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In 1982 the classic Action Man doll was beginning to waver in popularity, with much of the blame for its demise being squarely levelled at the then insanely popular Star Wars Figures. Â Manufacturers Palitoy figured if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, and promptly introduced the Action Force range of mini figures (still branded under the Action Man name, as the image shows).
This first set of figures were fairly accurate depictions of different types of real life soldiers from different ages and countries, including a British Royal Marine, an SAS Frogman, a US Paratrooper and a German Stormtrooper. Â There were also some more generic entries into the line up such as a helicopter pilot or a deep sea diver, complete with old fashioned diving bell helmet!
The figures were also accompanied by a number of different vehicles and playsets such as a Jeep or a command centre. Â These figures weren’t quite so historically accurate, as the “multi-mission-vehicle” clearly demonstrates, being a wheeled vehicle with flotation devices to enable it to become amphibious and a set of foldable wings to give it flight. Â OK, I’ll go with the flotation devices but the wings seem a bit unlikely…
The range was very successful, and the following year a new range of figures were released. Â However, this new range started to lose the more historically accurate trend of the original figures and started to group the figures into squads based on the soldiers abilities (e.g. armed soldiers, sea based or more fancifully space bound soldiers). Â An enemy squad called the Red Shadows was also introduced, led by a certain Baron Ironblood.
The figures also started coming with cards with details about the soldier in question, who had taken on a more comic book persona thanks to the Action Force comic strips that appeared in UK comic Battle. Â The Action Force strips proved so popular in fact that the comic actually got renamed Battle Action Force!
In 1985 there were more changes when Palitoy was bought up by Hasbro, who were manufacturers of a similar range of figures in the US under the G.I. Joe brand name. Â Some of the G.I. Joe figures were added to the line up, and the “good guys” in the range now became collectively known as Action Force, whilst the baddies, in line with the US counterpoints, were called Cobra.
The toys and the comic book adaptation started to feed into each other, and before long the Action Force were even taking on a reanimated Adolf Hitler. Â Quite how Hitler was reborn I don’t know, but given that the Action Force at this time always appeared to be from the present day there were obviously some kind of scientific shenanigans involved in bringing the Fuhrer back to life.
Over time the Hasbro influence took more of a hold, with the G.I. Joe name making its way onto the Action Force packaging as well. Â I certainly remember the TV advert jingle saying “G.I. Joe – The Action Force”. Â Eventually the Action Force title was lost completely and the toys adopted just the G.I. Joe name. Â A shame really, since in the UK the abbreviation G.I. would have been lost on most kids.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Anything with the standard SW articulation – joints at just hips, shoulders and neck is a Palitoy creation. This will become important.
The first set of Action Force includes a playset base – this is a recycled Death Star toy from Star Wars. As you said generic army type figures. My memory is of this running 2 years.
The second set is the Z-Force (army), SAS-force, Q-Force (navy) and Space Force years. Again I recall this running 2 years. Most of the figures and some of the vehicles are recycled/adapted from the previous Action Force line (look at the Spaceship and compare to the land/air/sea craft). Mixed in are some US repaints with US articulated figures – which have the rubber banded waists, knees and elbows. Several of the vehicles are unsuitable for the more articulation limited UK figures requiring either a bending knee or the peg hole in the figure’s back. There’s a second year with some new figures and some new UK (and imported US figures) This line is supported by an Action Force strip in the Battle Comic published by IPC (who did 2000ad)
We then get one year of GI Joe repacks on generic Action Force cards. These are mainly year 2 GI Joe toys with some original vehicles from the previous line mixed in (Triad Fighter) (IIRC this is c84/5) Again the line is supported by a strip in the battle comic.
Following a break Action Force is restarted c87/8 with pure GI Joe repacks of the 85 series (and earlier) including the GI Joe art on the boxes, but with the Action Force logo. At the same time a new Action Force comic is released by Marvel UK with repreints from the US GI Joe comic and some new material – completely different continuity from the Battle stuff.
Somewhere around 1989 it finally gets rebranded GI Joe The Action Force and then just GI Joe (without the US Real American Hero tagline), and around then we get our exclusive Tiger Force repaints and Spirit/Lowlight.
Not all US toys are released in the UK in this time period (Defiant, but also odd figures: Torch, Chuckles, Crystal Ball, original Sneak Peak, some yr1 Tiger Force), the line generally runs 2 years behind the US line and some toys for a certain year in the US are released earlier than others (Blizzard springs to mind).
(adapted from material written for the Hub and TFW2005)
October 10th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Cheers Phil, I seemed to recall you knew a little bit (quite a lot it seems) about Action Force.
Thanks for clearing up the whole G.I. Joe branding thing in the late 1980s for me. I was sure I remembered the TV advert jingle correctly!
October 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Good article Big Boo, I always wondered why nobody else seems to remember “Action-Force” figures, when I used to love them as a child of the 1980′s! (Sorry about the pun btw!). I had quite a number of figures, my favourites being Snake Eyes (with his pet wolf, which for years I mistakenly thought was a dog!), Shipwreck (with his parrot) & Flint. I also had some vehicles, such as the Hydrofoil boat thing, which took ages to put together! I also had a few annuals at various Christmases. A friend of mine used to buy the comic & around 1990-ish, there was a special competition in it and the prize was to have a special limited-edition figure named after you! My friend entered it & won of these figures, I was so jealous of him at the time! The figure was green & blue I think. I remember renting out the video of “Action-Force” the movie & liked it, so for my next birthday, my Mum bought me another AF video, called “Sink The Montana”, which is a one-off story & about 30 mins long. I’ve still got it now (minus the box sadly) & it’s got some AF adverts on it too! It was on the Tempo video label & also have some trailers for their other video releases, such as “Spot The Dog” etc! I remember the name-change to “G.I Joe” around 1991 or 1992, which I wasn’t too pleased about & slowly lost interest in it all soon after, as by then I’d got into playing videogames or something! Still, for a good few years, AF was a big part of my life, so good to relive some childhood memories again!…
October 12th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
The figure you mention above is probably a Steel Brigade figure.
Have a look on Yo Joe . com it’s in 1987 under the mail aways
October 12th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Direct Link http://www.yojoe.com/action/87/steelbrigade.shtml
October 13th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Glad you enjoyed the post Iain, and no apology needed for the pun! Pleased we could bring back some happy memories.
Was the Steel Brigade figure that Philip found the link to the one you remember your friend winning? We’d love to know!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Nice to see you can now put links in posts !
December 1st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Hi again guys. Thanks for the link Philip, this indeed was the figure that my friend Dan had. It came with a special command file (which all the AF figures had on the back of their retail boxes), which had his codename & real name on it etc. You had to provide this information when you sent away for it & he called it ‘Tomahawk’. I saw Dan recently & for my birthday back in October, he got me the DVD of the “G.I Joe” movie! It was good to see Jinx without her hat on in it! Lol Also, I was going through some old boxes of stuff over my Gran’s house & found an AF annual from 1990!
Happy memories!…
Iain
August 11th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I used to buy the rip-off versions with my pocket money. I’m pretty sure they were called “Action-Jack”. Had the same effect when throwing them out of upstairs windows!
August 12th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Action-Jack! That’s typical of the kind of imagination that goes into naming rip offs of kids toys.
Action-Farce would have been a much better name!