Action Jackson
"Action Jackson is his name! Bold adventure is his
game!"
(Theme song from Action Jackson ads)
Action Jackson was an 8" jointed action figure made by Mego and distributed from 1971-1974. He was basically the first widely distributed Mego action figure. Basically, the idea was you buy AJ and then kids will buy up his outfit to change him into. Sound familiar? You bet! Just like Barbie - just for boys!
There were 7 versions of Action Jackson although they all had the same basic head mold with just different hair and beards. Action Jackson was also released in Italy under the name "L'Amico Jackson." Photos and futher information are provided below.
However, Mego sold tons of outfits for this guy and you can find them floating around flea markets and antique stores quite frequently.
Quick Links:
Action Jackson Versions
Boxed Action Jackson Figures Action Jackson Outfits
Action Jackson Vehicles/Playsets Did You Know?
Action Jackson was sold boxed with or without stick-on tattoos (usually with) and came wearing a number of outfits. The most common outfit he was sold with was a light blue jumper with white boots and a white belt. Pretty dull. The black figure was sold in the same configuration and is worth about twice as much as the white version.
As their catchy song sang, Action Jackson gave kids the ability to "decide who you want to be". So much variety, from spy to marine to golfer....Action Jackson had it all! The boxed outfits are much easier to find, and many stores sell them fairly cheap. The carded outfits are fairly hard to come by and aquiring all ten will certainly be a challenge. No outfit name was printed on the outfit card so the names given are the common names applied by collectors.
| There were 18 boxed outfits: - #1101 = Aussie Marine |
There were 10 carded outfits. The names below are
description names - there were no names printed on the cards! - Navy/Black Football (Rugby) |
Action Jackson Vehicles/Playsets
Mego produced a large number of vehicles for AJ - most did not sell
particularly well, but you can still find them quite cheap. There were two playsets
- the Lost Continent (later the case was uused for the Planet of the Apes playsets) and the
Jungle House. There was also a very hard to find Adventure Set that came packaged with a figure, Parachute Plunge,
Rescue Copter AND Scramble Cycle. They even made a Colorforms playset!
Vehicles/Accessories:
Water Scooter
Fire Rescue
Parachute Plunge
Snow Mobile
Rescue Helicopter
Strap-On Helicopter
Scramble Cycle
Safari Jeep
Formula Racer
Amphicat
Wild Mustang
FootLocker
Playing Mantis released a new version of Action Jackson in 2000. The line really was pretty great, very articulated figures with lots of accessories. Unfortunately, the line was cancelled after releasing just a few figures. Kids these days...
Check out Playing Mantis - at the time I wrote this you can still buy these direct from them.
Have a question about a toy you have or one you are looking for? Send us an e-mail!
