The Action Man German Army - Vintage Toy Review / Retrospective - Palitoy
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- Опубліковано 21 січ 2017
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Great last line in the video! I'm curious, how did children play with these toys? Were they always the villain during playtime, or were they just another uniform in a very diverse line? I imagine, if you had a large number of characters, you could afford to have the Germans be your standard villains, but if someone only had a handful of characters and most of them were Germans that they would have to come to some other kind of arrangement.
I know when I was a kid I had about 5 or 6 Action Man figures. Most were Germans and they were always the bad guys who would go up against my lone commando!
My favourite Action Man was always a one-man-army, that's because I grew up in the eighties, the decade that celebrated the one-man-army movies!
I had the German tank commander and the storm trooper. To me, they were just smart uniforms. At that age, I just thought it was cool! All the action took place in my imagination. I enjoyed playing with the German armored car. I've still got them all up in the attic!
@@AnalogToys Hi, I was wondering if you could help me tell the difference between vintage Adventure team and the reissue that came out in the 2000s. I bought a loose Land Adventurer and it was advertised as vintage but I how do I know if the clothes, boots etc. are vintage. Could he be a frankensteined combination of old and reissued parts? Help please email me at jsanchez843@gmail.com
I had my AM figures as British V German. By the late 70's, early 80's, I had 13 figures and 7 were British, 6 were German and they would fight as a WWII type thing. My Dad and GrandDad were in the army, the latter serving in WWII so I was more than familiar with the basics. On the British side I had the Scorpion tank and the Iron Knight tank. Two jeeps and the fire tender and police motorcycle... my police rider was armed with an M16 (yes, I know it wasn't strictly accurate but that's the fun right ? haha)
Oh and I also had the Capture Copter.
On the German side I had the Cherilea German desert colours tank and the internationals Afrika Korps in the turret. I also had the desert M/C and sidecar combo and I painted one of my Cherilea armoured cars in beige and conscripted it on the German side.
Oh wow... you know what? I wish I could go back and play with all that lot just one more time!!!
Great days to be a kid.
It likely the later WW2 German Military Action Man figures had the swastikas removed from the uniforms to comply with various European laws banning its depiction. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a
"they may have lost the war but they looked damn good while doing it"
hahah thats how I wanna go out
Watching movies like A Bridge Too Far and The Guns of Navarone as a kid, I loved to act out scenes with my German soldiers (both of them) and my Adventure Team Secret Mission to Spy Island commando. Germans were always the best bad guys and I feel kids don't have that connection anymore to history or creative play time. You're right about them being the snappiest dressers and best villains.
0:59 in fairness, there are few "toys" of the war being made full stop these days. I fondly remember GI Joe's "golden age" of the early 2000's with entire store aisles full of figures.
not anymore.
That said, the uptick in Indiana Jones toys that came with the release of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" saw many "German Soldier" toys popping up, especially action figures. they even appeared in Lego sets, which, considering the Founder of Lego lived through the Nazi occupation of Denmark, raised a few eyebrows.
But i can confirm that if one knows where to look they can still find toys featuring WWII Germany readily available, especially in the realms of Green Army men and other such affiliated war toys. the popularity of games like "World of Tanks" and "War Thunder" has also seen plenty of Panzers appearing in Remote-Control vehicles and model kits.
21st Century Toys kind of filled the niche for 1/6 German soldiers in the early 2000's. They had your standard Rifleman, Afrika Korps soldier, panzer commander and so on, but they also had some rather unique figures, such as a Monte Cassino Paratrooper that actually had an Italian Submachine gun, an SS machine Gunner with MG-34 and camouflaged cloak and helmet, and I think they even made a German Sailor at one point. They also released weapon packs which included just about every gun WWII Germany used, from Luger's to Panzerfausts.
As a kid, my only complaint was that compared to Hasbro's molds 21st's weapons were a bit flimsy and broke rather easily.
Personally I think it's all down to the Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare and the Battle of the Bulge. If you wanted to recreate any of these films you need the Germans
I couldn't agree with you more, war adventure films througout the 60's & 70's, featuring menacing but dashing german soldiers & characters, had the main influence on palitoys german uniform collection. Boys in the UK where facinated with the german army through both film & equally if not more through war comics, like warlord, battle & The Victor.
What I would have given to see Palitoy produce a uniform for a German Gerbigsjäger.
I remember my Gran making me some Action Man clothing. I had the only Action Man "Tom Good" from the Good Life special edition figure. Baggy knitted jumper and a pair of denim pants.
So glad I had my childhood in the 70s.
