Remco's 3 3/4" Military Lines - Versions & Timelines

[dwitefry]

I hate to create a thread on my second proper post, but this has been driving me mad and I thought as I've signed up, maybe I can get help understanding it all.

'It all' being Remco's G.I. Joe knock-off lines:

So first comes Sgt. Rock and the Bad Guys, I get that, Sarge Team is just the 5.5" version of Sgt. Rock without the license to go with the 5.5" Bad Guys, I get that.
Then comes the Ninja Strike Force (whose figures will be re-used in later lines) I get that.

But then everything gets confusing and is where I’d like some help please

American Defense:
K-Mart have an American Defense line in 1985 and those molds were later used to produce M-Pact. Are these made by Remco and are they part of the American Defense line later released in 1986 by Remco?
My best source for American Defense is here but it separates the figures by logo (odd) and doesn’t say what came first, that’s my main problem with the Remco American Defense, does anyone know what order the logo/figures were released in? It seems like it goes 3-D logo, Orange Cards, Flag Cards, but I’ve read that they may have been released in series, and sure enough I have a back of card art that only includes six figures that was labelled as ‘series 1’.

US Forces (aka American Forces)
I have a pretty good list of the figures (from the same site, it’s here) my only real question is - figures that appear in both US Forces and American Defense as the same character (Tiger Claw and Hidden Force comes to mind), are they both the same visually in each series (i.e. is Tiger Claw yellow in both, and Hidden Force see-thru)?

A small selection of the molds are then used to make Commando Force for Sears, and then again to make Desert Patrol and Desert Storm, I get that too - I think.

Can anyone help me out please? Thanks (and don’t worry I won’t be posting any more mega question posts for a while, this is really the only other line I’m really struggling with)

[sinneD]

MPact are Tcrotch, Im curious what you mean by them using the same molds

[dwitefry]

I ran across some information that said M-Pact used the Sears American Defense molds, maybe just the heads? I dunno, that's why posting on a forum filled with people who know more than me about these things, so i don't do stupid things like believing things that aren't true

[sinneD]

Mpact Or EMpact figures are T-Crotch with way less articulation, I don't remember any part of them using the same molds as anything Remco

The Remco stuff had a few different lines - Using a lot of he same figures, but I think the Commando line was just a Bootleg of the Remco stuff which is of coarse a Knock off G I Joes

There are a great many collectors who have a ton of all of them so Im sure finding the right people will be easy on here

I used to own them all or 90% of them all but I have since sold most everything, only have 100 or so left, The thing with Remco is Variants, You can find just 1 figure with at least 5 variants or so, all using different parts with the same paint, So as far as Molds go you will most likely be scratching your head for years trying to figure it out

[dwitefry]

Thanks, that was really helpful
I'm not really interested in the 'subtle' variants (as I call them) for what i want to know, though these variants don't seem to subtle! just the characters and the basic look of them, and the rough order the American Defense series/characters/logos were released in for a basic visual index.

[kashyyyk]

I created a knock off image page, not a ton of pictures, geared mostly towards Galoob, but I have a few of the mpact figures. phryz.com/content/10-knock-offs

Side note, if any one has more images to contribute, contact me.

Dan

[dwitefry]

hey, I've been on that site, cool.