The heart and soul of the Adventure Team (and GI Joe) were the figures. Unlike today, most figures were sold in a package with a standard uniform and either a shoulder holster and pistol, or a hunting rifle. All of the other uniforms and equipment were purchased separately. So you didn't have to buy a new figure every time you bought a new uniform (Hasbro, anyone listening?). Unlike the figures sold in the 60's the Adventure Team figures are easily recognizable by their flocked hair. This trend was broken in 1975 with the release of the Atomic Man and was later repeated for BulletMan and the 2 Intruder figures.
Man of Action
The soldier of the team. Man of Action was the carryover from the 60's. Basically an Action Soldier with flocked hair the hard hands version even pictured 60's accessory sets on his box! Man of Action featured brown flocked hair with no beard.
Part List: Brown flocked hair figure with no beard, two pocket fatigue shirt, fatigue pants, metal 60's dog tag, green plastic fatigue hat, short black boots, AT club form, two decal sheets of military insignia from the 60's Action Soldier. The decal sheets were eventually dropped and the MOA was issued the standard AT decal.
Talking Man of Action
This is a strange one. Take the MOA and put a Soldier talk box in him. Then he spouts a bunch of commands that have no bearing on anything the AT was about. Instead of "Enemy Planes, hit the dirt", How about "Rabid White Tiger, Start the Jeep". Now that's a talker that makes sense. I don't see a lot of these guys and I have a theory on that. I think folks are buying them, swapping a painted head and selling them as soldiers. I bought mine from a guy who said he got his for Christmas when he was a kid. Strangely enough the head was an Air Adventurer head! The guy swears to me that it came that way! Variations, gotta love 'em. To make the story even stranger the same guy sold me a Talking Commander with a Sea Adventurer head. I'm still not sure I believe the guy didn't perform head transplant surgery as a kid.
Part List: Brown flocked hair talker with no beard, two pocket fatigue shirt, fatigue pants, metal 60's dog tag, green plastic fatigue hat, short black boots, two decal sheets of military insignia from the 60's Action Soldier, do not put in water paper, AT club form. The decal sheets were eventually dropped and the MOA was issued the standard AT decal.
Astronaut
My first GI Joe and the only Adventure Team figure not sold separately. This figure was a blonde Man of Action and was available only in the "Spacewalk Mystery" set. The Astronaut featured blonde flocked hair with no beard.
There has been some discussion on the newsgroup about this figure lately. It began with someone questioning whether there ever was a non-talking astronaut. Yes there was, this figure is it. Part of the confusion comes from two sources. First of all there were some blonde no-beard figures that were issued in MOA boxes. This is just a variation folks. ALL of the Adventure Team figures have specific hair colors. No Exceptions. The Man of Action has brown hair. If you get a blonde one, consider yourself lucky. Astronauts are a tough figure to find. The other source of confusion came when Hasbro put talking astronauts in with the Spacewalk Mystery set. This is either a factory error or Hasbro was looking to dump some figures. By 1970 all of the space sets were gathering dust. No one was buying them. Because of this all of the AT space sets had limited runs and none of them made it past the first series of toys. The only exceptions are the sets where they included items such as the space suit and propulsion gun apparently to close out stock. The astronaut items were seen well into the 70's in the discount Backyard Patrol bags. Hasbro must have really overproduced this stuff. As few as four years ago I was finding MIP backyard patrol astronaut suits for as little as $20. Of course this all ended with the 30th anniversary and it has been scalper heaven since then, but the mercury astronaut accessories are common, so just look around. Now that Flying Space Adventure is another story!
Parts list: Blonde flocked hair figure with no beard, silver one zipper space suit, paper rocket insignia decal, short silver boots, mercury space helmet and the additional parts from Spacewalk Mystery.
Talking Astronaut
The same as the Astronaut but with the talker box of the 60's Talking Astronaut. Unlike the non-talker, this figure was available in it's own box. Interestingly enough the white hat that comes with this figure is almost more valuable than the figure itself. I recently saw one go at auction for nearly $100. Someone needs to reproduce that hat. $100 is ridiculous.
Parts list: Blonde flocked hair talker with no beard, white jumpsuit with paper rocket insignia decal, tall white boots(Adv of Fight 4 Survival), white plastic fatigue hat, metal 60's dog tag, do not put in water paper and AT club form.
Land Adventurer
The most common of all the Adventure Team figures and the one most prominently featured in the art on the Adventure Team packaging. Land Adventurer was a brown haired figure with a beard.
