Rarities - Funskool Rock and Roll

As Funskool figures become famous in the early 2000's, it lead to a trailblazing group of collectors whose mission it was to track down earlier Funskool releases.  In their acquisitions, it appeared that an unpopular repaint of the 1989 Rock and Roll was one of the more difficult figures to track down from India.  In the ensuing decades, the figure became more common.  But, it has remained a mostly obscure pre-mass import Funskool offering.

This figure is based on the 1991 Super Sonic Fighters repaint of Rock and Roll.  It has a few key differences.  First, the backpack does not create sound.  Second, the figure's weapons are a lighter tan color than the Hasbro figure.  And, finally, this figure also includes the Shotgun that appeared on the Hasbro card art in 1991 but, was completely missing from the actual figure release.

We'll start by looking at some carded figures of the Rock and Roll.  As you can see, the packaging art is the same as the Hasbro release of the figure.  However, the artwork is cropped differently so that it fits on the smaller cardbacks that were Funskool standards.

 

Below are some close ups of the figure and his accessories.  The actual figure is fairly similar to the Hasbro release of the same figure.  This is likely due to the cartoon reruns airing in India during the time of this figure's release that featured this look for the classic Rock and Roll character.  Of course, the figure is slightly different from the Hasbro version.  And, it's likely there are slight color variants among Rock and Roll figures released in India over the various production years.

The big difference is in the figure's gear.  While this Rock and Roll does include the sonic backpack from the Hasbro figure, the electronics and sound from the pack have been removed.  So, you get all of the size of the buffoonish pack without that pesky extra weight.

Rock and Roll includes the large machine gun, weapon stand and mortar from the Hasbro release.  They are in a nice, medium brown color that's probably preferable to the Hasbro colors of these stronger than you might realize weapons.  However, the figure includes one other piece that was included with the Hasbro mintings of this figure: the 1989 shotgun.  This weapon appears on the Hasbro card artwork.  But, it was not included with the Hasbro figure.  But, it is here on the Funskool release.

What's also odd is that the other weapons that were included with the 1989 Rock and Roll were also released in India with other figures.  The twin gatling cannons, backpack and ammo belts were used on various figures through the years.  They were continued on figures produced in the 2000's and not returned to Hasbro with this mold.

Below you will a couple of cardbacks for this figure.  One was made in 1996 and other in 1997.  This was kind of a dark period of Funskool releases when modern collectors started to chase down Funskool variants.  It has since become more understood.  But, this Rock and Roll was discontinued in the 1990's.

And, that leads to the most interesting part of the story.  It seems that when Hasbro recalled molds in 1997 or so, this Rock and Roll was among them.  With the mold in hand, though, Hasbro didn't rush to use it.  (Which is odd considering how terrible the 1997 Hasbro Rock and Roll figure is.)  They did, though, finally plan to use the mold with the 2001 HQ.  The figure in the set is even called Rock and Roll.  However, Hasbro returned the mold to Funskool before it could be used.  With the mold back in hand, Funskool planned to release a new paint job on Rock and Roll as a brand new figure for their line in 2003 or 2004.  But, the Funskool line was cancelled before it came to be and this 1990's figure remains the only Rock and Roll released in India.

Today, this figure remains expensive, especially if you want him complete.  But, he is findable and the days of there being only a handful of them in the collecting community are two decades in the past.  As an oddity, this figure is fun.  His gear is better than Hasbro's.  So, that's something worth tracking down.  But, really, no one cares much for this look for Rock and Roll.  So, the figure remains fairly obscure, even today.