Saturday, April 11, 2009

Action Man Ski Patrol

From one white uniform (Nurse Joker) to another.

One of my earliest Action Man 12-inch figures by Palitoy and still one of my favorites is this Action Man Ski Patrol figure. This was one of those hard to find sets back when 12-inch figures were rather scarce. The Action Man Ski Patrol set was first released in the late 1960s (between 1966 - 1969) and would be replaced by the poorer quality and less impressive Mountain and Arctic uniform set from 1970.

The Ski Patrol set comprised of 3 separate accessories pack: Ski Patrol, Mountain Troops and additional Equipment pack which combined had the following items: Snow parka with hood and pants/trousers made of nice thick material (winter white for camouflage reasons), white M1 helmet with Polar Bear insignia, goggles, mittens, white cartridge belt with two sets of four ammo pouches, white field pack, ice axe, climbing rope, grenades, snowshoes, black ski boots, skis and ski poles plus his M1 rifle. 

Close-up of the white M1 helmet showing the roaring Polar Bear insignia. Binoculars added for good measure :)


The snow white parka also has the insignia sewn on a separate breast badge with diagonal pointed flap pockets



This Ski Patrol set had skis with spring-type fasteners for securing to his boots when he's skiing. It is very well produced unlike the later versions which just had elastic on them :(


His winter white camouflage field pack


His ice axe and yellow climbing rope (also added additional white rope for extended reach)



IMHO, one of the finer figures to have been released.

Next up: Rescue of the Lost Squadron

1 comment:

Marc Wong said...

Hi, chanced upon your blog. You have a really great collection, and wrt to the Action Man Ski Patrol, yes it is one of the finer sets from the 60s. For the 40th Anniversary set, it still looks pretty good.

Cheers!