In the U.K. toy manufacturer Palitoy had been releasing various toys, many licensed copies of American company Hasbro’s G.I. Joe America’s Mobable Fighting Man and G.I. Joe Adventure Team lines under new names (though not all, as the UK Action Man line included Parker Bros.’ Rom), as the Action Man toy line. In 1982, Palitoy relaunched the flagging line as Action Force, using some of the new G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line as their basis. In 1983 a comic strip adaptation of Action Force began in IPC’s weekly comic Battle, which was subsequently retitled Battle Action Force as several original Action Force strips filled much of the anthology title.
However, at the end of 1986 IPC lost the license to publish Action Force stories to Marvel UK, who launched a new Action Force title, reprinting US Marvel’s G.I. Joe strips alongside Lew Stringer’s humour strip Combat Colin and back-up strips taken from other Marvel US titles such as Master of Kung-Fu. Additionally, Action Force occasionally published brand new, UK-originated Action Force strips, including one which saw Action Force team up with the Autobots. The weekly Action Force cancelled with its fiftieth issue, and merged into Transformers. However, while the US G.I. Joe strip was still being reprinted in this new, combined title, Marvel UK soon launched a new Action Force Monthly, containing all UK-originated Action Force stories, both reprints from the weekly Action Force and new stories.
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