Who is AM in The 21st Century? (50th Discussion topic)

over on UAMHQ they have started a really interesting debate about 'Who is Action Man?'
It seems the 50th range has thrown up some poignant responses to, AM's relevance in today's World, how does he go on? Who is he now? How do you market an AM figure in the 21st Century?

CaptainBigtrousers put forward that maybe Action Man could be modeled on a character from the PS4 Uncharted, Nathan Drake.

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Personally, I think it would be a good idea, but I guess it won't be for everyone. In a society that now seems to shun military toys, maybe themed Action Man would be the way to go?, and if you want to market a figure to not only to adults (and lets face it, we are probably the last generation to do this)but kids  who now spend so much time on consoles. However, I do not think the sports mam route is the way to go.

In my opinion, Action Man inspired film or game characters would work. There are enough of them to choose from. As an adult collector, of course I want to see 'New' uniforms, as I am sure you guys do, However, to have a line that lasts, I think its time to change.

I spoke to my son about this, and he said that maybe vam should take a leaf out of the console game Skylanders or disney infinity, where the figures have small micro chips in them, which allows the figure to be digitally re created in the game!

Possibly new none military lines?

Treasure hunter.
Zombie Hunter.
Space Pirate.
Police Officer.
Secret Agent.

New Military Lines?

Modern Middle East British/ USA Soldier.
Chinese Military Soldier (Modern)
UK Jump Jet Pilot.
A line of multi national special forces figures.
A new line of different nationality figures.

Anyway, thats what I think, so what about you guys?  

I agree Dal , I think the roll out of the basic soldier British tommy footballer etc although fitting in with 40th and vintage lines are just that!
uniforms and accoutrements that have been done before , this is a opportunity missed in my opinion !
although how then do you make it relevant for the collector, or the market for children , so in weighing it up, for longevity ,maybe the collector market is not the way to go,but does action man work for this generation of tech savvy 3 -6 year olds?perhaps not ! if you
concentrate on today's tech savvy  market ,after all  I have no problem passing the torch on , vam is my era , mam my sons era,which has a following as this forum clrearly  shows.  
 This generation need something to make him their own !
how this is done? I should imagine would be to make action man interactive with computers or tech in general as I know even my 3 year old wants to play games on my wifes tablet more than he wants to play with his mam ,
maybe it is one of the reasons he loves hotwheels so much as he can scan the packets and play racing games round different tracks of the cars he has been given, probably playing as much in virtual reality with the toy as in 3 dimensional reality , its the way of the world unfortunately
I also think in some ways kids don't use imaginative play the way we used to as we are from a pre computer generation who in early years had to imagine our worlds ,today they are handed to them on a plate .
my 3 year old can type his name instantly on a computer ,yeah he can write it too but he is not satisfied as he says it looks rubbish !
also I played with my action man till I was about 12 but todays 12 year olds bombarded with todays 24/7 media tech intrusion to our lives are more like 16 year olds than I was at 16 !
so in summary action man was a glorious product of our childhoods ,drawn back to him in our older years as nostalgia ,to try and catch a glimmer of the past of the halcyon days of long summer evenings , perhaps action man is not immortal as we remember and know him ,
perhaps 50th anniversary action man is only meant for the nostalgic collector in a selfish attempt to hold on to our remembered youth,
maybe the way we remember him he too  has to die along with us ,his mortality assured ?!
That saying, I will in all probability buy as many as my bank balance will allow ,keeping me selfishly happy till I shuffle of this mortal coil !

I think you could be onto something there.  FAM (Future Action Man) could be modelled on a game character and I think the Adventurer line of the original VAM could have been updated, having him go on adventures all over the world, and beyond.  Image what the world would have been like if VAM was the hero in Tomb Raider!

My top choices (but this may change!) would be:

Treasure Hunter (Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones?)
Astronaut (think Mission to Mars with new space suits and equipment, and a Mars rover or something)


I like the idea of putting microchips in the figures - bring two figures close together (AM and a new baddie?) and they could talk to each other!  Or how about Action Man, the Wii U controller?  You move his arms and legs and the figure on screen does a karate chop or kick to attack the bad guys!

I think it would be a shame if AM became just a collectors figure, like HotToys (which aren't really toys!).  I'd like to see him as they designed him to be back in the 60's - something to fuel a kid's imagination.

