I love bootleg and knock-off toys. I don't know why, but whenever I see one in a market somewhere, they just make me chuckle. Here are some of my favourite knock-off and bootleg action-figures from my favourite franchise: Star Wars.


“Head Man”, seriously? Okay, this is some distinctly Conan/Roman hybrid, that I have chosen to dub “Conan”. There’s something about this strangely ancient garb and solid gold head that screams Stargate – about fifteen years before that godawful Roland Emmerich movie came to light. Therefore, I’m holding this action figure responsible for the Crawling Chaos that is the Stargate franchise.

Reasonable looking Star Wars figures, except for the guy on the right who’s rocked up on a really odd looking Range Rover thing. I love the look of absolute bemusement from Darth Vader.



I really, really hope that’s a bad photo. Otherwise, the only other explanation is that they’ve drawn Wedge’s face on with a felt-tip. And given him Down’s Syndrome.






“Press the square root key for hot toasty death!”

Humankind has long been fascinated by the precarious vulnerability of civilisation and of the Earth itself. When our fragile civilisations finally go, will it be as a result of nuclear war, or some cosmic catastrophe? The impact of global warming, or a terrorist atrocity? Genetic engineering, or some modern plague more virulent even that HIV or Ebola?
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Will the Internet destroy civilisation, or save it? When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow.
In Guardians of the Phoenix, Eric Brown depicts a world in the grip of climate change.
How will the end come, and will you be there to witness it?
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While my memories of childhood are hazy at best, I'm pretty sure I OWNED the MTV-7 and never once suspected it wasn't official Star Wars merchandising.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that it's not in any of the movies.
What can I say? Kids are dumb.
Any chance of a Star Trek one?
ReplyDeleteFor further bootleg info; I present to you the worlds longest link. :)
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://theswca.com/headers2/russian.gif&imgrefurl=http://theswca.com/images-bootleg.html&usg=__zmIQP3jRNAjnGke1l24nfayVz-s=&h=357&w=237&sz=46&hl=en&start=7&sig2=I96wHOOKjAI1oCam7lC1Xw&itbs=1&tbnid=l5ZRUuTOUVhyUM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=80&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstar%2Btrek%2Bbootleg%2Btoy%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=O1LiS4_RDpWQmwPGl-H7Dw
Hey James,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how much mileage there would be - as here are simply more Star Wars action figures out there than there are Star Trek. This is because a) action figure collecting is a very popular asepct of Star Wars fandom, and b) Star Wars is much more aimed at children than Star Trek is.
I'll do some research, though. It may be do-able.
ReplyDeleteThankyou for replying Brad.
ReplyDeleteYou are most definately right there, of course Star Wars is probably the bigger franchise, and with more milage more material in terms of articles can be written.
God I miss the early 90's... ST TNG was in its prime. and DS9 didnt exist.
I do try and keep our coverage/parodies about 50/50 between Star Wars and Star Trek.
ReplyDelete