Top Ten Joe Knock Offs

[captact]

Thanks JOE90!!! Great info and pics!!! Now I want a Fighting Yank!!!

[Joe90]

The head sculp for Hasbros Defender was lifted from the Bullet Man figure from the Adventure team GIJOEs.

Other way around.

The Defender figure came out before Bulletman.

So Bulletman is a knock off of a figure made to compete with knock offs... It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Joe-la -- G I Joe L A
Joe-la...

[Earth 2 Chris]

Great write-up Brian. Oddly enough, Tomart's had a similar comment on the "smell of battle"!

I never understood why Hasbro killed RAH when it was still selling in favor of Sgt. Savage, and then GI Joe: Roid Rage...er..Extreme.

Chris

[Joe90]

wheres the link to your Fighting Yank thread my friend?

Here!, Captact, old chum!

[captact]

MEGO FIGHTING YANK HISTORY
One of the earliest and most notorious imposters was Fighting Yank from Mego. The Yank gained his notoriety in 1966 when Hasbro filed suit against Mego for copyright infringement on their G.I. Joe body style. Apparently when Mego had contacted their Hong Kong manufacturers about producing a competitor for the boy’s doll market, the plant took an existing G.I. Joe body and reproduced it in cheaper plastic with a new head. Hasbro was prepared for this and had created Joe with an intentional flaw, an inverted thumbnail. When Fighting Yank hit the market with the same "birth defect", the war moved from the battlefield to the courtroom. Mego lost the suit but was allowed to sell off its remaining inventory of the infringing product.

[captact]

wheres the link to your Fighting Yank thread my friend?

[Joe90]

The Fighting Yank lawsuit sounds rather fascinating. Is there more info on it?

That story isn't quite correct. The litigation took place in 1966. In 1965 Mego and Princess Grace Dolls used the GI Joe figure as a template and produced Fighting Yank. They had copied various aspects of the figure without making any changes. One of these was the inverted thumb nail that was on GI Joe's hand. One of the Hasbro people who had worked on the GI Joe project, Jerry Einhorn, spotted this figure in late 1965 or early 1966 and the Lawyers were set upon Mego...

The Judge ruled in favour of Hasbro, but Mego was allowed to sell off their remaining stock. I purchased many Fighting Yank knock off accessories in the Summer of 1966 because the figure wasn't the only thing that Fighting Yank ripped off -- they were packaging tems marked Hasbro in their cards at the time. I still have a white helmet and side arm set that I pulled off a FY card; the helmet is Hasbro Japan...

Fighting Yank made some nice original stuff as well. Check out my Fighting Yank thread for some of the items.

[Megotu]

I am a little surprised that AJ isn't on there...I guess the scale differential knocked him out of contention.

[MysteryWho]

That list was fun.
My favorite Corps character was "Whispering Willie".
He looked somewhat like Wez from Road Warrior.
It always stole my sleep to wonder, "What is he whispering about?"

[Evel KMego]

Always fun to read your top ten lists!

[shellhead]

The head sculp for Hasbros Defender was lifted from the Bullet Man figure from the Adventure team GIJOEs.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

That article just made me so glad that there are more than military action figures around today...

[jwyblejr]

There was a point in time when Wal-Mart would only sell The Corps! and no other military figures,G.I. Joe included. Just throwing that out there.

[shyndman]

The Fighting Yank lawsuit sounds rather fascinating. Is there more info on it?

[D-McMEGO]

Excellent post !
Thank you !