Action Man 50th Photos (Don't get too excited chaps)

No 50th anniversary forum, so posting this here.

So finally we have photos!

I've very mixed feelings on these releases.

Firstly, I thought these were going to be brand new figures and outfits and not reissues of previous product. I'd seen the titles for the figures and had assumed they'd be updates on these older uniforms. Hugely disappointed that there will be no new stuff to buy, as I have everything there several times over.

On the other hand my bank balance will be greatly relieved, as I have everything there several times over.

People who missed out on the 40th SOTC British Infantryman (now a bit of a 40th rarity) will be happy though, as it is being reproduced here.

The range:

The basic Action Soldier (released in the GI joe and Action Man 40th range).

Very common and easy to pick up already. I can't see this selling well at all.



The Paratrooper (All of the parts for this were released in the GI Joe 40th range as well as across the Action Man 40th range). This could still be a decent seller, as it is a cracking set and has never been available before as a single set in this completed form.



The Footballer. The only difference between this and the very common Sportsman basic figure released in the 40th range, is the collar of the shirt is red and not white. Again, can't see this one being too desireable.



The Frogman (released in the GI joe and Action Man 40th range)

Seemed to disappear quickly in both its GI Joe and Action Man versions, so potentially a good seller.



SOTC British Infantryman (released in the Action Man 40th range)

One of the rarer and highly sought after 40th sets so will probably be a solid seller. My tip for the number 1 seller among these first six.

Note, however, that the infantryman's boots are not accurate. The original had lace up boots. Not the kind of detail Alan Hall would have allowed to slip by in the 40th range.



Ski Patrol/Mountain Troops (partially released in the GI Joe 40th range and completely in Action Man 40th range)



An finally the 2017 "mystery" lineup.



So now, let the speculation begin on the 2017 range shown in silhouette.

They look to me like, from left to right, top row then bottom:

Grenadier Guard (released in 40th range)

Either Blues and Royals or Life Guards (both released in 40th range)

Arctic Assault? Possibly. I'm basing this on the elongated feet which could be the short ski/snowshoes that came with this set.

French Foreign Legion (released in 40th range)

SAS. But which one? The silhouette looks to be too well kitted out to be the basic figure. (Some SAS were released in 40th range)

SOTC Australian Jungle Fighter (released in 40th range)

Astronaut (released in 40th range)

Fireman

Royal Navy Sailor basic figure (released in 40th range). If I were Hasbro I'd increase the chances of sales by making the hatband HMS Belfast, as this variation was not released in the 40th range)

Despatch Rider?

I don't think Hasbro has given this range much thought. My fear is that many of these uniforms were already available in the both the Action Man 40th range, so how much of a market will there be left for them? If the sales aren't good, then will it discourage Hasbro from releasing the remaining sets in 2017?

Surely it would have been a wiser move to focus on sets not issued in the 40th range? Some of these sets were also released in the GI Joe 40th range, so a double sales hit there.

Personally, if i were to choose sets to release instead of those already available in the 40th range, I'd have chosen:

Landing Signals Officer

Aston Villa Footballer

Breeches Buoy (Action Sailor Navy version)

Secret Mission to Dragon Island

Royal Engineers.

Space Explorer

US Machine Gunner.

British Infantryman (late issue with The CarL Gustav)

Royal Marine combat (Late camouflage uniform issue)

Missile Assault (YES PLEASE!) - possibly the rarest Action Man set of all and a guaranteed seller.

Royal Marines Exploration Team.

Several other worthy candidates too, but many of the above are some of the rarer sets on the second hand market.

Thoughts anyone?

Great upload!, and at last great to see the photos of the 0th range!. I too was hoping that they would release something new. Of course they were always going to re release some of the classics, but something new would have been nice. Having said that, I do like the paratrooper

Thanks for sharing

I've just noticed something on the Ski Patrol figure. I was looking for signs of the backpack and noticed what look like plastic straps/webbing (look at where the grenades are attached in picture 2 and the thin strap running down to the belt in picture 1). This is something which this uniform never had originally.

