We all know about the second series of
Plastirama figures released in Argentina. The six figures are stuff of legend and remain among the rarest and most expensive figures released anywhere in the world. But, there are even rarer versions. The
Rubiplas toy company in Venezuela also produced the figures from this series. Most of the figures have slight differences. They are even rarer than the Argentine versions of the characters. Below, though, is a carded sample of a Rubliplas Topson figure.
There is an obvious difference with this figure: the
Recondo rifle. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. The Plastirama Topson (as far as we know) came with a version of
Grunt's M-16. We know that Recondo was sent to
Brazil for release there around
1987 or
1988. Recondo appeared on the cardbacks of Plastirama figures: but was never released in Argentina. So, it's possible that Plastirama had the mold and Rubiplas got ahold of it. But, why use the gun for this Topson? Was the Grunt M-16 separated from theses figures and not available? You'll also note he has a helmet mold originally from
Blowtorch. The Plastirama version has been found with the classic
1982 helmet, molded in grey instead of this Blowtorch version. But, it's possible that both helmet combos were released in Argentina, too.
The card artwork for this figure is a combination of classic Joe excellence with a bit of foreign silliness. We see Topson clearly holding the ammo pack originally included with Snake Eyes. But, it has an added antenna to it to make it appear as a radio. This Topson figure includes an unaltered ammo pack. There is some disagreement as to what the Plastirama version of Topson includes in regards to the radio. We'll have to find a carded version from Argentina to be sure. But, the different Recondo rifle opens up the door that other accessories were changed between the countries, too.
So Topson is a "Communications Commando," which basically crosses Breaker's specialty with that of Snake-Eyes. What's even funnier is that "porta-municiones" does translate to "munitions pack" in English, so they're contradicting themselves right there on the package. The artwork for Topson basically has him listening to an old AM/FM radio. Someone at Rubiplas clearly didn't communicate (oh, the irony) this to the illustrator.
ReplyDeleteAlso of note: Recondo's rifle is listed as a "fusil ametralladora," which literally means "rifle machine gun," meaning that they couldn't get their weapons straight nor tell one from the other, even if they meant to use Grunt's M-16 which also isn't a machine gun.
man that card is in good shape, is there a complete set of these floating around MOC? someone either paid dough for that or got it cheap, it seems like there was never a middle ground for that stuff.
ReplyDeletei like the topson figure, i had one in the 2000s but the straight arms really made it little more than a display piece. if i was still collecting i would certainly have gone after the one red laser is doing.