Marvel Memories - Issues 1 + 2

[Malcolm Orr]

Marvel Memories

Action Force had usurped Star Wars in the hood. One year we all got Star Wars figures at birthday parties, the next year we were getting Action Force. Red Shadows, SAS, and, for me at least, Z Force were the dudes. Then they seemed to disappear from the shelves and the characters in the comic changed too.

Eventually I found lots of AF figures in poundstretcher - Gung Ho, Scarlett, Mutt etc (wish I could find them MOC for a quid now!)

Then there was a school trip to York and new Action Force figurs were on the shelf. New packaging too - they seemed too different, but I bought Footloose as he looked the coolest. A short while later the new comic came out, this time from Marvel.

There's no doubt that 'Gun Boat' is a great launch strip - though none of us actually knew the goodies, but we knew the baddies (though what happened to CC's helmet????). We learned a bit more about Flint in the rather cool profile, and then we were dealing with hijackers on a plane in the back up strip.

Whilst I remember the art of the first story, it's the details of the second story that I remember from that. Tasers, Hawk and Stalker storming the hide-out and the infiltration of the plane were all great, and stayed with me for years.

It was going to take a while before I got used to the new lot, but then Snake Eyes was in issue two, and he would soon become a hugely popular character, not just with me, but with the others that bought the comic...

What memories do you have (good and bad) of the new comics and the transition from BAF to MAF)?

[Sundance]

i was a wee kid and had a few AM toys. then AF came along. got a load of and stuff but never bothered with the 'bad guys'.

then, it all disappeared. (i vaguely recall seeing a Hyena in the Cobra packaging and a Skystriker)

i got into Transformers and they advertised Action Force was coming and ran a story with Jaye, Airtight, Heavy Metal, Crankcase and Bazooka fighting Mindbender, Destro and Baroness in a junkyard. it was cool.

Tried to get issues 1 and 2. local papershop didn't get it. tried Merrett's in town. didn't get 1&2, but got 3. Loved the cool poster. loved the story 'Run to Ground', but loved 'Shake Down' with Ace and Jaye vs Wild Weasel and Baroness even more. I really loved the Skystriker, since I'd seen 'Top Gun' and loved the Tomcats.

was hooked.

[GCH888]

Great memories.

I was already familiar with the Larry Hama stories as I was collecting the Marvel GI JOE comic each month.

However to see ACTION FORCE in comic form at WH Smiths. And then to see that one page toy advert showing Flint and Lady Jaye on the AWE Striker. It was incredible. That first wave of toys featuring Snake Eyes and Timber wolf, Footloose, Buzzer and Torch, Destro ... great times. Makes me go misty eyed just thinking about it. Especially when you now compare the current Rise of Cobra toys and the poor-in-comparision Panini comic.

In fact I still remember a whole section devoted to ACTION FORCE on the ground floor in Hamleys. And the centre piece was the USS FLAGG even though that was never available to buy in the UK. I've always wondered what happened to that USS FLAGG. Is it still lying around somewhere in some dark and dank corner in the basement of Hamleys just waiting to be discovered??

[Jimbobx]

The first marvel story I remember was the Eiffel Tower one. I think it was called terror tower. I sort of bypassed BAF. Not sure how it happened. I had my action men and a couple of jeeps then somehow I leapt straight into Hasbro Action Force.
One kid converted an entire class from He-man and transformers to Action Force by bringing in that Marvel Comic.
Every lunchtime I'd borrow it and take it to the photo copier to copy a few pages. And every lunchtime the head master would catch me and give my ears a yank.

[Red Laser]

I saw the advert on tv for issues 1 and 2 and also in Transformers I thought it was a continuation of BAF and didn't know anything about GI Joe at the time. I couldn't get the first 2 issues so started off with #3 but years later I got more into GI Joe so have the US stories and AF monthly reprinted Gunboat so in the end it didn't matter. Not long after I saw the Hasbro figures in Wigan's Toymaster but couldn't afford any.

[Destro]

My Dad used to get Battle Comic and when the Action Force mini comics started being inserted into the comic he'd give me that to read. (Must have been either 5 or 6 at the time) Got hooked, got loads of toys and then the whole thing ended and I got into reading Storm Force and a friend got me started reading the Transformers comic round about issues 40 or so and started collecting those toys.

Later on they had the Action Force introduction strip in the back of the comic and I was a bit 'What the hell? This isn't Action Force' until Destro and Baroness showed up in the strip and suddenly it was 'Awesome!!' and pestered my dad to get the comics ordered at the local village shop ("But you already get 2 comics a week", "Yeah, but Battle is technically your comic and this is Action Force and it was you that got me into it in the first place!!". The best part was 2 comics for the price of 1. What can you say - A whole comic devoted to Action Force featuring Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander, Destro, Snake-Eyes, new toys advetised, It made a 9 year old boy very happy!!

[fuzzchile]

My memories are of the first Issue..thinking it was a bargain seeing as the free gift was the second issue .. The Excellent Geof Senior Front Covers .. you could tell alot from the covers firsrtly that the style of art and stories would differ from Battle . I recognised Snake Eyes :snakeeyes: and Scarlett (witth longer hair than the Battle version) been a fan of Seniors work it was a must have ..also great to see Kev Hopgoods work inside (I liked his stories in Zoids so it was cool to see him working on strip) only thing that was a let down was the colour , it seemed to be toned down since the glory days of Target 2006 (from Transformers)which signalled the last stories to be coloured in the way I like comic colour ..from there on Marvel UK used Steve Whites method of colour although it's a style of its own and I guess closer to the look o fAmerican colouring(but better and crisper) but I prefered the Gina Hart,John Burns style of colour .. always thought they did that just so they could print UK strips in the States and not to expose how crappy the spot coloured method they used over there really was.

[antarctica]

Mine is a little more modern.

Well after falling away from Joe and comic(I collected many of hte Marvel & DC ones) in general after the Marvel run ended in 1994. I didn't even go into a comic store again for years. Then in 2001 I wondered by one and went in and spotted Image #3 with Zartan on the cover and I was back again in force collecting comics but this time only Joe.

And this time around I had ebay & the internet. So of course, I found YoJoe.com and there comic & collectible section which was my first introduction to the Action Force UK stories. And I lucky got the whole lot in one auction and was amazed at the original stories that I had totally missed when I was a kid. A similar thing happened when I discovered the BAF had even more original stories.