It would be a shame if they have skimped on reproducing the fabric backpack and replaced it with a cheap plastic one.

I agree! but then again Palitoy were guilty of that with a lot of later figures

Just noticed something else too. All of those painted head guys have got grippers.

I don't know...

I think the poses and photos of the new sets are fantastic -- excellent work there!

I would guess they figure we want new versions of the old sets we all loved, and probably a lot of us still do. I thought the 40th line of Action Man reissues were fantastic. A little over priced, but awesome. Action Man had a lot more and different things to offer than G. I. Joe, but the G. I. Joe 40th sets were great too on the whole, I thought. Regarding the 40th Joe sets, distribution was a problem and many sets could not be found, but there were also many sets that were discounted greatly and available for insanely low prices (this may be why Hasbro wasn't anxious to redo them all again for the 50th). I never saw any discounts of note for any of the AM 40th sets.

If they tried to come up with something completely new, they might be putting themselves in competition with Hot Toys, Soldier Story, Dragon, &c and I don't know that they want or are able to do that.

I think the 3rd figure is the Deep Sea Diver.

If you look back at all of the many reissues that have been done in the last 20 years it really is pretty impressive at least as far as Hasbro and G. I. Joe are concerned, 30th anniversary sets, 40th anniversary sets, Timeless reissues, Adventure Team reissues by Walmart, the GIJCC reproduced sets and many I've forgotten. To me it is no wonder Hasbro didn't want to do it all again for the 50th.

Modeler's Loft pulled out all the stops when they did the 40th AM line. They really were excellent. I think we should consider ourselves fortunate these sets are being produced.

I agree that they may not sell as hoped considering the market of collectors already have hundreds of vintage, 40th and custom figures and may not have the money or space for more. Hasbro ran into this problem with their 40th line and never released all the figures they had planned. Of the four sets that were never made, the club picked them up had two of them made but never made the last two. And at that, the two sets they did make sat on their shelves and were eventually sold off at a loss.

A lot of guys think that the deep discount blow-out sales by stores like Target ruined it for the rest of the series and they have a point. After being able to buy $50 sets for $10 each, one isn't likely to pay $50 for the next go round.

Brian

It is deep sea diver (taken from actionmamhq website thumbnails.

I know for a fact that more ambitious gear is in pipeline. Fear not if you are not impressed yet. :-)

if poss for the the 50th ann i would like to see what palitoy had planned to release but didnt before they pulled the plug e.g. afrika korp officer , russian rifle that kinda thing . what do you guys think of my idea ?

blueboxier wrote:

if poss for the the 50th ann  i would like to see what palitoy had planned to release but didnt before they pulled the plug e.g. afrika korp officer  , russian rifle  that kinda thing . what do you guys think of my idea ?

I like it!

I'm not temped by any of these figures. Hope Wisacan is correct that the best is yet to come.

Rich

wiscan wrote:

It is deep sea diver (taken from actionmamhq website thumbnails.

I know for a fact that more ambitious gear is in pipeline. Fear not if you are not impressed yet. :-)

I like the sound of that Rob!

It's exciting to see new vintage style 12" figures; but compared to the Geyperman and Group Action Joe releases; the initial impression is that these are a bit underwhelming. Hopefully as more pictures and info are released, this will change.

-Nate

blueboxier wrote:

if poss for the the 50th ann  i would like to see what palitoy had planned to release but didnt before they pulled the plug e.g. afrika korp officer  , russian rifle  that kinda thing . what do you guys think of my idea ?

This would have been a good idea for the initial Roll out of the line the 'chase' figure, most action figure
Lines have a Variant, five figures plus a 'chase' would have made an Exciting debut and generated more
Interest.
In this day and age does AM appeal to today's kids as it did for us in our childhood? I'm looking at the Roll out graphics and wondering that in a World full of exciting Graphics from Comics, TV, Games,etc do they generate
The concept of an Action Toy in today's crowded Market place? I'm not advocating overly violent gun posing but
There must be a better way of showing what these toys are capable of than what is depicted, maybe this will
Change closer to release?
Please........can we have an accurate head sculpt?

