Karol O’Connor’s Action Force & Action Man Collections

From late December 2022 onwards, see Action Force and Action Man pop-up exhibitions at Bloomfields Shopping Centre and Bank of Ireland, Dúnlaoghaire.

“I have a childhood collection of toys made by the British company Palitoy. Action Man was made by the same company but they decided to shrink Action Man down from 12″ scale to the new industry standard scale of 3.75″ at the time in order to compete with Kenner’s Star Wars figures which were manufactured in that scale.

A lot of what you see here on display is from my own childhood, toys that I received for birthdays and Christmas back in the 1980s. The toys were put away in shoe boxes and stored in the loft for the past thirty plus years. It was only at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic that they were liberated and dusted down. It seemed a terrible shame to put them back into storage, and so I contacted the Museum of Childhood Ireland to see if they’d be interested in displaying them for everyone to see.

I love that they’ll be on display in Dúnlaoghaire at Bloomfields and Bank of Ireland, as there is a local connection! I was born, and raised in the borough, and originally most of these toys were bought in the Banba Toymaster shop in Dúnlaoghaire Shopping Centre. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Action Force!”

Karol O’Connor