How easy did you find it to get AF Release 3 stuff in 1985?

barto · Post by **barto** » 13 Aug 2007 13:19

Seeing the picture in this link: http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa65 ... wallaf.jpg

Made me almost green with envy. I never managed to get hold of any of these figures at the time! I got a load of the UK Joe packaged stuff later on but can't remember ever being able to get any of these wave three figures.

How long where they "on the shelves" of toy shops? I wondered if the reason BAF kept running SAS and Z force stories in the cobra era was because there was a lot of stock of those figures that needed to be sold. It might have been that production of the duke era stuff never got ramped up because of this - i.e. they didn't want to over produce those figures until the other stock had gone. Then hasbro(?) decided to switch to the marvel/joe format so there wherenever that many of them produced.

Is this born out by how rare/available the figures are? Ho many folk got hold of these figures at the time?

Lady Jaye · Post by **Lady Jaye** » 13 Aug 2007 16:31

These figures were also availabe in the Netherlands for a year or two. Nowadays very difficult to find carded. Torpedo and Ripcord are the easiest to catch.

[off topic]
I always wonder how smart it is showing collections like this to the entire world? So easy for Mr. Burglar to find out an address nowadays.
[/off topic]

Quickfire · Post by **Quickfire** » 17 Aug 2007 16:30

I just remember it being bloody hard to find

, even in the immediate aftermath of them getting the chop without warning, the toyshops were rapidly full of

, often with crappy stickers over the old insignia inside and outside the box. It was really hard to find the old stuff, usually out of the blue in obscure places like newsagents in seaside towns or the "broken biscuit" sections of larger toyships a year later.

The new range figures were easy to find, loads of them on display quickly, in larger numbers than the range they displaced it seemed.

Thus, with the demise of the greatest toy range in the history of mankind, I had a reason to weep in toyshops on a regular basis.

Was feeling maudlin anyway, now I'm feeling even worse thinking about this era again!

barto · Post by **barto** » 20 Aug 2007 13:17

Quickfire wrote:The new range figures were easy to find, loads of them on display quickly, in larger numbers than the range they displaced it seemed.

I never saw the

stuff in "toy & hobby" in Chester or Liverpool, or even in the littlewoods catalogue.. at least I can't remember it, and I'm certain I never bought one (despite wanting too!

-"HERESY! SLOT HIM!")

The Baron · Post by **The Baron** » 20 Aug 2007 13:42

They were bloody impossible to find. My mate had a Z Force Minesweeper that I was so envious of. It was only in the last couple of years that I've been able to find him, the Z Force Medic and Space Force Engineer (eBay of course). I managed to get the Kraken, Q Force Surfer and SAS Attack Trooper though, and all of the vehicles were easy enough to find. I've never known why the Minesweeper is so rare.

The Baron · Post by **The Baron** » 21 Aug 2007 01:26

Ah, sorry thought you meant the second wave of the second era of AF, hmm actually that was the fourth wave now I think about it... I never bothered with the AF stuff, I was so annoyed at them rereleasing the previous year's range with new stickers. I bought the Cobra figures to flesh out my enemy but they were never as loved as the Shads and went to ebay a few years ago. My dad carried on buying me the comic because by then Johnny Red and Charley's War had me hooked!