American Defense Available Now! Only at K-Mart!
Hey kids, tell mom and dad to run you down to the local K-Mart (you know every neighborhood has at least one or two) and grab the latest American Defense figures by Remco! They play with ALL 3 & 3/4 inch soldiers! Choose from pilots, infantry, flamethrowers, karate and ninja fighters, even guys who vaguely resemble Rambo!
K-Mart, the Savings Place, is the only store where you’ll find them! What are you waiting for?! Go now!
I have an old MASK comic which has this add on the back cover
Ha ha, I was just talking to FP Dave about that machine gun nest, I had that very one. In fact that RPG looking gun is still in my spare parts box. I liked the wire fence but the actual set was cheap brittle vac unformed plastic.
I think every kid acquired a least one of these fake Joes in the 80s. BTW, I just ID’d an accessory I never could figure out thanks to that advert. Score!
I kind of like that little jet ski vehicle, but what’s with that ladder thing? I don’t think that parachute is gonna open if he jumps off of it. Maybe it’s for the Army maintenance crew figure to replace hard to reach light bulbs?
Yea I remember these guys they were kill fodder for my G.I.Joes.
I have really fond memories of these figures. One Christmas I got a ton of these figures and vehicles. They were in my opinion the best of the Joe knock-offs, due to their quality and personality. I can remember setting up a tower and a flying jet sled vehicle on my couch and playing with these until 4am on Christmas Eve while watching the Jefferson’s on TV. Thanks for the nostalgia!
The irony of these Remco figs is that in a lot of ways they were made better and more durable than Hasbro’s Joes. The torso section had more plastic material at the o ring point as well as the crotch. The knee joints and crotchs never broke on these guys. Funny though that the arms were the opposite. The elbow and swivel joints were cheaply made the head and weapons were from a flimsier plastic material.
Oh yeah and I believe this is one of the repaint lines. There were several. Mine were known as US force. These appear to be almost protypes in the ad. They also go for crazy outrageous prices on the secondary market.
I remember buying a weapons/accessory pack just to get that tow cable. It was so cool.
Nice guys!
At that point in history, I lived much too far from the nearest Kmart to know about these.
In recent days of history, my local Kmart just a few blocks away has closed, as well as another nearby city. And the remaining nearest one is currently liquidating as it closes.
Nearest Kmart will soon be the same distance as it was when I much younger as before.
Full circle.
American Defense was K-Mart’s house name military line, hence the “exclusive” part. It was like Toys R Us’ True Heroes (and whatever it was called before).
The first version figures were straight arm style using Galoob origin, possibly made by Agglo.
The second version lasted for years, began with the assortment pictured above, these were produced by Remco, and lasted until the early 90’s. (Some of the accessories and vehicles originated from Remco’s earlier Sgt Rock line)
The last series used “straight legged” figures from a 3 3/4″ line called IMPACT (and later released as Adventure Man), and included talking backpacks.