First produced in 1982 by Palitoy Limited and released in two waves, the action figures were a response to falling sales of the company’s larger Action Man range and the comparative success of the smaller Star Wars action figures which it was licensed to sell in Europe.
Called Action Force the figures were a mixture of historical military figures (for example a Desert Rat and German Stormtrooper) and more contemporary soldiers (for example Arctic and Naval Assault characters). The range was kept international by including British, German, Australian and American soldiers, in contrast to G.I. Joe. However, unlike later releases the figures were not accompanied by file cards on the reverse of the figures’ packaging giving the figures back-stories nor were they featured in comic books, other than a series of mini-comics that were packaged with some of the vehicles.
Following the demise of the Battle Action Force strips, a weekly Action Force comic was launched by Marvel UK in 1987 consisting of reprints of the U.S. G.I. Joe comic book (which were adjusted to fit into the UK strip’s continuity and had all references to G.I. Joe replaced with Action Force) and new UK-exclusive short strips which maintained a separate continuity from the U.S. G.I. Joe comic. The Action Force comic was cancelled after fifty issues due to low sales and was replaced with Action Force Monthly, which was itself cancelled after fifteen issues. The G.I. Joe story reprints were continued in the UK Transformers comic until they were dropped in 1991, with the name changing to “G.I. Joe the Action Force” in late 1989 inline with the toyline. The Action Force Monthly title printed new stories as well reprinting stories from the weekly title. The magazine was released in the US under the title G.I. Joe – European Missions.
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