The History of Action Force: GI Joe's Forgotten International Offspring
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มิ.ย. 2020
- Action Force is a brand of European action figures released in the 1980s that was based on the Action Man toyline. It was also used to introduce G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toys to European markets.
Inspired by the success of Hasbro's GI Joe relaunch at a smaller scale Palitoy relaunched their Action Man line as Action Force, first with it's own characters and mythology but eventually rebranding GI Joe figures from the US.
For more information on Action Force and a ton of photos covering all the releases visit www.bloodforthebaron.com
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Baron Ironblood, brother of Lord Buckethead!
Harlock1776
Even better than an exiled son of some Lovecraftian civilization, turns out he's a beloved son of a San Diego family that's a kickass musician mainly a guitar assassin.
Surprised to see you here Larry
@@dabigork Larry is everywhere. One night I woke up to use the bathroom. Larry walked out and welcomed me to "Fact Hunt".
He's even friends with one of my Facebook friends (Ian McIntosh).
Cousins of Dark Helmet? :P
Right?
Roboskull is everything 10 year old and 39 year old me would love.
I grew up with both... and it's actually even a little more complicated than that! When the '82 Joes were released in Australia by a *different* toy company (yay, licensing!), they were branded as "Action Man". So I was playing with Snake-Eyes, Rock 'n Roll and Breaker as the Action Man Team, battling Cobra. But I was *also* reading the UK Transformers comic, released in Australia ever two weeks, which featured "Action Force" as a back-up strip! And *then* I found Marvel's "GI Joe" comics at the newsstand, realised all three of these things featured the same roster of characters, and promptly went cross-eyed :D
Okay Sean, maybe I *shouldn't* regret not knowing about it! xD Thanks for the bright side!
I was exactly what you said.
But Lady Jaye and Flint still had a thing going on right?
I wondered why I scream Full Force when I climax, funny how things stick with you, awesome video guys really took me back, thanks.
This comment made me laugh like an idiot
I LOVE the cobbled-together feel of the Red Shadows line. They took a bunch of random old molds nobody wanted and filled them with IMAGINATION. Pure fun.
Asset flip in toy form
OMG, Sergeant Slammer...just like we had ‘Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles’ due to some weird rule about not using the word ‘Ninja’ 🤦🏻♂️🇬🇧
YOU'RE a HERO for this SLAMMIN' comment!1!
Could you imagine the state of Britain today had they let you guys hear the word... "ninja" back then? By gods, the horror.
I vaguely remember it having to do with British law and them not wanting kids too learn about ninjas through the shows and emulate them or being too violent or something like that. It's the same reason that Mikey switched from nunchucks to like a chain weapon. nunchucks were banned for being too violent of a weapon. though the pointy weapons that can rip and tear flesh were okay for some reason lol laws are weird. ( I mean that in general)
@@darkmyro TMNT was heavily censored in retrospect. Lets not forget they don't wield any weapons at all in the second movie.
@@pious83 I did not notice that
Great vid guys. Just to say for anyone not familiar and reading these comments, England isn't the UK, Action Force was British. Lots of Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish kids loved it too.
I gotta be honest, I never know where to draw the line on that stuff. England/UK. Given recent political movements... neither do some residents. (Got 'em)
@@provisionalhypothesis United Kingdom also includes the Channel Islands and Isle of Man and the other islands
@@SecretGalaxyTV The characters in Action Force included at least a few Europeans as I recall.
I believe before the kingdoms were united, my kingdom given that i live in modern day yorkshire would have been Northumbria and had its own monarchy. Others in modern day England include; Wessex, Mercia , West Wales (modern day cornwall) , i may be wrong on this one, but i think East Anglia was its own kingdom with a similar name to present, southern part of strathclyde with the rest of it in modern day scotland with the kingdoms of the picts and others. Im not too clued up on scottish history nor irish... Not that im an expert in any history. Wales was wales. I would have thought a lot of the islands independant too. Isle of man, Gurnsey, Jursey ect along with the islands surrounding nornern and western scotland.
