COMBAT FORCE ANDROID FIGURES

I present to you the Combat Force Androids!

These are each about a foot (around .30 meters) tall.

The figure decked out in blue resembles the classic Ultraman from the 1966-1967 TV series (which, by the way, is debatably my favorite show), while the red toy looks like Ultraman Leo from the 1974-1975 series.

Both figures have the same box and the same style of plastic tray. Notice that the classic Ultraman's tray unnecessarily leaves room for "horns" by his head. Below are photos of the back of the box. Now you'll be able to see why these two Ultramen figures are here on Strange Star Wars Collecting...

Some knock-off X-wing fighters!

So, you'd think ripping-off the Ultraman and Star Wars franchises would be enough, right? Well, the toy manufacturer thought some Gundam-like robots would be the cherry on this sundae. And what looks to be Cyclops from the X-Men movie is all over the box, too.

Okay, so let's take a look at the sides of the packaging. First, the left side from the front.

The text on this is hilarious. Instead of saying "Collect 'em all! They rock!" it says, "ALL STYLES ARE WONDERFUL!". Then they start lying: "OUR QUALITY IS SECOND TO NONE." Yeah, sure. "INFLATED PRODUCT NOT INFLATED PRICE." And of course my favorite, "SIMULATING THE TRUE STYLES AND MAKING CAREFULLY." It sounds like they're admitting that they ripped-off other products, though it's hard to tell through their poor grammar.

Now the box's right side from the front.

ACTIVE

REALISTIC

EXCELLENT

HIGH PROFORMANCE

* REVOLVING 90 [degrees]

* WALK FORWARD

* INCREDIBLE DIGITAL LIGHT

* REALISTIC RAPID FIRE SOUND

* ADJUSTABLE ARMS BY MANUAL

And last are the top and bottom. Each has a carrying handle, though both of mine are broken. But seriously, who needs a handle for a toy's box, anyways? I mean, of course I wish they weren't broken for the sake of the collectible's condition, but why were the handles even put there in the first place?

I got these in May 2011, though the toys seem to be older. If that is indeed Cyclops from the X-Men film, the movie came out in 2000, so it couldn't be earlier than that. Anyways, I found these toys at a dollar store called Happy Dollar + (or Happy Dollar Plus). They had another version of the classic Ultraman there that looked to be the same except the tips of his guns had the colors switched (his right was red and his left was green) and both of his eyes were green. I didn't get him because his box was seriously beat up and cost almost twelve bucks. C'mon, I thought this was a dollar store! I guess by "Happy Dollar Plus" they meant everything was over a dollar.

SPACE WARS TOY SET

These are about the least Star Wars-y you can get, but what the heck, I'll post 'em here anyways.

There was a set of plastic space toys sold in one box with the title "SPACE WARS" or possibly "SPACEWARS". The logo is written in an almost pyramid style, similar to the original Star Wars logo. The font and the very name Space Wars are the only ways that this set relates to Star Wars, and I apologize because I don't have a photo of the box. Here's my description of it, though: It shows a kid smiling and enjoying his space toys, holding a blue robot toy. Below the picture are black letters on a pink background that says, "SPACE STATION WITH RETRACTABLE LADDER AND REMOVABLE DOME, 1 ALIEN SPACE CRUISER, 1 SPACE COMMANDO SHIP, 10 ALIENS, 8 SPACE COMMANDOS AND 2 GIANT ROBOTS". Here's the two "giant" robots, which are about two inches tall. They are big compared to the smaller space commando and alien figures.

Soupie from minifigures.blogspot.com informed me that these robots came in both red and blue.

Here's a close up of the back of the blue robot...

It says "HG" and "HK". The HG is for HG Toys, the company that released this set, and I'm guessing HK stands for Hong Kong, which is probably where the toys were produced.

You gotta wonder if HG Toys even thought of this set as a Star Wars influenced toy. Maybe they just wanted a "spacey" font for their logo.

STAR ODYSSEY/ SPACE ODYSSEY DVD

Star Odyssey is a horrible, Italian movie from 1979 that was clearly made only to try to earn a few bucks off of Star Wars' success. One of the movie posters for this film shows a thin, golden robot like C-3PO and a guy holding a lightsaber! Here's the front of the cheap, one dollar DVD box made by PC Treasures, Inc. in 2006 that I got at Target. The DVD also includes episodes of Superman, Felix the Cat, the New 3 Stooges, and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.

You may think that sinister looking guy would be the main bad guy in the movie (the "Darth Vader") but he's not; he's just an auctioneer. The villain of the movie is some guy who looks like he was hit in the face with a hot waffle iron. The characters get worse, though... Let's look at the back of the box.

