Mego's Vice President of Research and Development, Bill Baron, came up with the Eagle Force concept, which initially was called "Screaming Eagles," the nickname of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. When Kirchner was brought on board in April 1981, Baron had already sketched up a number of characters, including "Captain Claw", Goldie Hawk, and a "hippie" character named "Sleeze". The characters Turk and "Pot Luk" were based on two security guards at the Mego Corporations headquarters. The Baron Von Chill figure was an in-joke based on Bill Baron. Many of the Eagle Force characters were based on ethnic stereotypes, including Nemesis, an Arabterrorist; General Mamba was originally based on the African military dictator Idi Amin. Because of backlash concerns, General Mamba became Caucasian when his figure hit marketplace, and the Nemesis figure was not marketed in Europe. The first Eagle Force line included thirteen figures: Captain Eagle, Big Bro, The Cat, Goldie Hawk, Harley, Kayo, Stryker, Turk, Zapper, General Mamba, Beta Man, Savitar, and the Shock Trooper. Mego released five additional figures a short time later: Redwing, Sgt. Brown, Wild Bill, Baron Von Chill, and Nemesis. Vehicles and playsets included a mountain base, a jet, two jeeps, and two tanks, all of which were based on existing products so no new high-cost molds had to be created. Eagle Mountain, for instance, was from Marx Toys' The Guns of Navarone playset with a few modifications. In addition, Mego packaged bundles of products from the Eagle Force toy line in specialized "Adventure Packs": Communications, Ocean Patrol, Tactical, and Bivouac. The company also produced a range of Eagle Force-related comic books, cap guns, and other items. Slight variations in packaging in the U.S. were common while in production by Mego; later, other companies began producing figures from the same molds. producing still more variations. Outside the United States the Eagle Force lineup included numerous variations in packaging, figure painting, and additional vehicles.
Product and sales history
Eagle Force was heavily promoted at the 1982 American International Toy Fair in New York City. In the U.S., Eagle Force was sold through Target stores in May 1982, where they instantly sold out. A second wave of figures was scheduled for 1983 release, but Mego abruptly closed down in 1982 so the second series was never produced. After Mego's demise, Eagle Force action figures were re-released by the Ideal Toy Company, in packages labeled "Strike Force" where "Eagle Force" had been printed on the Mego releases. Another company subsequently used the Eagle Force molds to create a line of figures called simply "Action Figure", using totally different packaging from Eagle Force packaging. Most of the Action Figure line were painted the same as the Eagle Force line, with a few obvious exceptions, as only a tan skin color was used for the figures' heads. As a result, the African-American Sergeant Brown figure became caucasian, and the Native American Redwing had a tan head with brown arms. In 2016, Fresh Monkey Fiction and Remco Toys ran a successful crowd funding campaign to produce a new line of Eagle Force toys under the title "Eagle Force Returns." The new toys will be 4 inch scale and are expected to be available in 2018.