@@SecretGalaxyTV
England + Wales + Scotland + Northern Ireland = United Kingdom
England + Wales + Scotland = Britain/British
I lived in England in the mid 80s and collected Battle/Action Force I remember the change over from Red Shadows to Cobra, they had an issue that went over it showing that the Baron had betrayed his organization setting them up to fall and disguising himself as Cobra Commander to launch a new group, ahh memories
Here in Ireland it was 'Action Force'. Before that I had one of the 12 inch Action Man toys: the Action Man 'Commander' figure (you can see him at 1.50mins into the video) which I got for Xmas. He had 'eagle eye' action and a string in his back which when pulled made him say a number of phrases ("Send in the Patrol!"). My great aunt Sheila thought it was so hilarious, that she spent the whole day messing about with it. Lol!! To this day I can't think of her without thinking "Send in the patrol!"
Shoutout to the greatest British hero: Bananaman.
We all need Bananaman V Super Ted and we need it yesterday.
They are songs fro, the Bannana Man musical on TH-cam
He's alright but Danger Mouse was better
I was always partial to Count Duckula
Haha bananaman. I remember him for sure. Awesome. Thumbs up
Ah, a fine toyline - I recall it fondly. I still have Quarrel on her bike and the Black Major. There were several others once, but they disappeared in one of my mum's big clearouts back in the day, alas.
😄👍
Man, I love the aesthetic of the Red Shadows. I've made a few Red Shadow customs myself, just because the damn outfit looks so cool!
The UK Action Force comic didn't actually end. It was merged with the UK Transformers comic and continued reprinting the US Gi Joe comic from where the Action Force comic left off.
Patrick Hein zombie Megatron was ace. Marvel UK had the best stories
Combat Colin and semi-automatic Steve.
@@Halbared Too right. And let's not forget Death's Head, yes?
@@insanimal2 Nothing personal, yes.
Got the full set of the action force comics
Will be going on eBay if any one interested
I just fell in love with the roboskull :-O
Had one as a kid. It used to fight it out with my best friend"s TIE fighter
Same!
Literally the best toy of the video...
Hey Ed. Cool to see you here. You have a cool channel. 👍👍👌
This! This is my childhood! Action Force! Thank you for creating this.
"Its what the Tie Fighter would look like to Luke Skywalker if he was exposed to Scarecrow's Fear Gas."
Best line I've heard in awhile!
First vehicle in the new GiJoe line needs to be this.
@@JeffreyPiatt looks like it was one of Hordak's machinations.
LMAO.... Aghhhh get it away get it away... Arghhhh....
I actually had that toy. It was awesome in every way and made no sense whatsoever, but it sure scared the crap out of the X Wing and F14 fighting it.
Have a roboskull those things have more guns than a b wing
I live in Ireland and growing up only knew it as Action Force. Like you said, every time GI Joe or yo joe was said on VHS it was dubbed over with FULL FORCE and Sgt Slaugher was Sgt Slammer to me until I was about 15 and discovered wrestling lol
Crashing through the sky!
Comes a fearful cry!
"Blood for the Baron!" ("BLOOD FOR THE BAARONNNNN!")
"Blood for the Baron!" ("BLOOD FOR THE BAARONNNNN!") 🎶 🎵
Etc...
Action Force prefer to have tea and crumpets with their Porkchop sandwiches.
But ev1 prefers a...
...BODY MASSAGE!
Hey would you do me the pleasure of stopping the downloading young sir as I am a computer. Lol
What about The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles?
Please do a video about the Corps. My parents got me those action cos we couldn't afford Joe's.
I had those as well!
Used to use my corps to have epic dragonball z battles all over the house.
Yes lol i had corps to bolster ranks. Very few joes! Hahahah
When Action Force joined Battle comic, my favourite toy line had joined forces with my favourite comic. As well as Johnny Red and Charley's War I could now read Z Force and SAS Force stories. The best was yet to come with Action Force Weekly and GI Joe reprints, so Action Force was my gateway to GI Joe!
