Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Rarities - Unproduced 2004 White Pants Night Force Action Man
The 2004 Night Force set was highly anticipated. But, it also went through many iterations in pre-production before the final product was released. The figure that most affected was the Tracker/Action Man figure. Originally, the figure was meant to be Night Force Tracker. But, he then came to be Action Man. In between, the entire Night Force set had white pants. So, after Tracker was changed to Action Man, but before the pants were changed to black, Hasbro made a few of these Action Man figures with white pants.
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"Hey, what would be good for a night ops team? WHITE!"
ReplyDeleteToo bad Python Patrol didn't have odd preproduction color runs....then again, if they did there'd be more fans showing them off because some Cobra fans are obnoxious.
Were people positive/excited towards Action Man back in 2004? I always felt like this was an unnecessary and random repaint for them to do.
ReplyDeleteNobody wanted Action Man. Hasbro was tone deaf to the fact that 12” and 3 3/4” collectors don’t normally collect both scales. It was such a weird time, so much excitement, so much that was just awful.
DeleteYou make a great point about 12" and 3 3/4" collectors. The 12" faction tried SOOOO hard to turn us into them. But, we were and are a different animal. Sadly, guys like DePriest and even Savage were such hard core 12" guys that they were willing to sacrifice the popularity of 3 3/4" rather than admit they were wrong.
DeleteWhile I wasn't collecting G.I. Joe at this time frame, I did think it was neat to add in Action Man into the line. While I did like the 12" Action Man figures that came out in the 1990's and Early 2000's in North America, I wasn't into large scale figures like 12". So Hasbro doing a approx 4" Action Man sounded neat to me. Though I will admit, maybe having a approx 4" 2 Pack again a Dr. X, or even a 4" Action Man 6 Pack that features Action Man, Dr. X, and some allies and villains maybe would of made a bit more sense. I also think maybe having a different head from Tracker would of helped as well.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, 2004 was the G.I. Joe Overall Brand's 40th Anniversary, and since the original 12" Military Action Man figures were just G.I. Joe figures rebranded as Action Man(With maybe some uniform differences as well to match some of the British Military Uniforms), I do think having Action Man in the set was a way to honour that connection. Of course, I'm sure some would say having the Night Force set be used to honour that connection, is another question.
Switching gears to Tracker, I think that if this Night Force Set had kept it as Tracker though, I think it would of been even neat if they had included the Kayak that came with the Tundra Stalker in Black, as a way to replace the Raft that the original Tracker figure came with.
Quick correction: When I had stated "Though I will admit, maybe having a approx 4" 2 Pack again a Dr. X", I meant "against", not "again". Sorry about that.
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