Rock 'n Roll...

Found at car boot sale for £5. Window box front..



Box back..



Virtually impossible to find at UK car boot sales


Repaired missing images 4/5/2017 

I remember seeing him in the stores.... He was the second fuzz head I saw .... I bought two grunts a black one and a white one... I still have them too ( mind you they have a few bb gun wounds but they are still Joe )

Len

I'm really really liking the look of your Rock 'n Roll, most of all his Gatling Gun, it looks well COOL!!

Very cool Clive, great figure !

I have a full set of the four different colour variations of Rock n Roll I'll try to dig out a pic some time.

I didn't know 90's GI Joes came with flocked beards! How come we didn't get any bearded Action Man figures in the UK? No fair Hasbro!!!

You can usually find them on ebay mate

Not a very good pic I'm afraid but this does show the four variations Green and Tan Shirts combined with Blue/Silver and Silver/Blue variations of the Gatling Gun Barrel and Frame.

peterodgers wrote:

I didn't know 90's GI Joes came with flocked beards!  How come we didn't get any bearded Action Man figures in the UK?  No fair Hasbro!!!

Bearded Polar MAM's would have been a great range, it might have kept MAM going a little bit longer.
Another thing we never saw was yellow, Red, Gray, and brown painted haired MAM's, that would have been a life saver for the MAM range.

Winch wrote:

Not a very good pic I'm afraid but this does show the four variations Green and Tan Shirts combined with Blue/Silver and Silver/Blue variations of the Gatling Gun Barrel and Frame.

Thanks Winch,

It's kind of you to point out and show the 4 colour variations to these 'Limited Edition' collector sets
I think it's mentioned in my Joe Encyclopedia, I'll have a look later.

Edit..

Some more carded Joe sets have just reached my H.Q. this sunday (boot sale finds) with more on the way. I'm hoping to get some photos up soon.

I have Destro and Duke (Action Man box, not the sticker type, the second printed one) that I'm thinking of selling...

Stan wrote:

I have Destro and Duke (Action Man box, not the sticker type, the second printed one) that I'm thinking of selling...

I've got a couple of Duke's already. I found a boxed Destro a few weeks back at a boot sale, it was only £5 but I was down to my last £1. you should put it in the 'For sale' section, someone's bound to be intrested.
 

clivvers wrote:

Stan wrote:

I have Destro and Duke (Action Man box, not the sticker type, the second printed one) that I'm thinking of selling...

I've got a couple of Duke's already.  I found a boxed Destro a few weeks back at a boot sale, it was only £5 but I was down to my last £1. you should put it in the 'For sale' section, someone's bound to be intrested.
 

They already are. Posted it a few days ago.

As for the question about no bearded MAM's and no different hair colours its because MAM was marketed as a singular character – hence one hair colour. Also, Rock n Roll is the 12 inch version of the original 3.3/4 inch G.I.JOE - A Real American Hero figure, that line had individual military specialists codenamed as part of a team called 'G.I.JOE', or 'The Joes' for short, Rock n Roll was one of 'The Joes', their machine gunner. When the 12 inch Hall of Fame range came out Hasbro USA took the most popular 3 3/4 inch characters and translated them into the 12 inch tall format, ergo, all those HOF Joes are individual team members with codenames, Duke was The Joes 'First Sargent' or 'top', essentially battlefield leader, Stalker was a Ranger, Snake Eyes a Commando and then there was the 12 inch representation of Cobra Commander, Supreme Leader of The Cobra Organisation, 'a ruthless terrorist organisation determined to rule the world'.

