NAKED MAN ALERT - AND VALIANT & SMASH! SUMMER SPECIAL...

Image copyright REBELLION

It was June or July (maybe even part of one month and part of the other) 1971 that my family holidayed in Largs for the third and final time.  I'd arisen early on the Saturday morning on the day of departure and taken a trip along to my former neighborhood to feed my sense of nostalgia for the coming fortnight.  In the newsagent's where I'd regularly purchased TV CENTURY 21 in 1965, I saw the VALIANT & SMASH! Summer Special and bought it immediately.  (Strange to think that TV21 - in a vastly different form - was still on sale in 1971, though it would be only another few months before it too was merged with Valiant.)

Here's the curious thing.  Although I remember the cover clearly, when I recently acquired a replacement for my original copy, I realised that I had no memory of the contents.  Sure, I remembered the characters themselves, but not the stories, nor any specific images from any of the strips.  That's unusual for me, and I can only assume it's because I haven't seen the contents since they were first published, hence my memory of them was never refreshed in the same way as other comics I'd replaced only a few years after first having them - not 48 years as in this instance. And perhaps, also, they weren't particularly memorable to begin with.

KNOCKOUT hadn't been out for very long, and I remember buying an issue or two during our stay in Largs, but there are two items in particular that I remember buying in the same shop, maybe even on the same day.  One was a little plastic deer (see here) and the other was a REDBOX action figure, which, if I recall rightly, was in a deep-sea diving suit.  I seem to remember his face being extremely similar to PALITOY's ACTION MAN's, but when I received my replacement today (the figure itself, unclothed), there wasn't much of a resemblance.  Perhaps I'm remembering the face of the action figure I'd bought in Rothesay the year before, or maybe I later contrived a means of attaching an Action Man head to the Redbox body, but whatever, that's the way I remember it.

The figure itself is just as I recollect, and it's good to be reunited with yet another item from the past (two, counting Valiant & Smash!), almost 50 years after the fact. Funny how I sometimes think it's impossible for me to be that old, yet at other times my youth feels like it was centuries ago.  The Redbox figure was quite a decent imitation of Action Man, in that the level of articulation almost matched that of AM. The main differences were that the hands and feet didn't rotate, and the torso and neck joints didn't allow the upper body and head to move up or down, but that apart, and given the difference in price, it offered tremendous play value.  Unlike other cheaper figures, the arms could be positioned outwards from the body (allowing him a hands on hips pose), not simply moved forwards or backwards like inferior imitations.

Also, the swivel joints just above the thighs allowed him to sit with either foot resting on the other knee, something that even PEDIGREE's TOMMY GUNN figure (AM's closest top-quality rival) couldn't do.  Okay, 'Redbox Man' was made of far softer and lighter plastic, but he was still a good toy, and only Action Man, Tommy Gunn and IDEAL's CAPTAIN ACTION outshone him.  Considering all the cheap inferior knock-offs that sprang forth in the '60s, that's no mean achievement. 

So, two more replacements for past items have joined me, which makes me happy and sad at the same time.  How is that possible you may be wondering.  Well, I'm happy to have them 'back' again, yet I'm sad that the time they represent was so very long ago.  As I said, sometimes it feels like it, other times it doesn't - a paradox that I don't think I'll ever be able to get my head around.  How about you?

Footnote:  I returned to Largs on a day-trip in 2014, 43 years since last having been there.  The above premises used to be the very newsagent's from which I bought my Redbox figure and little deer.  The newsagent's is now across the street and still run by the same family, and if I recall correctly, they still had the lease on the above shop but were trying to sub-lease (or maybe even sell) to interested parties.  Again, if I remember rightly, it had lain empty for only a few short years (two or three). 

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