Great idea for a thread!

As has already been mentioned, some parents may not be happy encouraging their children to play with toys associated with war given the situations in which we have been involved in certain countries in recent years - especially during Blairs' time in government. Having said that there has been a recent campaign by the army in which young people talk about why they are proud to sign up and do something with their lives - "become a better me" was the theme of the advertisements. Maybe military figures and vehicles are due a respectable revival?

If not military then you have to look at what is popular with this generation - the first thing that comes to mind is football. Either a generic figure like the VAM Sportsman and outfits for each team sold separately or a figure dressed in the outfit already. Each outfit could come with some iron on letters and numbers to recreate your chosen player or put your own name on the shirt as a lot of adults do for their kids with the full size shirts. Every football club has an official club shop, I think these would be very popular with both children and adults.
I've already mentioned in the 50th thread about how popular twelve inch figures are in the Star Wars and Marvel range with kids, I'm sure outfits related to these could be produced just like the Captain Action range but marketed in a better way.
Zombies and monsters are another popular range, there could be zombie figures and a range of zombie hunters/survivors loosely based on The Walking Dead or Resident Evil.
Another idea might be to go along the line of something similar to the GI Joe AT range from the 70's updated for this generation. This could also include a set of emergency services figures - policeman, fireman etc.

Personally I would obviously like to see VAM style outfits and figures to complement our collections, maybe a mixture of all of the above would work

I certainly like the idea of a 'New Action Man' or 'NAM'... making an appearance as a computer game hero... seems like a great idea! But, the danger is that he'd be produced as some kind of anatomically distorted freak show character pumped up on steroids and protein drinks again!

Do boys like to play with action figures anymore?

TheOneManKid wrote:

I certainly like the idea of a 'New Action Man' or 'NAM'... making an appearance as a computer game hero... seems like a great idea! But, the danger is that he'd be produced as some kind of anatomically distorted freak show character pumped up on steroids and protein drinks again!

Let's hope the character doesn't have eagle eyes and wear the same 30 year old, blue sweaty tight nylon pants, pooh!

clivvers @ MAM invasion @ season 7, episode 9.

Who is AM in the 21st Century.....maybe Johnny e4 has touched upon a solution?




His thread....
https://actionmanmobileops.forumotion.co.uk/t7719-hot-fuzz-adventure-team

There is no doubt that the modern bodies would offer a more realistic option, but would that take away from the Action Man theme?, I don't know. As some of you guys know, I collect both vam and modern figures, but for completely different reasons. I do mix my troops, but as a kid I had Action Man, Marx figures and Lone Ranger figures, so I guess that is where it comes from??

do you think there might be a Barbie discussion group somewhere asking these same questions

all GI Joe and Action Man need is comics, cartoons, movies , and most of all a video game
once boys want to create their own adventures again then he's back in action if not just to have a pose-able statue of a character
that and for affordable prices for kids to play with them
cause right now they got o be kidding us with what we pay just to play with them in the mud and toss them into the air and see the chute open and pop an ankle cup on landing

JohnnyE4 wrote:

  do you think there might be a Barbie discussion group somewhere asking these same questions

all GI Joe and Action Man need is comics, cartoons, movies , and most of all a video game
once boys want to create their own adventures again then he's back in action if not just to have a pose-able statue of a character
that and for affordable prices for kids to play with them
cause right now they got o be kidding us with what we pay just to play with them in the mud and toss them into the air and see the chute open and pop an ankle cup on landing

who knows the way a womans mind works m8

JohnnyE4 wrote:

  ... do you think there might be a Barbie discussion group somewhere asking these same questions....

Mattel, the company behind Barbie, has been asking questions about how to keep Barbie relevant for a number of years:

https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/opinion/columns/983430-Commentary-Barbie-is-60.-And-shes-reinventing-herself.

The conclusion of this article: "At some point... the institutional memory of Barbie will be dead."

SCU_HQ wrote:

JohnnyE4 wrote:

  ... do you think there might be a Barbie discussion group somewhere asking these same questions....

Mattel, the company behind Barbie, has been asking questions about how to keep Barbie relevant for a number of years:

https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/opinion/columns/983430-Commentary-Barbie-is-60.-And-shes-reinventing-herself.

