Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Sgt. Rock from REMCO

While reading some old comic books, I came across this ad for the Remco Sgt. Rock action figures and vehicles. As a child of the 70's, I was overly excited to play with war themed toys, tanks being the coolest of them all! I remember having the A.T.C. Amphibious Armored Troop-Carrier "with working action gatling gun" as shown in this ad. How cool was a vehicle that could drive on land and cruise on water, AND had a BA (Big Ass) Gun to blow stuff up! I also had one G.I. Joe figure, but because it was the larger size figure, it was only good for being the attacking giant that all my other action figures would battle. My G.I. Joe was also pretty rough looking, as I remember trying to burn off his beard!
Sgt. Rock first appeared in G.I. Combat #68 (Jan. 1959). His rank is not given in this story; instead, he is merely called "The Rock." The Rock returned as a sergeant in Our Army at War #81 (April 1959) with his unit, Easy Company (the precise US Army infantry regiment to which Easy belonged was never identified during the history of the character). Sgt. Rock steadily gained popularity, until, in 1977, the name of the comic was changed to Sgt. Rock. The comic ran until Sgt. Rock #422 (July 1988). In addition to the semi-regular comic, several "digests" were sold, under the DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest banner, reprinting stories from Our Army at War or Sgt. Rock. Some were subtitled as OAAW or Sgt. Rock, some as Sgt. Rock's Prize Battle Tales.
A line of 3-3/4" action figures bearing the SGT. ROCK name was released in the 1980s.

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