I remember absolutely loving both 'Johnny Red' and 'Charley's War' back in the day, when I first read them in the re-vamped Eagle comic after it merged with Battle in turn...still do, in fact!
Still have my comics the z force stories were the best drawn
I remember my grandmother coming from London to visit us in Caribbean for Christmas one year . Keep in mind, Caribbean was extremely Americanised, when she gave me an 'Action Force Sgt Slammer and triple T' I was perplexed as I thought it was a fake. Haha Enjoyed it regardless.
Dan needs to do a British puppet special, Terrahawks, thunderbird joe 90, captain scarlet, star Fleet etc
Danger Mouse amazing cartoon show typical brit humour.
And trapdoor the greatest plastercine animation long before Wallace and grommit.
Amazing childhood
Stay on this channel..
RE: The UK Action Force comics - when a title undersold, it was very common for them to be cancelled and then continue as a backup strip in another comic. Action Force (then Joe) would be released as quarterly 'specials', yearly 'annuals', and as a backup strip in the more successful Transformers.
It's a shame the Robo-Skull wasn't licensed by Hasbro for the GI Joe line.
I feel the same way! Also, some of those Red Shadow designs! I mean seriously, we got Monkey Wrench and Big Boa? Yikes.
Monkey Wrench was fine. Big Boa could have been good,but .....boxing gloves?
@@stevenhenry5267 Big Boa had boxing gloves because he was supposed to be Cobra's opposite for Rocky Balboa. While the plans to include Rocky in GI Joe were abandoned, the designs for Big Boa were already done.
Weird thing about the Action Force "G.I. Joe: The Movie" VHS I bought as a kid: About halfway through they stopped dubbing "yo joes!" into "full force!" ... no idea if they lost the original masters of the second half.
I had that version also.
I used to have lots of these, in nearly every iteration. My brother had the Roboskull and yes, it was awesome. I had some of the original Action Force line, the rebranded GI Joe figures, and I even bought some during its GI Joe: The Action Force phase. I grew up in Ireland and I'm sure Sgt Slaughter was called Sgt Slaughter here, it may have been different in the UK. The first generation figures were sold in packs of 4 and were really good value if you were trying to make your pocket money last.
I want you do make "Is it cannon" as its own show, starting with Transformers.
"It's two cannons..."
"It's three cannons..."
"It's four cannons..."
And so on.
Yes! Glad I'm not the only one that loves when he says that.
Speaking of Transformers canon, Let's not forget that the G1 transformers comic crossed over with Action force, and also introduced (ish) the character of Death's Head, who then went on to cross over with Dr Who, before ending up in the main Marvel universe, meeting Iron Man, the Fantastic 4 etc.etc.
Absolutely Brilliant video. Well researched and put together! I'm gobsmacked how good the research is. I know, because I was there in the 80s, playing with the toys, and reading Battle Action Force comics! Well done! And Dan Larson rules!!!
That was awesome! Got so much feels from the nostalgia of seeing the ads. Action Man too! Great cameo of my favourite ever figure. The gear you could get was endless! And... he had EAGLE EYES!!!
I think that Battle Action Force holiday special you had on frame for a few seconds was the first Action Force/GI Joe comic I ever had!
I remember traveling to Europe around 1990 and buying a bunch of the Action Force figures that had been sold out in Canada like Snake Eyes and Shipwreck, I was so happy to finally see these figures on racks.
Great stuff, thanks for this. I was old enough at the time to collect Action Force, but too young to comprehend the connection with GI Joe (or why Sgt Slammer worked in the 'Slaughter-House', or why Japanese ninja Jinx was born in Cardiff - so many questions!)
Loved the format of Action Force comic (also Transformers). Magazine sized which meant the panels were super huge and captivating. Solid video. Growing up in the Middle East, if I found a figure it was typically branded AF and stupid expensive ($25-$30 US for one figure). I only remember buying one: Dusty, who was an Australian in Action Force and still my favorite Joe figure to this day.
