MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AND THE KNOCK-OFF AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!
The Galaxy Warriors is probably the top-knockoff line of Masters of the Universe in terms of sales, characters (and vehicles/creatures) and also because it was the first MOTU bootleg that reached a certain peak of popularity. They were produced starting in 1983 by Sungold in Hong-Kong.
Galaxy Warriors have the “honor” to be a knock-off that has been knocked-off itself, and that’s what I wanted to tell you today. Galaxy Fighters is actually a bootleg of Galaxy Warriors. But that wouldn’t be all. In later years, there were very low quality bootlegs made of them, in figures that were poorly articulated and painted.
Galaxy Fighters were copyrighted in 1984 by Sewco, and sold during many years, as many as the Mattel franchise lived, and maybe even more. Sewco produced their figures in Hong-Kong as well.
The connections between Sungold and Sewco are unknown, but Sewco produced up to 3 identical figures to those made by Sungold, copied the design of the logo, the style of the blíster, and evensome of the names, with small spelling differences. Why? We will never know. In any case, the cast used for these warriors is identical except for the left hand, which is slightly closed, while the GW have it more open. Heads are made of soft plastic, which is cheaper than hard plastic.
In the US these figures were distributed by Madison and East West, but outside of the US, there were other distributors, which led to different kinds of artwork and packaging art.
The figures came with two accesories each: a bladed weapon and a shield. The available weapons were two types of sword (one straight, one curved), an axe and a halberd. The shields were two different ones. The weapons were added to each figure randomly, at least outside the US. The shields had a sticker on the front, either a small round one or a big one, and the only thing that was not random was the sticker on the shield. The good guys had an eagle on their shields, while the bad ones had a skull.
The two characters in the pictures are Magoon and Mace Ape. Mace Ape is, of course, the one that resembles more like an ape. Magoon is the human one. Great figures! I totally understand that they were so successful back then, and that people still look for and collect them.
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: MACE APE and MAGOON
- Toy Line: Galaxy Fighters
- Year: 1984
- Company: Sewco (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figures: 8 to 9 cm long
These were awesome figures. I was a MOTU fan, but Mace Ape has a special place in my heart. Growing up in Ohio, we would visit the amusement park Cedar Point once a summer. Although the park was fun, I remember getting Mace Ape as a souvenir. The shops in the park had Galaxy Fighters! Wish amusement parks sold cool stuff like that now!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and for sharing your personal memories! I guess the amusement park had a higher margin selling these (at the time) inexpensive toys than other toys with more renowned brands. This is also the case here in Europe, if there is some festivity and a lot of people gather for whatever reason, street vendors usually offer bootlegs and cheap generic stuff. Also amusement parks which are not among the top ones tend to have cheaper toys, but not as cool as they used to be. The very best amusement parks have their own licensed products and there is no room for these kind of toys anymore. Cheers, Juan
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