So you’re Hasbro in 1975 and everybody is cutting into your G.I. Joe profits with dolls named “Mighty Gary”, “Fighting Yank” and “Mr Action”, what do you do? You rip them off of course! That’s exactly what Hasbro did in 1975 with “The Defenders” a fairly cheap blow molded doll (whose head would later be […]
When it comes to Star Wars rip off figures, there is no more blatant than the wonderful Tomland’s Starroid Raiders. These guys usually sold for a buck (far less than a SW figure) and had GREAT names, from left to right we have Zang, Tango, Wahh, Zbu, Aton and Dado. Like a lot of their […]
Kusan’s Sonic Fazer is one of those toys that made no bones about it’s inspiration. As the caped Han Solo look alike on the box would attest to, this is made with George Lucas in mind.Kusan however made up for a lack of licensing by adding a lot of cool innovative features to the Sonic […]
I can’t get enough Star Wars rip offs and the page above has one of the best, Starroid Raiders action figures by Tomland. The Space Case is another cool “Me too” type product.Star Raiders were a Mego type varaiation on the theme, also by Tomlands, many of the characters had vaguely familiar looking faces. For […]
I really dig unlicensed catalog play sets like this star fortresss. I’m sure that more than a few grandmothers were fooled into thinking this was a death star. I’ve never seen one but it looks to be entirely of laminated cardboard, I wonder how many survived?Also as a Star Wars nerd, the concept of Yoda, […]
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Ideal Toys certainly was sweet talking George Lucas with their line S.T.A.R Team toys in 1978. Each action figure had a vaguely “galaxy, far, far away” look to them. Also included is Ideal’s electronic action figures Electroman and Zogg, enjoy.
I love knockoffs, these “Alien Warriors” and “Fighters from Afar” from Tomland (which was part of Marx) went by a lot of names. “Star Raiders”, “Creatures from Other Worlds”, “Famous Monsters of Legend”, the Wards catalog gave them the “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” name of “Kantina Kooks”!Note how much “Flash” (bottom middle) resembles a certain […]
I found this odd toyline in a spiegel’s 1974 Christmas catalogue recently. I was first caught by his resemblance to Dr. Quest but then I started to recognize the pieces. Big Red is actually better known as “Mr. Action,” a G.I. Joe wannabe produced by LJN that we all probably have pieces of in our […]
Thanks to the amazing Rob Chatlin, we have the Kenner 1976 Bionic Man catalog at Plaidstallions.com. This catalog features new characters such as Maskatron and the Bionic Woman! More Bionic Catalogs will follow in the coming months! Bonus Feature, Steve and Jaime knock off figures from the UK, these little guys have Tomland bodies (like […]
Doctor Kromedome was created to fill a void in 1975 for Bionic Villains (Maskatron came in ’76) , the buyer for Wards contacted friends at Mego Corp and this catalog exclusive “Bionic Villain” was born.Kromedome’s weird purple outfit, Cape and Cane kind of give him a bit of Cybernetic “Mack Daddy” vibe. Like he’d be […]
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