After the initial success of the 4 figures, Hasbro made more G.I.JOE and Cobra Enemy characters in 12 inch format, i.e. Destro, Weapons Supplier to Cobra, Major Bludd etc etc, even outfits sets like the MAM 'Helicopter Attack' is actually a repackaged HOF COBRA HELICOPTER ATTACK, hence the Cobra sigil on th outfit flight suit...The HOF line began to wane and by then they were using the moulds for the previously released 'GRUNT', the Joes 'Infantryman' specialist and 'HEAVY DUTY' another Joe Heavy Machine Gunner to market their 12 inch line as a more generic line with no individual characters; this in turn led to the creation of the new 3 3/4 inch rebranded G.I.JOE toylines and subsequent versions of the brand also had their versions of 12 inch figures based on 3 3/4 inch versions of individual characters i.e. when they did Valor vs Venom, it had a newly designed DESTRO in both scales, when they did SPY TROOPS prior to that the same ethos was taken...etc. The 30th Anniversary G.I.JOE line used the MAM style articulated bodies, we only got one of these types of figures as our '30th Anniversary in 1996, the Action Soldier simply repackaged in MAM orange branding and an altered reproduction box with Action Man etc on it. Hasbro returned to 'generic' with the 'Classic Collection' and Classic Collection Adventure Team as well as their futuristic G.I.JOE 2020 ranges in 12 inch format with a newly sculpted posable body; this led into the 40th Anniversary line they did re-releasing the bulk of the original 1960s line...

Hasbro UK chose to reintroduce MAM over here by initially stickering over the HOF boxes of the initial 4, in some senses it was a repetition of what Palitoy did with the introduction of VAM in 1966 by importing G.I.JOE's and stickering over the brand name with their own brand identity etc but also it helped both iterations create a very quick market recognition and gave them time until their own brand derivations could reach the market, thats why in 1993 the MAM line changed totally, with a singular Action Man, a new enemy in the shape of Dr X and his initial offerings of outfits, vehicles and equipment. The Ian Harrison Dossier book discusses the relaunch ethos Hasbro UK took in the 1990s...

Regarding the flocked MAMs and even the 'Eagle Eyes' MAM, Hasbro UK found that modern children back then didn't appreciate these things as our generations did with VAM hence ceasing those things and going with sculpted, painted hairstyles and fixed eyes. They tried it and it wasn't received well sadly, that said, the MAM EE figure did look plain ugly and the flocking wasn't that great in terms of quality and adhesion...

Hasbro UK then took it upon themselves to alter MAMs face every so often, which in my opinion was a bad decision as it took away from the singularity of the character...

Doing some Googling and you'll all find 3 3/4 scale Joe related sites that'll corroborate my waffling... 

I've not found a MAM 'Eagle Eyes' with a full head of flocked hair yet, the glue they used was useless. I don't know why toy giant 'Hasbro' allowed this?
I think the reason MAM @ 'Eagle Eyes'  looks a bit ugly to some, is the larger/wider head, used to hold the eye mechanism. I quite like this figure because of the moving eyes, the figure looks best in a military uniform with helmet, the helmet hides most of the head.    

I don't have the 'Ian Harrison Dossier book' does it cover all the MAM range in detail with photos ??

clivvers wrote:

I've not found a MAM 'Eagle Eyes' with a full head of flocked hair yet, the glue they used was useless. I don't know why toy giant 'Hasbro' allowed this?
I think the reason MAM @ 'Eagle Eyes'  looks a bit ugly to some, is the larger/wider head, used to hold the eye mechanism. I quite like this figure because of the moving eyes, the figure looks best in a military uniform with helmet, the helmet hides most of the head.    

I don't have the 'Ian Harrison Dossier book' does it cover all the MAM range in detail with photos ??

Ian Harrison's book covers the MAM period up to the date it was still in production more in terms of what Hasbro UK did with the brand, there are some photos but its not a definitive guide to all Hasbro MAM items. Same goes for its insight and interviews with Brechin and surviving Palitoy staff. About the only 'treat' is the use of the initial drawings of the Wolf Pack Jeep and Crewman with a Wolf Pack team member beside it...

ACTION MAN : THE REAL STORY, 1966 – 1996 by Kevin Paul King, published in 2000 is simply pictorial, has lots of carded photos of MAM stuff in the latter section up to 1996, again its not a definitive guide to MAM as there were so many 'exclusives' with Woolworths, Argos, Beatties, Toys R Us i.e. figures tacked onto existing vehicles in the range or carded items that have as usual disappeared off the planet. For example, theres a silver suited radio activity type MAM I never saw in shops as well as many 'deluxe' outfit boxed sets that were never distributed in my area etc and his book doesn't mention these. Also, as MAM was still around in 2000 the book omits 4 years worth of MAM products.

Reposted missing photos above, here to stay via flickr (4/5/2017)

Great Joe's Guy's!