Lion Rock Knock-Offs
In the 1980's, several overseas companies reused the Lion Rock WWII
figure molds, costumes and accessories and brought them back to
the U.S. under several different names. These knock-offs did not
sport the official LR logo, name or copyright information. In addition,
the materials used were occasionally substandard. There is one line
of knock-offs that was made exclusively for Woolworth's. Another
set had garrish accessories using nearly neon colors. However, the
vast majority of all the knock-offs seemed to stick pretty closely
to the original designs. The biggest difference is in the use of
velcro instead of metal snaps for the clothing. In addition, the
paintjobs are often slightly misaligned so that eyes don't quite
look right or hair is painted onto the face. Even so, many of these
knock-offs are easily displayable and can fit right in with a Lion
Rock collection or display.
The packaging shown on the example here imitates the official U.S.
Lion Rock paackaging. You will notice that the camouflage pattern
is included and the log is virtually identical except for the name
change. The package back contains illustrations of 12 of the Lion
Rock figures. However, these illustrations do not appear on any
of the U.S. versions of the packaging. It is possible that they
were a pacrt of some foreign packaging as they appear to well-done
to have been created solely for these generic knock-offs. Typically,
there are no manufacturer markings on the knock-offs. It's unknown
how many different types of knock-offs were made or if each of the
official figures had a knock-off counterpart. These little afterthoughts
of the Mego eras will remain an amusing footnote to the Mego story.
Carded Figures (Click to Enlarge)