CarlosTheDJ
Antediluvian
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 7,001
- Location
- Pebble Mill
Quite apart from Star Wars tat ... er 'collectable merchandising' ...
In my childhood, I collected real action figures, i.e. toys that you could get uniforms, guns etc. for and were intended to be played with. Yes, Action Man was my biggest interest.
I had two trunks with suits from the 70's onwards, including the 'astronaut' (with a jet-pack zip line), a "Colditz" set - prisoner get-up and German guard uniform (cardboard sentry box included). I had a "field radio" with completely shite changeable 'disks' of dialogue, a bazooka (spring-loaded plastic bullet firing), a grapnel launcher (ditto). I had a load of (plastic) stuff - all genuine 'line products'.
I recount this to show my hoarding instinct over such toys.
Now ...
At the same time, I collected other action toy figures. Yes, I had the Bionic Man but I couldn't afford the crappy accessories. But the 1980's seemed to be replete with non-TV tie-in figures. Many toy manufacturers wanted to start an action-figure craze, along with an accessory sales base. Somewhere I have an old photo of my small collection, posed in a "group" in my back garden.
Among these are a large (about the size of Bionic Man, which was huge in comparison to Action Man) "Cowboy" and "Indian", a Pirate (push button to 'operate' his arm swinging a cutlass, his wooden leg hollow with a hidden treasure map), a Spaceman (crap figure - solid limbs and rubber joints - but came with funky accessories, almost 'hard science') ...
And a transparent plastic figure with interchangeable arms and legs. Had a similar foe (of course) which I never got, these were only about 6" tall. Completely transparent plastic, with visible gold innards. His arms could be changed with a (spring-loaded) bolt thrower or 'grapnel', a water pistol ... er ... acid projector. I had a pair of 'motorised mobility legs', i.e. two caterpillar-tread rollerskate legs, but you could get an all-terrain 'extension' i.e. a motorised tracked vehicle he clipped into.
It was this last toy that 'Scargs post called to mind.
And, I emphasise, that this was before action figures were marketed as collectable and actually designed to play with.
As soon as I can, I'll dig out that old photo, muck about with it on Photoshop, and try to enlarge it enough for people to identify some of the more obscure toys.
I used to buy those types of weird toys from jumble sales when I was a kid in the 80s, I had loads of unidentifiable characters and my mates had others. Because we were 80s kids/victims we assumed that all those toys had mysterious programmes to go with them somewhere in the dim and distant past....but maybe not.