What's your current project?

[ATC]

Looks great, Myles!
It would be interesting to know the backstory on that foreign head talking pilot figure. I wonder if he's a mix and match, or if it was originally a foreign head on a talking pilot body. It's one of those Joe mysteries that will never be solved. Regardless, great figure! Well done! Huzzah!
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

If Joe could talk..... I wish I knew. If he was a mix & match, I might actually decide to build a German after all. I've never sought one out. But it is a very nice head. Now on to the next minor project. I repaired a Fighter Pilot helmet today. I had all the piece from a lot I purchased a long time ago. Today I got brave enough, and put a couple of spots of epoxy on the contact spots where it separated, and then held it together for about a minute. Here are the results. I think the visor scratch is from abrading against the helmet when the visor opens and shuts. It's also hard to pull it down, but easy to put back up. Hope I did it right!

[Myles_Falworth]

I must have pressed too hard in the middle or something. My other helmets visors move very very easily.

[ATC]

I wouldn't worry about it, Myles.... I have had some that were loose and floppy and some that moved easily. I'd consider it "normal" and let it go. These weren't manufactured with NASA precision, after all. ;-)

Surely there's an expert somewhere who knows if there was ever a foreign head astronaut... if not, then I'd go ahead and build a blonde Nazi out of him and put a regular Joe head on the talker torso. I found a great blonde foreign head (non-talker) in Louisville, time before last, and walking around I was able to find all the bits needed to build a German Soldier. I think my jacket says "Palitoy" but close enough for me!

On the other hand, I've never seen a foreign head astro before, so it might be cool to just leave him as-is and pair him up with another astro joe... then they won't look like freaky clones on the shelf!
:-)
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

He's a pilot.

[TNshooter]

Surely there's an expert somewhere who knows if there was ever a foreign head astronaut... if not, then I'd go ahead and build a blonde Nazi out of him and put a regular Joe head on the talker torso. I found a great blonde foreign head (non-talker) in Louisville, time before last, and walking around I was able to find all the bits needed to build a German Soldier. I think my jacket says "Palitoy" but close enough for me!

I think I read somewhere that some 1967 talkers had foreign heads. James DeSimone has a photo in the 1967 section of his collectors guide that shows a talking soldier with a foreign head with black hair. I don't know
how true that is.

ATC, do you know that Palitoy made Action Man in the UK? They had more German figures than Hasbro did. And sold for longer than the SOTW figures here. it's my understanding that the SOTW only sold for one year,
but the Action Man versions sold for at least a couple of years or more. When 12" Joes stopped production around 1977, 12" Action Man continued production until 1986. Palitoy was the first to do flocked hair, eagle eyes
and possibly gripping hands. They had great ideas.

I've been looking for a British uniform, and I wouldn't mind at all if it was Palitoy. The Hasbro uniforms go for lots of money, a Paliltoy would be less expensive.
Unfortunately I don't have quite the collecting budget as others.

[Myles_Falworth]

This Adventure Team Commander was a stand alone purchase from Ebay in February of 2019. He was originally dressed an olive sweater, an old patched and faded Action Man overcoat, and some modern pants. He had two broken arms, and upon further inspection, also had a broken off peg in the chest section which normally secures the legs to the body. The legs were instead held on by a modified paper clip. Other than these major flaws, the body is in decent shape. He came with tall black boots, so he needed new short black boots. He also did not have a shoulder holster and pistol, and needed to have his voice fixed as the string did not function. The flocking was in decent shape. The eyebrows have some minor rubs, however I decided not to repaint. I eventually decided to continue the restoration. I purchased a talker torso and neck post for $18.77 from Ebay which was delivered on Nov 25, 2019.

I added the upper arms to the box on 6/16/21, and also discovered that the talking mechanism still works! The speaker was old and deteriorated. Swapping the speaker from the torso purchased with the neck post brought a good voice back! Tonight, I did the swap-out. Fortunately it wasn't too difficult to fish the chain though the string loop, and then out of the chest, and then to put it through the hole on the new chest, and reattach the bead chain and AT dog tag. Everything else was simple, except that the feet were really stuck in the old boots (Fighting Yank?) which were too small for Joe's big feet. I finally got the feet out using a pair of needle-nosed pliers. So the figure also had a very dirty face. I washed it tonight, and he is drying in a hand-stand position to keep water out of the chest cavity. Later tonight, or tomorrow morning, I will post an "after" photo set, showing this figure finally dressed in his AT finery. For now, there are a few shots of the original figure as he was presented in the Ebay ad for you to look at.

[TNshooter]

Nice that it worked out easily Myles. Looking forward to the finished product! I still need to get my commander in shape. I sent it to someone who totally screwed me over on the repair.

[Myles_Falworth]

Here is the AT Commander, finally reassembled, talking, and uniformed for his commanding role in the Adventure Team!

[ATC]

It's always fun to get an old Joe off the disabled list and back in action! Congrats!

Yep, I was aware of the Palitoy line. I lucked into a clearance on 'em when I could get the action figures for 1.56 pounds (whatever the heck that was... a few bucks at the time). I think the company was flushing out whatever old stock they liquidated. When I realized what a gold mine it was, I launched a HUGE order... and the stock was depleted. The era was over.

But I scored a great muscle body astronaut, some great weapons (Lewis MG, Rifle Rack, and several others) as well as the SAS boxed set and a bunch of other stuff. If only I'd realized the Palitoy joe's days were numbered.... I'd have made my order a lot bigger the first time! Oh well. Life is full of opportunities lost.

If there's even a tiny scintilla of evidence that foreign head pilots were OEM joes, then I'd surely keep THIS one a pilot, too! Makes the figure even COOLER! Double-Congrats!

- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

I asked on the Facebook group, and both Scott and Joezeta said there were lots of foreign head talkers. So he's keeping his noggin. I'll be putting him in a nicer grey scramble suit soon. It's much nicer than the orange suit he's wearing right now.

[TNshooter]

Considering the topic on the foreign head talker discussion, I scanned a page from DeSimone's collector guide on vintage Joe.

[Myles_Falworth]

I decided to bring in another severely wounded Joe today. This looks like a gummy head Joe, with beefy hands, and he comes with a lot of gear, his original manual, and dog tag. So he will stay an Action Soldier in my platoon, and I believe I have the necessary parts to restore him to his full health and full glory. He is being transported now from Alabama and should arrive by the 23rd. Once treatment is complete, he will be dressed in fatigues, and his combat field jacket. He'll also draw a helmet, M-1, new boots, and an ammo belt from the quartermaster. Looking forward to working with this guy. It has been a while since I had a new project like this. Should be fun.

[ATC]

Keep us posted on this Joe's treatment and recovery!
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

Joe arrived today from Alabama. He is not a gummy head after all. He does have a painted rivet, patent pending body, with beefy hands and baby feet. Both arms are broken at the section just below the shoulder joint. Also both calfs are very badly cracked. The forearms and the shoulder pieces each have cracks, but are not too loose. I will likely keep those. But will at least need to replace one or both calfs, and the pieces just below the shoulder (the elbow joint). I'll be sorting through my parts box tonight and seeing whether I can match the parts with other painted rivet parts. The figure also has one intact tall brown boot, and a nice field jacket in great condition, and a nice Action Soldier uniform, except that the pants are missing snaps on one side.