1989: ACTION FORCE BECOMES G.I. JOE

This is it!  The moment international heroes ACTION FORCE became G.I. JOE!

Of course, the toy lines had been running in parallel since Palitoy jettisoned Baron Ironblood and his Red Shadow legions in favour of Cobra in 1985.  Even after Hasbro took over the brand in 1987, the original name was retained even though the marketing efforts (including animated TV commercials, the Marvel UK weekly and episodes of the TV show on VHS) much more closely resembled their American activities.

Clearly, by 1989, Hasbro had concluded it was no longer worth the effort and began to abandon the AF brand.

This three-page strip, produced by Marvel UK, was published free with THE TRANSFORMERS 245 and THE INCREDIBLE HULK PRESENTS 8 (both dated 25 November 1989).  The ACTION FORCE back-up strip in Transformers officially became G.I. JOE from issue 249 (23 December 1989).

The insert was also available free in toy stores.

WRITER: DAN ABNETT

ART: STEWART JOHNSON