Vintage Knock-Off Figures -- Mostly

Mostly because some of the late Fighting Yanks I have acquired had broken bodies so I popped their heads onto Elite Brigade bodies. It's nice to see those sad old KO figures with some real articulation. All the uniforms and accessories (with the exception of a modern GI Joe Club shoulder holster) are vintage knock-off.

These figures are a work in progress: there are things to sew, and small accessories to track down and add.

One thing: I consider Tommy Gunn a knock-off... Just look at his hands.

Here's one in an early KO Snow Trooper uniform.









Here's a Fighting Ace in an early Sailor uniform. I got the KO cap in a lot from the UK.





He must be rated as a Clearance diver. He has the rest of the diver kit stowed.




A Fighting Yank Shore Patrol...






A weak attempt at a Naval Parade uniform. This is a late FY head on an Elite Brigade body. The "sash" is a granny custom.








Redbox figure with an early Marine Dress uniform...







Many of these early uniforms were generically produced and were packaged as Fighting Yank, My Buddy, Fighting Ace, Redbox, etc.


A nice Fighting Yank Ike MP...












And an olive drab version...










A Fighting Ace soldier...








A Fighting Yank soldier...








A Fighting Yank basic soldier...










More to come...

Those guys are great Doug !! I really like the head sculpt on this one, made me chuckle, looking forward to seeing more !!

Doug they are amazing

I always loved the six guys from the tiger toys series they are so cheap on ebay us but the shipping would kill me

But one day i will own a set

Great stuff

Vaughan turned me onto these and they are fantastic and very rare now

Great upload Doug !!

Great upload my friend , very nice to see. Especially as I have been viewing knockoffs of late upon the realms of Ebay. Thanks for sharing Doug.

Great pics Doug! It's nice to see figures I'm not familiar with helps me learn
more about collecting...

Fantastic pics Doug. A real trip down my childhood memory lane. Action man was for birthdays and Xmas but KO's were for anytime! Had several 'my Buddy', as he was called in my part of the world, figures. The uniforms were always top quality. As were 'Redbox'. I might still have that Dress Marine jacket somewhere. Hightlight of the pics for me is the silver DSD helmet.



I'll have to dig mine out and post a pic. It's not quite as minty as the one in the above pic. After watching a particulary exciting episode of 'Thunderbirds' I decided to re-enact the story way to close to the living room fire. The helmet melted and collapsed inwards so much I was lucky to get the figure's head out!

Back in 1966 the knock-offs that were on the market could often be excellent quality that could match Hasbro's. Some of the items were even better, I dare say... This is an advertisement for Fighting Yank pieces, and I suspect that they were probably the "2nd generation" uniforms because the Snow Trooper is already in a 1 piece uniform. You see an early Fighting Yank 2 piece above.










My favourite set is the Winter Field Outfit...








This piece is an icon for me because I had the set as a child in the Summer of 1966. So much so that I felt compelled to kit out a ME the same way I had my GI Joe dressed in the Summer of 1966. By the Winter the quality had fallen and I became an "Only GI Joe is GI Joe" snob. Ignore the flanking VAM coats -- the earliest green coat in that material was a Fighting Yank. Who knocked off who? I'm not sure which version is earlier. The one on the Fighting Yank has buttons, while the one on GI Joe does not.








This is an old photo as I have since acquired a matching green beret, and e-tool cover.




Check out the boots.






This uniform is a mystery to me. It came with what appeared to be silk screened Marine insignia on the shirt. It was very dirty, and unfortunately the insignia didn't make it.

Marines had a good representation in the KO market as well.

This uniform is at least as good as Hasbro's Marine uniform...






Some of the helmets were very close to Hasbro quality.






This uniform is very close to Hasbro's. I have one of these on a My Buddy card.




The radio and field telephone are well made too...




This figure is wearing a set of late issue Marine camo's. They are more of a polyester kind of fabric, but still well made. I put him in the Signal Corps poncho.






Speaking of Marines... I wonder if this was an attempt to emulate the Marine Jungle Fighter. I'm pretty sure it's a My Buddy uniform. He has a Club shoulder holster and a Elite Brigade body...






Another modern body with a late Fighting Yank head. The flight suit looks good, but I'm sure this saw very little play...




This flight suit is roughly the same quality. On a Fighting Ace figure...

Some more figures in flux. Not quite sure what to do...

This is so very 1970's...






Why am I thinking "Lounge Lizard" when I look at this shot?




Speaking of tacky 1970's... I understand that the name of this figure was "The Baron."






I have another one of these MIB so I'm going to pop the head off and put it on an articulated body...






And then there is an Elite Brigade figure in KO PJ's. I like them!

More great pics! Thanks for sharing Doug!

Absolutely fascinating!!!! What a brilliant upload Doug. When I think of KO I tend to think of the rubbish figures Cherilea used to give away with their vehicles or the ones you could get from the market, they never stood up and pretty soon after getting one their legs would fall off!! These are fabulous though some of the head sculpts are a little alarming lol. I can certainly see why you collect them.

Thanks for the upload

Mark

great uploads, I find those your figures very interesting mate

Fantastic uploads Doug

Some of these are superb and as you say better than the real mcCoy

That's a really interesting bunch liking the figure in the yellow jumpsuit and marines outfit those pjs are really nice as well. I think I had the Navy Parade jacket in amongst loads of AM and Lone Ranger stuff as a kid it came with some white trousers with a gold stripe and was a lot smaller than the AM stuff

Thats a great collection Joe love the knock off stuff, I have a knock off Robin

Doug, those Marine camos - are they the ones that have the "made in the crown colony of hong kong tag"?

actionmancollector wrote:

Doug, those Marine camos - are they the ones that have the "made in the crown colony of hong kong tag"?

Yes, they have that tag.  They could be found in packaging marked Fighting Yank, Fighting Ace, or My Buddy -- or any number of other companies, but they'd all be the same.

Well made stuff - picked this up recently and passed it on a couple of weeks ago, should be ok for reference?

actionmancollector wrote:

Well made stuff - picked this up recently and passed it on a couple of weeks ago,,

Yeah..to meeeee!






https://actionmanmobileops.forumotion.co.uk/t2405-redbox-dsd

couple of recent additions, the caps an interesting one