ACTION MAN
Record discs
Period: Flocked Head on
Dates: from 1975
Various Sets
Action Man Records:
Equipment sets Field Commander, Field Radio Pack, Mobile Operations HQ, Team Control Centre and 2nd Issue Astronaut's Talking Backpack contained mini record discs of varying colours. Units inside these sets operated by the press of a button, and played one record disc of choice at a time, supposedly at a random track each time. The records were two sided, semi transparent, and measured 51mm in diameter. A lug on the inner hole would locate and drive the disc inside the playing unit. Units were powered by a single HP7 (AA LR6 1.5v) battery.
Action Man sets that included records:
34154:
1974 ACTION MAN FIELD COMMANDER AND FIELD RADIO:
Title of Records: 'Intruders' and 'Emergency Control'
Green Record, Clear Record
34155:
1974 ACTION MAN FIELD RADIO PACK:
Title of Records: 'Adventure' and 'Combined Operation' and 'Sabotage' :
Red Record, Yellow Record, Blue Record
34716:
1975 ACTION MAN MOBILE OPERATIONS HQ:
Title of Records: 'Intruders' and 'Emergency Control' :
Red Record?, Yellow Record?
34733:
1977 ACTION MAN TEAM CONTROL CENTRE:
Title of Records: 'Intruders', ''Emergency Control', 'Adventure' and 'Combined Operation' and 'Sabotage' :
Red Record, Yellow Record, Blue Record, Purple Record, Black Record
34156:
1975 ACTION MAN ASTRONAUT 2nd Issue talking backpack:
Title of Records: 'Moon Flight' and 'Moonwalk'
Dayglo Lime Record and Pink Record
Notes:
The names of the records listed on the boxes when studied along with the colours of those records, suggest that names and colours were at least partly interchangable. If you consider the titles of the records above, and note the included disc colours, it leads one to this conclusion. 'Intruders' and 'Emergency Control' feature both in the Field Commander sets and Team Control Centre sets, but the former has Green and Clear, the later Black and Purple (if we assume that Red, Yellow and Blue are in fact 'Adventure', 'Combined Operation' and 'Sabotage' and match across the Field Radio and Team Control Centre Sets. Geyperman and Action Team sets issued in Europe included their own language discs in the same colours as Action Man ones, making for a vast array.
Similar looking discs to Action Man exist without the little lug on the inside hole, at a slightly larger diameter. These are likely from Palitoy, but from a 24" high walking, talking doll from the mid 1970's called 'Poppet'. Her mini records contain sung nursery rhymes and like Action Man, fit into a player unit but in her back.
Action Man Field Radio Records - Voice Sounds