Please draw any perceived inaccuracies to my attention. I am in no way pretending to be an expert on the subject. Also please note that this history is incomplete at the moment.
1964 - GI Joe is introduced in the USA.
1966 - Following
GI Joe's huge popularity in the USA he is introduced in the UK as Action
Man (by Palitoy).
An Action Soldier, Sailor and Pilot are available with some accesorry kits.
These are essentially identical to their American counterparts.
1968 - The Talking
Action Commander is introduced. He gives eight random commands.
An Action Man Sportsman is also introduced. Kits include Footballers, Cricketer
and an Olympian.
The Sports range lasts for five years.
1970 - Action Man
gets realistic flocked hair and now beards in brown and blonde.
Adventurers with beards are introduced as boxed figures.
1973 - Gripping hands
are introduced.
These hands are quite fragile and a thimble is provided to go over the
hands whilst dressing the figure..
1976 - Eagle Eyes
are introduced in blue only.
Atomic Man, Tom Stone (a black commando), Bullet Man and the Intruder are
introduced.
1979 - A new body
type - the first since Action Man's inception. A more muscular sculpt with
blue underpants.
New stronger gripping hands also introduced.
Action Man now comes with a sharpshooter head position allowing shooting
poses to be more realistic.
Talking Space Commander introduced giving six random commands.
Talking Commander now gives five random commands.
1980 - Captain Zargon the Space Pirate and ROM the Robot introduced.
1984 - Action Man is discontinued.
1993 - Four GI Joe
figures are introduced to the non-USA market.
Their subsequent popularity ensures that Action Man returns in 1994.
More information on the Action Man range from 1994 onwards can be found at www.actionman.com
Other interesting stuff:
There are a number of versions of the new Action Man body. Some have a lot of articulation whilst some have none. There are also some figures with fuzzy hair and some with moulded.
All 1990's Action Man figures are white apart from 1997's Krunch which was not widely available it seems.
There are a couple of recent Action Man figures with moving eyes: Eagle Eye Ninja and VR Vision.
There is only one 1990's Talking Action Man - Street Commander. Ninja Kick does, however make some screaming noises and the 1999 Dr X laughs!