Adventure Team G.I. jOE Man of Action (code no. 7500)

When the Adventure Team was released in Canada, the Man of Action, never made it to the shelves of my local toy stores. The Man of Action had the classic hard hands and dark brown life-like (flocked) hair and no beard, similar to the blonde life-like hair talking Astronaut. 

The G.I. jOE Man of Action was essentially a flocked version of the G.I. jOE Action Soldier.  

The 1970 Adventure Team - Man of Action includes:

G.I. jOE with brown flocked hair;

Green fatigue shirt with two buttons and two chest pockets with buttons and AT insignia;

Green fatigue pants;

Black short boots;

Silver metal  military era metal G.I. jOE dog tag instead of the plastic AT medallion dog tag that came with all other Adventure Team action figures (NOTE: Some sets had no metal dog tag as Hasbro may have been saving the stock for the talking Man of Action);

Green Action Soldier fatigue cap (Man of Action was the only Adventure Team member that included a cap);  

 Action Soldier U.S. ARMY uniform sticker set; 

 Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork. 

The shoulder holster and grey and black revolver that came with all the the rest of the Adventure Team action figure releases was not provided to the Man of Action.

The side panels of the Man of Action coffin box advertises the military era sets. 

A Talking Man of Action was also released at the same time.  Instead of speaking Adventure theme phrases, the phrases were the same as the Talking Soldier. 

Did Hasbro have a bunch of leftover Talking Action Soldiers it was trying to unload ?

So was the Man of Action really an Adventure Team member or a consultant?

It was as if he wasn't really a member of the Adventure Team, but sub-contracted from the Army. 

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Most Man of Action came with brown  life-like (flocked) hair and blue eyes (the same coloured brown flocking as the Land Adventurer and Talking Adventure Team Commander). However,  it seems that Hasbro would substitute the blonde flocked hair with brown eyes head of the 1970 Talking Astronaut. Presumably if the brown flocked heads ran out, then the blonde flocked head would be used so that they could keep production going.

Nowadays you have to question if someone made a head swap or if it is custom flocking done years later. There is no easy way to tell.

Adventure Team G.I.jOE Talking Man of Action (code no. 7590)

In addition, the G.I. jOE Man of Action was released in a talking version and was given the same talking commands and same box insert as the 1967 G.I. jOE Talking Action Soldier . 

Giving the Man of Action, Talking Soldier commands is confusing to me. I thought the premise of the Adventure Team was to distance itself from the military theme that created negative press for Hasbro during the Vietnam War period.  

The Talking Man of Action was equipped with: 

- Uniform (Army green fatigue shirt with stick-on AT logo and pants), 

- Boots (short black boots), 

- Hat (green plastic fatigue cap), 

- Dog tag (once again, instead of a grey plastic Adventure Team logo dog tag, he came with the metal military G.I. jOE dog tag), 

- Insignia (Adventure Team AT sticker and Army rank insignia stickers), 

- Talking G.I.jOE instruction sheet, Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork. 

The shoulder holster and grey and black revolver that came with all the other Adventure Team figures was not provided to the Talking Man of Action. 

It should also be noted that the Man of Action and Talking Man of Action were the only Adventure Team action figures to have a hat included in the box set.

I had hoped that Hasbro would reissue the the foreign heads with flocked hair and no beard for even more variety of the Man of Action, but that did not happen until many years later with the G.I. JOE Collectors Club.

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Adventure Team G.I.jOE Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip (code 7284)

In 1973, the G.I. jOE Adventure Team was reissued with Kung Fu grip.  According to the date on the box, it seems that the Man of Action and Talking Man of Action were also included with Kung Fu Grip  a year later in 1974 (?). 

The G.I. jOE with brown flocked hair Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip was equipped with: 

- Uniform (Army green fatigue shirt with with no buttons and one chest pocket with no buttons (no buttons as a cost savings measure) and Army green fatigue pants, 

- Boots (short black boots), 

- Insignia ( AT sticker)

- Rifle (The shoulder holster and grey and black revolver that previously came with all the 1970 to 1972 Adventure Team G.I. jOEs was now replaced with a black scoped hunting rifle with an elastic strap. 

- Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork. 

No metal dog tag or no grey Adventure Team dog tag was provided to the Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip, 

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 Adventure Team G.I. jOE Talking Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip (code 7292)

In 1973, the G.I. jOE Adventure Team was reissued with Kung Fu grip.  According to the date on the box, it seems that the talking Man of Action were included with Kung Fu Grip  a year later in 1974 (?). Also he still was given the same talking commands as the 1967 G.I. jOE Talking Action Soldier. 

