Rarities - General Patch Tank

Not too many people remember the General Patch line.  It was an obscure G.I. Joe knock off produced by the Galoob toy company.  The figures in general were pretty terrible.  The face sculpts were awful.  And, the quality wasn't great.  But, they made some vehicles, too.  And, one of them is pretty awesome.  It's also pretty famous.  But, the fame comes from a later repaint of the mold in the A-Team line.  In that line, the tank, missile launcher and trailer were redone in black.  

As a kid, this was the way that I knew this tank.  We got the A-Team tank one Christmas.  At first, I tried to integrate it into my Joe team.  But, in time, I realized that the tank worked better as a Cobra vehicle.  For one, it was a nice complement to the Hiss Tank.  Secondly, I didn't have tons of Cobra land vehicles at the time.  So, having a new tank was nice.  And, finally, the tank fits well with 1983 Cobra Officers and Troopers.  And, as our Stinger had been beat up and wasn't really useful any longer, the Stinger Driver joined the team, too.  With these figures, the tank became a tough opponent for Joes.

As a kid, I removed the cannon from the A-Team tank and managed to put the twin gatling cannons from the Thunder Machine into the slot.  With this, the tank became an incredible anti-infantry tank.  Cobra finally had a weapon that was more powerful than any Joe counterpart.  And, since the tank was armored, it would stand up to VAMPs and AWE Strikers with ease.

I had no idea, though, that the tank also existed in green as part of the General Patch line.  In fact, I had no idea there was a line called General Patch.  It wasn't something I had seen.  And, I didn't tend to look at any toy lines aside from Joe, Star Wars and, from time to time, Masters of the Universe.  So, things like this tank tended to fall under my radar.

The green on the tank, though, is pretty nice.  It would work well with Joes along with many of the Black Major Cobra Trooper repaints that have come out in recent years.  But, the tank is hard to find.  You don't often see it, even today.  And, because of that, it can get pricey.  Heck, even the A-Team repaint has gotten expensive in recent years.  So, tracking one down is a pain.  But, it's neat enough that it will fit with 1982 and 1983 Joes.  

Rarities - 2004 Comic Pack Hawk - Unproduced Head

In 2004, Hasbro came up with the idea of Comic Packs.  This alternate selling method would offer consumers three vintage style Joe figures with a comic book featuring those characters for the whopping price of $9.99.  It seemed like a great idea that was certain to pave the way for the future of retail action figure sales.  And, for a short time, it kind of was.  But, as was common with alternate G.I. Joe retail products, the Comic Packs quickly stalled out at retail and were gone just a year later.  While they offered a nice variety of relatively unimpressive or memorable figures, the Comic Packs also had a few pre-production pieces that featured some oddball coloring.  One such example is this 2004 General Hawk.

If you're a fan of this site, you've seen this head before.  It's the head I put on a 2004 Comic Pack Cobra Officer body for my character Skeres.  I thought the head was distinctive enough to create a new character.  So, this set was the first of the alternate Asian figures that I tracked down.  Originally, the figures were sold as a set of three figures and accessories: all still in their tray from the Comic Pack.  I paid about $33 to have the three figures shipped from China.  Quite a stretch from prices today.

There are no other major changes to the figure aside from the head.  But, the head's distinctive coloring was what made it stand out.  And, even as more and more uproduced figures from Asia began to appear, this Hawk kept his status.  But, he did lose his popularity.  With many more figures that collectors desired, these early oddballs like Hawk fell into obscurity.  And, as alternate Anti Venom and unproduced Wal Mart figures became common in standard collections, this Hawk never appeared.  

It's very unlikely that this figure is anything more than a plastic test.  Since the Stalker in the pack featured pale, white plastic for the skin on the head, it could be that a run got the plastic colors for each mold wrong.  Regardless of how this figure came to be, it's a fun piece of Joe history that was a member of one of the hallmarks of the early 2000's Joe community.

