Friday, July 24, 2009

M*A*S*H Action Figures - 1977


Now these are some unusual items!

Almost nothing is known of these two M*A*S*H 9" action figures--of Hawkeye and Hot Lips, respectively.

It says they were produced by F.W. Woolworth, and bear a copyright date of 1969 (when the movie title was first registered, presumably). Other than an ink stamp on the back lower left corner of the package that says "Dec. 10 1977" there's no other information on these things (and part of me thinks that is from the after-market seller of these things--the original price of $2.33 has been slashed out in color pencil and ".96" written in).

The packages feature stills from the show--Trapper is seen from the back (playing golf with Hawkeye). Other than Hawkeye and Hot Lips, the only other character directly shown is Radar.

The Hawkeye doll comes with a golf club, the Hot Lips one with a medical bag. And they feature Push-Button Action:



At 9", the manufacturers were clearly aping the Mego doll format, the dominant doll size at the time, though the push-button action feature is a step beyond what Mego was doing at the time.

I've not been able to find any further info on these dolls, even on other excellent M*A*S*H sites like Finest Kind. They are almost a complete mystery.

I'd love to see how well the dolls work and what the costuming looks like under the scrubs, but I can't bear to take these things out of the packages!


2 comments:

What The Parrot Saw said...

I wouldn't take them out either, rob!
Pushbutton action!
(shades of DYNAMIC TENSION!)

And is it me, or does the artist's rendition of Hawkeye (move Hawkeye's arm! FORE! ) seem to -in profile- actually resemble more Klinger (in his favorite Scarlett O'Hara dress! )

Collect 'em all! ;-)

Steve Spatucci said...

There's no way I'd ever guess that was Hawkeye and not Klinger, based on either the actual doll or the drawing on the back. And who needs a schematic anyway, showing how an arm movies? Wacky stuff - but neat to see.

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