AF (action figures)

AF or the Action Force were the third generation of Action Force action figures and comic book heroes released in the United Kingdom. Originally featuring in the Battle Action Force comics and cast as action figures by Palitoy, they were an internationally re-worked version of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series.

Characterisation

In contrast to their United States-centric G.I. Joe equivalents, AF were written as an international band of soldiers, who fought the Red Shadows,[1] Cobra and the Nazis.[2]

Introduced into the series by their leader, Duke,[3] the AF series gradually took over from the previous second generation of Action Force and the Z Force, Q Force, Space Force and SAS teams.

As a number of the second generation Action Force figures were already repaints or recharacterisations of their G.I. Joe equivalents, there was a substantial overlap in a number of the characters (for example, Gung-Ho was simply Z Force's Gaucho, re-cast as Harry Brewster, an American from the Florida Everglades)[4] and for that reason they never featured in storylines with their second generation counterparts. Moondancer was the only character whose profile from the Second Generation Space Force character was unchanged. Other overlaps included Breaker and Stalker both of whom had entirely different characters with identical codenames in the Second Generation Z Force and SAS teams respectively.

List of characters

  • Ace - Skystriker pilot from Chicago, USA.
  • Airborne - Italian Air Assault specialist.
  • Blowtorch - French flame thrower specialist.
  • Breaker - West German radio operator, a contrast to the Italian Breaker of series 2.
  • Cutter - Ex Royal New Zealand Navy, commands the hovercraft.
  • Deep Six - Irish deep sea diver and pilot of the Sharc submarine.
  • Doc - Jamaican medic
  • Dolphin - As a Royal Navy officer, became the youngest commander of a Nuclear Submarine. Now Action Forces Sealion submarine pilot.
  • Duke - Team Leader, Duke was a Top Sergeant with the U.S.Airborne Rangers before joining Action Force.
  • Flash - Claimed to be an ex-Royal Green Jackets soldier, but it later turned out to be involved with Hong Kong gangsters in his youth.
  • Grunt (mail in only) - Characterized as a generic AF infantryman.
  • Gung-Ho - Jungle Warfare specialist from Florida, USA.
  • Moondancer - A Triad Fighter Pilot from the Middle East.
  • Mutt and his dog, Junkyard - Former Spanish military police dog handler and his Rottweiler cross canine.
  • Recondo - Tough former SASR trooper.
  • Ripcord - Former member of The Parachute Regiment.
  • Roadblock - A gourmet chef from the French Congo. Roadblock is a heavy machine gun specialist.
  • Scarlett - Belgian martial arts expert and counter-intelligence specialist.
  • Snowjob - Former Scottish Olympic Skier who only originally joined Action Force to train for the Olympics.
  • Stalker - French infantryman. A contrast to Series 2's Icelandic jeep driver.
  • Ton Up - Swedish getaway driver who joins AF to drive the Wolverine missile tank.
  • Torpedo - Dutch S.E.A.L. trained commando, when off duty lives on the Netherlands coast in a remote Windmill.
  • Tripwire - Welsh mine detector and bomb disposal expert.

Vehicles, weapony and armour

  • Armoured Troop Carrier - A six wheeled amphibious A.P.C..
  • Command Centre - Transportable fortified HQ with vehicle repair station, prisoner cell and battlefield communications suite.
  • Dart - A ground-to-air missile system.
  • Flying Submarine - (piloted by Deep Six).
  • Hovercraft - (piloted by Cutter).
  • Lance - A self-propelled multi-barreled heavy machine gun.
  • Sealion Submarine - (piloted by Dolphin).
  • Shaft - A tripod tracked self-propelled weapons system.
  • Silent Attack Kayak - (piloted by Recondo).
  • Skystriker (piloted by Ace) - A multi-role fighter jet.
  • Triad fighter Spacecraft (piloted by Moondancer).
  • Whirlwind - A multi-barreled anti-aircraft gun.
  • Wolverine (driven by Ton Up) - A tracked multi-barreled missile system.

    References

    1. ↑ "Showdown For The Shadows". Web.archive.org. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
    2. ↑
    3. ↑ "Duke". Web.archive.org. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
    4. ↑ "Gung-Ho". Web.archive.org. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
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