In the first picture we see one of their versions of C-3PO. There's two humanoid robots that look like a mix between C-3PO and a Teletubby. One's name is Tilk (male voice) and the other's Tilly (female voice). They bicker with each other and talk about committing suicide more than once in the film. They also use an annoying amount of robot related puns.

The film also has its answer to R2-D2 who, if I remember correctly, is a drink serving 'bot.

The back of the box calls this movie "Star Odyssey" and "Space Odyssey". I believe Space Odyssey is what the film is sometimes referred to in United States, but the box's front proves that that's not always the case.

The text claims Space Odyssey to be a "sci-fi classic". It definitely has your classic, stale science fiction kind of music, unlike Star Wars' epic classical music.

"...this incredible saucer-shaped DVD..."?

Star Odyssey is about a waffle-faced guy trying to take over the Earth with his army of robots (guys with wigs on... I'm not joking). A group of heroes is assembled that includes an overly dramatic guy nicknamed "Hollywood", a gambling scoundrel named Dirk (who has powers very similar to the Force), two scientists, the robots, and an acrobatic boxer whose name I forget (he's the guy in blue to the right of "C-3PO"). They discover the evil robot army's weakness: lightsabers. These swords with reflective blades can somehow penetrate the androids' bodies.

Here's "Hollywood".

And here's that acrobatic guy... He's boxing a robot in this picture.

This is from a scene where planets are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The costumes in this scene are pathetic, they really make you appreciate the Cantina aliens in A New Hope.

The back of the box says, "Starring YANTI SOMMER, GIANNI GARKO, and MALISA LONGO. Cinematography by SILLVO FRASCHETTI. Edited by MARIO ARDITI. Original Score by MARCELLO GIOMBI. Written and Directed by AL BRADLEY. Runtime 106 minutes."

I've seen other DVDs put out by PC Treasures that resemble this one. Here's the Gamera movie Destroy All Planets along with The White Gorilla. I think I've seen Lone Ranger and Beverly Hillbillies ones, too.

I'm going to warn you, I love strange Star Wars stuff, but Star Odyssey is beyond a bootleg figure or a knockoff toy. Watching this film left me feeling like I wasted time that I'll never get back. I don't recommend watching this movie.

MICRONAUTS BARON KARZA DARTH VADER KNOCK-OFF FIGURE

This is Baron Karza from Mego's Micronauts' line of toys. Karza was made in 1977, the year Star Wars came out. His head looks like a mash-up of Darth Vader and the Mazinger robot character.

He was originally sold in a white tray placed into a windowless box.

Baron Karza has limbs that are held on with magnetic joints so you could mix 'n' match his arms, legs, or head with other Micronauts'.

His hands could be launched when a mechanism on his arm was pushed.

The small, orange/ red bullet could be shot from Karza's stomach after pushing a switch on his back.

Mine's missing a few pieces. Karza is suppose to come with three of those tiny orange/ red bullets, those two gun things with the traffic cone rockets, four hands, a stick with a magnet on each end, and something that went on his back that held the traffic cone holders.

Here's the "traffic cone rockets" and their holders.

Hasbro's not the only company that rehashes toys. Mego got the Baron's body from Takara's Kotetsu Jeeg toy line.

When Mego needed a name for their Sith wannabe, they needed a name that struck fear into the hearts of children... something like Azrak Hamway International. Just kidding, but really Azrak Hamway International (AHI) was a toy manufacturer that was always ripping off Mego's toy lines. Mego had Planet of the Apes and Action Jackson. AHI had Action Apeman. Well, when it came to naming this Micronauts figure, Mego flipped "Azrak" backwards and got "Karza". After Mego knocked-off Star Wars, I guess it would be appropriate for Hasbro to make an "Ogem" figure!

KAMIRU KUBRICK KNOCK-OFFS

Kamiru produced a variety of unlicensed figures similar to the licensed ones made by Kubrick. This one is a Boba Fett figure that came sealed in a plastic bag and then placed within a cylindrical tin.

As you've probably noticed, he comes with a removable helmet and actually has a face, whereas the Kubrick Fett has a blank head piece.

There's no date nor company anywhere that I could find, both on the tin and the figure.

Above is the tin's front with the top of the lid shown. Below is the back of the tin with the inside/ bottom of the lid shown.

Boba Fett (or at least this guy dressed up as him) comes with a rifle, a missile/ rocket for his jet-pack, and of course a helmet. All three of these accessories are different to the Kubrick figure's equivalents.

