Earlier this year, I wrote a post about the Tristar M*A*S*H Military Base play set from 1982. It is a very popular collectable for M*A*S*H fans, and several people commented that I need to write a post on the Tristar action figures. There was only one issue…I didn’t have all of them in the collection! Even though I later posted about the M*A*S*H Vintage Action Figure Visual Guide, I was still missing one of the action figures, so I couldn’t write a post about them until I found one. It is almost the end of the 2024, and I can finally say that I have a complete set of the M*A*S*H action figure set from Tristar! This week, we will look at the action figures, discuss each of them, and discover how they fit in to a larger set of M*A*S*H toys offered by Tristar in 1982.
In 1982, Tristar International, LTD released a series of licensed M*A*S*H toys that included the Military Base play set. Kids could recreate the 4077th on a four foot by four foot play mat, but the 4077th needed vehicles and people to come to life. Along with the Military Base, Tristar released a helicopter, ambulance, and Jeep. Finally, they also released a set of eight character action figures to be used with the Military Base and the vehicles. The action figures they created included:
- Hawkeye (Style No. 4101)
- B.J. (Style No. 4102)
- Hot Lips (Style No. 4103)
- Col. Potter (Style No. 4104)
- Klinger in a Dress (Style No. 4105)
- Klinger in Fatigues (Style No. 4105)
- Winchester (Style No. 4106)
- Father Mulcahy (Style No. 4107)
There was one action figure for each of the characters that were still on the show in 1982. What is interesting to me are the two different Klinger action figures with the same style number. The back of the product card doesn’t show a picture of the action figure of Klinger in fatigues. Was that one added later? Did it replace the action figure of Klinger in the pink dress? I have not found a lot of information about why both Klinger’s share the same style number. From the marketing pictures, the toys seemed to be geared more toward boys, so I wonder whether they were afraid that boys wouldn’t want to play with an action of figure of a man in a dress so they swapped out Klinger’s action figure for one of him in fatigues. Based on the current market price of the Klinger in a dress vs. the other action figures, it seems that the figure of Klinger in pink is more rare than the other characters.
Each of the action figures are three and half inches tall. They feature a head that can turn, articulating arms and legs at two joints, and the torso and lower half of the body are held together by what appears to be an elastic or rubber band. It is not uncommon to see them snapped in half or broken at the joints. The action figures are fairly detailed. Hawkeye is wearing his fatigues and has a stethoscope while BJ is similar, although he is wearing his signature vest. Margaret has her dog tags over her shirt, and Col. Potter is wearing his fatigue hat (it would have been cool if he was wearing his cavalry hat!). Charles is wearing a doctor coat and has a stethoscope while Father Mulcahy is wearing a stole, a cross, and his straw hat. The details on Klinger are interesting again. In the action figure with the dress, he is wearing a pink ensemble, has a red purse, and has a flower in his hair. This does not match any outfit from the show that I recognize. Meanwhile, the figure of Klinger in fatigues has a stethoscope around his neck. The torso and legs look very similar to Hawkeye, but the head is unique to Klinger since he is wearing a hat. This contributes to my theory that they quickly swapped out the Klinger in a dress figure for the one in fatigues later and they used existing parts from another action figure to do so.
The cards that the action figures came on featured the M*A*S*H logo, a cast photo, and the character’s name on a dog tag on the front. On the back, there were advertisements for the other Tristar M*A*S*H products. They also offered a collectable M*A*S*H patch if you sent in the “Special Offer” circles from the packaging. Strangely, it doesn’t tell you how many you need to collect, but I do have one of the patches! The patch is red and features the M*A*S*H logo and a silhouette of a green Bell helicopter.
I have owned the Tristar Military play set for several years and I even own a few sets of the dog tags that Tristar produced, but I still don’t have all of the play set’s accessories. I knew it was a matter of time before I would have the full set of action figures to my collection. Finding a good condition version of Klinger in a dress was the hardest. Now that I have the action figures, I can focus on trying to find the Tristar vehicles that go with the Military Base play set. I am sorry to say that right now, I don’t have any of them. I will begin searching for them, and I hope to post about them in the future. There were a lot of M*A*S*H licensed products in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the Tristar line of M*A*S*H toys are still popular with collectors today (there is a great post on all of Tristar’s toys on mash4077tv.com). In the early 1980s, the action figures, vehicles, and military base were a way kids and M*A*S*H fans could bring their favorite characters home and play with the in their own 4077th. Although we adults still like them today!
The M*A*S*H Historian 
Very cool collection! Thank you for posting!
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