Rarities - European Action Force Taurus

Taurus is a boring figure.  He's the least popular of the Renegades and is the one you least often see in action.  The only really interesting thing about his figureis that, in Europe, he was released on a single card with new artwork.  All of the Renegades were released as single carded figures in various European markets.  There's no real explanation as to why this was.  Cobra La didn't receive similar treatment.  And, there were plenty of other '87 figures to fill out an international line.  

The card features unique artwork for Taurus. You can find the carded Taurus figures from various European markets that will feature different languages, too.  You'll note that G.I. Joe is the marketing focus for the toy.  But, there is still an Action Force subheader to tie the figure to the established European brand.

More than 20 years ago, a collector friend of mine who specialized in foreign variants believed that the European Renegades figures had slight coloring differences from their U.S. released counterparts.  He was unable to confirm this, though, as he didn't have known samples of the Euro figures in his possession at the time.  It's something I'd love to finally put to rest.  We know that many European figure releases did have slight variances from their North American counterparts...mostly just due to the fact that they were released in later years and not part of the initial run.  You'll see slight color variants all the way up to different dates stamps on some European versions of figures that, otherwise, are identical to the North American release.  Most of these are not documented and can be tough to verify.  So, if you have known samples of both releases of Taurus and see any differences, please post them up as I'd love to confirm/deny the rumors from the turn of the century.

The one thing about these figures that was of note to me is that they clearly showed which accessories were intended for which Renegade.  As a kid, I always put the black Footloose backpack on Taurus since it was a better color match.  The brown Recondo pack went to Mercer for the same reason.  While I've come around on the black Footloose pack belonging to Mercer, I can't reconcile this Recondo pack on Taurus.  Mostly, it's because I don't care about Taurus all that much.  But, seeing him with his correct backpack still looks odd to me.

There was a short time when these single carded figures were very desirable.  But, that ebbed away rather quickly.  The Renegades are rarely anyone's favorite figures.  And, Taurus and Red Dog are among the most obscure '80's figure releases.  Maybe they were dropped into the assortments to help recoup mold costs.  (The '87 Mercer was later released in Brazil and Red Dog has a famous, race changing Funskool release.)  Sadly, documentation on how European releases came to be is mostly non-existent.  Which is too bad as some of those decisions would be more interesting than getting made up stories from fading memories of the Hasbro line.

Rarities - 1993 G.I. Joe Complete the Mission Advertisement

So, this is more of an oddity than anything rare.  But, really, I just like the idea that there is a marketing piece out there that carried on the tradition of Kenner's old "Collect Them All" mentality that dates from 1993.  What is interesting to me, though, is the manner in which the text depicts the line.  

Initially, it implies that the 1993 Joes are "shipping out" and won't be available much longer.  While the 1993's only had the single production year, the reality is that fresh cases were still being sent to closeout retailers through, at least, late 1995.  So, Hasbro had plenty of stock left.  Seeing the "Supplies are limited" moniker seems awkward since it was the 1993 figures who lingered into 1995 and 1996 at retail chains while the lower production run 1994 figures sold out first.  This was one of those marketing attempts to drive what we'd later define as FOMO.  Disney used it to remarkable effect in their VHS vault concept.  So, you can't fault Hasbro for trying.

The other thing that stuck out to me is that the line is described as "Collectible".  This is a shift that began in the early 1990's.  Hasbro, especially on the G.I. Joe team, was recognizing that there was a new, burgeoning market for their legacy brands: adult collectors.  They, though, weren't interested in spring loaded gimmicks.  But, promoting something as "collectible" could draw them in.  Most of the focus on adults was on the 12" side of the Joe brand.  But, there was enough cross-over for them to port some of the messaging to 3 3/4", too.  In 1994, the Joe team went all in promoting the Joseph Colton mail away to adults...to great success.  In fact, the reason Joe Coltons are cheap and widely available, now, is because so many adult collectors back in 1994 hoarded extras with visions of future riches in  their heads.

The poster isn't really noteworthy for anything else.  All of the figures appear to be production level samples.  So, there's no weird colors or oddball accessories in there that I can spot.  You'll note a few absences, though.  Figures like Wild Bill appear on the checklist.  Even though the figure isn't pictured.  The Alley Viper and Beach Head, though, are completely absent from both the poster and the checklist.  

The Duke actor is prominently featured, too.  The 1993 live action sequences are best left forgotten.  The commercials were terrible.  But, Joe needed to try something.  And, by the early 1990's, live action was cheaper than high quality animation.  There used to be a bunch of interviews with the Duke actor that were out there.  If you look around, you might still find them and can hear his perspective on the production.

