Here's why.

Back in the day, on the way to day care, you could spend $1-$3 and get a CRAPLOAD of dudes. At one point in the 80's, they would sell 12 packs. There were blisters EVERYWHERE when you cracked em open.

Joes were tops in quality and characterization, but sometimes you wanted dirty, out in the jungle type battles. Dudes who looked military and hard as nails. From a dude who looked like Castro, to shirtless dudes with ammo belts, they just looked like Schwarzenegger film villains and heroes.

Also, the vehicles just seemed harder core. Infiltration boats, maps, bazookas, tons of assault rifles. Not sure why, but it was like GI Joe with the niceness taken off. Plus, they could take a beating and get the crap kicked out of them, no problem. Miss those dudes.

Where are the big packs these days? I missed the Corps! repro pack of 10 or whatever at my Wal-Mart and now it's gone forever, but they were never quite the level of the giant K-mart super packs of endless dudes you could get for next to nothing.

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I loved that stuff as well. I remember buying them 2 for $4 at KB as a kid when it got to the point where I had got all the Joes from that year I wanted (when you only had a wave or so a year in the 80's). I had some of the normal military types, the space looking silver dude, that karate guy that could have been Quick Kick's brother, and Tiger Claw. I started to collect them about 5 years back, but it's next to impossible to find them. Most times they are in lots with actual Joes. After scoring a couple, I called it quits.

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I've been thinking about the Remco American Defense/U.S. Forces stuff a lot lately, too. The funny thing is, while they were the cheaper alternative to Joes when we were kids, they've become far more expensive than all but the rarest Joe figures on the secondary market. I understand why: between the fact that they're made of more fragile plastic and were generally less desirable (and, by extension, less likely to be preserved) than Joes, and the lack of readily-available information about the lines, they're a bit rarer and more mysterious. I've been poking around in hopes of tracking down some of my favorite Remco dudes, but I've found the prices to be a bit more than I want to pay for something that'll basically sit on a shelf and be a fondly-remembered curiousity.

I miss them too, though. Some of the designs were really cool, and you're right about the vehicles. A couple of my favorite toys from my childhood were the Remco "training center" playset (which was basically a plastic obstacle-course-style climbing net and barbed-wire thingy for the dudes to crawl under) and that cool watchtower. Unfortunately for me, I didn't own the watchtower (a friend did), and I haven't been able to locate one.

For me, the earnestness of the Remco stuff is really charming: items like the vacu-formed foxholes and the common-sense accessories that came with some of the sets (things like ladders and portable winches) were just fun toys, and they provided accessories that the Joe line didn't have. I wish the modern action-figure market could support second-tier products like Remco produced, because I would buy the living crap out of them.

I wish I had found more of these when I was younger.

I have a small blue metal helicopter and a few of the figures packed away somewhere...

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I completely agree.

I miss fair quality, fully poseable (i.e. no t-crotch) easily accessible , "cheap" 1:18th scale knock offs (or original lines) in general. The closest thing the markets received recently were the lines sold at the Dollar Tree " STOP vs SCUM " http://www.scary-crayon.com/toys/stopvsscum/ and the generic MMA . If those lines were truly fully poseable that would have been a dream for me . A wacky, fun "doesnt take itself to seriously", cheap 1:18th toy line in the vein of American Defense and other 80's 1:18th lines. One can dream...

I still recall that Remco guy that had an "X-Men Cyclops" like visor and a light blue top. Corny as hell but i loved that dude and mixed him in with my joes. I dont know if he was from US Forces or American Defense.

The Remco stuff is/was great. Those sets were so much fun and I've since savraficed childhood favorites for customs.

The best place to find figures and vehicles is toy shows. They get lumped in with Joes and I've found several in bargain bins.

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I'd love to see an "American Defense" group project.

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some of my favorite figures were the knock offs. i remember the couple karate and ninja guys, and there was a sgt rock i think figure i had that was blue so he was my made up cobra guy back when it was still just the blue cobras and a few other bad guys.

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You post the threa dna d it has my vote for sure.

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For affordable vehicles and outposts, PTE has you covered. Too bad their figures are so crap, despite great articulation.

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American Defense, Sgt. Rock and the other Remco lines were awesome. Where else could you get a character named Sgt. Skinhead? lol.
They were great because they were cheap and had personality. Macrossmaster is right in that they did have a certain real-world grittiness about them.
Best of all is that they were pretty easy to find. Even in Canada we had them at K-Mart and Kresges and when I was a kid and we went shopping in the States I found lots of them.
I miss the knock-off lines. They brought a whole new element of play into the Joe universe. I wonder why more companies don't jump on the bandwagon and produce figure lines that are similar to existing properties.
I often thought that a space line that was kinda-sorta similar to Star Wars (but not enough to get sued by Lucasfilm) would do amazing. Lots of troopers and aliens and cheap ships and other vehicles too.

I spent 98-03 scanning eBay every week for that Obstacle Course Set and the only one that popped up was a heavily used one that I ultimately passed on due to the playwear. K-Mart used to have all the Remco figs and sets, so I took it for granted. Then one day, they all kind of dried up and I never got that set even though it probably cost $2-$3. I currently have 3 figs that I have been able to pick up on eBay over the years. They're integrated into my collection and they blend in so well that everyone mistakes them for GI Joes.

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At one point I had more of these guys and Corps figs then actual JOEs.

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There is still knock offs and cheap figs.....its just that SUCK at the articulation point and the vehicles pretty much SUCK anymore as well.. I didn't buy any of those figs back in the day and regret it now.. Think I bought the accessory pk once but no figs..

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Heh, I've been slowly adding the Remco lines to my 25th collection. Here's a batch I posted, holy crap, 3 years ago. Time does fly.