Rarities - Plastirama Cobra Adder

Plastirama produced a large number of figures and vehicles for their exclusive Comandos Heroicos line in Argentina.  The figures were almost exclusively repaints of 1985 and prior molds.  But, there were a few oddballs (like Sgt. Slaughter and Crazylegs) who broke that pattern.  The same was true for their vehicles.  The majority of Plastirama vehicles were released in the earliest years of the Joe line by Hasbro.  But, Plastirama did have a few vehicles from later in the 1980's that saw a production release.  One is the 1988 Cobra Adder.

The Adder is odd as it's one of those vehicles released in 1988 that looks like it would have been a 1986 release.  The design is sleek and fun and the colors match up with more traditional Cobra vehicles and figures.  The 1988 line was bizarre for a lot of reasons.  So, the Adder being more in line with earlier releases has left it a vehicle that collectors tend to enjoy.  How it ended up in Argentina, though, is anybody's guess.

As for the vehicle, it's not materially different from the Hasbro release.  There are slight nuances to the colors that make the vehicle distinctive.  But, it would easily integrate with a group of Hasbro Adders or other vehicles of similar colors.  This is likely why it was largely ignored when Plastirama vehicle overstock was widely available.

The Plastirama release uses the same box artwork as the Hasbro release.  So, kids in Argentina could buy a vehicle that showcased a character (Road Pig) that was not released there.  This wasn't the first time this happened.  And, it doesn't seem to be too big of a deal.  However, in 2022, Hasbro can not put any figures on their Star Wars Vintage Collection boxes that they have not actually released.  So, in the modern context, showcasing characters that consumers could not buy is a bit of a novelty.  But, the box art was likely reused to save money.  The main difference, aside from the crappy cardboard, is the Plastirama logo on the box.

The toy itself isn't that far removed from the Hasbro release.  Plastirama didn't tend to radically repaint their vehicles like they were wont to do with figures.  So, while this exclusive Adder does have a color variant from the Hasbro release, it's not drastic enough to really attract collector attention.  The Plastirama version is a slightly lighter blue than the Hasbro toy.  

Overall, the Plastirama Adder isn't the most interesting piece.  But, it shows some of the oddity of the Plastirama line since it's such a late mold for them.  

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.

Rarities - Brazilian Hydro Viper (Estrela)

Estrela produced about 140 unique figures in their Comandos Em Acao line.  While collectors really focus on the amalgamations and drastic repaints, the bulk of the Brazilian line was figures that were produced in colors very similar to their Hasbro counterparts.  In general, it seems that the figures were meant to copy the original Hasbro colors.  But, nuances in plastic coloring between China and Brazil lead to slight differences in all of the figures that Estrela produced.

At first glance, you might not notice that this Brazilian Hydro Viper is different from the Hasbro version.  But, put side to side, the figure's brighter colors stand out.  Aside from that, there aren't many other differences.  What is interesting is that the Hydro Viper and Toxo Viper both were produced by Hasbro, Estrela and Funskool.  And, both figures remain very similarly colored across all three countries.  The Brazilian Toxo and Hydro Vipers are brighter colored.  The Hasbro figures are in the middle.  And, the Funskool figures are much darker purple.  So, there's a level of consistency there.

To me, the slight nuance of Estrela figures makes them collectible.  And, in recent years, the more mundane Estrela figures have become much more common and available.  Sadly, though, they haven't come down in price and the heyday of cheap Brazilian figures from the early 2010's is just a fond memory.

Rarities - Remco Swamp Man

Last year, we looked at the S.I.T. figures from Remco.  That series was full of awesome designs that would have made great additions to a Joe collection.  Hidden among the sea of other, rather terrible, Remco figures, though, are other series of high quality figures.  As the Remco line progressed, they stepped up their game in terms of figure design, characterization and accessories.  One of the more bizarrely interesting releases is their Swamp Man figure.

This diver figure was sold under both the US Forces and American Defense brand names.  (Maybe even more, as Remco was known for reusing items ad naseum.  And, there are several American Defense cardback color variants.)  While he includes different rifles based on his release, the basic dive gear accessories remain the same.  He has flippers, air hoses and a chest mounted dive armor.  It's not a bad complement and is a look that would have interested me when I was a kid as I was a sucker for removable air hoses that plugged into a figure's helmet.