While the idea of a poster with checkboxes to notate the completeness of your collection seems quaint in 2025.  Hasbro was still putting out material like this through at least the late 2000's in some of their lines.  There are even G.I. Joe marketing materials showcasing figures through the end of the Venom Vs. Valor series.  (Spinmaster even used them with their Batman line in the early 2020's.)  So, the concept behind a piece like this is sound and something that's still part of a marketer's playbook.  There have been some great fan-created checklist posters for the Star Wars line.  And, a high concept poster would actually sell to collectors.  For now, though, I'm going to seek out late run ephemera like this poster as they give insight into the Joe line's final years.

Rarities - Auriken Grunt

In Mexico, the Auriken toy company released a small line of exclusive Joes.  There are a few different series.  The initial series, though, features all straight arm figures.  In fact, it features all of the straight arm figures that were also released in the U.S.  All nine Joes are available, as well as both the Cobra Trooper and Officer.  But, two of the figures featured some "updated" artwork.  One was Snake Eyes.  The other was Grunt.  Instead of the classic Grunt artwork on the packaging, the Auriken Grunt featured Footloose's artwork.  

Footloose matched Grunt's specialty of "Infantry Soldier".  So, it's  possible that the artwork got mixed up as it traveled around the world.  But, the proper Grunt artwork was used in Brazil and Argentina.  So, it getting mixed up when it went to Mexico seems less likely.  The Footloose figure was also released in both Brazil and Argentina.  He didn't see release by Auriken.  Though, all of the Auriken figures that were released were also released in Brazil.  It seems the line went straight from Brazil to Mexico for figure releases.  The mechanism and timeline of how that happened, though, is murky at best.

As a figure, Grunt sucks.  Footloose is awesome, though.  So, getting another crappy Grunt and missing out on another international Footloose release is disappointing.  But, the Auriken figures have kind of dried up and it would be unlikely that a Footloose release would be something I had been able to track down.  

The real story is the box, in general.  It is a unique way for Joes to be presented.  Each figure being affixed with a twist tie is also unique.  During the early days of collecting, when Auriken figures were a bit more common, many collectors gravitated towards them due to the unique packaging.  It's weird that the figure's filecard would be displayed if you folded the box flap over the figure's window.  The whole design seems rather inefficient.  Regardless, it's a good example of how Joes were sold around the world.

Rarities - 1989 Deep Six (Unproduced Diving Shoes)

The 1989 Deep Six is not a beloved figure.  He is, though, a pretty great figure for his specialty.  He was the perfect blend of 1989 modernity that defined the Joe line and old-timey diving suits that every kid in the '80's knew from the Fisher Price figure that came with the orange octopus.  Originally, though, the figure was supposed to include even more gear than he did.  Along with all his production pieces, Deep Six was also going to include two diving shoes that attached to his feet.  You can see them in the catalog image below.

It's certain that these shoes were removed for cost cutting reasons.  They really offered nothing to the figure.  And, Deep Six included a nice amount of gear, even without them.  And, no kid was making a purchase decision on Deep Six based on whether or not he included some weighted shoes.  They were small pieces that would have been easily lost.  So, much like Mainframe's computer stand from 1986, the accessories were entirely superfluous and didn't really affect the overall impression of the figure were they removed.

If you look very closely at Deep Six's card artwork, you can just barely see the shoes.  Hasbro was deft in their editing, though.  And, the bottom of Deep Six's feet are cut off by the edges of the card.  Knowing the shoes were axed and this would have just been a matter of cropping the photo slightly differently, it's tough to see the feet being so close to the edge as anything other than intentional.  

It's always interesting to see items like this.  We know that the cost to develop an accessory is the biggest part of the overall expense.  But, even in the late '80's, Hasbro was making at least 150,000-200,000 of their least popular figures.  So, saving a few pennies on a figure could add up across the whole line...even if Hasbro had incurred the cost to make the parts.  The shoes appearing in a promo catalog with production level figures, though, tells you they were a late strike from the figure's complement of gear.  While I would love for their to be a complicated back story as to why these pieces were chosen for elimination, the truth is that it is certain to be nothing more than financial.  And, decisions like that are both boring and depressing while also driving home that, to the Hasbro guys, the Joe line was, at the end of the day, a job.  

