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Remembered action figures
I was a little kid in the 80s during the golden age of action figures - I dont have any of my action figures from when I was a kid but with retro collecting so big these days I enjoy watching media like youtube channels Toy Galaxy and RetroBlasting that cover golden age action figures. Like most kids back then my big thing was Star Wars and He-Man action figures - I had an uncle not much older than I was that had a heap of Star Wars and He-Man guys that he got too old for so he gave them all to me and after a few years of adding to his collection I had near complete sets of both and it got hard to find a Star Wars or He-Man guy that I didnt have that I could find in the toy aisle and ask my mother to buy me when we were shopping. For example I remember getting really excited about finding an Imperial Death Squad Commander - which is not a particularly exciting figure - because it was one of few Star Wars guys I didnt have at that point.
So when I got to the point of having almost complete sets of Star Wars and He-Man action figures - and rarely being able to find guys I already had in toy aisles - I liked to add to my collection with He-Man and Star Wars 'knock offs'. Star Wars guys were three and three quarter inch and He-Man guys were five and a half inch so any action figures that came out in these sizes are often referred to as 'knock offs' whether they were manufactured by a big toy brand or not but mostly a 'knock off' refers to cheap action figure lines that were made in these sizes. The cheap knock off figures are generally not held in high regard but I remember them fondly and I think that we were blessed to have them because like I said they enabled us to add new characters to our Star Wars and He-Man sets. In fact - some knock off figures became among my favourite figures.
The most well known knock off action figures would have to be Sungolds Galaxy Warriors/Fighters etc which were cheap He-Man knock offs. I had a few of them - including the legendary Baltard. I was looking through some pictures of He-Man knock off and I found one of my favourite knock offs I owned and he seems to be from a line called Evildoers and Combatants but I cant find any information on them. Anyway how cool is this guy -
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This guy fit right in hanging out with Skeletor and his evil warriors at Snake Mountain.
My favourite Star Wars knock off was a guy called Metal Face that came from a line called Tonka Steel Monsters. Not only was Metal Face a Star Wars action figure knock off but he was also a rip off of the Lord Humungus character from Mad Max 2 -
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Just walk away! Ha. I remember using this guy as an extra Bounty Hunter when I was playing with my Star Wars guys. I also used to have a black Tonka semi/tractor trailer that was just the right size to re-enact the ending of Mad Max 2 with - I used to pretend that Mad Max was driving it and I would use Metal Face as Lord Humungus to lead the chase.
Another knock off that I liked came from Kenners Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos action figure line. I wasnt exactly a Chuck Norris fan as a young kid and I didnt even realize this action figure had anything to do with him until a while ago when I looked it up. I only had one of the Karate Kommandos - the sumo. These Chuck Norris Karate Kommando figures were 6 inch so I used to use him as a baddie with my He-Man guys and also as a giant Bounty Hunter with my Star Wars guys -
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You could squeeze his legs together and he would do this clap attack with his arms.
My love of Star Wars kind of transitioned into Robotech. I used to love the Robotech cartoon. It was early amine. So I got pretty much all the Robotech action figures one Christmas and they were same size as Star Wars figures. Robotech action figures were made by Matchbox. I also got the Veritech Fighter Super VF-1S Valkyrie toy which was awesome because you could put a Robotech or Star Wars guy in the cockpit - so I would often put an X-Wing Luke Skywalker in there. But yeah my favourite Robotech figure - and maybe my favourite action figure of all-time - was the Roy Fokker action figure. I loved action figures that had removeable helmets for some reason - like the Princess Leia Organa Boushh disguise figure for example - and the Roy Fokker Robotech figure came with an awesome blue removeable helmet. I also had Max Sterling and Rick Hunter which also had removeable helmets but Roy Fokkers blue uniform was the coolest -
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I cant find a picture of Roy Fokker actually wearing the helmet which is a shame because when you put that helmet on the action figure is glorious.
Like I said - I dont have any of my action figures anymore but I do like to remember them. And like I said above - if you are into the retro toy collecting or retro toy nostalgia then two good youtube channels for this stuff are Toy Galaxy and RetroBlasting.
Did you guys have any cool knock off figures? Or are there any action figures you remember fondly?
https://youtu.be/spJf3pqFooI
One toy I do still have is a die-cast Empire Strikes Back Snow Speeder. I found it at my parents place a few years ago -
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