Geyperman was the name of a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

action figure An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are ...

manufactured by the company Geyper during the 1970s. Geyper, although a

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

licensee, used

Palitoy Palitoy was a British toy company. It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence. Its products included Action Man, Action Girl, Action Force, Tiny Tears, Pippa, Tressy, Mainline Model Rail ...

's product line as the basis for their outfits. The figure itself was a combination of various Hasbro molds, using talker style torsos (screwed together, rather than a single mold). The first version had the head of the first

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...

figures with

flocked Flocking is the process of depositing many small fiber particles (called flock) onto a surface. It can also refer to the texture produced by the process, or to any material used primarily for its flocked surface. Flocking of an article can be per ...

hair, beard and no beard, and was available from 1976 to 1979. Later, the Eagle-Eye head mold with fixed eyes was released in Spain only. This was the transitional model and was available from 1978 to 1980, with flocked hair and no beard, and the colour of the skin is lighter than the model of second wave 1980-1982, which was darker and came with both beard and no beard, and a body that didn't have the inscriptions Geyper (made in Spain), which the previous models had.

Packaging

There are a few examples of Geyperman packages; one can see from the Radio BackPack comparison that even the logo was inspired directly by Palitoy's "

Action Man Action Man is an action figure launched in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy as a licensed copy of Hasbro's American "movable fighting man", G.I. Joe. Action Man was originally produced and sold in the United Kingdom and Australia by Palitoy Ltd of Co ...

". They also included a "star" scheme similar to Action Man, for mail-in equipment/figure offers.

Closed box

In most cases, closed box packages included a photo of the item in use, but some like the radio, used painted artwork to display the item.

Window box

This type of packaging is very close to that used by both Palitoy and Hasbro, for Action Man and G.I. Joe respectively. The graphics were usually original Hasbro artwork, modified in some instances. This type of packaging was ideal in terms of the child seeing exactly what he would receive.

Uniform box artwork

The outfit box artwork was almost identical to that of Palitoy's line. The following are uniform set graphics, attached to the left side of the box. The box itself was the same format as the sabotage set; black frame, with yellow carding & blister pack to retain items. The back of the box illustrated the range of outfits and accessories offered for sale by Geyper.

Small outfit sets

Geyper also offered outfits in a smaller package, with the items enclosed in a plastic bag inside a closed box. The

Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

and "Indian" ( Native American) sets are examples of this type. The back of the packages have photo illustrations of the other; Cowboy shows native American, and vice versa.

Accessory cards

Geyper offered budget carded accessory packs containing just a few items to augment one's collection at a reasonable price for children to afford themselves. The back of the card illustrated other items or outfits offered by Geyper.

Related history

In 1964,

toy company's first "action figure" was introduced with the name of

. They were 12" tall and represented the four branches of the military: Army, Navy, Air Force & Marines. The toyline was dedicated to one character named G.I. Joe and later on, the line featured vehicles, accessories, talking soldiers and six foreign soldiers. The original 12-inch G.I. Joe was licensed to several countries: * to the Spanish company Geyper appearing as Geyperman in the 70s * to the UK company

, appearing as

in the 60s * in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

as Action Team in the 70s * in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

as Group Action Joe 1976-81 * in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

from Estrella in the 70s (and again in the 90s) * in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as "GIJOE" and "Combat Man" from Takara (Hasbro Licensee) in the 60s * also in

from Tsukuda (Palitoy sub-licensee) The nineties Action Man was released by Hasbro International for the European market in uniform packaging, no longer licensed to individual companies.

References

* DePriest, D. (1999) "The Collectable G.I. Joe" ({{ISBN, 0-7624-0536-8)

External links

Geyperman
- official web site.
La guía gráfica de Geyperman
- site devoted to Geyper Man figures (in Spanish).

- Action Man information page. Action figures Playscale figures