In 2003, Hasbro produced a new Iron Grenadier figure. While the look of this figure is somewhat dated, now, collectors of the time liked the mold and design. The figure was well sculpted and featured an array of decent gear. Shortly after it appeared, though, this Cobra blue version popped up in Asia. As, at the time, Hasbro was notorious for repainting figures and sometimes even releasing them to retail without any prior publication of the changes, many suspected it was a figure that would be coming in a later wave. But, that never happened.
Instead, this blue Iron Grenadier was one of the rarer and more sought after alternate Asian figures for a while. But, slowly, large amounts of stock made their way to the collecting community. And, the JvC style of figures also started falling out of a favor with many collectors. So, the figures got somewhat affordable for a relatively long time. Eventually, though, they dried up and have since become difficult to track down, again.
As far as repaints go, this blue Iron Grenadier is among the better unproduced figures and certainly would have done well at a full retail release. The blue suits the mold. And, even in the JvC line, Hasbro didn't paint a ton of figures in Cobra blue. As far as alternate Asian figures go, this one has fell into obscurity as the entirety of that era has been left behind by collectors. But, there's some good figures in it and it's a better toy line than the anniversary figures were...by far.
I forgot that existed. Looks like just the soft parts of the body were blue.
ReplyDeleteOne guide acts like this was for the cancelled Mission Discs Wave 2, but makes little sense as Iron Grenadiers weren't in the cartoons, even with the non-toon outfits, the previous wave of figures were still all characters on the Sunbow show.
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