The figures sometimes attempt to be similar to the colors shown on the card artwork. In other cases, they are very off. But, the figures are spectacularly bad. They are definitive bootlegs if only for their horrendous quality and garish design.
Below you will see ten of the figures offered. There may be more. I'm not sure of the origin. But, some figures, like Cobra Commander can be interesting due to the different paint jobs. I own the Iceberg figure, but have never gotten around to opening him.
These figs were dirt cheap when the first appeared, often selling in the $5 MOC range. Today, they are still relatively cheap with the most popular figures running around $20 for a MOC figure. As an interesting display piece, the figures have some value. But, they are really, really awful in terms of quality.
I really like the Keel-Haul and Firefly.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about these. It's sad...not merely their quality, but that the bootleggers made alley-viper and Viper legs, while Hasbro wouldn't recreate them. It's interesting they recreated all the accessories and sprues, as well. Any lazy bootlegger would've made a few accessories and reused them for all 10 figures.
ReplyDeleteThe Cobra Commander is interesting. Bootlegger's matched the Iceberg card art balaclava color that Hasbro didn't! Gold boots Firefly's worth a laugh. Yellow shirt Leatherneck is funny.
PS (There's typo in your third paragraph.)
Think I got the typo. Hope so, at least.
DeleteIf that Cobra Commander paint deco was on a high quality figure, it would be a really nice differentiation for the character. You don't see these as much as you used to anymore. And, the one I have is really, really terrible quality. So, I'm not as keen to pick up another any more.
Man, I've never even heard of or seen any of these. Peculiar Era to boot, but whatever. I wonder if these have any relation to the Chinese Bootleg Storm Shadow, that appeared around the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe Storm Shadow was of much higher quality. These look like early attempts at reverse engineering the molds from existing figures. Maybe these exist in large numbers in Asia and were easy pickings. I'd heard that some collectors had tracked down some additional info on who made these and why. But, I've never seen it shared anywhere and the inquiries I tried lead nowhere.
DeleteHola;Aquí en Bogotá se conseguían a finales de 1998;a 2000 pesos;Ví apartes de los aquí mostrados a Nigjt Creeper Leander y a Duke..El Color del Duke era Espantoso(Pantalones Naranja,Casco verde Botella y el resto Pintado Con Color Habano..El Material de las Mismas en Pasta,Se Rompían con solo mirarlos)
ReplyDelete