ACRO MERCHANT

I saw this online. I'm not a Micronauts collector but I assume this is a knockoff.

Its called Mecha Acro Year.

Its not a bad-looking toy. What do you think?

ED'S NEW KNOCKOFF CRICKET

Woodsy and Fellow Moonbaser's,

I managed to score this nice little knock-off of the Spacex Cricket. 

After looking at Paul V.'s SpaceX toys website it appears to be from an unknown manufacturer. My sample is missing the grill, one hubcap, and the gun mechanism has been glued in place but it's still a nice little piece.

 The photo editing gave it a more yellowish hue than it has up close and personal. It's more of a cream color with yellow mixed.

From Vegas Base

Ed

THE ACE TEAM

 At Sunday's boot sale I had great fun rummaging in a box of old stuff  - all 25p each!

Having bagged my booty, as always I've begun to think about what I left behind! The booter's curse!

The box contained a a couple of cheapo helicopters labelled Ace Team and I think Air Team. Clearly A-Team knockoffs, both were small black die-casts.

These were not the toys I was looking for and I left them behind in their dusty casket for someone else.

Looking up these cheapo choppers I could only find Ace Team and only the van, which wasn't at the sale. 

There's one on Ebay and it says the maker is Szetoys, which is new to me. 

Googling further there's even a version of this with Mr. T pictured on the roof.

What I did get from the sale was the real McCoy, a Rough Riders A-Team Enforcer van, which needs a bit of TLC. Here's one I saw on Worthpoint.

Have you got any A-Team toys or knockoffs readers?

Sundae Sundae

Before we cut down on car booting on account of our house bursting at the seems, we visited the local Leeds sale one last time this month. We plan to limit our car boot visits to just one a month from now on. That's the plan anyway!

Today's old and inexpensive toy haul was an interesting bag.

See what you think.

At the back, a Clangers 1969 jigsaw

Left to Right, Action Man go kart, Popy Kaiju monster [ID needed], cheap Action Man KO [ID needed], Action Man detonator, Italian plastic car, A Team Enforcer van, Action Man German helmet, four Hot Wheels and a Terrahawks tank.

FAKEAWAY?

 I'm always amazed by the number of Space 1999 knock-offs and bootlegs there are.

It's a brave second-hand world of plastic and resin.

Here's one I stumbled across online, a cheapo looking hand-weapon.

If it wasn't for the aging torn header card I'd say it looks 3D printed but I think its actually quite old.

Anyone recognise it?

Tong in Cheek

 I picked up this 80's TONG Barbie clone yesterday in a German charity shop.

TONG is a new one on me and the make is clearly marked on the doll's neck rear.

Maybe the clothes she's got on is original too. I'm not sure.

The body may well be another brand as I think TONG bodies were articulated.

Anyways, for 50 cents I'll turn the other cheek.

Anyone any TONG experience readers?

Turning Japanese

 I saw this knock-off Zeroid recently in a random search. It looks like a solid block of rubbery plastic in the way the Imperial Toys knockoffs were. This one's Japanese. No idea how big or small it is.

There's a Kaiju on the header and a name. Can anyone translate it? 

SUB STANDARD

I had to chuckle when I saw this old carded frogman. I mean, the firm have just brazenly ripped off one of my favourite Action Man box illustrations! It was clearly the Wild West back then in Hong Kong when anything went!

The toy itself appears to not live up to the famous illustration, a super cheapo frogman and a one-man sub that looks like a soda siphon canister.

Still, back in the day I would have accepted this toy with open arms. I would today! ha ha

Did you have a one-man sub?

THE COMBAT MAN TRAIN DOWN SHERWOOD FOREST

 We're just back from a weekend away in the pleasant River Trent countryside around Newark in Nottinghamshire down the road from Sherwood Forest.

Newark has a large castle ruin, a big river with very fine slow cruises [we enjoyed it a lot] and many good shops, including, yes .... charity shops!

Despite the number of charities, I was only tempted to buy a bundle of seven old Conan the Barbarian comics for seven quid.

The car boot sale down the road at Sherwood Forest [Robin Hood jokes welcomed!] was better and I came away with a few die-casts for Junior and me, two Sontarans and a neat boxed Combat Man Military Train set, which was my fave purchase.

I know the Combat Man brand from my interest in knockoff Action Man figures. Its a Mego/Lion Rock line from the late 70's/early 80's and was essentially a 7-inch articulated male figure, like the earlier Little Big Man, with loads of carded WWII uniforms. There were also small plastic soldier sets and my Military Train Set [with Chug Chug Sound!] is one of these, although it wasn't released with small plastic soldiers. There is no Mego or Lion Rock branding on it all.

The UK Combat Man brand mark is like a soldier's dog-tag and often says 'and his adventures in World War II'. Lion Rock also issued it as 'Johnny Action' in the US. It was re-branded in many other countries and the Mego Museum lists them all here https://www.megomuseum.com/lionrock/index.html

It's sister set is a vehicle set, which does contain small plastic soldiers and a missile launcher not unlike the Merehall one many of us have in our own collections.

Trafalgar Toys, as seen on this box from an online auction, were likely the importers.

My Combat Man train set is all complete but doesn't work. I'll need to scrape off the old battery acid from the battery unit contacts in the big loco and give it a rejuvenating dose of WD40.

The previous owner, no doubt a pesky youngster [I ask you! ha ha], had stuck a load of stickers on the rooves of the two main carriages, so I'm currently soaking them in my special perfect-fit carriage soaking bath.

As soon as this train set is ready for combat operations I'll alert Moonbase readers stat!

Oh, and like the Conan comics, it was 7 pounds.

Any good?