"The only thing to look forward to - is the past"
I’d have also put the popularity down to the Commando comic books from the time which more than likely influenced a lot of children at the time to play out their favourite commando comic with their Action Man figures, with most of the comics featuring the Germans as the villains I’d have said this played a factor.
Also there were a lot of good World War II films, even populist ones like Kelly’s Heroes.
Still remember my excitement at getting the Africa Corp. Uniform. Happy days.
Those kids in those days prolly gonna reenact indiana jones scenes, sounds like fun to me.
Hugo Boss designed the uniforms. They were always my favourites as a kid.
I've picked up some of the Dragon Models 1:6 figures for my oldest son. An American soldier, a Soviet sniper, and a Wehrmacht private with Panzerfaust. There are still WW2 figures around, but the market is very much pitched to older collectors. The accuracy is there in the uniforms, but the GI Joe and Action Man style has its own unique appeal.
Germans had fantastic uniforms
Amen
just sucks that they were so fucking racist
Yeah, the Germans had the coolest uniforms, but like lego warrior states, it’s a shame they were so goddamn racist
And a terrible definition of mercy
TRUUUUE
As a child in the 70s/80s the highlight of any holiday was buying the most realistic toy gun I could find to impress my friends. We used to buy real German gas masks and other equipment from army surplus shops. Would get you arrested and profiled nowadays 😄
Hahaha exactly! I had a metal replica MP40, my mate had a real SS dagger...we both had gas masks too! Every weekend at the army and navy shop!
I went to Halloween party dressed as a German soldier wearing a real battle pick up German helmet very cool
Loved the iron cross medal with the German outfit.
Escape From Colditz is my favorite Action Man set.
Omg, what s collection you have!!!
I had the german stormtrooper uniform for my 10th birthday 45 years ago, loved it
What great toys. The detail and look are very impressive. Great video and thank you for sharing.
So cool all l.got was the! Crap French resistance,, outfit , l wanted the German uniform so much for my Christmas,
I'm reminded of that Dad's Army episode where the platoon is being given a slideshow to be able to identify German uniforms. Pike says "oh that looks smart" and Captain Mainwaring put him in his place for it. As a nation we were meant to hate everything they stood for, but objectively speaking the uniforms DID look smart.
This is probably my 4th time of watching this now haha. Great video and I always loved the German uniforms. I so wished AM would have brought out more vehicles for them.
An old mate of mine, who as a military historian, used to say to me... " Boy, If Germany had won the second world war, you would have had a fabulous police uniform".
And no woke shit
I use to love action man. I had all of the uniforms and yes I had the German uniforms as well. They were my favourite uniforms. I do remember a black action man called tom stone. Why I still remember that for I don't know?
History is history it is there to learn from. Attempting to block it out won't change it.
Another great and very interesting video.
Still got one Action Man left from my childhood with the black panzer commander uniform.
I'd have loved that Shock Trooper kit! Certainly the most stylish dressers of WW2. I do wish they had brought out some Great War era uniform sets, they would have been ace!
Wow. Very cool. Never seen these before.
Could of been because Hugo Boss designed such exquisite uniforms. And those stahl helms...👏🏻👍🏻
Fascinating stuff. You cant have a soldier without an enemy to fight. Having a second world war soldier, it makes total sense that they would do a German soldier. It's strange logic not to do the Japanese soldier though. Did the germans not commit some atrocities during the war?...yet they still did a German army design. Odd.
Great video.
This was great stuff
Thank you very much for yours videos, always interesting for a french Action Man fan !
Got to love those uniforms. Had the Soldiers Of The World issue along with the Colditz set which as I remember had a darker uniform. The Commandant and the Officer we also favourites of mine. Thanks for the review 😊
I got a bunch of the modern 1/6th scale. They are perfect for a miniature museum
Gotta love their uniform!
It seems that the uniforms were getting more authentic and realistic as time went on.
Great video the germans line was cool.let face it alot of the young germans didnt want go to war it was fear . But the outfits were both cool and scary at same time .imagine a whole troop marching towards must have been frightning .
Fantastic video! You did a great job putting it together.
Love these vids. I have nearly every German Palitoy did in my collection. The only one missing is the commandant officer. I have, however done a German officer using the last issue stormtrooper outfit, adding the officer cap and belt with holster. Looks really cool and makes me wonder why Palitoy didn't add it to their range back in the 80s.
I FEEL THEY WERE PRETTY EXCELLENT IN DETAIL! IM CURRENTLY COLLECTING THEM ALL..LOVE UM!❤
Hugo Bos designed the SS uniforms.
Their weaponry was way ahead of it's time. The MG42 machinegun is still a beast today. ;))
Did you know German military use machine gun which looks like mg42 today but mg42 was hell of a weapon us army had to have training video to show gis how to counter it
@@tommyatkins2527 Yes. :)) Awesome.
