HM Armed Forces are here! Move over Action Man.....

[Nick]

Something had to wake me up this morning and it wasn't Mum and the power cut in the kitchen, it was a TV ad.....

HM Armed Forces is an attempt to replace Action Man (aka GI Joe) with characters from all parts of Britains Armed Forces!

There's RAF jet pilots with a Harrier, Rescue winchmen, RAF Falcons paras, Navy divers, Royal Marine Commando's with canoes and quad bikes, Army squaddies with tanks and mortars and machine guns 

I reckon that if the range lasts till next year there'll be an Apache gunship to play with as well as the female figures. There will also be black and Asian faces to look at too.

Only downside I've spotted so far is the lack of enemies.... My Action Men had a bunch of evil mercenaries and nasty nazis to beat up every time.

Argos are stocking them and maybe Toys R Us as well. I will keep an eye out for them. From the blog site/forum the figures are a head shorter than Action Man but sharper detailed in look. No Eagles Eyes though
http://hmarmedforces.com/

[B777LR]

Huh, what kind of tank is that? Described as a battle tank!

[NARSES2]

I reckon that if the range lasts till next year there'll be an Apache gunship to play with as well as the female figures.

Would you care to rephrase that Nick - wouldn't want you getting another reputation 

[Maverick]

787,

The 'tank' is in fact one of the CVR(T) family either the Scimitar or Scorpion.  Both are light recon type vehicles.

Regards,

Mav

[lancer]

The PROPER action man stuff that I played with as a kid - NOT the silly arsed GI Joe crap that tried to out do it or the PC action man of a few years back - is still the best. GO to any modelzone and you can get them again, complete with accessory packs and uniform packs, hell the action mern have the eagle eyes realistic hair and the famous gripping hands!!!
What scale are these new HM Armed forces toys in??

[Nick]

Action Man is 12inch high so that's 1/6 scale. These new guys are 10inch high making them roughly 1/7.2 scale. They are definitely smaller in look.

[Hman]

excuse me...Action Man was here first...http://78.129.128.193/~actionhq/forum/showpost.php?p=127000&postcount=22

[puddingwrestler]

Action man was there first several times; the original Action Man stuff was all based on real UK armed forces (GI Joe started the same way, but US forces), and the smaller spin-off Action Force series also started off based on real UK armed forces. It then switched to a 'more exciting' fictional version using re-painted versions of the original figures and adding an enemy group led by a man with a dust bin on his head(!), then GI Joe elements crept in, then it became the UK version fo GI Joe, then the name ws changed to GI Joe. It's all on Blood For The Baron, a rather nifty site about the history of Action Force.
Specifically look at This bit for the original range. THe vehicles are fictionalised, but the troops adn uniforms are all based on existing UK stuff.

[Mossie]

Great!  Finally a worthy replacement for the old Action Man, rather than one saving the world with Extreme Ironing!

I used to a have a fair few Action Man as kid, but Action Force was my main staple.  My brother read Battle comic, which then became Battle Action Force to take in the toy line.  It started with almost purely British Forces style characters, battling Baron Ironblood & the Red Shadows.  Then Palitoy, who ran the range (& Airfix too) went bust & Hasbro picked up the line & used the Action Force label to promote their GI Joe characters.

This was great for me at about nine, the new characters could move their for arms & legs rather just their whole limbs!  The comic story line changed to replace Cobra over the Red Shadows as the enemy, although the two were interwoven & the stories took a different line to those in the US IIRC.

[NARSES2]

I was the pre Action Man generation, and I always found the idea of "boys dolls" a little odd  We played "war" with lumps of wood shaped to look like guns unless you were really lucky and dad had brought home a souvenir from the war 

[Spey_Phantom]

i know its kinda strange for a boy to play with dolls (little brother: ACTION FIGURE!!!). when i was a kid, we had those 3inch GI Joe action figures, those were fun to play with, especially when combined with the vehicles.
strangely enough, the first thing to break on them always seem tp be the leggs 

wish they had something like that here in Belgium: "Belgian Defence Forces"  including an air force Seaking and F-16 

[Mossie]

I was the pre Action Man generation, and I always found the idea of "boys dolls" a little odd  We played "war" with lumps of wood shaped to look like guns unless you were really lucky and dad had brought home a souvenir from the war 

At family do's I'm often reminded of one of my older relatives referring to my Action Man as a doll once.  I was aghast & assured them that it could not in any way or form be a doll, because what would I, as boy, be doing with it???

Toy guns knocked out rougly carved wood!  Really crap bows & arrows made from sting & a bent stick, that your mate would swear blind he once shot a rabbit with!  Boats roughly hewn out of a bit of 2x4, with nails sticking out of the turrets for guns!  I was born in the era when toys were starting to get quite sophisticated, but you still couldn't beat a chunk of wood or cardboard!

[B777LR]

I was the pre Action Man generation, and I always found the idea of "boys dolls" a little odd  We played "war" with lumps of wood shaped to look like guns unless you were really lucky and dad had brought home a souvenir from the war 

Im from the post-action man generation, and i've always thought of dolls being for girls. The only thing i ever played with from an action man figure was the weapons For me it was Lego, Lego, Lego, more Lego and some computer games, more Lego, Lego trains, Lego this, Lego that, etc. (and playing with my friends, mostly with toy guns. I still do that, except the guns now actually fire )

[lancer]

I was the pre Action Man generation, and I always found the idea of "boys dolls" a little odd  We played "war" with lumps of wood shaped to look like guns unless you were really lucky and dad had brought home a souvenir from the war 

Used to do that as well, and made 'Sten guns' out of scraps of wood. Also played with Action Man. Oh yeah I've also got a couple of souvenirs my grandad brought home with him.

[Spey_Phantom]

"back in my days we didnt have shoot-em-up games, we actually went ouside and shoot the b*st*rds!"
-Walter, Jeff Dunham

when i was a kid, i only played with one toy, and i think B787 already mentioned it.

LEGO 

im age 25 now, and i still play with the bricks (and use them to make a drydock for whiff ships  )