Rarities - Brazilian Marfim

The 1993 Outback is actually an excellent sculpt.  It was never, though, released in really nice colors...at least by Hasbro.  In a rare occurrence, the Brazilian release of the 1993 Outback mold is actually the best paint job ever used on it.  And, it has created a great figure: Marfim.

All of the other uses of this mold featured bright colors.  Marfim, though, is far more muted.  Gone is the orange and yellow.  And, it's replaced a by a nice hunter green that is offset with gold highlights.  The figures still features some blue on his pants.  But, it's not overly done and is a decent accent color.

With this different coloring and international name, you can use Marfim to overcome the greatest issue that collectors have with the 1993 Outback.  People just can't see this figure as Outback.  But, when given a new name, it becomes much easier to accept the quality of the sculpt for what it is and not have it saddled with the rose-colored glasses of 1987 nostalgia.

Marfim's gear features excusive coloring of some weapons that debuted with the DEF.  He includes red versions of the 1992 Mutt's pistol and the 1992 Headman's rifle.  Estrela loved DEF weapons.  And, Headman's rifle appeared twice.  Once in red with Marfim and once in a bright green Coronel Coragem.  It's odd that this weapon was available in Brazil when they never released either a Headman or a 1992 Mutt repaint.  (The two figures with whom the rifle was included by Hasbro.)  It's likely that Estrela had access to more molds than they actually produced, though.  And, that's how things like the original Alley Viper weapon ended up in Estrela releases, too.

Back in late 1997 or early 1998, a member of the G.I. Joe Usenet group managed to find the skeleton of the early Estrela Toys website.  Back then, search engines had limitations.  And, if you didn't speak Portuguese, there weren't website translators that were readily available.  Many of the pictures on the site returned the dreaded red X: meaning they were gone.  But, one image that remains burned in my mind was a photo of many of the final releases in the Estrela G.I. Joe line.  The one figure I remembered was the Headhunter repaint.  At the time, the Headhunter was a grail figure for me.  And, it wasn't common knowledge that he had been released in Brazil.  This Marfim would have been in the same image.  But, they were small and grainy.  So, the Marfim's quality didn't imprint upon my brain in the same way the Headhunter did.  I wish I could find the images from the old Estrela website.  They are likely to exist somewhere.  But, we have such better reference material now, though, that those old photos would be more nostalgic than informative.

So, back in the late 1990's, Marfims were pretty easy to find.  He was one of a few select Brazilian figures that was available to new collectors.  There were always a couple of them available (usually carded) for really cheap prices.  But, as the 2000's dawned, the figure simply disappeared.  For about the next decade, it was really difficult to find a Marfim in any condition.  And, the prices skyrocketed.

Now, you can find Marfims again.  But, the prices haven't fallen to levels are that indicative of his availability and desirability.  This is too bad as this is a great release of a solid mold.  Toy dealers have become less and less interested in letting the market set prices for collectible figures.  That may change at some point in the future.  But, the circumstances of any change like that aren't likely to be good.  When they do, figures like Marfim will become more affordable.  But, you'll have to act quickly to add figures like this to your collection.