Thank you Cherry for inspiring this bit of nostalgia . . .

Only moments after hitting the publish key on my previous hateful whining, I remembered Cherrypie's observation on childhood toys and other things and remembered with a big crap-eating grin a couple of my adventures with toys.

For my American brethren, when my family was stationed in England, boys my age played with Action Man. Action Man was merely the English market name for Hasbro's G.I. Joe, with some suitable Commonwealth accessories added to the American G.I accessories.

I had a British Red Devils demonstration paratrooper Action Man with working parachute, but what fun is a working parachute after a few lob tosses in the air. It was far more fun to have the Red Devils paratrooper with working malfunctioning parachute with no reserve.

And there was the Action Man deep sea diver with working pressure hose. As long as one blew into the hose's mouthpiece, Action Man stayed on the bottom of the tub. But abruptly stopping the pressure meant a new toy: Action Man deep sea diver with working bends face pressed against the diving helmet's faceplate.

And then there was Action Man Mercury astronaut and space capsule with damaged heat shield on re-entry, but that's for another day . . . . .