The main thing is that the figure is pretty interesting to look at.  He would perfectly integrate into a Joe collection and look in line with figures like Eels, Hydro Vipers and Undertows.  Part of me is sad that I didn't really take advantage of the cheap lots of Remco figures that used to litter Ebay.  Now, they're mostly gone and finding figures like this is a pain as few toy dealers bother with them.  But, if you can find a Swamp Man, he makes for a solid entry to a Joe collection.

Rarities - 1994 Toys R Us Advertisement

The demise of Toys R Us is a sad story.  It died not due to diminished interest in toys.  But, instead, to unfettered corporate greed.  Really, KB Toys died the same way.  And, because of this, the idea of a toy store in 2023 is simply unfathomable.  My kids were fortunate to be old enough to enjoy Toys R Us for a couple of years.  They had great fun wandering the aisles, looking at all the cool toys that you couldn't find anywhere else.  But, it also died out before they were of an age to really appreciate it.  Now, when I see them scouring Amazon for obscure toys, I realize that were they just a few years older, we'd have gone to Toys R Us for them to browse and find something that interested them.

This takes us, then, to another lost form: the print advertisement.  Sunday newspapers used to be chock full of vibrant, color ads that were the main way many stores could communicate their goods and prices to their potential customers.  And, through these ads, we have a record of products and prices from their own times.  Below is one such piece: a 1994 Toys R Us print ad that appeared in newspapers throughout the US nearly 30 years ago.  

Some of the newspaper ads from previous years would include pre-production or early prototypes of toys.  In some cases, even an unproduced item or two might appear.  But, this one from 1994 is pretty innocuous.  The main thing you see is that Hasbro was really trying to push the 12" action figure line.  I never really understood this.  I fall right into the weird demographic who just missed 12" action figures as a thing and was there right as 3 3/4 was emerging.  So, I have no attachment or interest in larger toys.  But, Hasbro was hell bent on recapturing the emerging collector market and some kids with their 12" offerings.

From the 3 3/4 perspective, the ad doesn't feature much.  The line was dying at this point.  So, just featuring 3 products makes sense.  But, the outlandish $4.99 price on Shadow Ninjas offers all the insight you need into why that line stuck around well into 1996 at Toys R Us stores.  Those figures really didn't cost much more than that until the last few years when collectors have finally started to recognize how difficult they are to find in good condition.  I am pleased to see the white elbows, though, as this photo of them fresh from the factory with that condition shows that it was a feature of their design and not degradation from age.

The Blockbuster is a great toy.  I found mine at a Meijer store, though.  I'm not sure what I paid for it.  But, $25 seems about right.  I recall seeing the 1993 Jets at Toys R Us stores into 1995 and 1996.  But, they were ridiculously expensive for that era.  The first time I found the Blockbuster, I bought it.  So, my local store was sold out of them by the time I started searching out the ghosts of the Joe line.

The big showcase here is the Power Fighters.  Not that they are something we haven't seen before.  But, the fact that they were $9.99.  Nowadays, each of the figures from the Power Fighters will reach nearly $100 if they have the filecard.  So, seeing them so cheap is shocking.  But, to be honest, if I had found these at retail in 1995 or so, I don't know if I'd have bought them.  I don't like mechs.  And, that would mean paying $10 for a figure.  So, I might have missed out on them, even if the price seems absurdly cheap today.

The one thing that stores like KB and Toys R Us brought to the table was a guaranteed buyer for items that Wal Mart and Target might not want.  These days, toy retail is dictated by the whims of those two retailers.  When Toys R Us was around, their willingness to offer products that didn't sell out in 2 weeks allowed Hasbro and other toy companies to offer things that would otherwise have never appeared.  The only upside is that the direct to consumer model of things like Pulse still allows for some exclusives.  And, Haslabs offer larger scale toys that would have once been the domain of Toys R Us exclusives.  

I think we lose out by not being able to see toys on a shelf.  To see the packaging, hold it in your hand and want it.  But, that's also nostalgia talking.  That's a remnant of when I was a kid.  And, I see my kids getting excited over seeing something on Amazon, saving up for it and then getting it and then having the same enthusiasm for it as I did when I bought something at Sears when I was their age.  But, I still miss Toys R Us and wish things had turned out differently for it.