Great Video Thanks !
I was here.
Please keep going.
Excellent.
Another possible answer to the question of why they were popular, is that many kids of the 60s and 70s were forces kids who may have spent time in Germany when dad was there! I know, I was one!
Just looking over your older videos and this is incredible stuff. I have few my uncles action man stuff and I like it but budget for collecting it I will need win power ball.
Great video !
Man, I wish I had one of those Storm Trooper GI Joes.
Excellent Video!!!!!
even lemmy used to like the german tank uniforms
Actually german paratroopers belonged to the Luftwaffe (Airforce). So technically the pilot isn't the only Luftwaffe member.
Girls played with Action Men too! I didn't have the German Army ones, though!
Bit of an error in saying that the Luftwaffe pilot was the only German character from its air force, rather than its army, as paratroopers were also part of the Luftwaffe.
No one likes a know-it-all
Honestly I think this is cool as shit. Just imagine someone making a stop motion out of this.
Estupendo video amigo
Did Palitoy/Action Man ever release a French Foreign Legion soldier? I'd think that would be a no-brainer.
yes they did!
Well now you could have Diversity Action Trans Man purse and all!
I remember having the Africa Korps, got home from school one day to find my dog had ripped him to pieces, I was gutted, he was my last Action Man.
German paratroopers were part of the Luftwaffe as can be seen from eagle design, so Action Man made two Luftwaffe uniforms.
Correct👍
Such great looking figures and fun sets, I am always surprised at the lack of head sculpts and skin tones Action Man had. I’m just starting my collection and two of the first on my list were Japanese and Black!
I take like...ALL of your stock!
Thanks for this upload. These are pretty good quality toys, aren't they? I had a few Action Men as a kid, but wasn't so keen on the military ones. Had loads of fun with the deep sea diver and the astronaut with his silly rubber space suit. Had a joint-less dog too, which I got by saving tokens from boxes. I must say, though, that these German figures look pretty impressive.
THEY MAY HAVE LOST THE WAR BUT LOOKED DAMN GOOD DOING IT! FUNNY BUT TRUE!
They look so cool ... wish I could have one :(
I remember seeing an German SS captain in a toy shop in Glasgow I'm not sure what company made it it was all complete
2 reasons everyone likes the bad guys and cool looking uniforms
The uniforms were great, but I'm inclined to think that the popularity of those costumes had more to do with the fact that kids needed a toy enemy for their toy heroes to fight against. It's a bit like the frustration caused by the Star Wars stormtrooper toys: It was hard to get a set of them, so most kids just had one.
One decade before Star Wars, kids already had their Stromtrooper.... I mean, "Sturmtruppen".
I started now collecting action man but I just can't find any of theses toys............ Feel like bloody crying!
Theres loads on ebay here in the UK
German soldiers uniform always looked better as they were designed by Hugo Boss, fact !!
They manufactured the uniforms. They did not design them though.
At the beginning of the story in the video game RUSE there is a Coldzt Castle the first tutorial where you start out with three Pershing tanks to rescue a woman agent
I'm possibly getting an action man german storm trooper for my birthday mainly cause I love history on the world wars
I'm glad you made this video as it was one big question I pondered after watching your other Action Man videos. On the one hand, the folk of the 1960s weren't quite the "snowflakes" that we have today, easily offended by everything. On the other hand, WW2 was only just two decades prior. On the other othr hand...kids in the 60s would have no trauma of those events....but the parents would have and they're the one buying the toys. It's a tricky one. Did kids of the 60s automatically consider German soldiers the baddies in their playtime?
They would still be perfect, for they are the very best bad guys
My favorite action man is PTSD action man
I looked high & low for these growing up in America never found them myself a friend of mine had the motorcycle & sidecar with two German soldiers & a kubblewagon staff car with officer & driver but he said he didn't get them from any TOYS R US I frequented I think he said he sent of a number of box tops for them or something like that I had GI JOE'S equipped for any scenario sea air desert winter warfare I even had the rat patrol jeep & properly uniformed & equipped figures but for the life of me I couldn't come up with an adversary force I knew they existed I saw them in toy magazine advertisements I asked for them for Christmas to no avail if they'd been available my parents would have gotten them for that occasion I usually had to cut yards or do some other chore for
neighbors to get money to equip my joes as my parents wouldn't toyshop for me as often as I wanted they'd always say I had enough junk for my Joe's so I was always parsimonious with my funds they came to hard to waste but I would have happily spent on these adversaries for my joes to mix it up with all in all though they provided me with hours of adventure & my parents with hours of peace & quiet from distraction
Well, you are wrong about the pilot being the only Luftwaffe member. The Fallschirmjäger, or the German paratrooper was also in the Luftwaffe (ranks on his collar)
You're so right, I never realised that when I was making the video...
