MANTA Force is a toy line and comic produced by the British company Bluebird in 1987. It jumped on to the space theme which was incredibly popular at the time, primarily due to the success of Star Wars.
The back story goes: By 2012, humans had colonised many planets throughout the Solar System, including Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The planet Earth however, had become polluted and overpopulated. In an attempt to save mankind, President Battaille ordered the creation of the M.A.N.T.A. ship. M.A.N.T.A. Force was an acronym for Multiple-Air-Naval-Terrain-Assault Force and was the most advanced Earth ship ever built. It was designed to work in any environment and its engine was fuelled by a substance called Thorium.
Following the successful launch of the M.A.N.T.A. Force ship, the World Government created the Red Venom to help Manta Force colonise New Earth. On Saturn however, many of the people had grown tired of living in plastic bubbles and believed New Earth should belong to them. During its test runs therefore, the Red Venom was hijacked by a group of highly skilled soldiers called the Viper Squad. Under the command of Major Vex, the Viper Squad attempted to use the Red Venom to hijack the M.A.N.T.A. Force ship, so they could be the ones to colonise New Earth.
MANTA Force (1987)
Released in 1987, the good guys known as ‘MANTA Force’ had the most toys. This included the most iconic toy, M.A.N.T.A, a large ship that houses many of the other toys.
The box contained the huge MANTA Force ship, which splits into two parts and housed ten different vehicles, twenty different characters, and four missiles.
Viper Squad (1987)
Also released in 1987, Viper Squad was led by Major Vex, enemies of MANTA Force. While Viper Squad didn’t have as many toys, the Red Venom ship was one of the better-looking spaceships of the 1980s.
Red Venom housed nine vehicles, although two were sleds and the Aquapod, Skipod, etc. looked almost identical. Nevertheless, it was a very cool looking spaceship that came together incredibly well.
Karnoids (1989)
The Karnoids were introduced in 1989, two years after the release of the first toys. The back-story shows that MANTA Force and Viper Squad join forces to see off alien attacks from the evil alien Karnock.
Stenchoids (1990)
Stenchoids were the final toys released in the MANTA Force toy line. Another enemy of MANTA Force and Red Viper, Stenchoids were led by Stinkhorn and came from the swamps of New Earth.
Sadly, by 1990 the popularity of Manta Force was waning, and so Bluebird ended production of both the toy line and comic book.