Assault Team Officer (Demon Enemy)
Knock-offs come in many flavors. They range from the almost but not quite Hasbro quality offerings, and there are the fly by night releases that sometimes border on bootlegs. The National/American Defense lines by Agglo fall somewhere in between.
This is not an attractive figure. In fact, most of the figures in the line were aggressively ugly. Even the packaging was humorously bad, especially the card art for the all villain series dubbed “The Demon Enemy.”
Each figure came with a helmet, regardless of whether it could fit on their head. Obviously, this fellow has a bit of trouble, due to his flowing locks. I at least give this series credit for making an attempt at personality with the head sculpts, even if they are fugly beyond belief. This guy looks to me like a cross between early 70s Donald Sutherland, Tom Petty and WKRP’s Dr. Johnny Fever.
The Assault Team Officer shares one of two body molds prevalent in the series, one that also made many appearances in the early to mid 80s, as part of both the A-Team and Gen. Patch toy lines produced by Galoob. The same uniform was repeated with several figures, and this guy’s patterned top brings to mind the bad sweaters of the 1980s. I think I saw something similar to this number worn by Dr. Huxtable back in the day.
I had this one (and several others) and until you’ve seen them in person, I don’t think you can really appreciate just how cheap these are in terms of quality. The one thing I do like about their construction are the soft rubber heads. Don’t know why, but I’ve always liked those on several different action figures.
It’s nice to see these figures on cards. When I bought mine a long time ago at Walgreens, each figure came in just a clear plastic baggie with a helmet and weapon. No names. No logos. They were ten cents each, too.
Holy moley, is that a knock-off of Short-Fuze’s mortar?
Good greif some of these things are ugly beyond comparison. Its a toss up between the enemy leader and the weapons supplier to see who the bigger steriotype is
How exactly did the “Demon enemy” make it past censors? Where there executives in an office somwhere saying “parents wont worry about it”
The helmet that can’t fit on his head reminds me of my 4 year old neice when she was playing with my Lego plolice station. She got really upset when she realised the W.P.C couldnt wear her hair and helmet at the same time
It looks like Sutherland playing Outback’s evil twin. Or Rock ‘N Roll’s for that matter.
@Clutch
Would Outbacks evil twin brother be called “In doors”?
This figure is really neat. Inspired, unusual, unique and a true individual this is the type of figure I can really appreciate. I’d definitely buy this figure if I ever see him. Looks like a reject of the “Planet of the Apes”. I’m really starting to appreciate the o-ring style done by other toy companies. This figure is 50 times better than Armadillo, because, wacky as it may look, the toy oozes “artistic integrity”, while Armadillo looks like a lazy kit bash.
One thing about those rubber heads: they can deteriorate. Not fall apart, but they can become solid and deform (like when an eraser goes bad). If Joe had stayed with swivel necks, it would’ve been real easy to customize this figure into a Dreadnok.
I had this one but his uniform colours were different. Mine had a grey top and blue pants, no swirly sweater pattern. Packaging was “Demon Ranger”, I think.
@Skymate
“Infront”, don’t you think?
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Armadillo is a beautiful man near this one!
😉
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