This is Fighting Yank from 1968 in America.
Yank isn't a GI Joe lookalike that I know that well so here two pages of info from a catalogue I saw on the Bay. Not sure who the maker is.
Looks like the uniforms fit GI Joe, Stoney [our Tony K's fave] and My Sarge too. Who is My Sarge?
Anyone had or got a Fighting Yank?
I had the 2 version of the Fighting Yank. It had rubber arms with a wire in the arms to allow them to be bent and really poorly designed leg articulation. Cheap plastic with even cheaper aluminum rivets. I remember mine as if you bent the arms away from the body, the rubber T plug that held it in the body would pull free and you'd spend several minutes trying to get his arm back on. The hands were like Matt Mason's only worse as they held nothing of Joe's due to their floppiness. Mine had an ankle rivet break and my Dad fixed it with a nut and bolt through the hole which was large enough that I had to modify a pair of boots to fit around the protruding chunk of metal. I'm pretty sure I donated min to a friend's younger brother when we moved from Kalamazoo as I don't recall seeing him when I unpacked and well, I still have about 80% of my Joe stuff from my childhood and I know he's not in that pile.
ReplyDeleteFighting Yank has successfully managed to dodge the draft. I'd like an early one, but I don't have one I'm afraid, Woodsy. Early 1960s versions which were made by Princess Grace Dolls, as seen in the above catalogue, don't appear very often in the UK. At least they haven't for me. There was a well known copyright battle with Hasbro because Fighting Yank's body was a direct copy of GI Joe. A later action figure with the same name, by Mego, took a drop in quality and character. I look through John Marshall's excellent guide - 'Action Figures of the 1960s' and can't find any reference to Fighting Yank :)
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, at closer inspection, I'm not sure if the catalogue illustration is from the first 1960s version, or later 1970 version? As Lance mentioned, the hands would be the real give away :)
ReplyDeleteThe head appears to be the first version but kind of hard for me to be certain. Hard to tell on the hands as the wrists are covered by the sleeves and angle of the arms.
DeleteThat said, reading the listing we are told he has fully jointed legs and feet and that he has bendable arms! Based on that bit, I can safely say we're looking at a post 1967 catalog.
Having looked online, it seems there may have been more versions of Fighting Yank than I thought, Woodsy? All a tad confusing. I'm gonna watch telly for a bit :)
ReplyDeleteI've dug into this a bit overnight.
DeleteThere are two body types, the first being the Hasbro GI Joe rip which led to a lawsuit an the follow up far inferior second, Adding to the fun is that there appears to be four different head sculpts plus the Johnny Canuck one which seems different enough to me to bring it to five.
The Johnny Canuck figures were sold by "Princess Grace Doll, Inc." This company was either the parent, or a subsidiary, of Mego (also known at the time as "Mintex," an acronym standing for Mego Industrial Textiles).
Some sources claim PGD figures were sold by "Princess Grace Doll, Inc." This company was either the parent, or a subsidiary, of Mego (also known at the time as "Mintex," an acronym standing for Mego Industrial Textiles).
Some sources claim PGD were knocking off MEGO but given how both companies first Fighting Yank ha the same thumb issue and both change after the lawsuit, I think it is more likely PGD was a subsidiary of Mintex before toys became their primary income source and they became MEGO. Purely my opinion.
So we have the following all using the second version of the body and usually the first head:
MEGO Fighting Yank
PGD Fighting Yank
PGD Johnny Canuck
UNKNOWN The Adventurer made for Kresge (which became K-Mart)
UNKNOWN Johnny Strong Australian version
UNKNOWN Soldato Mike
UNKNOWN Sarge
There's probably more to be found out but that's about as far down the rabbit hole I'm willing to go ;)
Good info on FY:
http://www.angelfire.com/tv/3amegos/figures.html
http://www.angelfire.com/tv/3amegos/knockoffs.html
http://collectorville.net/index.php/ct-menu-item-5/11-article
Fantastic Lance and Tony. Brilliant insights. Thanks so much for looking into this and sharing it. I've been searching for old catalogues on Ebay and Worthpoint and was amazed what's out there. This Mego was just one of them I noticed but as I, like you guys, like Action Man and Joe knockoffs I thought I'd post it. Glad I did.
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting Fighting Yank on the radar, Woodsy. The credit goes to Lance for an excellent investigation. Thanks Lance, you've pulled me from confusion, filled in the gaps and given order to an action figure I was struggling with and knew little about. Brilliant work - a pleasure to read and learn from :)
ReplyDelete