While we were busy playing with our Mike Power Atomic Man figures, German kids were enjoying the Action Team, a variation on G.I. Joe but with more of a paramilitary flavour.
Characters like Tom Stone and John Steel seemed like soldiers of fortune and while they had a lot of the same items North Americans enjoyed, there were a few surprises in their line.
What's wonderful about this catalog is the terrific action scenes the Germans created to sell the line, a great deal of effort went into marketing Action Team.
Check out the Action Team Catalog.
Related Links: 1976 Hasbro G.I. Joe Catalog
7 comments:
You weren't kidding - those action scenes look like they were taken by a Life Magazine war correspondant. Really great.
One thing I don't get - In the US, they were all just called "GI Joe". In Germany they gave them porno names "Tom Stone" "John Steel" and "Hard Rock". If it was marketed to German kids, why would their names be in English?
Maybe b/c "Heinz Krauss" didn't sound like a good Action hero name (or porn name, for that matter)?
It's the A-Team!
That is so freaking sweet! The Mountie and the tent set are cool!
The names are the best part. "I'm Tom Stone and this is John Steel, together with our buddy Hard Rock we are Adventure Team!
I'll second the coolness of the action shots. They really got a line on how kids think about action figures.
For some reason, the figure of the ejected pilot cracks me up. I suppose it just adds 'Escape and Evasion' to a kid's action figure playbook.
Chunky: remember the MST3k Toughguy Name skit? Just take a really tough name and add a hard substance. One of the robots came up "Drake Tungsten" while the other created the not-so-tough persona of "Ric Drywall".
Oh man, I don't remember that one, I'm going to have to track it down now! Sounds too funny.
That must mean "Hard Rock" is a really bad a**!
It's from "Hercules vs The Moon Men" episode from season 4.
That also reminds me of the "Space Mutiny" sketch in season 8, when they ran off all the possible names for the hero, like Smoke Manmuscle and Big McLargehuge.
Man, DH, you know your MST3k!
I have 16 three-episode VHS and no VHS player for a year.
No annual Christmas viewing of "Santa Clause Conquers the Maritans" last year.
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