Bruce on Patrol!

Bruce has been out and about this week so I thought I'd post a few pics of his travels.

It all started when Cliff needed a volunteer for a short mission in Poland.



Bruce jumped at the chance as if there's one thing Poland was famous for it was their Lancer regiments and being an old Lancer himself Bruce was hoping to find a museum displaying a few artefacts or something. But he didn't...so he had to make do with a look around Wawel castle in Krakow instead!



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On his return, he did a bit of location scouting.

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The terrain in the Ashdown forest seems made for VAM pics so Bruce did a little reconnaissance for future shoots.







After that it was a bit of a trip down memory lane. As a kid the highlight of the xmas and summer holidays for me was the week or two I'd spend at my Uncle and Aunt's house playing VAM with my cousins. Two things made it so special. The first was that when my cousins and I pooled our VAM we could usually muster 20 plus figures, nothing to adult collectors now but an army to us as kids. The second reason was the size of my Uncle's garden. It seemed to just go on forever, After two lawns, an orchard, and a vegetable patch you came to the woods. The garden's back fence was about 20ft into the woods. Twenty odd Vam and your own private woods for them to battle in...the stuff of childhood legends!

So when I visited my Uncle the other day and still had Bruce in the car I couldn't miss the opportunity for a few pics. Over forty years later Bruce returns to the scene of all those old backyard wars.....except....



About 15 years ago a developer bought the woods. My Uncle's (and the rest of the streets) back gardens are a bit shorter now and VAM's old battle field is a housing estate.

One of the trees from the old wood is still there...



..and I recognise these rocks.

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Bruce sits in reflective mood...'We were soldiers once...and young'

Back in the house Bruce couldn't resist posing with one of my late aunt's books as a lighthearted dig at SKJ's namesake leader!

cute irish baby boy names

Such a great post somekindajoe!
Excellent photos and text, and tinged through with that bitter sweet nostalgia that hits us all when we return to a favourite spot from our childhood where we used to play only to find that "time has indeed marched on".

Thanks for posting, .....it really evoked quite a few thoughts in me too.

I do like those non-uniform T-shirts a couple of your guys are wearing!

The Poland pics are great fun! Always good to see Action Man... or any "Traveling Toy"... having adventures on the road!

Marvelous story from years past. Too sad about the woods, but at least your uncle's back garden is still intact. Same thing has happened to the neighborhood where I grew up, but for now my mom's house is still surrounded by a large yard backed by a creek, and enough brush has grown up along the creek banks to mostly hide the new houses that have been built there.

Looks like you still managed to find some open vistas for your chap to explore. One thing about being VAM-sized: it doesn't take a lot of space to seem like a vast, trackless wilderness!

Fantastic shots Steve and Bruce, very cool and a nice trip down memory's slit trench...really nice seeing the castle, town and old battlegrounds.

How far or difficult is it to get to Poland from London?

Great stuff, and is that a book on the British Elvis?!?

Looks like a good time was had in Poland. And the trip down memory lane was a great idea

Fantastic stuff Steve! It looks like Bruce went on quite the adventure! It must have been great revisiting the old battlegrounds! and I agree Ashdown forest looks ideal for a vam or battle or two!

I really enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures of Bruce’s little mission trip to Poland and the pictures of him revisiting the old battlegrounds.

Great stuff Steve. Bruce looks like he enjoyed that.
Poland looks a beautiful spot in places. Always wanted to pay a visit.
Must take Spud next time we visit my in-laws in Romania.
My wife is from Transylvania.. I feel a Spud v Vlad the Impaler adventure sometime in the offing..

Dreadnought wrote:

Great stuff Steve. Bruce looks like he enjoyed that.  
Poland looks a beautiful spot in places. Always wanted to pay a visit.
Must take Spud next time we visit my in-laws in Romania.
My wife is from Transylvania.. I feel a Spud v Vlad the Impaler adventure sometime in the offing..

Wow, Transylvania, how cool is that?! If you'll pardon the observation, I'd say Spud and Vlad look to have already had an encounter...

Didn't somebody like Sideshow make a Vlad figure?

Also makes me think of one of my favorite books, The Keep by F. Paul Wilson. It has it all a haunted castle, Transylvanian Alps, a vampire(?) and nazis. The book is great and the movie isn't bad either with a pretty nice cast, Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne...

Sorry for the hijack...

Apologies and no offence to Spud. He is one of my favorite VAM characters!

gibri wrote:

Wow, Transylvania, how cool is that?!

Just what I was thinking!!

Romainia is on my 'to do' list too. Even though the history between the real Vlad and the 'Dracula' castle tourist destination is a bit dubious it still looks a great place to visit, and we just know if Spud went there he'd be sure to bump into the blood sucking count!

Strangely enough I only found out a few weeks ago that there's a real castle Frankenstien in Germany. An alchemist lived there in the 17th century and performed weird experiments. Author Mary Shelly visited there during her European tour and obviously got a few ideas for her novel Frankenstien from the place.

I think Spud and Hank need to go on a Royal Navy expedition to rid Europe of it's monsters (no no not the EU high commision!..I mean Dracula and Frankenstien etc! ) In between the drinking and womanizing AMMO's two favourite sailors would have some epic fights with what are now Hollywood's most scary creatures!

Vlad the Impaler did NOT suck blood as the story would have it. Instead he shoved stakes up the lower orifices (man or women) until they protruded out the mouths or faces and surrounded his outdoor feasts with such victims impaled on wooden spikes until his court complained that they could not eat in such a situation.
Understandable?
You can still see his grave but it is not recorded that he has "risen" and seeks blood.

Brilliant post SKJ! Love to see action man off the shelf and having adventures just like he was supposed to!
BBHQ is just completing preparations for a long mission for Sandy Arbuthnot next weekend. A 5 week adventure from Asia to Europe and back to good old Blighty!
You've inspired me to take some travelling shots and I'll share them later.
On this adventure, my chap has a rendezvous planned with someone that might be familiar to AMMO members...a certain Mr Flynn!
Stay tuned...!

It's very cool to revisit where we played as children, such innocent and fun times!

Bruce... Man of Krakow!

Taking my Action Man out on trips is one of my favourite things to do, he has so far been to Prague, Valencia, Taiwan, Riga, York... he'll do an AMMO check-in from Paris this October...

Tom K the Adventurer... out and about in the local countryside