Rarities - Rubiplas Fang II (Venezuela)

There is a fairly direct line between exclusive G.I. Joe toys produced by the Plastirama toy company in Argentina in the 1980s and those also produced by the Rubiplas toy company in Venezuela.  Most collectors know about the Venezuelan Cobra Mortal exclusive who is all white instead of red, chrome and black like the Argentinian release.  But, Rubiplas produced a robust line of G.I. Joe figures and vehicles, all of which are exclusive to Venezuela.

Below is a FANG II produced by Rubiplas.  This toy was likely released in the early 1990's.  It's possible there was an accomopanying line of figures that are less known that accompanied this toy.  (For example, the 1989 Snake Eyes was also released by Rubiplas around this time.)  But, it is interesting to see an exclusive vehicle produced for the Venezuelan market.

Rubiplas releases are the most difficult foreign exclusives to acquire.  (Yes, there are individual items from other countries rarer than Rubiplas toys.  But, overall, you can get samples of Funskool, Estrela, Plastirama and even Nilco more easily than you can find Rubiplas items.)  For a brief window in the mid 2010's, there were a few avenues to acquire the items directly from Venezuela.  But, as Venezuela has faced political crises, many of those doors have closed.  As such, you'll pay a premium for any Rubiplas release.

Generally, the Rubiplas vehicles are based on the Hasbro color schemes.  (There are a couple of notable exceptions like the Thunder Machine.)  But, there are the traditional shading and hue differences in the plastic colors.  But, to most collectors, the differences on these vehicles are slight and would be difficult to notice.  So, these items are more interesting as an obscure something to have from a different continent.

Rarities - Mail Away 1983 Grand Slam, Hawk and Clutch

In the summer of 2001, a random seller posted a few bagged 1983 G.I. Joe figures who were packed with redback filecards.  They had a small stock of them.  They were offered at $5 and bought out instantly.  I managed to get a Clutch and Hawk, but missed out on the Grand Slam.  The seller said they had more.  But, due to the quick sell out, decided to do more research on the value of the items.  Within a few weeks, some additional bagged figures appeared.  They were higher priced, though still offered for sums that seem ridiculously cheap these days.  Some collectors bought a few.  But, mostly they sat around as the collecting world wasn't really interested in them.

Over the years, the supply of the figures never really dried up.  You could always find them.  But, there were never enough to really drop prices too far.  For a very long time, you could get the bagged versions for about the same price as a loose, mint and complete figure of the same character.  Grand Slam was usually higher priced, though, as he included the filecard from the Silver Pads Grand Slam.  And, in those early days, many collectors didn't make a distinction between the redback versions of filecards or those cut from a box.  

The reason for this is that a ton of overstock of these figures have been found.  You'll even see a "barn" find where entire cases of the figures were discovered and put into the collecting community.  During the years close to the finds, the figures would get cheap.  Now, they have gotten more expensive.  While there are plenty of them out there, they are still more scarce than standard loose figures.  And, many collectors in the early days simply opened the bags up because it was a cheaper option to get high quality vehicle drivers.

The most interesting aspect of the figures is that you get a red Grand Slam with a Silver Pads Grand Slam filecard.  The photo for the Silver Pads figure was all new and created as a JUMP exclusive when the figure was added in 1983.  So, it's not like they destroyed the original artwork.  So, the appearance of the Silver Pads art is weird.  But, it's likely that Hasbro had it more ready to go since it was newer.  As collectability goes, this filecard is the most noteworthy just because it has the juxtaposition of figure and artwork.

The reality is that these three figures are not rare.  There are tons of them out there due to the various finds over the years.  People still pay premiums for them.  But, usually, the prices for these three figures remain far below bagged samples of other 1983 mail away and catalog figures.  So, at least there's no inequity there.  Once upon a time, it was easier and about the same price to simply buy one of these bagged figures and open it to get a mint and complete with filecard figure of the three included in the set.  That's no longer the case.  

Rarities - Unproduced Brazilian Figures

While Estrela produced around 150 total figures in their exclusive Comandos Em Acao line, they  had intended for there to be more.  In the 1990's, Estrela showcased 5 figures in various forms that ended up never getting released.  These figures not only appeared as cross sells on various cardbacks, but even appeared in catalogs used to sell the products.  The 5 figures were all 1991 releases from Hasbro.  The figures were: Grunt, Crimson Guard Immortal, Mercer, Tracker and Cobra Commander.  (Their names in Brazil would have been Arsenal, Flagelo, Desertor, Correnteza and Tirano.)