Fantastic upload!

Well at last we have some pictures....I have to say it's a bigger range of figures than I was expecting!

Whilst I would have liked to have seen something original in these first batch of figures I'm still very happy to see the AM line of figures brought back to life! Apart from us collectors it will be interesting to see how well they sell.
There is a market for 12" figures out there, obviously for girls it's the Barbie and Disney range but for boys figures they all seem to be based on movies. Marvels Avengers, Spider-Man and the Star Wars range seem to always sell well in all the shops including Tesco and Asda so it will be interesting to see if the 50th range can take off without the help of a Movie to interest a new generation.

I will definitely be collecting these, I really hope it takes off and we see some new stuff produced so I will be supporting this range 100% just as I did the 40th.

It takes a lot of effort to get a project like this off the ground and to sustain it once it gets going, I just hope Hasbro don't get too greedy or try to get too involved as they did with Alan Hall which eventually brought the 40th line to an end.

Whatever we all think of it one thing is for sure......it's got collectors talking which is always good for the hobby!

It is a difficult market, as we have everything from the purist collector to the custom basher to satisfy! Bringing out another range like this is aimed at a market somewhere in between... I guess. It doesn't really appeal to me personally, as I would like to see some sets that are totally new, perhaps some modern military uniforms or historic ones that have never been done before. He are some nice examples of uniforms that could be done, I particularly like No. 29, almost a little pirate like...

TheOneManKid wrote:

It is a difficult market, as we have everything from the purist collector to the custom basher to satisfy! Bringing out another range like this is aimed at a market somewhere in between... I guess. It doesn't really appeal to me personally, as I would like to see some sets that are totally new, perhaps some modern military uniforms or historic ones that have never been done before. He are some nice examples of uniforms that could be done, I particularly like No. 29, almost a little pirate like...

I'd like to order a 32 and a 33 from your pic Ralph!....no EE's though!

Going by the pictures of the figures on this thread I'd say there's not much difference between them and the 40th if any !
Even the heads look just like the 40th to me, no soul or character unlike a vintage painted head or fuzz head .
The vintage figures always have a different individual look about them .
As has been said before if they are mass marketed for toy shops, I hope they are better made than the 40th figures (although no complaints with any of the 40th uniforms which were spot on )
The only one I'd be interested in would probably be the frogman as all the rest are generally available in either 40th or vintage. Just have to wait and see what future releases bring.
Just my point of view as far as collecting goes

Looking at the footballer the body looks similar to the 40th Joes, in style and colour.

Im hoping the prices are reasonable if they are to sold in toy shops

Good to see the new figures at last, but I probably won't be getting one.  I'm guessing they'll be out of my budget and aimed at serious collectors.  

I'm still puzzled why they couldn't have changed VAM figures when other things became more popular, like changing the heads to movie characters, etc, and changing their clothing.  They could have used the VAM bodies for a whole line of Star Wars, Star Trek, Space 1999 and other shows, all using the basic VAM figure with tweaks.

Anyone got a time machine to go back and suggest it to the guys in the early eighties?  

TheOneManKid wrote:

It is a difficult market, as we have everything from the purist collector to the custom basher to satisfy! Bringing out another range like this is aimed at a market somewhere in between... I guess. It doesn't really appeal to me personally, as I would like to see some sets that are totally new, perhaps some modern military uniforms or historic ones that have never been done before. He are some nice examples of uniforms that could be done, I particularly like No. 29, almost a little pirate like...

numbers 25 , 29 , 30 , 31 and 32 do it for me

one more thing ralph where did you find the pic so i can see what other plates it has

Just from a Google images search for Historical British Military Uniforms. I didn't see anymore plates, but, then again, I didn't really try hard to find them. Post them up if you find them. I am sure new uniforms would be big sellers, especially if there was a vote on what collectors would like to buy.

Some more suggestions:




Rich