Parts list: Brown flocked hair figure with beard, one pocket camo shirt, camo pants, black shoulder holster, silver revolver, AT dog tag, short black boots, AT club form. Later (1973) version of the HH figures were issued with hunting rifles just prior to the intro of KFG.
Variations, you gotta love 'em. This one is from Mike Beshada:
"Wait - I still have mine from when I was a kid! They used a talkers torso with no talk box or string through the top hole on some Land Adventurers. I guess they ran out of regular torso's and just used the talkers without a voice box."
Sea Adventurer
The sailor of the Adventure Team. He was most prominently featured in adventures in and around the water such as "8 Ropes of Danger" and "Danger of the Depths". Sea Adventurer was a red haired figure with a beard.
Parts list: Red flocked hair figure with beard, one pocket light blue shirt, dark blue pants, black shoulder holster, silver revolver, AT dog tag, short black boots, AT club form. Later (1973) version of the HH figures were issued with hunting rifles just prior to the intro of KFG.
Air Adventurer
The Adventure Teams pilot. Featured in sets such as "Fantastic Freefall". Air Adventurer was a blonde haired figure with beard.
Parts list: Blonde flocked hair figure with beard, orange jumpsuit, black shoulder holster, silver revolver, AT dog tag, short black boots, AT club form. Later (1973) version of the HH figures were issued with hunting rifles just prior to the intro of KFG.
Adventurer
The free agent of the Adventure Team. This was the first black Adventure Team figure and the first true black GI Joe. All previous black figures were identical to their caucasion counterparts except they were molded in brown. Adventurer actually features different sculpting and a different hairstyle than the other figures in the line. This figure has black hair and like the Man of Action and Astronaut, is beardless. Unlike the other figures he also had no predefined role and wasn't featured on the box art of any of the accessory sets. He was relegated to those boxes that featured group shots of the team. Like most black figures of the 60's and 70's his value exceeds that of the other figures released at the same time.
Brown flocked hair AA figure with no beard, two pocket khaki shirt, khaki pants, black shoulder holster, silver revolver, AT dog tag, short black boots, AT club form. Later (1973) version of the HH figures were issued with hunting rifles just prior to the intro of KFG.
John Marshall brought up an interesting variation to this figure. John says that when he was a child he saw a red haired caucasian version of this figure. John says, the box was the same, but it pictured a red haired MOA in desert fatigues driving the jeep. Unfortunately he has never been able to prove this. Johns explanation is that Black figures were poor sellers in certain parts of the country and he thinks this variation was issued in response to that trend. Fact or fiction? I have no idea, but John is a pretty reliable source so who knows?
Talking Commander
Basically a talking Land Adventurer. This figure was originally issued in a Green Beret uniform. Once that stock was used up his uniform became the green two pocket jacket and green pants that is most commonly seen on this figure.
Brown flocked hair figure with beard, two (slanted) pocket green jacket, green pants, black shoulder holster, silver revolver, AT dog tag, short black boots, do not put in water paper AT club form. Early versions of this figure were issued in a Green Beret uniform. Subsequent issues dropped pockets each time until the lifelike figure which had one straight pocket.
Talking Black Commander
Arguably the most highly prized figure of the Adventure Team line, the Black Commander made it's appearance in 1973. Using the same talk box as the AT Commander this figure is the bearded version of Adventurer.
Brown flocked hair AA figure with beard, two (slanted) pocket green jacket, green pants, black shoulder holster, silver revolver, AT dog tag, short black boots, do not put in water paper AT club form. Subsequent issues dropped pockets each time until the lifelike figure which had one straight pocket.
Kung Fu Grip
In 1974 all of the figures with the exception of the Astronauts were re-issued with the new Kung Fu Grip hands. Each of them also featured new box art featuring a close up of each figure grasping at something with the new flexible hands.
Parts list: KFG figures were similar to their HH counterparts, but all of the shoulder holsters were dropped in favor of black hunting rifles, similar to the rifle from White Tiget Hunt without the gold and brown detail. Pockets began dissapearing and the MOA was now seen with an AT dogtag instead of the metal one.
Mike Power - Atomic Man
The Adventure Team enters the Sci Fi world with the appearance of this Six Million
Dollar Man clone. Featuring a return to painted hair and transparent bionic limbs,
Mike Power was also the first Adventure Team figure to be issued on a blister card
instead of the boxes that had been in use since 1964. Mikes newly sculpted head still
featured the traditional scar but he also added a hole in the top of his head to let
in light for his atomic eye.