By far, this is one of the best written episodes ever. Great work all around! Thanks
Thanks for doing this video
I grew up on Action force, the comics & the figures. Still have many of my figures
Will never get rid of my beaver! 😆
I never forgot about it. I have a picture of me when I was 7 years old with an Action Force bed set. I also watched a few Action Force episodes where the words were dubbed over GIJOE in all the scenes by obviously different voice actors. It was hilarious.
"We gotta stop Blue Laser. They're going to blow up the ocean!"
- Cheat Commandos
“Buy all our playsets and toys!”
Thanks for the video. I grew up a huge Joe fan, and wasn’t aware Action Force was associated until recently.
Real talk son! This is a brilliantly made video, script on point and delivery is excellent.
Missed another "Hasbro: Til All Are One" joke when you mentioned they bought Tonka.
When I was a kid, I got a Snowcat at Kmart in Montana, and it had Action Force stickers...it really confused me for a few decades. As an adult collector I found out that it wasn't all that rare.
Was that Rom in that action man commercial? Whats the story there (also, i cant wait untill you do a Rom episode)
Yeah He was, I’d recommend checking out this TH-cam channel called Analog toys. He covered an entire bit on Rom and how he was incorporated to the action man line.
There's a comic book reviewer on TH-cam named Linkara, he did a multipart episode on Rom, he covered some of the legals
In the UK Palitoy had the rights to ROM and sold him under the Action Man banner with a different comic back story. The seeds of Revolution went that far back.
You sirs continue to explode my brain. Just when I think I've heard about all the major toys you make an insanely in depth video about another one.
And producer Greg, don't think we haven't noticed the sharpening of your video production skills - cuz we have - and all I can say is FULL FORCE
It really is great stuff, and without the regurgitated cheese of so many other channels that apparently think kids really went around screaming Yoooooo JOE!!!! It still makes me cringe to this day..... With all the battle cries and kibitzing, no wonder there wasn't a one of em' that knew how to aim! xD
I remember the Battle comic having a long story about the transition from action force to G I joe. Baron iron blood betrays the Black Major (his 2iC) and the Red Shadows to become Cobra Commander for some very contrived reason.
I lived in England for two years from 1985 to 1987 so I lived through the transition from the original Action Force to International G.I. Joe. Thanks for helping me remember the name of Baron Ironblood, whose figure i received for my birthday and subsequently tossed aside.
In the Action Force comic both Lady Jane and Flint were from England. The us cards always confused me
It will blow your mind when you learn her name is actually Lady Jaye.
@@HeadCannonPrime It did!!
Well according to her actual Action Force card she's Irish 😁
lol Lady Jane is a totally different subject entirely! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Jane_Grey
And many other Joes were from different nations and places in Action Force, like Scarlett being from Belgium, Doc being from Jamaica, Breaker being from Germany (Berlin and West Germany specifically), and Snow Job being Irish
Never heard of Action Force before today. Thanks Dan & Greg!
My favorite part is when I see the TV with the "We'll be right back" on it because then I know I get to see an old school commercial I haven't seen in decades. I love it!
This video brought back a lot of memories. The son of a family friend who was a little older gave me a load of Battle Action Force figures and Battle comics when I was about 6/7. At that time, I hated reading at school but loved the Action force comics.
Got some new shelving in my home office so got to dig a bunch of older comics and books from storage, and among them I found my original 5 Action Force Mini comics I got way back in 1983 when they were put inside the pages of another comic I bought (probably Battle, but could have been the Eagle), read through them and they're silly, but a load of fun. Introducing the branches of Action Force and Baron Ironblood and his forces.
Action Force was how I was introduced to G.I.Joe. I had comics and even a completed sticker album lol might still have them at my parent's house.
Brilliant video. I had some Action Force figures that I used to mix with my Star Wars, MASK and even He Man toys for the most epic battles. I do remember the adverts for Action Force when growing up in England. Thanks again guys awesome video.
