Mattel Heroes in Action Comic Ad
Mattel’s Heroes in Action series was set of small scale figures produced in 1975. It’s interesting to see all-out military figures from this time, considering that Hasbro’s GI Joe had been transitioned over to an adventure theme. Maybe Mattel were banking on the longevity of a war comic like Sgt. Rock to sell these to kids. I’ve seen this ad mainly in DC Comics of the era, which stands to reason, as they published the Sarge’s adventures.
The figures themselves took the term action figure to a new level, with bases featuring gunfire noises. Too bad the figures themselves weren’t more fully articulated.
To be fair, I’ve never seen any of these figures in person, but by going from pictures found online, these toys look like crap.
What an unusual toy for the time. They’re more like upsized plastic army men anchored to the bases, but the integrated “action” feature is like something from the ’90s. I can imagine the sound is like those guns you’d get with “realistic” firing sound – similar to breaking plastic.
They were removable from the bases, but only their arms were poseable, except for a couple who’s arms were not (the grenade thrower and point man…according to the card backs).
There was not an enemy force, but there was a SWAT team that were recolors in blue. Kinda give a GI JOE vs COBRA vibe.