When G.I. Joe initially came to Europe, Hasbro‘s UK licensor Palitoy renamed the line Action Man to sound less American and developed additional products to reflect British military themes. Later, when 3-3/4-inch figures became all the rage thanks to Star Wars (also licensed by Palitoy), rather than importing the Real American Hero line, Palitoy developed Action Force, which was about half original creations and half G.I. Joe vehicles and characters that were repainted and renamed. Action Force would later gradually change completely into repackaged G.I. Joe products, but during those interim years, Palitoy came up with some memorable creations.
Shadows of the Empire
In place of Cobra, the enemy of Action Force was the Red Shadow army, led by masked arch-villain Baron Ironblood. Aesthetically, they looked like communist versions of Star Wars Stormtroopers, complete with a skeletal TIE Fighter-style vehicle called the Roboskull that, like all their vehicles, was covered in Russian-ish Cyrillic symbols. Even though they were ostensibly a borderless terrorist group, they had a much more Cold War aesthetic than Cobra.
Since G.I. Joe Classified came out in a 6-inch scale, Fresh Monkey Fiction has been making a “Monster Force” line in the same scale that adds classic horror monsters to the military theme. They just launched a new crowd-funded extension to the line, called The Order of the Crimson Moon, and, well…it’s going to look real familiar to fans of British toys of the ’80s. Ostensibly, it’s a line of werewolf soldiers, something that Action Force never did.
But look closer at the accessories. All the wolf troopers come with interchangeable parts to turn them into Red Shadows. “Count Ironmoon” is 90% Baron Ironblood. Switch out his head with “Major Noir” (a tribute to Action Force’s Black Major), add the iron mask from the zombie wolf trooper, and you’ve got the Baron. Use included “Robo-Sapien” parts to turn the Baron Zemo-ish Wolfsbane into a spitting image of Action Force villain Red Jackal…who was originally just a lightly repainted Destro from G.I. Joe.
Lycan, Liken
Considering Hasbro appears to have let many Action Force trademarks lapse — even the name “Action Force” is now owned by Valaverse — this might be the closest we’ll get to Action Force in G.I. Joe Classified style. Plus they can all become werewolves, as a bonus. Right now the figures are being crowdfunded at BigBadToyStore, with each one going for $37.99, save the deluxe Exterminator for $44.99. (Fortunately for the nostalgics, he’s not essential for recreating the Red Shadow characters.) That’s more than G.I. Joe’s cost, but considering it’s a smaller run with original sculpts, not as much more as one might fear.
Check out the images below. Would-be backers have just under 40 days as of this writing to make the figures happen. Now bring on Kraken, Muton, and Skeletron!