The British uniformed action man needed an enemy didn't he ! Though when I was a kid I only got one doll.
I had that colditz set...with the plastic briefcase takedown rifle.......I distictly remember a couple of years later ...shooting the shite out of all my sction men with my first air rifle as most my friends did as well...
I remember as a kid, my dad would tell me about the action man toys he had and I envied him cos they sounded really cool. Luckily, hm armed forces launched so I got some kind of toy that my dad had. Years later, me and my brother found out about Dragon action figures, and the ww2 german soldiers. Needles to say we bought loads of them and played with them for years, even though they wernt really toys.
6:37 the german fallschirmjäger (paratrooper) is part of the luftwaffe they were used to drop behind enemy lines and take enemy forces by surprise it was an effective tactic.but during the wars end there usage was slowed until the collapse of nazi Germany.
of course the Panzer uniform is smart. they was made by Hugo Boss. as for why the Germans was popular, it was because we played British and Germans with our toy guns in the woods etc. not forgetting all the great war movies made in the 60's and 70's.
The replacement of the Soviet infantryman with another German in the 70s was, in my opinion, a product of war psychology. The Cold War was raging and Russia and the rest of the USSR was the enemy. On the other hand, the Nazis were a long defeated enemy, they had been demoted down to simply being the villains of WWII stories. In the aftermath, the USSR took the Nazis' place, and became the feared enemies, the tangible threat. Therefore, parents wouldn't want their children playing with toys that depicted the world power that was threatening to nuke the west out of existence, so they replaced them with ones depicting what was no longer a threat.
You know they recently released the clothes and armor for the Afrika Korps German soldier in Palitoy's Action Man's 40th anniversary line
I wouldn't call that recently. The 40th Anniversary was 15 years ago.
@@AnalogToys yh and it's also still very rare
Great video. What shirt is the para wearing? Looks like the Luftwaffe pilot shirt
retromanification yes it is
If you have them in Australia now you go to jail mate. Friend of mine sent an authentic SS great coat to a man in Australia last month, when it arrived it was cut to shreds by Australia customs and put back in the box and delivered. True story, wittman military antiques on UA-cam around episode 79 or 80.
This figures look like those from Team America. They should have made a movie Team Deutschland
I've got a limited edition G.I. Joe figure of Gen. Omar Nelson Bradley
Can anyone help me on where to buy these figures and clothing
We all have to admit that German uniforms look damn nice!
I have this uniform but the material is more like wool and rough than the ones I see.
Do they still sell these?
In fairness, I have to point out that the vast majority of the Werhrmacht were not members of the Nazi party. I think the heads at Palitoy realized this, and that is probably the reason no Waffen SS uniforms were produced, as they were all members of the NSDAP. Aside from the wrong ammo pouches, Hasbro also erred with the Iron Cross medal - the ribbon itself is from the WWI medal, and aside from some crusty old Field Marshalls, it is unlikely that anyone in the rank and file of the German Army would be wearing the older version. In closing, I would just about give my left leg for a set of the German plastic web gear. The suspenders are a rather distinctive part of the WWII uniform, and my Hasbro Stormtrooper just doesn't look quite right without them.
love your show, do you remember the skyhawk?
I do, in fact it's one of the few Action Man vehicles that I've never owned, it's just too damned big!
I got it for xmas back in the day. It went up amd came crashing down a week later. Heartbreaking!
I would buy 10000 german toys
The germans had the best outfits in WW2.
When you're a pre teen boy and you have action figures, what do you want? A massive ruck!
Action Man did loads of Allied soldiers and equipment, but you need an effective enemy and, let's face it, the Germans fit the bill!
Plus there was the pervasive influence of WW2 films that always seemed to be on telly..."Danny boy...come in Danny boy, are you receiving..."
But for the record, even then ,although the Wehrmacht was welcome in my Action Man collection, I would have turned up my nose at anything connected with the S.S.
I was a silly kid, not a nasty one...
Ima GiJoe fan I'm 10 so I got a GiJoe for Christmas
Awesome, I hope you have a fantastic collection one day!
Great video,imagine if Hugo Boss remade the 40th German uniforms? 😊
There's a certain aesthetic I like about the old German soldier figures, but I prefer the modern much more detailed, historically accurate, and loaded down with accessories modern DiD and Dragon figures. Still neat to get a look at these vintage ones though. Thanks!
The modern Dragon figures are second to none!