ARCO Space War

[acrovader]

Toy Collector

There was also: "Storm Trooper", "R2D2", and a "Luke Skywalker".

I remember seeing an astronaut playset on ebay.

I had the Darth Vader one. The figures seem to be more like party favors or something you'd see at a dime store. I remember the figures not being very sturdy, as I broke the Vader figure almost instantly.

[Bruce Banner]

Yeah, I had the "Vader" one, too.

Star Wars.com did a feature about this line in their series on SW knock off toys last year.
The Official Star Wars Blog Found on Ebay: 1978 Star Wars Knock-offs

And for another thread on these toys: What were these called? (Star Wars ripoffs) - Mego Talk

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

What's weird is that the laser sword and walkie-talkie is the same as the ones that came with the Tomland 3.5" figures.

Don C.

[turnbolt]

Love these figures. They are like cheap playmobil knockoffs. They can be very difficult to come by these days. Here is a great pic I found of the whole set.

[David Lee]

Man I want these...
This is one of my most vivid childhood toy stories. Let’s go back to the seventies… Mom and Dad would take us to Bonanza every now and again on Friday nights; it was the big family sit down, good manners practice, meal... Well on one such occasion we stopped by TG&Y for me to spend some hard earned car wash/yard mow/otherwise trivial chore money. My older brother and I bee lined it to the toys, Star Wars lust was on us hard in these days. My mission was to purchase Darth Vader and Chewbacca for our burgeoning collection.... alas none to be found. What was there? Yup you guessed ARCO SpaceWar Figures. I was so ready to spend my wad of semi-hard earned cash and this was good enough. My brother however, not so easily swayed put on the worst toy guilt trip in the history of mankind... "those are the worst toys every made he cried"..."Cheap Cheap... you hear the birds chirping, they know those are just Cheap Cheap toys"... he actually said those words, and true words they were, but I loved these guys just so much. We even incorporated them into our play for years to come, though my brother still held a grudge and relegated them to bit players in our backyard/living room space operas... That's ok though I loved them and that was good enough. I will own them again someday…

-Dave

[Rat King]

I had some of these figures from both sets and they were cool I think they were only at Sears & JcPenny's back in the 70's I could be wrong though...

[turnbolt]

These come for auction very infrequently and go for a bundle. Arco is one of my favorite knockoff toy companies. They mad a lot of fun lines in the late 70's and early 80's.

[David Lee]

I had some of these figures from both sets and they were cool I think they were only at Sears & JcPenny's back in the 70's I could be wrong though...

That would make sense, we often stopped at SEARS on these excursions. TG&Y is where we bought the majority of our toys though.

-Dave