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)

Japanese Officer	US Fighter Pilot	US Sea Bee	Russian Officer
German U Boat Commander	French Infantry Man	Chinese Guerrila	British Paratrooper
British Commando	Anzac Bush Fighter	US Paratrooper	US Marauder

Special Thanks to Chris Johnson for pic donation and for helping complete this section

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