Here's a checklist of the other Star Wars figures (I know Kamiru made some Batman figures too) and sets that Kamiru has released:

"CONFIRMED TO EXIST" CHECKLIST (I'll update this if I come across any more variations)

KAMIRU FIGURES

BASIC FIGURES

- Boba Fett

- Han Solo in carbonite

- Stormtrooper

WITH STORAGE TINS

- Boba Fett (gun and rocket) (cylindrical tin) (this is the one I've shown you)

- Scout Trooper (speederbike and gun) (rectangular tin with rounded corners)

BOX SETS (THESE COME IN BLACK BOXES WITH A FLAP/ DOOR ON FRONT THAT CAN OPEN AND SHOW FIGURES THROUGH A WINDOW DISPLAY) (ACCESSORIES LISTED ARE THE ONES THAT CAN BE SEEN PACKED NEXT TO THE FIGURES)

- Four clone troopers and one clone trooper commander (five short guns and five long guns)

- Four clone troopers and one clone trooper pilot (five short guns and five long guns)

- R2-D2, Princess Leia, C-3PO, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (gun and blue lightsaber)

- Stormtrooper, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Boba Fett (six different guns)

- Yoda, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Emperor Palpatine (Yoda's cane, Emperor's cane, red lightsaber, green lightsaber, and Luke comes with hair for when he's not wearing a hood)

- Luke Skywalker in stormtrooper disguise, Chewbacca, and Han Solo in stormtrooper disguise (two guns and two stormtrooper helmets)

- Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn (green lightsaber and double edged red lightsaber)

WINDMILL CERAMICS LAMPS

Way back in 1979, Windmill Ceramics started making unlicensed ceramic busts of a few Star Wars characters. These were "blank canvases" distributed to craft stores and such for people to paint, decorate, turn into a lamp, and sometimes give to loved ones. Well, I guess this is the kind of thing you'd give to people you didn't like.

Chewie stands about ten inches (roughly 25.5 centimeters) tall.

These are considered lamps, although they weren't originally sold with any of the actual lighting equipment. There was space left for the bulb and a hole for the cord to travel through, through. You could purchase those separately and I can imagine hobby and craft stores bundling these pieces with lamp kits.

On the bottom, the artist who decked out this Chewie inscribed "TO DONALD H" and "FROM GRANDMA [unidentifiable name] 1979". That grandmother did a good job, in my opinion. She got enough of the colors right for one to recognize it as being Chewbacca, but that red bandolier gives him that awesome unlicensed feel.

Windmill didn't limit their set to just one character. Here's R2-D2.

This lamp has had some love and attention put into it. Check out the fancy crystal stuff put into the dome and body! And you can't miss that red "diamond" in R2's holoprojector.

This one, as you can see, has had a light installed. Notice that someone managed to get the words "GREAT PLAINS" to protrude from the bottom of R2' body.

Here's what the lamp looks like when taken out, for anyone wondering.

And for historical purposes, SS and 83 are marked on the foot. SS is most likely someone's initials while 83 is probably the year. Did they wait to do this until 1983? Or did Windmill keep producing these that late? I've seen a few different ugly Yoda ceramic lamps, and we know he couldn't have been from the 1979 line. Our little, green friend didn't appear until the Empire Strikes Back hit theaters in 1980. Perhaps there was another series of lamps (possibly made by Windmill or a different manufacturer) that was made sometime during or after 1980 that included Yoda. There's also a silly looking C-3PO lamp out there somewhere that I have yet to find an explanation for.

Here's another R2-D2 lamp I own. Its paint scheme doesn't look as screen accurate as the one above, but that just makes it more fun to look at.

This one's foot has been marked PG 80.

No lamp set would be complete without Darth Vader!



Although Vader was not originally sold with one, it's common to see him grasping a lightsaber. 







Windmill Ceramics released a set of Star Wars inspired mugs that pretty much look like someone decapitated these lamps and stuck a handle on 'em (except R2, who's a full droid in both lamp and mug form). You can read my post about them by clicking here.

In a comment left by "star wars zombie" at the end of this post, the legend of a box arises! These ceramics apparently originally came in boxes, though I have no further details to report just yet. Any collectors and/or grandmas know anything about these boxes? Just leave a comment.

Story time! I was so excited when I found Chewbacca at a toy show for only $10. When I bought it. I told the dealer it was probably going to be the coolest thing I'd buy all day, which I think surprised him. He said he had put it up on ebay for $15, and jokingly offered to break the item before shipping it, figuring that's what the buyer would do to the ugly, ceramic monster. Luckily for me, it didn't sell on the web, so he brought it out to the toy show. Now I consider it one of my favorites, and a good example of good luck.