Fun with Mr Action

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LJN's Mr Action went by many names around the world (seriously, this line sold everywhere there were kids it seems) but it's largely forgotten it seems. Most commonly mistake many of the parts for GI Joe these days, which is ironic because lines like this actually were seriously hurting Hasbro's bottom line in the early 1970s.

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[cjefferys]

Ah, Mr. Action. I remember getting my first one (non-bearded version) for Christmas when I was six or seven years old. The following year I bought what was basically set "F" in the above catalog pic, a bearded Mr. Action with a crapload of accessories, at the local Consumers Distributing catalog store. Good, cheap fun!

[ScottA]

Looks like he had quite the assortment of goodies to play with.

[Random Axe]

Playset E cracks me up. Flanel shirt? Guitar? 70's denim chick? Intimate 2-person love tent? Mr. Action indeed...

[rche]

Looks like a travel guitar. That sucker is tiny. Maybe it is an electric mandolin. That would make sense since they are camping..... Not.

[convoy357]

I had some Mr. Action sets as a kid. I kept telling mom to only get me GI Joe name brand stuff, but she had an eye for a bargain and so I often ended up with Mr. Action. Ill fitting uniforms and cheesy accessories were the usual trademarks of this stuff. There were a few pieces that were pretty cool. I had the Bar-X Bunkhouse and cowboy set, which I put on a GI Joe. I liked that and played with it alot. Funny this thread popped up now as I just received a Bar-X Bunkhouse in yesterdays mail. Brings back alot of memories!

[MIB41]

I think once GI JOE transitioned from military to more of a outdoor/National Geographic themed figure, all the other toy companies lined up, including Mego, to do their version of that. It pretty much became the central theme for the next five or six years until Star Wars hit.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I thought Mr. Action meant Jimmy Olsen!!!

Chris

[Mikey]

Never heard of it

Like the tower though

[Neutron X]

Great Post! I have many fond memories of Mr Action! Is the pic from a Mail Order catalog? I've never seen this one before.
Good to see Mr A is groovin 70s style!

[Earth 2 Chris]

I like that mini-coptor. Would make a great Whirly-Bat for a 12" Mego Batman!

Chris

[Shanester]

I never liked this figure. I got one as a gift somehwere along the way. If you had Hasbro GI Joe stuff, Mr. Action stuff was junk. It was just poorly made.

[Neutron X]

When Hasbro was no longer making things like Grenades, Sailors caps, helmets, Machine Guns, night stick, extra boots ,mess kits, bayonet and tons of other stuff Mr A filled in the gap during the AT era and even came up with some nice vehicles Land/Sea Sled and Helicopter. I liked that softer plastic didn't break as a kid and held up to rough play. I think Hasbro had great quality but it really waned in the mid to late 1970s when they started having poorer quality control and using cheaper fabrics ect. I think LJN only put out the Ko figure so they could sell more outfits.

To be fair if you want to compare Knock Offs to Hasbro it would be best to go to the early KOs which were made by companies already making Barbie KOs before Gijoe even went into production because the quality is great on early Fighting Ace by Elite for example. By the mid to late 1970s Hasbro was getting much cheaper following the KO model, less detail painting on accessories, also putting elastic in the pants used on some Joe and Defenders sets.

[ddgaff1132]

I had the mobile tower when I was a kid. And yep Mikey. It was cool. So cool I never mind that it wasn't GI Joe. In fact I though it was Hasbro but what did I know back then. I found out in later toy comparisons that it was Mr. Action. Later I found the swamp buggy ATV thang in a thrift store and snatched it up. Of course it was missing most of the bits. But it was cool just to have it. In my area at the time, it seemed that many stores did not spare the shelf space for the higher priced items that would possibly just collect dust while awaiting purchase. In stead, stores like Gee Bee and the like would rather stock these kinda cheapo knock offs as their lower price would make them a better sale.