The conclusion of this article: "At some point... the institutional memory of Barbie will be dead."

I wanted to chime in! They're saying Barbie sales have done really well since the pandemic. The shops seem to reflect that.

I think there are some fantastic ideas in this thread.

I think, you could go the World Peacekeepers route, and make a line of ambiguous looking soldiers. Do like a chef, a doctor, mechanic, that way, they're military toys, but the focus is on the careers they have made in the forces. I said this to my friends today, they both laughed at me when I suggested a lawyer. But these are possibilities.

I was talking to my Mum, she thinks the adventurer type thing could work. You could do hunt for the Yeti, Bigfoot, dinosaur Island... giant bugs.

A supernatural side would would be cool. Triad Toys was onto something g like that years ago, but I never thought much of it.

The reality is though, while not common, girls have been known to play with Action Man too.. I had two Rihno Jeeps as a little one. I pulled them on string all the time.

I think that these figures could have a revival, but they would have to be affordable and quality. No plastic moulded clothing please!

I have some "PeaceKeepers" figures, ...admittedly not 1/6 but the smaller fellows. 
Have to say, for a name such as "peacekeepers" I have never seen figures come more armed to the teeth than these do. Weapons of all types. A virtual arsenal! Reminds me of the old 60's saying..."Fighting for peace is like.....",  well you all know how that expression goes.

Political correctness and all the rest, kid's games are now largely in their heads and you won't see many of them outside "playing" for long when there's a black box device and an internet connection around.
Action Man would have to be a virtual character you controlled in a CGI world, not a hand-held piece of plastic.

I seriously fear for kids imaginations due to lack of development. 
Why try to build anything yourself when it's going to look "crap" to the kid when compared to a virtual world that is so perfect and so readily available?

We here are all looking at this through our own now adult imaginations and our "new" ideas are already "old" to kids.
Indiana Jones? Lara Croft? Seriously? They are already over twenty years old, and more in some cases! 
May as well expect kids to play "Cowboys and Indians"!

We are now bombarded with "Masters of the Universe", or should that be "Disasters of the Universe"?
Ordinary mortal strength is no longer enough, it must be superhero or artificially enhanced by science or some other means.
Toys used to tend to come and go, some enjoying a revival such as the humble yo-yo. The frisbee seems to have had a somewhat extended life.
But what ever happened to those once wildly popular "spinners"? They seem to have become passé overnight.

I'm afraid that the virtual world is one massive competitor and it's very available. 
Look at any group of kids. 
No personal interaction taking place. They are glued to their devices. 

And those things, my friends, are the new Action Man! And they are improving all the time.

LeStryge wrote:

I seriously fear for kids imaginations due to lack of development. 

Having spent a number of years teaching at the elementary level (ages 8 - 11 mostly), I can state from direct experience that imagination among kids is fading fast. Scarier still, children do not know how to play with toys!

This is no exaggeration. Numerous times over the years I introduced toys to kids at school, and they "played" like infants or toddlers: whacking the toys on the tabletop or floor or throwing them. "Development" is the right word here. Many modern kids have not been exposed to physical toys at young ages, so they never learned to play. Thus, their response to toys is at an infantile developmental level.

And now, with even the few toys remaining on the market coming complete with a pre-packaged backstory courtesy of the latest hit movie, no imagination is required to create worlds, create characters, or imagine adventures. Kids know who the characters are, and, from what I observed, it is very difficult for them to imagine the toys as being anything other than a carbon copy of what they see on the video screen.

What video-based games fail to provide is experience with the basic laws of physics: like, you know, gravity and stuff. Kids really have no idea how to build a block tower that will stand, or how fast something will fall. They don't understand that if you drop something it will break. Not only do they not understand, they don't seem to care.

I believe this trend is intentional and being encouraged by political, social, and educational groups. Evidence? As of this week, Doctor Seuss has been labeled a racist pariah and his books are being pulled from schools and libraries across the United States. The first Seuss book to be banned? And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street. A book... about imagination.

I do not have words to adequately express the sorrow and hopelessness I feel when discussing or thinking about this topic.

So I come here to this forum to "play" with parents and grandparents who remember what it was like to have fun with action figures. We are a dying breed, my friends. Relics of a bygone era.

That`s really sad to read Dave , but very believable at the same time .