The Star Wars eternal knockoff machine went into stellar overdrive from the off and toy guns were no exception.
Yep, you're our only trope and then some!
Take this for instance. How brazen can you get to simply slap a photograph of Mark Hamill on the side of the box, deftly replacing his blaster with the Space Saucer!
If that wasn't rip-off enough then just scatter some Star Wars craft throughout and use the typeface too!
A more subtle but no less obvious lift is Kusan's Sonic Fazer. This is actually a tin plaque on auction, so it gets even more modern shelf life!
Yep, there's old Harrison Ford's Han Solo, with all but his face, posing in his classic blaster pose. The little picture of the kid below adroitly captures Carrie Fisher side-on too!
And just what is that spacecraft?
A lesser global sensation that Star Wars but a muscled cash cow nonetheless, Rambo had his platoon of admirers in knockoffsville too!
Here's the Kes-Uzi and the Sly Sta-clone has two of them! He'll give you a bootleg you won't believe!
It's not only screen icons which garnered faking fans. Top toys did and still do too.
In fact Topper's mid-Sixties Mega-seller Johnny Seven had quite a few including a whole decade later, Remco's ..... wait for it ..... System 7!
Really! C'mon, Remco, you're better than that!
I do really like the spinning rotors ammo though. Johnny don't spin!
And a toy rifle I would have adored as a kid, the mighty Mitraglia Spaziale.
Looking at this I think the butt is upside down!
It's one chunky blaster and I love the background box art. What is that?
I read the words Battlestar Galactica in the old Spanish auction. Surely there's no connection?
And last but not least, my favourite space weapon name this week, the Super Trembling Space Gun!
No need to be afraid, the pistols trembling anyway! Ha ha!
Do you like any of these readers? Have you any knockoff toys?
Good lord, what a wonderful universe of knock-off toy junk Star Wars birthed! At least the franchise was good for something! As you probably know by now, I also like all the Star Wars knock-off movies, such as Star Crash, Message From Space, Yor: Hunter From the Future and The Humanoid. Much more fun than the prototypes! SFZ
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