Rarities - Brazilian Cobra Wolf

The Wolf has an argument as the best Cobra vehicle ever created.  I'll explore that statement sometime next winter when I profile my childhood version.  But, it's just a great toy.  Along with its release by Hasbro, the mold was given to Estrela where they released it in Brazil.  We think of Brazil as a tropical, coastal country.  But, there are mountainous highlands where snowfall is common.  When you have a toy like the Wolf, though, the quality of the toy will overcome environmental constraints.

The toy itself isn't that different from the Hasbro version.  Without inspecting the COO stamps on the underside, you'd be unlikely to determine the difference between the two.  The real fun is on the Brazilian box.  You'll note the driver is Blizzard.  In Brazil, Blizzard was released as a Cobra.  Croc Master takes the second chair.  And, for added nonsense, you have a fully geared up Hydro Viper on the side rail.  

Estrela released a full roster of vehicles in Brazil.  Most are so similar to the Hasbro versions that collectors ignored them for decades.  Increased supply has made them more accessible.  But, documentation is still sparse and Brazilian dealers tend to ask for princely sums for any high quality vehicle samples.  The overall inventory of Brazilian vehicles is another of those great collecting holes that can be fulfilling to explore.  And, seeing classics with weird box art characters is always fun.

Rarities - Alternate Weapon Schematics for 1994 Star Brigade Predacon

It's tough to say that Predacon is most distinctive of the 1994 Lunartix Aliens.  But, his figures do tend to be the most popular.  It's likely because he's the closest to a standard Joe.  And, he's easier to play with and pose than either Carcass or Lobotomaxx.  Predacon's calling card is his four arms.  To outfit him, Hasbro included a standard weapon tree with four weapons so that Predacon had a gun for each hand.  The tree had debuted in 1993 with Col. Courage.  It featured a 1987 Tunnel Rat rifle, a 1990 Sky Patrol Airborne rifle, 1987 Blaster's "pistol" and the smaller, ubiquitous pistol that had debuted with the 1988 Shockwave figure.  As weapon trees go, it's one of the best ones.  And, with Predacon, it was only used three times: two of them with short run figures.  (Predacon and the 1993 Dino Hunters Ambush.)

However, according to Hasbro documentation, Predacon was originally intended to include a different array of weapons.  And, in these cases, the weapons were not ones that had previously appeared on standard weapons trees.

The first weapon listed is the Skycreeper pistol.  This isn't a weapon you see all that often.  And, it has a very science fiction look.  

I've always felt that the Super Sonic Fighters Road Pig included great weapons.  They are a bit offbeat.  But, they work in a lot of contexts.  And, had they existed in a color outside of bright orange, they'd have been a lot more popular.  But, early customizers both ignored brightly colored weapons and didn't tend to have access to some of the 1990's weapons molds.  Seeing one as a possibility for Predacon is interesting as it would have opened up the weapon to more exposure.  And, it might be more popular today had that happened.

The next weapon is listed as being from Pysche Out.  But, it was actually used for the 1992 Talking Battle Commander Cobra Commander figure.  It is a terrible accessory.  It's not worse than some of the other molds used on '90's weapon trees.  But, it's not good and would have been a lackluster inclusion.  Though, it does fit the aesthetic of the other weapons that were being considered.

We don't know if these weapons were originally intended to be part of a weapon tree.  Or, if they would have been individually packaged like we later saw with Street Fighter Movie and Mortal Kombat figures.  The line was over by the time the Lunartix got to retail.  And, they were likely victims of cost cutting as production numbers were lowered.  

Had Predacon included these accessories, they would have felt more "his" than the generic tree he ended up with.  These weapons were more obscure, all only being included his higher price point, specialty figures.  So, they would have felt more unique.  Really, it's a shame they weren't released with the figure.  Though, had they been, they'd be among the more expensive gear from the '90's.

Rarities - Funskool Red and Yellow Beach Head

Early Funskool figures feature a lot of weird colorings.  Funskool had a bit more carte blanche to create toys for their home market.  Slowly, though, Hasbro intervened and dictated the appearance of certain figures and characters.  So, offbeat color designs on some of the earliest Funskool figures were changed so that the characters were a closer match to their appearances in cartoons, advertisements and the comic book.  

Among those early oddballs are a Beach Head with a red head and a yellow vest.  There's no reason given for the color change other than Funskool liked bright colors.  Even the figure's card artwork is unchanged from the standard colors.  But, the drastic red and yellow make for a visually disconcerting Beach Head figure.  The color palette was changed for Beach Head.  And, the more common Funskool appearance is the lime green figure that's become my default for the character.

The Red and Yellow Beach Head remains expensive.  For a time, he was among the most expensive figures in the entire line.  He's still up there.  But, he's lost some of the lustre that he enjoyed in the mid 2000's.  

