Armed Forces Action Figures launched

With the profile of the men and women of the British Armed Forces enjoying high levels of media coverage and public support, toy manufacturer Character Options, with approval and licensing agreement from the MOD, has made the figures with the aim of filling what they call a significant void in the action figure market in recent years caused by the lack of authentic military-inspired toys.

The company has worked very closely with the Royal Navy, Army and RAF to conceive and launch the range of action figures, taking great care to strike a careful balance between traditional play patterns, expectations and authenticity.

The toys are being unveiled this week to the toy industry at their annual trade event and are said to be doing "massively well" and generating "phenomenal" attention. They will go on sale to the public on VE Day in May.

Commenting on the new collection, Captain Mike Davis-Marks who is head of the Royal Navy's PR team, said:

"The Royal Navy is very pleased to welcome the character range of products which will raise awareness amongst the public of the important role of the Royal Navy and Marines. It is particularly topical at this time with so many deployed on operations around the world."

The initial batch of 32 individual products include three hero ten-inch (25cm) action figures for each Service including a Royal Marine Commando, an Army Infantryman and an RAF Fast Jet Pilot.

Vehicles representative of each force will include a tank with spring- powered gun and space for two figures to act as driver or navigator and gunner, an RAF VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) Fast Jet with opening cockpit for the pilot, realistic retractable landing gear and detachable spring-loaded wing missiles, and there is a Royal Navy remote-controlled hovercraft which travels over water and land.

The figures and vehicles will be joined by further collections which will take the range into other sectors such as games, dress-up, outdoors and role-play.

The ten-inch figures are expected to retail starting at £15 each whilst the highest priced toy in the range will be night vision goggles which were judged to be amongst the top new toys of the year at the Toy Fair yesterday.

Portraying the correct ethos of this new brand and its constituent services is vital, and Leading Child Psychologist, Dr Amanda Gummer, has been working closely with the team to ensure that important themes such as a child's sense of team-work, belonging and identity are considered in the development of the range, while modern messages of anti-bullying, boundaries and discipline can also be seen to be reflected in play with the range, not to mention the aspect of physical fitness.