Rarities - James Bond Jr. Black Parachute Pack

While G.I. Joe was the staple of Hasbro's action figure offerings, they did also make some other, lesser heralded action figures lines as well.  Among them is the 1991 James Bond Jr. line.  I have no recollection of the James Bond Jr. franchise.  I was out of toys in 1991 and not really watching afternoon TV, either.  However, it was a fairly ambitious project.  It featured 65 TV shows (an absurdly high number for an unproven concept), novels, comic books, games, video games and, yes, a full toy line with action figures and vehicles.  Despite all of this, the concept was pretty much dead by 1992.  I have to assume that some of the companies involved took a bath by investing so heavily in something that was so fleeting.  But, it didn't deter Hasbro from chasing other, licensed properties in later years.

The toy line is unremarkable.  There were 12 figures and 3 vehicles.  The figures are early 90's garbage with limited articulation and exaggerated features.  This likely made them cheap to produce.  So, that may have mitigated Hasbro's exposure.  The figures came with an accessory or two.  One, of those accessories, though, is remarkable because it was reused from the G.I. Joe line.

The James Bond Jr. in Flight Gear figure includes a black version of the 1990 Sky Patrol parachute pack.  In 1990, Hasbro had used this mold, extensively, for the Sky Patrol series of figures.  So, they knew that the mold was available and that it worked.  A working parachute is a neat feature for a toy.  So, reusing something like that from the Joe line was a great way to make a figure attractive to kids while also cost saving by using an existing mold.

The parachute pack was only released at retail in the black color with James Bond Jr. and the Paratrooper Guile.  However, in 1994, the rather rare Convention Exclusive Fighter Pilot also included a black parachute pack.  Many people find the black parachute pack from James Bond Jr. and think they've found a super rare gem from the obscure convention figure.  And, you'll see many, many, many, many, many, many questions about this James Bond Jr. pack in various forums, etc.  But, there are actually two different molds for the parachute packs.  The mail away version is different from the Sky Patrol version.  And, the James Bond Jr. pack is the only black pack that uses the Sky Patrol mold. 

The quickest tell as to which mold you have is the sculpted dials at the top of the back of the pack.  They do not exist on the 1985 mail away mold which is the basis for both the black Action Pilot and the Paratrooper Guile.  So, if you find a black parachute pack out in the wild that has the dials, it's from James Bond Jr.

As nobody cares about James Bond Jr., you can still buy the figures for cheap.  The black pack would be a great option for your Cobras.  And, is a great match for a figure like the Abutre Negro.  But, mostly, it's good to know that there is a difference between the accessory used in this release and the one that was colored black in the G.I. Joe and Street Fighter Movie lines.

Rarities - 1993 Mega Marines Toy Fare Catalog Pre-Production Figures

Back in the days before the internet, toy companies sold their wares at Toy Fair each year.  Smaller brands would seek out retail partners.  While, the big companies would put together impressive solicitations designed to wow their partners at the huge, national retailers of the day.  In 1993, Hasbro's catalog featured the full Joe line.  But, as the catalog was put together before the figures were in production, it contains a large number of pre-production figures that feature differences from their retail release.   

Below is the page for the Mega Marines.  There's a few, fun little differences you can spot among the figures.  Starting from left to right, you first see the original Mega Viper.  This figure features a slightly green face shield instead of the retail yellow.  You'll notice the odd purple color of his gun, too.  This color was never used in production.  But, it matches the figure quite well.  I always wonder what would have caused a change like this.  Instead of getting weapons that matched his purple trim, the Mega Viper received accessories that matched his yellow instead.  To me, that would see like a personal preference/coin flip type decision.  But, knowing Hasbro of the day, it was very likely a conscious decision that was made to make the figures more attractive to buyers.

The Joe side of the page features the biggest differences.  Aside from the fact that the figures have been given random accessories that Hasbro likely just had lying around, there is one major change from the retail figure.  You'll notice that in this photo, Clutch still has his goggles and Mirage's eyes are uncovered.  Originally, these goggles were meant for Clutch.  (See this Rarities post from 2016.)  And, they appear on the figure in the solicitation photos.  