ARCO DETOO

 Looking into Arco's Play Kid toys is fun and I've come to realise Star Wars figure collectors like them a lot, especially knockoff fans.

Arco's SpaceWar range of small figures are as prized as a Wampa's doo doo and collecting them all would be a real challenge I bet.

Here's Arco's little Darth Vader effort. He even gets a TV camera for filming his own rise to power and an mechanical arm for keeping his millions of fans at arm's length.

I love the golden robot C3P0 on the header. Did they do a R2D2?

Do you collect Spacewar figures readers?

Alongside Arco's more famous Spacewar are their more generic Play Kid sets. I've looked at the space ones before on MC but here's a different line, construction workers in the hilariously titled box, On The Job!

Seen on Ebay, everything looks as it should be and I for one would have loved this in the Sixties, when I suppose Arco's equivalent back then would have been someone like Blue Box and their beautiful three-layered window boxed sets of tippers, trucks and workmen.

Did you like construction worker and vehicle sets as a kid readers? Blue Box? Arco? Who?

ASSAULT ON SPACE PRECINCT

 

I'm always amazed about what get's knocked off. You have to have a degree of success as a toy line to even bother knocking it off.

This Space Police bootleg took me by surprise then [who is it meant to be?]. I never realised that its inspiration, Space Precinct, the Gerry Anderson TV show from the mid-90's, was that big and its toy line warranting knockoffs like this.

I still see loads of loose Space Precinct figures at car boot sales but I've never seen this bootleg.

Were you a Space Precinct fan? Did you have the toys?

THE UNIVERSAL BOOTLEG

Terranova47 spotted this carded set of 6" figures ripping off Star Wars, seen in NYC about five years ago. Bobble heads rare among us!

Have you got any other knockoffs to share readers?

STAND BY THE TAP FOR ACTION!

This plastic water pistol caught my eye on an auction so I kept the pics.

Greek in origin its a deadringer for Stingray.

There's not much detail on it but the basic shape is there. I imagine its unlicensed.

Is this a water pistol you would have liked readers? Did you have a water pistol?

SEND IN THE CLONES

For anyone like me that loves knockoff action dolls and action men then you'll like Chris G's pinterest gallery. Its choc-full of incredibly poor action clones and fabulous fighting knockoffs!

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/gillespie_chris/weird-ebay-dolls-male/

My favourite on there has to be Super Mike, a ridiculously brazen copy of a bearded Action Man that made me laugh out loud!

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/320670435951564611/

What's your favourite?

DYNA MAN

 

This GI Joe Action Man knockoff is new to me.

Dynaman or Dyna Man.

I do like the box art on the back!

It was released by B.A.R.T.E.R!

Who were they?

WHAT'S WITH THIS ONE?

 

With its Zeroid arms I love this little droid I saw online. Not sure about the cherry lips on top though. The chest TV is just fabulous, tho' I don't recognise the artwork. You?

Comically this toy was released by our old chums Imperial [yep, Apollo Moon Exploring] so that's this guy an Imperial Droid!

Do you like it?

SONIC WOMAN

I do love cheapo knockoffs. Such creativity went into them and they're fun to see!

Here's one, Sonic Woman, the fully jointed woman of the future!

Dressed exactly like the Bionic Man toy figure she's ready for six million dollar derring-do! But what's that in her hand - a big Pomfret cake? - and what are those two instructions showing on the card!

I saw this on ToyLoco on Facebook https://images.app.goo.gl/1EN2vrYqt72zSXCSA There's more!

ACTIVE MAN

There are countless GI Joe and Action Man knockoffs.

Here's another, new to me.

Active Man!

There's something awfully nice about the name. He's fit, he's healthy, he's active! ha ha

Looking at the carded sets on offer here on an online auction Active Man appears to do everything that Action Man did including blowing things up!

Are you an Active Man?

MR.ROCK: CAN HE REALLY FLY?

I've always been fascinated by Lincoln International's  Mr.Rock figure.

So when I saw this Mr. Rock Cosmic Space Flyer I was intrigued.

Mr. Rock was a mid-Seventies knock-off of Mego's Mr. Spock action doll. 

From Spock to Rock. That was easy!

The original blister carded figure, a prized collectable, came with an Action Man style flare gun and a cheaper pink doll radio. A sort of pick n mix from various different toys.

Mr. Rock must have done OK for Lincoln if they then decided to release a Cosmic Space Flyer. It shares similar card art and pictures the man himself flying over, where? Vulcan?

Further Googling revealed that the Cosmic Space Flyer was given away by Plaid Stallions Toy Ventures magazine #5.

Did Toy Ventures create the Cosmic Space Flyer as a modern freebie?

Or is it real? Did they find a box full?

Does anyone know?

Incidentally, when I first saw Mr. Rock online on sites like Megocollector ( it's their picture above) and Plaid Stallions I had thought he was made by Lion Rock, a toy firm I associate with Bradgate and my beloved Little Big Man in the Sixties. 

Alas, Mr.Rock and Little Big Man don't know each other.

Do you know Mr.Rock?

MEKS BY WELO: ACTION MAN GOING COMMANDO

I'm always fascinated by the sheer number of Action Man style accessories that appeared around the world in the 70's. I don't collect them but I think I could if I tried.

Spurred on by Big Jim, Action Jackson and other actions dolls, many more toy companies jumped onboard and released their own accessory ranges.

Here's a Medic set from another company's range, MEKS by German outfit Welo in the 1970's. They issued lots of carded sets and they are no doubt popular with German collectors especially but I'm sure have wider Action Man appeal.

Have you come across Weks by Welo or other Action Man type toys? Are these knockoffs would you say?