When I was 10 years old in 1966 I received my first Action Man from my Parents for my birthday. He must have been one of the first ones to hit our shores in the UK as 1966 was the year he first appeared.

He was a Blond Painted Head with hard hands. I was so excited as for ages I had been looking at adverts in American Comics showing GIJoe and all his gear. I always wished we had something like that in the UK.

My collection of Action Man grew with Christmas and birthdays,along with saving up pocket money for the smaller items. All my friends had Action Man and we used to have battles together. I went on to get a Sailor and an Airman, I even saved enough stars for a mail away figure.

Anyway as the years went by my interests turned elsewhere and like others I lost interest in playing with Action Man. So I gave mine to my Nephew, and so forgot all about them.

When I eventually had my own son Action Man as I knew hm was no more and so we bought the Modern Action Man. How he had changed and for the worse in my opinion.

Again he grew out of them and they were sold on. Once again Action Man was forgotten about. Until 2007 when I noticed places like www.firebox.com were advertising an Anniversary Edition of the Original Action Man. I thought these were just a limited run of a few figures and equipment. Jokingly my Son said he would buy me one for Fathers Day. So he bought me the Deep Sea Diver set. When I saw the web address for Modellers Loft I had a look and discovered there wer lots more available, so I ordered the British Tommy and the German Stormtrooper.

I decided to search around on the Internet and came across www.actionmanhq.co.uk and its forum. I joined and was welcomed in, from there I discovered the vast wealth of Vintage Action Man that was available on eBay and the rest as they say is history.

I then spoke to my Sister who had recently moved to where I live and she said she still had the Action Men my Nephew had owned. When I collected them off her I couldn't believe my eyes as there was the very first Action Man I ever owned, and not in a bad condition as you can see here:

 

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