ACTION FORCE TOYS 1980s

stone roses

hi i have a ad up on boards.ie for 3/4" action force figuers and toys if any one out there has these in the attic collecting dust gis a shout!!!!!! im doing a retro room in my house and need these, so action force 1982, tanks, boats, cars, what ever, pm me and i will send you email for pictures good items in good condition i will make a good offer, palitoy made these i have a few but need to get more, thanks p.s as a matter of interest do any of you guys remember these toys as a kid little action man they were great
real boys toys thanks

lord lucan

I used to have all the action man stuff when i was a nipper. For some reason i used to think the red baron was a legend,always liked the bad guy i guess. Lost interest when it changed and cobra commander etc. came in.

stone roses

ya i agree, old school figuers were the best thanks for reply.

lord lucan

I just had a look on wiki and it was baron ironblood,not the red baron. Not sure where i got that from,must've been all the comics and annuals as a kid about the adventures of the flying red baron.

I remember having a red ATV with skull and crossbones on the side and machine guns mounted on it along with various figures,could still be up in my aul pairs attic for all i know!

Found a pic of the vehicle i was talking about,it was this:http://www.geocities.com/mkbip/webpages/Eshadowtrak.htm

And these were the red shadows,i used to have loads of these:http://www.geocities.com/mkbip/webpages/Eredshadow.htm

And the baron ironblood himself:http://www.geocities.com/mkbip/webpages/Eironblood.htm

Mr.Lizard

I remember them being pretty rubbish tbh. The designs seemed rushed and unoriginal. In the pix there the red shadows are clearly just a rip-off of the wehrmacht and their 'leader' is a guy with a bucket on his head ffs! Compared with Star Wars for example they just came off looking boring.

I also didn't like the way a lot of them where cast in the 'holding a gun' position which meant you couldn't have as much fun playing with them (in scraps etc).

Mr.Lizard

Another mistake they made was with the packaging. It just looked so dull. A real yellow-pack effort if ever I saw one.



I reckon if they'd dressed up an actor or model in the garb of the figure and took an action snap for the card (or even just done something like the exciting GI joe cartoon style graphic) they would have sold millions more figures. As it is the product there was just totally uninspiring.

zzzzz.

stone roses

well i have vintage star wars moc which i loved as a kid and still do, but the owl action force i enjoyed as well, im just putting them into my vintage collection as part of my retro room and as part of my memories as a child when life was great as a kid in the 80s!!!!!!! :-)

stone roses

hi still looking for action force figuers tanks,jeeps,etc; carded or loose complete if you can vintage 1980s palitoy toys thanks

Trafford Lad

I remember them well, I used to have The Kracken (looked like a distant cousin to Greedo!) Best of luck, hopefully you find a few out there.

stone roses

hi well i have to say im doing ok i got 100 loose figuers near mint with weapons, z force tank, sas boat, sas jeep, z force jeep, sas rocket cannon,all complete and mint, also 9 carded figuers jesus i didnt expect this , its amazing what people have in the attic and they dont even know, cash in the attic , get up them stairs and if you have vintage toys let me know!!!!!!:-)
these look great now i have dusted them down and into the glass display they go!! happy days thanks

Mr.Lizard

You should post a snap of your collection. Even if I'm not a big AF fan I always like to see a bunch of action figures lined-up and colourful.

stone roses

hi ya i must get around to posting a snap or 2, just doing some house work at the minute so when im done i will take snaps,, thanks for asking!!!!

rubadub

Yeah, take a photo or list some things and what you would pay approx, I think there are still loads in my parents attic but I think they take them down for kids to play with who come visit.

I had this skull, it was like starwars thing, the sides could swivel


and this jeep, I think mind had gull wing doors, like sports cars.


There was a dirty big gun thing too, that could be attached to a hitch on the toy cars, a lad would sit in the gun.

Also had this

stone roses

hi well dig out what you have on action force vintage and give us a shout,
im pretty happy with what i have but i dont have any red shadow toys so i may be interested, so throw up a list and pictuers and i wil take a look, action force are fantastic toys i think when on display they really look well!! thanks

Dyr

a lot of the figures were actually just reworks of gi joe moulds apparently.

I thought the red shadows were dead cool though

icdg

By the mid-1980s, Action Force was simply the European version of GI Joe: A Real American Hero, with a matching logo. By 1990 it was GI Joe, even in name. Guess they gave up spending money adapting it.

New GI Joe movie coming out soon, incidently, for those nostalgic for the line...

stone roses

ya new movie i will have to take a look at that!! i have some vintage g.i.joe near mint and complete , i like the action force figuers much more than the g.i.joe, the g.i.joe snap to easy when the elastic band goes in there body that drives me mad!!:-[ but all in all they look great on display!!

retro child

well, well action force i didnt think tere were any other people out there who had these now!! these are great toys i have these toys in my vintage toy collection, well done put up photos if you can long live retro!!!!!!

