G.I. Joe Vs Action-Man

[Godzilla]

Man that's like asking you to pick between your best friend or his cool, older brother.

I'm from the US and grew up knowing only Joe. But now I have my fair share of AM as well.

[Surfsup]

Being British, it's Action Man for me. I had loads of them as a kid, including Bullet Man and Atomic Man (I have them all now MIB as well).

I aslo had Commander Power who was the UK Super Joe Commander. How I'd love to find a boxed one of them now...oh boy! There's a picture of me on my 8th birthday somewhere proudly holding him.

[monkey tennis]

I've been thinking about getting some of the 40th Anniversary Action-Man's.
Not to bad a price either £35, two suits but only one AM

[Type3Toys]

I was totally into the Adventure Team. I never even knew about Cpt Action.

[Action Martin]

I just got my first 3 Action Man figures today. I don't like that their boxes don't open like Hasbro's G.I. Joe coffin boxes, they are more like Mego boxes. I do like that they crammed in the replica catalogs and mail away offers. I also like the rubber boots over the plastic Hasbro boots. Very cool figures though.

[Joe90]

I started with GI Joe in the Painted Hair era, and collected some of the Adventure Team stuff in High School. I got my first Action Man in the early 1990's. 'Joe was cool, both the PH and AT eras, but Action Man was around a lot longer -- 1966 to 1984 -- and so they just produced a lot more cool pieces. The variations were incredible: Offficers, Ceremonials, Desert Fighters, Counter-Terrorist SAS guys... The list goes on, and on, and on...

One thing. The demise of Hasbro's 12" GI Joe in 1977 is blamed on the Oil Prices, but Palitoy's Action Man continued for another 7 years in the 12" format. Kinda makes you wonder, eh? Maybe it had to do with profit margins? And maybe that's why Action Man produced a lot of finer quality uniforms (with the exception of the GI Joe 1966 Soldiers of the World series) than did Hasbro. Hasbro did it first, but Palitoy was more innovative: they came up with the gripping hands and the flocked hair, after all. I think the same was true in general about Palitoy.

The 40th versions of both GI Joe and Action Man are nicely done. There's been lots of debate on their strengths, and weaknesses, but overall I'd say both sets are great. I think that the innovation continues to this day: the GI Joe 40th sets couldn't sell at $40, but the Action Man 40th sets are doing well at $70+.

Innovative, indeed!

[Action Martin]

I'm really liking Action Man. I'm getting ready to buy another one, the Polar Explorer set. That will look cool with my arctic-themed Joes.

[Iron_fox85]

i have the repro' ADVENTURE TEAM.. so...yeeeaaaah GIJOE FTW!

i blame starwars for joes demise...as well as the demise of monsters popularity...horror was out scifi was in.

[Sowth]

In Australia Toltoys sold Action Man and Kenbrite sold GI Joe, simultaneously.

Yes we were confused.

Kenbrite didn't help prevent the confusion with products such as this "Gi Joe Action Man" carded outfit. The "Action Man" text was changed to "Man of Action" on later carded outfits, probably on the complaints of Toltoys.



Cheers!

Will

[jds1911a1]

Good stuff bro,you know your AM stuff yeah I remember them having real pink bodies with silver rivets

I have many, many joes and AM. JOE has always been my #1 passion and before the repros came out the easiest bodies to get were usually AM's and pinkies were the least desiralble being shorter and PINK
for me Mego collecting is a "sideline" collecting hobby (basically i get rebuilt my childhood collection, got a few I always wanted and have used EMCE to get things out of my price range like Romulan), I am done with superpowers (have em all even Capt Ray),

[jds1911a1]

Being British, it's Action Man for me. I had loads of them as a kid, including Bullet Man and Atomic Man (I have them all now MIB as well).

I aslo had Commander Power who was the UK Super Joe Commander. How I'd love to find a boxed one of them now...oh boy! There's a picture of me on my 8th birthday somewhere proudly holding him.

finding one that isn't a pile of body parts that's the tough part even here in the states