1973 Mattel soldier w/ clicking lever? swivel waist?

[4NDR01D]

Just got a strange little army man in a box lot of toys. It's marked 1973 and it's a little semi-stationary soldier, molded with base made to look like a mound of mud and bricks. It has a small lever on the bottom that,to the best of knowledge, has no purpose other than it clicks and makes the soldier move about 1/2 inch side to side at the waist. I'm assuming that the clicking noise is supossed to sound like the popping of his gun.

[palitoy]

Heroes in action, check plaidstallions for a catalog scan from 76

[Drain]

Ya the green are Army and Blue are Police

[toyme]

wow! too cool!
I had a few of these and they still appear in my dreams!
I would make little dioramas with them for hours and then blow them up with firecrackers!

[livnxxxl]

Darn! Palitoy beat me to it again. Ditto what he said. I have a little collection of these growing a little bigger every so often. I do not see these a whole lot. Then again I have not bothered looking for them in a while now. I think they are kind of neat. I had the blue SWAT set as a kid. Now I have a couple of the SWAT vans and a bunch of the SWAT figures and some of the Army guys.

[brannon86]

I loved Heroes In Action when I was a kid, well, I still like them now, Ha. Got mine at K-Mart back in the day....

[haran_banjo_]

Yes, they're Heroes in Action, or in Italy "Eroi in azione"...this is the first italian catalog:

They exist in some colours about the function they have.

[livnxxxl]

I am pretty sure that my original set came from Sears. My family were real big Sears shoppers. I still have most of the store catalogs to prove it. I can still remember seeing a lot of the cool 70's toys on the shelves there like it was yesterday. Definitely good times for a kid.