The Talking Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip was equipped with: 

- Uniform,(Army green fatigue shirt with stick-on AT logo (no buttons and only one pocket as a cost savings measure) and pants), 

- Boots (short black boots), 

- Insignia (AT sticker),

- Rifle (The shoulder holster and grey and black revolver that previously came with all the Adventure Team G.I.jOEs was now replaced with a black scoped hunting rifle with elastic strap),

- Dog tag (once again, instead of a grey plastic Adventure Team logo dog tag he came with the metal military G.I. jOE dog tag), 

- Talking G.I.jOE instruction sheet, Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork. 

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Adventure Team G.I. jOE Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip and life-like body

The classic G.I. jOE body was replaced in 1976 with what Hasbro called a life-like body. The so called coffin-box was replaced with a plastic bubble card so the buyer could see the new muscular body of G.I. jOE. 

The Man of Action was displayed wearing green shorts and at the side of the figure in the bubble was: 

- Uniform (Army green fatigue shirt with stick-on AT logo and pants),

- Boots (short black boots),

- Rifle (black scoped hunting rifle with elastic strap),

- Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork.

No green plastic fatigue cap and no dog tag of any kind.

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Adventure Team Talking G.I.jOE Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip and life-like body

The classic G.I.jOE body was replaced in 1976 with what Hasbro called a life-like body. The so called coffin-box was replaced with a plastic bubble card and open window box so the buyer could see the new muscular body of G.I.jOE. 

The Man of Action was displayed wearing green shorts and at the side of the figure in the bubble was: 

- Army green fatigue shirt with stick-on AT logo and pants,

- short black boots,

- black scoped hunting rifle with elastic strap, 

- Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork.

This time no plastic green cap and the pull tag for the talking mechanism was finally a grey plastic Adventure Team logo dog tag.

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Adventure Team G.I.jOE Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip and life-like body

A little later, the art work on the bubble card was changed. Also as a further cost saving measure, the Man of Action was relieved of his Army green fatigue shirt with stick-on AT logo and pants, boots and rifle. 

In the package, other than the figure in green shorts, was the Adventure Team Club paperwork. 

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Adventure Team G.I.jOE Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip and life-like body and Eagle-Eyes

The original Joe series was on the market until 1976. I believe this was the final 1970's version of the GI jOE Man of Action. The art work on the bubble card was changed for the Eagle-Eye version. A little lever at the back of G.I.jOE's head moved the eyes to the left or to the right. 

EQUIPMENT LIST: 

- G.I. jOE Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip and life-like body and Eagle-Eyes; 

- Army green fatigue shirt with stick-on AT logo and pants,

- short black boots,

- Adventure Team Club paperwork and Removal of Boots paperwork.

No rifle or dog tag.

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2007 WALMART Exclusive ~ Adventure Team G.I.jOE Man of Action 

The 2007 Adventure Team - Man of Action includes:

G.I. jOE with brown flocked hair and Kung Fu Grip;

Green fatigue shirt with two buttons and  one chest pocket no button and AT insignia;

Green fatigue pants;

Black short boots;

Black shoulder holster  and grey revolver with black grip;

Grey plastic AT medallion dog tag with bead chain;

Adventure Team paperwork;  

Clear plastic casing for the figure.  

 The front panel of the coffin box reproduces the artwork from the 1973 Man of Action with Kung Fu Grip.  Although the picture depicts the Man of Action with a rifle slung over his shoulder, this set does not include a rifle. 

The side panels of the coffin box advertises the military era sets that are not available. 

In 2007 when we traveled to Walmart across the border in New York state  which  had an exclusive reproduction release of all the Adventurer Team action figures (except for the talking versions). These reproductions were not available in the Walmart stores in Canada.

See a review of this figure at by another G.I.jOE collector at:

http://sean.adventureteam.com/gijoe/new-at/gijoe-at-wm-manofaction.htm 

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I obtained my own Man of Action with Kung Fu from ebay as I recall. 

He has the detailed feet and the green fatigue shirt with AT sticker, green fatigue pants,  short black boots and black scoped rifle. I added a green fatigue hat  even though the Kung Fu grip version did not originally include one.   

I decided that my  Man of Action  would be an Indiana Jones -type ADVENTURER.

As the original Kung fu grip fingers on the hands deteriorated over the years, I purchased replacement "Action" hands and a black AT dogtag  from Cotswold's Collectibles.

My G.I. jONES includes:

- Shirt (beige from AT Hidden Treasure action outfit); 

- Ike pants (brown from Action Soldier ~ Military Police) ;

- Boots (short brown from Cotswold Collectibles);

- Fedora hat ( from Adventure Gear ~ no longer in business);

- Web belt (brown);

- Holster (brown) and pistol (grey from Classic Collection PT Commander);

- Field pack (grey from HOF Snake Eyes) ;

- AT dog tag (black  from Cotswold Collectibles).

I'll have to make  

•  DIY brown leather jacket; 

• DIY brown whip;  

• DIY tan messenger bag;