Futuristically armoured action toy

Our first exposure to Parker Brothers’ easy-to-spell Space Knight came courtesy of the Bullpen Bulletin page in Marvel Comics, bigging up the antics of this new cosmic character. We have to confess that at the time we thought him to be yet another also-ran from the pantheon of rubbish second-string comic characters like Ghost Rider, Ka-Zar, Deadlock or any of the other losers who’d appear for an issue in Spider-Man Team-Up¹, and we were totally unaware of his exciting action-figure origins. For some reason, we also had him mixed up with REM, the android one off of TV’s Logan’s Run series.

Jam-packed with LEDs (two for his eyes, two in his chest, two in his rocket packs plus an extra one in his utility cable - whatever that was) Rom could also boast the essential additions of an Energy Analyzer, a Translator and a Neutralizer. All in all it made for high-octane action around the sandpit at lunchtimes. But better yet, Rom could also make electronic noises thanks to two buttons on his back; one of these being the sound of heavy breathing. We’re wondering if latter additions to the Rom kit included a space-age inhaler.

The best thing about Rom The Space Knight, however, was that in UK he was marketed as part of the Action Man range. Quite what a space knight’s contributions to the war effort are is open to debate (rescuing space princesses and slaughtering space dragons?), but the popular suspicion was that Rom was just another alias for Action Man himself. Cue hundreds of kids trying to pull his space head off to cop a look at the familiar fuzzhead-with-a-duelling-scar visage below.

¹And, no, we didn’t just make those up. We’ve done our research! See The Ultimate Book of British Comics by Graham Kibble-White for more on the Marvel invasion of Britain.