Parts list: Brown painted hair KFG figure with a lens for a right eye. The lens is also on the top of the head. The right arm and left leg are clear. The right arm has a thumbwheel for spinning the hand (and helicopter). Also included were a hand helicopter (two separate pieces), brown shorts with blue stripes and a large pattern camo shirt. Mike was not issued with shoes, the white tennis shoes are from the Secret Mountain Outpost set.
Lifelike Muscle Body
In 1975/1976 each of the primary Adventure Team figures was reissued once again. This time Land Adventurer, Sea Adventurer, Air Adventurer, Adventurer, Man of Action, Talking Man of Action and the Talking Commanders appeared in the new lifelike bodies. They also left the boxes behind for good as each figure now appeared on a blister card. Strangely enough each figure was issued in two different configurations. Either with the figure wearing a pair of shorts and the standard uniform and hunting rifle off to the side or with just the figure in a pair of shorts.
Parts list: Heaven only knows. Variation collectors these figures are a nirvana for you. Generally they came with a figure, black hunting rifle, club papers, standard uniform and boots for that figure. AT dogtags seems to be rare. To make it even more confusing there was a second type of card that included a basic figure in shorts only. These figures had shorts that would match the basic uniform that the "deluxe" figure was issued with, either camo, orange, blue, green or khaki. To make it even more confusing sometimes the shorts were randomly inserted so that you would have a Land Adventurer with orange shorts and an Air Adventurer with khaki shorts.
Eagle Eyes
Three of the figures received Eagle Eyes treatment. Land Adventurer, Man of Action and Adventurer would also appear on blister cards in their Eagle Eye versions. Man of Action retained his name while Land Adventurer was promoted to Land Commander and Adventurer became a Commando.
Parts list: See Lifelike Above! More variations! Whatever uniform was lying around when they put these things together. I have seen camo, green, blue and orange uniforms randomly inserted on most all of the carded figures so who knows. Occasionaly these guys also have a dogtag. The talkers of course all had dogtags and they even had the black hunting rifle, but it is the Action Man version with a rubber strap.
Okay, I will say here that I have never seen the "Commando" in any form. He may or may not exist. I suspect that he was produced as a sample, received weak orders and was never produced. If anyone has an Eagle Eye Commando please let me know and send a picture on the card! Yes, there is an Action Team black figure with the EE treatment.
Bulletman
Even more unusual than Atomic Man, Bulletman joined the Adventure Team in 1976. Featuring
an all new sculpted head with painted hair and a pair of hard hands that were now chrome
to go with his "steel" arms. Bulletman sported a superhero costume of red tights and
boots along with a chrome bullet helmet for his head. Hasbro apparently had no idea
what to do with this figure as no accessory sets for Bulletman were ever issued. As if
Bulletman wasn't foreign enough he didn't carry the traditional GI Joe battle scar on
his face and when the line was cancelled it was his head that was transplanted on to
that blow molded travesty Hasbro would call the Defenders.
Parts list: Brown painted hair lifelike figure with HH and chrome arms. Red tights, silver (chrome) helmet, red boots, black elastic belt, plastic bullet decal on chest and 12 feet of string that would go in two loops on the back of the tights.
Intruders
Well apparently the Adventure Team needed an enemy. With big guns like Atomic Man
and Bulletman on the team, that White Tiger no longer had a chance so it was decided
to raise the stakes. Introducing THE INTRUDERS: Strong Men From Another World.
Pictured are the front and back of the carded Intruder figure.
Parts list: Brown painted hair figures either with (commander) or without (warrior) a beard. Gold (commander) or silver (warrior) plastic armor. Armor included two paper decals, one looks like a Bullet Man helmet, the other a boomerang.
Action Girls
Female figures in the United States were non-existent. The failure of the
GI Nurse in the 60's saw to that. Of course most people neglect to mention that the nurse with her scowling face and weedwhacker hairdo wasn't
much to look at, so how did they expect the Barbie fans to buy her? Other
countries had a better idea of how to deal with the female figures. The German
licensee added two female figures to the "Action Team". Super Sandy and
Super Peggy. Both of these are fairly common and you can add them to your collection
without paying the ridiculous prices of the ugly nurse. While I'm talking
about female figures I should mention the wildly anticipated Helicopter
Pilot due from Hasbro in October 1997. People are chomping at the bit on
this one. I think visions of a $5000 nurse have clouded their minds. Wake
up folks, the nurse is valuable for a reason. It was junk and no one bought
it. The new figure will be purchased by everyone and stockpiled in huge
quantities, so go invest in some mutual funds, you'll get a much better return
on your investment. Oh yeah, Action Man already has a female member. Natalie is
great but man she's a tough one to find. Mine came from Spain. Thanks Yoon and
Richard!
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