds so wrong!

Steve and a Sailor story? Tell me more!

I have noticed there is often a distinct look to 2nd issue TCs. A particular head sculpt many of them have. Maybe a single head mould supplied the Talker production line.


(40TH box and uni)

My other fuzzy Talker (who's AWOL up the loft) could pass as this guys twin brother. Again with the never say never mantra, not all of them look like this and the head sculpt does turn up on non-talkers, Ralph's Tom K being a prime example.

The weird thing is that this head is slightly larger than average. Not the best choice for a line that had a beret that had been designed for a PH!

As far as i know Steve ALL the early 70's figures had big heads and you will also notice only the BIG heads were given sideburns and thats a great way to spot a fake

I'd love to know how many head moulds Palitoy ran as there was definitely more variation in the early 70's than later on. By the mid 70's all AM had a very uniform look.  Do I half remember hearing Palitoy made new moulds around 1975?

I didn't know about the 'George Bests' having big heads. Maybe my theoretical Talker head mould supplied them as well, away from the larger volume basic AM production lines.



Joe's a 1970 2nd issue Soldier and his blue beret always fitted fine!

If you look the soft Painted heads are big and when they started flocking i think they used up all the big soft painted heads first before using the heads from the new molds

One of my flocked haired vam seems to have a slightly smaller head compaired to my other flockies (not like the 'Men In Black' store scene) The flock looks brand new, it's all original flock. There's quite a few subtle differences between vam figures to keep vam collecting very intresting (if people are prepared to look closely) It includes warmer skin tones, head size, flock thickness per square inch (fpi) / (dpi) hand width/size, limb length, torso colour, some torsos have a red hue to them.

There's also a big difference between the very first flocked hair, to flocked hair that was done (improved on) a year later. I've also noticed an eye painter/persons signiture? (graffitti) in the form of a small dot of white paint just below the left eye (between the eye and nose) could this be their recognition badge/marking from back in the day, remember artists always like to sign their paintings.. A couple of my flocked vam had this mark in the same place. My cousin also has a vam with this marking, both can't be rubbed away easily, the paint/marking spot goes deep, a pin is needed to pick at and remove it   Anyone else have this white marking on their vam??? It would be cool to find out if one of the original factory eye painters had used this as their badge of recognition, and where are they today, I would love to hear from them (Hong Kong?)  

I agree Clive theres lots of variations to Action Man and often they are subtle changes and differences. I have checked my eyes and blow me i too have a couple with that mark on them

That's good news, I thought no one would believe me, I'm sure I've read somewhere on a vam forum in the past, about the white paint dot marking

It would also be intresting to find out about odd eye colours on vam, I personally haven't found any yet, but some colour mistakes must have slipped through the production-line at some point