Knock-Offs

Knock-Offs by Brian Heiler (2021 Plaid Stallions/RQ Corporation softcover 132pp)

Not a great deal to say about this one – the contents are 95% photographs and most of the rest some wry, sarcastic captions.

Knock-Offs has the subtitle of “totally unauthorized action figures” and that pretty much describes the book – page after page of images of weird and wacky toy figures that sometimes look quite-but-not-totally-like some major media property. From Superheroes to Star Wars to WWF Wrestling, they’re all in here – cheap copies trying to cash in on a craze but often arriving too late to sell big. I recall these types of toys filling the shelves of ‘Two Dollar Shops’ here around the turn of the century and market stalls were also big dealers in these items in the recent past. I don’t see too many of them around these days but that might just show I don’t get out much anymore.

Some of the Knock-Off toys included are now collector’s items in their own right, no toy collector being able to resist the sheer weirdness of some of them.

Its an amusing read and there’s more than one chuckle to be had in browsing these pages. The only odd thing was the section that ends the book. Titled “Bootleg Art” it seems to cover the work of several contemporary artists whose art is toy figure related. Although it was interesting it didn’t really fit with the rest of the book and is at best filler material.

I read through this book in an hour, its enjoyable but some interest in toys or collecting is probably needed or else it might just be a blur of odd pictures to you.