There are dozens (maybe even hundreds!) of Funskool Beach Head variants.  Some, like the red and yellow figure, are sweeping changes that are instantly noticeable.  But, even within the figures from the 2000's, there are slight color changes between production batches.  You'll find brown eyes, black eyes, dark grey explosives, light grey explosives and every hue in between.  His leg camo colors can vary from barely perceivable to outright distracting.  Beach Head might be the most varied figure in the entire line.  So, those who love him have a lot to track down.  But, this red and yellow figure remains the most popular and expensive of those variants and isn't a figure you see much of these days.

Rarities - Pre-Production T'Gin Zu

The 1993 vehicle assortment wasn't much.  Most of the entries were pretty bad.  And, the Ninja Force vehicles were among the worst.  As such, the drivers of those vehicles, T'Gin Zu and the Red Ninja are relatively hard to come by.  Few people collect them in earnest, though.  So, their scarcity is largely offset by lack of demand.

It is that disinterest in the figures that allows for oddities like the original paint job on T'Gin-Zu to slip by collector's eyes.  And, the fact that it's prominently displayed on the back of the 1993 Pile Driver box just shows how little of an impact a figure like T'Gin-Zu has on the collector zeitgeist.

Below, though, you see T'Gin-Zu's original paint job.  It is much more orange than the production figure.  It appears to be a straight re-use of the 1992 Stormshadow paint masks, just in orange in yellow.  And, frankly, it makes for a better figure.  This all orange version would have leaned into the neon-ness of the '90's and created a figure that would have found at least a few fans among the more accepting collectors who grew up in the '90's.  Instead, Hasbro kind of chickened out and gave us a more muted T'Gin-Zu offering.

As a bonus, the pre-production figure also appeared in the 1993 Toy Fair catalog.  The more you look at it, the more you realize it's a shame we didn't get this coloring.  The production T'Gin Zu isn't a figure anyone really prioritizes.  So, having him be even more outlandish would have made him more fun.  Maybe we'll get a factory custom that's like this.  It's out best hope for ever seeing an homage to this unproduced design.

Rarities - Remco Ice Wonder/Yeti

Remco made an eclectic group of o-ring figures.  They were designed to be a cheap, non-licensed alternative to G.I. Joe figures that were available at discount chains.  (Many were K-Mart or Sears exclusives.)  Many of their early figures were, well, terrible.  The sculpting was bad, the quality was crap and the figures were boring.  But, as the company matured, so did the quality of their action figure offerings.  While I feel Remco peaked with their S.I.T. series, the reality is that many of their later designs are excellent.  Sadly, they are still defined by lower quality materials and wonky hands.  But, there's some interesting figures for collectors to discover.  Among them is the character of Ice Wonder: also known as Yeti.  Below are some samples that have captured my interest.

My main draw to this figure is the eerie similarity he has to Sub Zero.  But, the Remco figure debuted first.  While the idea of white and baby blue coloring on an arctic figure that also features a fur hooded coat isn't all that unique, the fact that Hasbro pretty much copied the exact design for Sub Zero seems like less of a coincidence and more an instance of influence.  But, all the military toy lines of the era seemed to borrow from one another.  It was just, usually, all the other knock-off companies copying Hasbro instead of vice-versa.

Once the figure appeared on my radar, I began to notice that he existed in a few different forms.  He was released in at least two different series: American Defense and U.S.  Forces.  (There might be more, Remco is a morass of poor documentation with few resources available.)  The few I've found seem to be named Ice Wonder for U.S. Forces and Yeti for American Defense.  But, again, there could be lots of variations among the packaging and naming, too.

Here you can see a carded Yeti and Ice Wonder:

The figure itself is full of variants.  Among them are different waists, heads with either a flesh colored neck or a white neck, and a sea of lower leg variants where the fur collars are positioned differently or don't exist at all.

Here are some head and waist variants.

Here is a figure with no fur collar on his boots.

Here is one with offset fur boot collars.  One is set at the knee and the other is set just below the knee.

Here is a sample where the fur boot collar is right above the ankle on both feet.

I'm sure there are more variants out there.  In the early days of Joe collecting, it wasn't uncommon  to get a lot of someone's childhood figures that would also include some Remco offerings.  As those collections were bought, sorted and resold, the Remco figures were removed.  Most were just tossed into junk bins as they had no collectability.  The result is that now, it's kind of hard to find decently conditioned Remco figures.  And, you tend to have to pay for them.  Back when you could buy a shoebox full of these guys for $4, it was fun to track down variants and various releases.  Now, it's more expensive that the end result is worth.  

Remco releases can be a challenging rabbit hole for a collector, though.  The Joe line is fairly well documented.  (Though, finding the documentation is now becoming hard due to the walled gardens & private communities.)  Something like Remco can keep you occupied for years as you try to track down all the various incarnations of their releases and all the variants within each one.