Again, this would be an interesting piece of trivia to track down.  Why were the goggles changed from one figure to another.  Mirage's head looks bare without them.  But, that's a function of the fact that we've always seen the figure with the goggles.  Had he not included them, it wouldn't seem so out of place.  And, Clutch's specialty as the driver makes more sense for a goggled head.  But, this reasoning is probably lost to time.

The whole diorama is action packed.  Hasbro did similar things for Street Fighter and the DEF.  And, those pages also feature some interesting early takes on the toys that were ultimately released.  As far as this page goes, though, the figures frozen in the plastic blocks got a lot of attention when this image first surfaced.  Many thought they might be unproduced figures.  But, they are likely just production figures painted white for use in this display.  But, really, the idea of people frozen in ice is a bit macabre for a child's toy solicitation.  But, the intended audience was adult buyers.  And, there are monsters in the toyline.  So, I can see this just being a fun modeling session for the photographer.

Old Hasbro print pieces are chock full of pre-production and prototype toys.  They are a treasure mine of original intentions and also provide the provenance for many pre-production and VSP figures that survive to this day.  As I'm a Mega Marines fan, this layout is really cool to me.  But, even if the Mega Marines aren't your thing, the earlier designs for the toys are a valuable part of Joe history.

Rarities - Funskool Late Run Incinerator Variants

The Funskool Incinerator was first released in the latter half of 2003.  At the time, the release was relatively ignored by the collecting community.  1991 Incinerators were cheap.  The Funskool version wasn't that different from the Hasbro version.  And, Hasbro was releasing a large variety of new army building figures with even better ones coming in early 2004.  So, the collecting community pretty much let the figure slide into obscurity.  

In 2004, Funskool also stopped producing new figures.  Their sales were slipping and the gimmicks they tried to boost sales were not successful.  On top of that, Hasbro recalled many of the figure molds.  So, a wide variety of figures that were insanely popular with American collectors ceased to be available.  But, that wasn't as big of a deal as the Hasbro Joe line was also dying out.  The 2005 Hasbro line was cancelled and moved to the DTC model.  Collectors were losing interest in all things Joe.  So, for that reason, some of the final variants of the Funskool line went unreported.

Among them are some variants of the Incinerator figure.  Here is the original version that came out in 2003.  You'll see a black missile included with the figure.

Below is a version of the Incinerator that was produced in 2005.  Notice that he includes an orange missile.  This missile was available in both black and orange with the Funskool General Flagg figure, too.  So, the missiles aren't too hard to find if you have them loose.  The real takeaway here is that Funskool was still producing figures into 2005.  I thought they had ceased most of their production in 2004.  Seeing this 2005 figure, though, opens the door to other figures also have end of line variants.  As Funskool imports were mostly done by the end of 2004, many of these late runs may not have the collector reach of earlier figures.

One of the big changes that Funskool made in 2003, though, is that they improved the construction quality of their figures.  So, while the original Incinerators aren't terrible, there's a good chance that these 2005 figures are higher quality than the earlier runs.

Rarities - Palitoy Baron Ironblood Accessory Variants

For years, Action Force figures that pre-dated the G.I. Joe crossover were common and cheap.  Even the most desired characters were affordable and you could find a wide array of different countries of origin for most figures.  But, that's now changed and many of the most popular figures from the Palitoy line have become both expensive and hard to find.  As such, some of the more interesting variants that the line offered are less noticeable than they used to be.  

It was long stated that Palitoy started tossing alternate accessories into various figure's packaging as the line was on it's final legs.  But, interestingly enough, it seems that specific figures (often the Red Shadows characters) are the most often seen figures with this variety of weapons.  What's fun is that you can find characters like Baron Ironblood with his proper accessory (a black Uzi) as well as both Action Force repaints of that weapon that were included with other figures and even weapons from the Star Wars line.  It's very odd to see an Action Force figure with the iconic Han Solo pistol.  But, they exist.

Below you'll see four variants of the Baron Ironblood figure.  They include: a black Uzi, a blue Uzi, a Cobra Commander pistol and the aforementioned Han Solo blaster.  This creates a massive amount of oddball zaniness for an Action Force collector to track down.  It's one of the more frustrating, but also enjoyable rabbit holes for collectors of the European line.