Dan, thank you so much for this in depth presentation of Action Force. I am a huge G.I Joe enthusiast and I was having a hard time finding all the pertinent information in one place. Keep up the amazing work!
Great video Dan!
Great video as always, but gentlemen. I simply have to keep suggesting: The Bots Master. Toy Line, Cartoon, 3d gimmick, robots, you can do it.
Love me some Action Force content. Loved that in AF continuity Cutter and Beach Head are New Zealanders. Also the Space Force engineer, codename Kiwi.
Sup from Deep South. (aka New Zealand, I was trying to be fancy...)
This will be so fascinating and fun! Thank you Dan!👍🏻
Being a big Joe guy I was super fascinated with Action Force as a kid because I had this Action Force book that was part Comic part Toy Catalog & I had never actually seen the toys at that point. This was before the internet and I lived in Canada 🇨🇦 where they did not sell the Action Force Line obviously. Great video guys
Being a big Action Force guy I was fascinated by GI Joe, they had characters that I saw in the comic re-printed Joe stories we could not get as figures such as Spirit, Clutch, Cover Girl to name a few. Never even saw what the toys looked like until internet many years later.
That was a really interesting video. Thank you, I grew up with Action Force and have been looking for more info on the change from Z Force etc to Action Force. Brings back so many memories.
Thanks.
The Action Force cartoon intro was so much better then the GI Joe cartoon.
I was aware of the European Missions comic and that G.I. Joe was called Action Force in England, but I didn’t know all of this. Great video!!
I remember the free(?) comic that was released to toy stores to explain the combining of the two fractions.
I loved Action Force as a kid and I still think the Action Force theme tune is better.
Pretty much every Christmas action force was on my Christmas list,
It was and is awesome.
Dude... I may have said this before but...... I love you! This is one of the best channels on the TUBE!!!! Keep it up, fellas!
wow Dan, thanks for bringing back some great memories. I had so many of those original generic figures. I had no idea they were action force. I just used them with my star wars and Battlestar figures.
Awesome video. Been a long time joe collector, while I knew of it, I didn't know anything about action force. This got me caught up! Thanks for all the hard work.
You didn’t mention that Larry Hama included it in his continuation of the ARAH comics.
Wow! Great video and well researched! I loved it!
And great hair, Dan!
This was ace! I'd love to know more about the cannon behind larger Action Man figures in the 90s and early 2000s that I grew up in the UK with.
Very informative. Thank you for making this.
I almost passed over this thinking it was old, i thought I had notifications turned on, now i do.
HEY DAN.. Your reminder @6:40 is a key addition to your editing! as I can sometimes forget to hit LIKE on the various content here on YT from the many awesome deserving channels I'm sub'd at... I mean, it reminded my dumazz anywayz. ♥ yer work & PLEASE NEVER STOP
The dynamic of the 3-3/4” figures is the exact opposite from the 11-1/2” figures as the original Action Man is nearly identical to the 1964 GI Joe (no Marines) and diverges significantly as time progresses.
Interesting how it all came full circle.
Where original GI Joe went out with a whimper, Action Man soldiered on with his full militarism, great authenticity, and superior quality.
Nothing touches the final incarnation of 11-1/2” Action Man until the the Dragon Models line and 21st Century Toy’s Ultimate Soldier.
The toy store of my dreams is stocked full of GI Joe and Action Man of both sizes.
THANK-YOU!
Can't wait to see you do one on - The C.O.R.P.S. Hasbro took GI Joe out stores but that toyline, I still see in Walmarts.
Ah I remember mentioning this in one of the comments once (likely the GI Joe one) as our UK version, Battle Action Force. Great to see you cover it!
You’re video always bring a smile to my face and among my simplest of pleasures! Thank you for all that your team does! I hope one day to meet you guys!
The red Shadow do seem truly badass I gotta say.
I'm glad they're actually sort of kind of part of the cannon of GI Joe.