Kev8360

Tbh the reason I enjoyed the original toy line was the comic book series released at the same time - some excellent story lines and really well drawn. You can read and download it at this link:

I actually went through a phase of collecting the original toy line after seeing it online. Ebay/Paypal is dangerous when nostalgia is involved (I have attached some images of collection).

Dozen Wicked Words

I started collecting Action force before Z-Force et al. You used to be able to claim free figures if you sent off packaging tops. I got about 4 plain green army officers from that (straight arms). I always prefered the characters that could use a rifle.

I still have loads of figures, sas frogmen, Q-force frogmen, marines. The coolest,IMO were the all black SAS figures in gasmasks. I have a Z force Tank (sadly only one of the tracks works now), Z force motorbike with machine gun side car and Eva?, Z force jeep. Q force boat, another boat, parachutists, snomobiles. Double barreled turret gun and single turret gun z force. Kracken, the Barron, although he has yellowed with age, the cobra armour. I let the kids play with them now, but I think I am more excited about them than they are. They are all well played with and much loved.

Action force was all I thought about in the early 80's. They were better when they weren't fully jointed (except for the tank driver, motorcyclist, cobra gunner etc). I even bought the comic and Panini did a sticker album for Action Force too which was the business. Happy days!!! Feckin GI Joe killed it (that and the fact I was probably getting too old anyway!)

I will endevour to post a few pics if I get time.

Mr.Lizard

Nice collection ^^ .

Actually slightly related but can anyone help me with this query. My next-door neighbour had this toy that was sort of like a 1man submarine-like thing around 1ft in length and dark green in colour (very military looking anyway). I think it might have had some white stickers on it and maybe grill on the top?

I'm pretty sure it was Action Man (the big ones as opposed to Action Force) tho I'm not certain and I'm guessing it would have been released in the late 70's early 80's.

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Probably not due to the vagueness but I decided I'd throw it out there anyway in the off chance.

Thanks.

stone roses

hi kev8360 what a nice collection, they look fantastic well done, gis a shout if you deside to sell!!!!! :-) i find it hard to refues the owl action force vintage, must throw up some pics!! cheers

Galvasean

rubadub wrote: »

Also had this

I had a later version of that. Called a HISS tank under the GI Joe line in the 90s. Mine was a dark navy instead of red with a different type of turret gun (red). It was cool because you could sit about six men in the compartment in tha back and two more in the cockpit as well as one guy manning the turret. I think there was also foot connector points at the back where you could stand a couple of guys too.
Great toy.

superfly

i was mad into the comic Battle Action Force and collected it for years, i still have them up in the attic somewhere
i was too skint to be able to afford the toys so i think i maybe had 1 or 2 as a kid

Dyr

superfly wrote: »

i was mad into the comic Battle Action Force and collected it for years, i still have them up in the attic somewhere
i was too skint to be able to afford the toys so i think i maybe had 1 or 2 as a kid

Do ya remember when it merged with some british comic (Battle? Eagle?) and became storm force?

superfly

yeah Marvel bought the Action Force name and released their own version and so Battle came up with this piss poor copy of Action Force called Storm Force which eventually went over to Eagle when Battle folded

xanthor

icdg wrote: »

By the mid-1980s, Action Force was simply the European version of GI Joe: A Real American Hero, with a matching logo. By 1990 it was GI Joe, even in name. Guess they gave up spending money adapting it.
..

Initially, Palitoy had some of the vehicle molds used in G.I.Joe licensed out to them, along with their drivers/pilots who were more articulated than the 5 joint figures that Palitoy were offering carded.

They later phased in a selection of the carded figures from the 1983/84 line.
At some point, the owner of Palitoy died, and Hasbro basically brought the company out. They liquidated the old stock of 1983/4 figures and relaunched the line in American style packaging in 87. I remember the advertising campaign being quite aggressive.

Galvasean wrote: »

I had a later version of that. Called a HISS tank under the GI Joe line in the 90s. Mine was a dark navy instead of red with a different type of turret gun (red). It was cool because you could sit about six men in the compartment in tha back and two more in the cockpit as well as one guy manning the turret. I think there was also foot connector points at the back where you could stand a couple of guys too.
Great toy.

Hiss II.

stone roses

had a look at the new toy line today in town fantastics new figuers from g.i.joe detail is outstanding and the 12" figuers look deadly!!! happy days but i still love the original!! may have to get the new ones look excellent on display id say!! also check out a guy on youtube type in toy collectables and veiw a small documentry in 18 parts about g.i.joe fan whos doing a book on g.i.joe and all vintage 80s toys it amazing!!! thanks