diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index c3d1c246bf..a7cbf468d6 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -107,9 +107,6 @@ RUN go get golang.org/x/tools/cmd/cover
 # TODO replace FPM with some very minimal debhelper stuff
 RUN gem install --no-rdoc --no-ri fpm --version 1.3.2
 
-# Get the "busybox" image source so we can build locally instead of pulling
-RUN git clone -b buildroot-2014.02 https://github.com/jpetazzo/docker-busybox.git /docker-busybox
-
 # Install registry
 ENV REGISTRY_COMMIT c448e0416925a9876d5576e412703c9b8b865e19
 RUN set -x \
@@ -145,6 +142,10 @@ ENV DOCKER_BUILDTAGS apparmor selinux btrfs_noversion
 # Let us use a .bashrc file
 RUN ln -sfv $PWD/.bashrc ~/.bashrc
 
+# Get the "busybox" image so we can "docker load" locally instead of pulling
+COPY contrib/download-frozen-image.sh /go/src/github.com/docker/docker/contrib/
+RUN ./contrib/download-frozen-image.sh /docker-busybox busybox@4986bf8c15363d1c5d15512d5266f8777bfba4974ac56e3270e7760f6f0a8125
+
 # Install man page generator
 COPY vendor /go/src/github.com/docker/docker/vendor
 # (copy vendor/ because go-md2man needs golang.org/x/net)
diff --git a/contrib/download-frozen-image.sh b/contrib/download-frozen-image.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..2e3eb98e54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/download-frozen-image.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+
+# hello-world                      latest              ef872312fe1b        3 months ago        910 B
+# hello-world                      latest              ef872312fe1bbc5e05aae626791a47ee9b032efa8f3bda39cc0be7b56bfe59b9   3 months ago        910 B
+
+# debian                           latest              f6fab3b798be        10 weeks ago        85.1 MB
+# debian                           latest              f6fab3b798be3174f45aa1eb731f8182705555f89c9026d8c1ef230cbf8301dd   10 weeks ago        85.1 MB
+
+usage() {
+	echo "usage: $0 dir image[:tag][@image-id] ..."
+	echo "   ie: $0 /tmp/hello-world hello-world"
+	echo "       $0 /tmp/debian-jessie debian:jessie"
+	echo "       $0 /tmp/old-hello-world hello-world@ef872312fe1bbc5e05aae626791a47ee9b032efa8f3bda39cc0be7b56bfe59b9"
+	echo "       $0 /tmp/old-debian debian:latest@f6fab3b798be3174f45aa1eb731f8182705555f89c9026d8c1ef230cbf8301dd"
+	[ -z "$1" ] || exit "$1"
+}
+
+dir="$1" # dir for building tar in
+shift || usage 1 >&2
+
+[ $# -gt 0 -a "$dir" ] || usage 2 >&2
+mkdir -p "$dir"
+
+declare -A repositories=()
+
+while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
+	imageTag="$1"
+	shift
+	image="${imageTag%%[:@]*}"
+	tag="${imageTag#*:}"
+	imageId="${tag##*@}"
+	[ "$imageId" != "$tag" ] || imageId=
+	[ "$tag" != "$imageTag" ] || tag='latest'
+	tag="${tag%@*}"
+	
+	token="$(curl -sSL -o /dev/null -D- -H 'X-Docker-Token: true' "https://index.docker.io/v1/repositories/$image/images" | tr -d '\r' | awk -F ': *' '$1 == "X-Docker-Token" { print $2 }')"
+	
+	if [ -z "$imageId" ]; then
+		imageId="$(curl -sSL -H "Authorization: Token $token" "https://registry-1.docker.io/v1/repositories/$image/tags/$tag")"
+		imageId="${imageId//\"/}"
+	fi
+	
+	ancestryJson="$(curl -sSL -H "Authorization: Token $token" "https://registry-1.docker.io/v1/images/$imageId/ancestry")"
+	if [ "${ancestryJson:0:1}" != '[' ]; then
+		echo >&2 "error: /v1/images/$imageId/ancestry returned something unexpected:"
+		echo >&2 "  $ancestryJson"
+		exit 1
+	fi
+	
+	IFS=','
+	ancestry=( ${ancestryJson//[\[\] \"]/} )
+	unset IFS
+	
+	[ -z "${repositories[$image]}" ] || repositories[$image]+=', '
+	repositories[$image]+='"'"$tag"'": "'"$imageId"'"'
+	
+	echo "Downloading '$imageTag' (${#ancestry[@]} layers)..."
+	for imageId in "${ancestry[@]}"; do
+		mkdir -p "$dir/$imageId"
+		echo '1.0' > "$dir/$imageId/VERSION"
+		
+		curl -sSL -H "Authorization: Token $token" "https://registry-1.docker.io/v1/images/$imageId/json" -o "$dir/$imageId/json" -C -
+		
+		# TODO figure out why "-C -" doesn't work here
+		# "curl: (33) HTTP server doesn't seem to support byte ranges. Cannot resume."
+		# "HTTP/1.1 416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable"
+		if [ -f "$dir/$imageId/layer.tar" ]; then
+			# TODO hackpatch for no -C support :'(
+			echo "skipping existing ${imageId:0:12}"
+			continue
+		fi
+		curl -SL --progress -H "Authorization: Token $token" "https://registry-1.docker.io/v1/images/$imageId/layer" -o "$dir/$imageId/layer.tar" # -C -
+	done
+	echo
+done
+
+echo -n '{' > "$dir/repositories"
+firstImage=1
+for image in "${!repositories[@]}"; do
+	[ "$firstImage" ] || echo -n ',' >> "$dir/repositories"
+	firstImage=
+	echo -n $'\n\t' >> "$dir/repositories"
+	echo -n '"'"$image"'": { '"${repositories[$image]}"' }' >> "$dir/repositories"
+done
+echo -n $'\n}\n' >> "$dir/repositories"
+
+echo "Download of images into '$dir' complete."
+echo "Use something like the following to load the result into a Docker daemon:"
+echo "  tar -cC '$dir' . | docker load"
diff --git a/project/make/.ensure-busybox b/project/make/.ensure-busybox
index 24ba3052db..fef9a0135c 100644
--- a/project/make/.ensure-busybox
+++ b/project/make/.ensure-busybox
@@ -2,8 +2,19 @@
 set -e
 
 if ! docker inspect busybox &> /dev/null; then
-	if [ -d /docker-busybox ]; then
-		( set -x; docker build -t busybox /docker-busybox )
+	hardCodedDir='/docker-busybox'
+	if [ -d "$hardCodedDir" ]; then
+		( set -x; tar -cC "$hardCodedDir" . | docker load )
+	elif [ -e Dockerfile ] && command -v curl > /dev/null; then
+		# testing for "curl" because "download-frozen-image.sh" is built around curl
+		dir="$DEST/busybox"
+		# extract the exact "download-frozen-image.sh" line from the Dockerfile itself for consistency
+		awk '$1 == "RUN" && $2 == "./contrib/download-frozen-image.sh" && /busybox@/ {
+			for (i = 2; i < NF; i++)
+				printf ( $i == "'"$hardCodedDir"'" ? "'"$dir"'" : $i ) " ";
+			print $NF;
+		}' Dockerfile | sh -x
+		( set -x; tar -cC "$dir" . | docker load )
 	else
 		( set -x; docker pull busybox )
 	fi