Stuff like this is what blows my mind about Joe...i have never been a fan of the line and I'm 35. And then it flip flops with another line and straight up Venoms it. Very good episode, a lot of moving parts in Joe's history.
The gentleman who bought the name is one of quite a few folks that love action figures whom prove ,what Michael French has said, the fans are doing the best work. Dan thank you kindly for sharing your passion with all of us men and women who still play with toys and are proud to. 😊 Please keep producing your videos. I love em.
I just had a vision of Serpentors "Cobra-La" shout coming from a diving Robo Skull...Would have been brilliant if Hasbro had been able to incorporate it in somehow back in the day
I only knew Action Man as Action Man somehow Action Force bypassed me (Then again, '89 baby!)
I forgot all about action force that I had toys and comics, when I was a kid in the 80s. Am enjoying your channel. Well done and keep it up
I loved this as a kid. action force was awesome. 👍👍
Had roboskull and his pilot amongst many others. Good memories
Great Stuff as always!
Woa! This takes me back to being a kid looking at amazing boxes in the toy store.
Where did you find picks and info? I tried to google the collection some time ago but only found half full sites. The pics in the video is re-jogging my memory of wonderful toys past.
Growing up in Germany I remember the post-1985 Hasbro 'Action Force'-line quite well. Even as kids we always called them GI Joes though. Nobody EVER said 'Action Force'.
I was in Italy from '83-'86. We could get both Action Force and GI Joe at the exchange in Naples.
You should do a spin off about those Joe's that were the transition from Action Force to GIJoe in 84. Alot of those figures/characters had different Birth places, but were never given real names except for a few that did get fleshed out in BAF.
This was so good. I have long loved the Action Force but am increasingly obsessed with the team. I learned so much though about the period from 1985 to 1991.
I didn't know that there were figures unique to Action Force until a few years ago.
Action force isn't forgotten at all in the UK we all had them as kids.
Thanks for doing this guys. I was a huge Action Force fan as a kid and still have many of the figures (although sadly had to sell some).
I kind of new about the Action Man/G I Joe relationship when I was a kid, and it's nice to think that British and US children had one more thing in common.
I have the first 8 issues of the Action Force weekly comics from 1987 !!! In IDW's continuation of GI Joe A Real American hero, they used some of the Action Force Bad guys in the comic , which was really cool !!! I grew up with The GI Joes toys of the 80's, did not know of Action Force til I had got the first 2 issues of the weekly comic in 1987 !!
This was great. I remember many a playground argument about whether it was “Yo Joe” or “Full Force”. Wish you had gone on to talk about the 90s reboot of Action Man. Fingers crossed for a future video
I just pre-ordered the new Action Force by Valaverse figures. They hooked me in with Sgt. Slaughter, and then their Swarm Trooper. They all look like well fleshed out characters with tons of weapons and accessories.
Good info.. Did not know about Action Force!
Digging that mood lighting. Nice contrast.
Yeah as a kid the only whispers of international toys were Special Missions Europe and the crazy Man of Iron two part UK Transformers comics Marvel dropped in the original run.
I'm 49 years old, live in Northern Ireland. Action Force was the toy range that I collected in the eighties AND I read the Battle Action Force comic RELIGIOUSLY. I had several figures, Baron Ironblood,Red Shadow, Mutton,SAS Commando and the SAS jeep(with machine gun on the back),Z force sidecar ( with machine gun instead of passenger seat) to name a few. What wasn't mentioned in the video is that in the Battle Action Force comic Baron Ironblood actually BECAME Cobra Commander after he was finally defeated by Action Force. After his defeat his second in command ,the Black Major became Destro(as far as I can remember). Both of them escaped capture and formed C.O.B.R.A. I think I'm right with these facts as I haven't read the comics since and unfortunately I haven't got any copies of the comic or the toys in my possession.
The overdubs are hilarious!
We all knew Slammer was Sgt Slaughter. We all knew. 😁
Still think Action Force is a way better name though. 👍