knockoff Archives - PS

Mexican Star Wars

Mantooth — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 22:49:00 +0000

I love this (Knock off, judging by the misspelling of the film’s title) piece from Mexico, so much so that I put it in my book Rack Toys.

Funny thing is, I have no idea what it’s for, I assume it’s for an action figure but I have no clue. L’il help SW fans?

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Space Shark

Mantooth — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 15:09:00 +0000

Man, I loves me some copyright infringing knock offs and Space Shark here is a triple play! The front featuring Mark from “Battle of the Planets” getting an assist by the Argo from “Star Blazers” neither which tie into the shark motif very well but rest assured….

Space Jaws is on the side panel! What these three properties have to do with one another isn’t a question I intend to answer in my lifetime.

The gun itself is all kinds of cool featuring a shark face on the end, it kind of sells itself really.

Our book celebrating Rack Toys is nearly sold out.

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Beyond Tomorrow Again

Mantooth — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 12:53:00 +0000

Ever since I posted this back in 2010, I have been keeping my eyes out for one at Toy Shows. At last weekend’s Mego Meet it walked right up to me as somebody I know was selling it and wanted my opinion. I didn’t get to buy it but I did take a few better shots of it.

I’m not particularly surprised that the box is a single colour line art affair seeing as it was mainly a Sears catalog piece.

I really wanted to put the whole thing together and take some detailed photos but it’s more complicated than I realized and would have taken me a long time, so i settled for a few random shots.

Here is the thing most interesting to me, the small bootleg Star Trek crew this set came with, it’s pretty brash copyright infringement, even by 1975 standards. I really want these little guys.

The rest of this set are the generic astronauts that are in everybody’s junk drawer, I bought a set with these guys in the 1980s and I’m pretty sure I still see them from time to time.

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1979 Kingsford Star Force Catalog

Mantooth — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Following the blitz of Star Wars, a lot of previously unknown companies began cashing in on what the toy industry called the “Sci Fi craze” of the late 70s. These toys were often lower priced generic toys that likely offered better margin for the toy retailer.

Kingsford’s line of Star Force toys is one of those lines that many of us likely had but had no idea what it was from, the line looked like an unlikely union of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, which was a pretty sharp look in 1979,

Blast Off with the 1979 Kingsford Star Force Catalog

More Space Toys of the 1970s

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Meet the Astro Apes

Mantooth — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Now that I’ve introduced you to AHI‘s Action Apeman line, it seems only fitting to get you acquainted with Warrior, Artemus, Myra and Dr Zorma, otherwise known as the Astro Apes. If the Action Apemen were blatant ripoffs (and they were) then the Astro Apes would need to go down as the “Most Blantantest Rippyoffiest Ever”. More after the jump.

Here is a close up Artemus in his quasi futuristic get up, the figures themselves look like altered copies of the Mego Planet of the Apes figures with little additions, such as glasses for Dr Zaius and a flower in Zira’s…I mean Myra’s hair. These guys are produced on the cheap, I doubt these could last an afternoon with 6 year old me…

And talk about fancy packaging! So you may ask yourself, did Mego sue the makers of the Astro Apes too? Well, it’s kind of hard to sue somebody when they don’t put their name on the packaging, a little digging into my archive (big smelly pile of magazines) revealed this little tid bit:

The Astro Apes were made by something called “United Manufacturing Company” which really is the dreariest toy factory name ever.

If you want to see more Astro Ape goodness, cruise on over the Megolike.com and if you have any of these and would like to sell Email Me! In working on this piece I have become infatuated with these things, it’s a curse…

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Apes Week: Action Apemen

Mantooth — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:20:00 +0000

What better way to kick off Apes week than talking about one of the more interesting toy legal battles of 1974? The AHI Action Apemen (that’s the trading card I made for them above) are interesting tale of a knock off that went too far. More after the jump:

You see, according to interviews with Mego execs, AHI got to the Planet of the Apes license first and Mego at the last hour, outbid them on the action figure part of the business. AHI managed to secure the rights to many other officially licensed products and honestly, we’re all better off Mego got the figure license because, well, those toys rocked.

However, AHI was still in the action figure business, they had the monsters and generic “Adventure Men” characters that sold rather briskly, so why not add a few Apes with rifles to the mix? The result:

The Action Apemen even came on cards that mimicked the Mego “Kresge” card used in stores (most notably K Mart stores)

Well, Mego saw red (it should be mentioned that in the very same year, Mego produced generic Monsters to mimick AHI’s officially licensed versions) and teamed with 20th Century Fox to smack AHI down good and publicly.

With the lawsuit settled amicably, the Action Apeman vanished quicker than the Ape Mania and lucky for us kids, AHI continued to pump out mad fun items with the Apes logo on them. There are more pics and info at the AHI Planet of the Apes gallery.Many thanks to Mike Jimenez for these wonderfully cool peaks at his collection.

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International Bionic People

Mantooth — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:16:00 +0000

From the UK I bring you James Austin and Stevie Sommers, the “Don’t Sue Us” Bionic couple. These unlicensed wonders were created by Tomland, a company that seemed to get it’s kicks from knocking off Star Wars and other films. Their Star Raiders and Famous Monsters line are a both a child’s and a lawyer’s dream.

Our Bionic Man actually had another life as “Dral” a member of the aforementioned “Star Raiders”. Recognize Dral’s outfit? That’s cause it’s a rip off of Mattel’s Pulsar outfit. So technically, he’s wearing a knockoff off a suit that was in itself a knockoff, kind of makes you dizzy. Tomland knew no shame and we’re better for it.

As a palate cleanse, I bring you the completely licensed “El Hombre Nuclear” from a toy company known as BASA in Peru. Lucky Peruvians had themselves a Steve Austin on a Mego body, I cannot tell you how much I love this toy, words have no meaning.

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Oddly familiar giant gorilla

Mantooth — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:16:00 +0000

I found pretty trashed copy of the 1977 Multiple Toymakers catalog recently and the things that really struck me were these obvious King Kong Knock off sets. Both were marketed under the brand “Terror on the Tower”.

This looks exactly like a set Mego made for the real Kong movie and I now really want it. Did anybody have these as a kid? I really want to know if they got produced.

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The Adventures of Don, Bill and Jac!

Mantooth — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:01:00 +0000

“Don Bill Jac” sounds a bit like an obscure early 70s film you’d catch at 4 am, there’s good reason for this as it’s the name of a toyline that could only exist in the 1970s. Don, Bill and Jac consisted of the titular heroes and their “each sold seperately” outfits and accessories.

If you’ve never heard of these toys but find it oddly familiar to you at the same time, it’s because Don Bill Jac was only sold in Italy but it is a clever repackaging of a toy line known to North American kids as “Mr Action” (more on him soon). The results are really quirky and fun, enjoy the 1975 Baravelli “Bill Jac Don” catalog:

Other Foriegn Market Toys

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Skyline’s “Star Swords”

Mantooth — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:17:00 +0000

Toyfair 1978: Can’t imagine what these are supposed to be…

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