Hasbro's 1991 figures were one of the rare years that didn't see a second year of release.  This was due to Hasbro trying to reboot the line in 1992 with familiar characters.  So, 1991 molds became common sights in later repaint lines and international releases.  You'll note that all of the figures that appear in the Estrela promotional material shown below are Hasbro made figures and not the Estrela figures.  So, this marketing propaganda was made prior to Estrela having their own wares to photograph.  

You'll often find international guides that list these figures as being available in Brazil.  But, many of these were from the early days of collecting before it was determined that these figures never saw production.  One early guide even features a few Hasbro figures in the placeholders for these names.  And, one thing that's constant in the Joe line is that mistakes and errors from the early collecting years are often repeated and rarely corrected.

Below are two promo photos.  One features just the 5 cancelled figures.  The other shows them interspersed with some other figures that were released in Brazil.  Seeing them all in one shot suggests to me that they were planned as a new wave at one point.  But, the entire wave was halted.  Maybe Hasbro didn't send the molds for whatever reason.  Or, it could have just been that Estrela determined they didn't want another wave.  These figures would have appeared closer to the end of the Comandos Em Acao line.  And, this was the time when Estrela was starting to move away from the standard carded figures that had defined their line and towards the themed subsets of figures that featured bigger cards and more gimmicks.

It's interesting to note that all 5 of these unproduced figures from Estrela did, later, appear as exclusive Funskool releases.  So, Hasbro did recoup more of their cost as they moved the molds around the world.  And, the molds weren't in an unusable state for Esrela.  But, the reasons for these figures being cancelled in Brazil remain lost.  

Rarities - Pre-Production 1987 Knockdown

BattleForce 2000 was a late 1987 release.  The figures were among the final ones I acquired when I was a kid.  But, the actual products were meant for wide release in 1988.  So, they first appeared in the 1988 Toy Fair catalog.  The figures in that publication, though, feature a lot of differences.  Knockdown is the most notable.  Below, you'll see some of the photos featuring the pre-production figure.  

You'll note an even more barrel torso with a rounded collar.  I'm not sure if the chest piece is just a repurposed piece from another figure like Payload.  (The Secto Viper in the 1988 catalog is just a repainted Payload.)  The effect when his helmet was fully affixed  made Knockdown's uniform look more like it was a single, unified piece instead of a helmet on top of a jumpsuit. 

In the photos, you can see paint wear on the front of Knockdown's helmet.  So, it wasn't anywhere near production level for these promos.  You can see the wear in both photos.  So, Hasbro reused this piece time and again.  It's doubtful anyone thought the photos could be blown up and scrutinized by someone at thirty five or more years in the future.  But, it's an interesting detail to see in official photography that was meant to sell the toys to retailers.

I actually like this pre-production design for Knockdown more than I do his actual production pieces.  The helmet seems more like a part of his overall uniform instead of just a head piece.  It gives the figure more cohesion than was present in the final form.   I'm not sure why he was changed.  But, it does appear that the figure underwent more refinement in the final months before his release.  And, we ended up with the production figure that had a very different look.

Rarities - 1993 Night Creeper Unproduced Weapons

The 1993 Night Creeper figure is the only Ninja Force figure that I actually bought at retail.  I didn't, though, buy him for his weapons.  I just bought him because I was desperate to add something to my collection after several failed trips to Toys R Us.  And, he looked the most palatable of all the bad options.

What I did not notice, though, was that the weapons on his card artwork did not match the weapon tree that was included with the figure.  Instead, the Night Creeper is drawn with weapons that ultimately released with the 1993 Slice figure.  No real mention of this change is made.  In fact, both weapons are called out on the Night Creeper's filecard.  Oddly, there is also a cape mentioned.  Meaning, this figure had a cape pretty far into his design process.  But, it was eliminated even before his Toy Fair debut.

Below you will see photos from the 1993 Toy Fair catalog and the 1993 Ninja Force toy commercial that featured the upcoming Ninja Force figures.  The Night Creeper is clearly photographed holding the light blue versions of the Slice accessories.  They match the two in his hands on the card artwork.  It is notable because the tree that included these weapons was fairly uncommon.  So, you don't often see these weapons used with Ninja Force figures even though they are among the best accessories that sub-line produced.

The change in accessories kind of makes sense.  While I'd have loved for the Night Creeper to include the Slice weapons, this is a function of the fact that I army build the figure and the Slice gear looks better in photos.  Upon their introduction in 1990, the Night Creeper were sold as archers.  The original figure included an awesome crossbow.  So, switching the Night Creeper over to a weapon tree with a bow to match their original release at least makes some kind of sense.  

In the Toy Fair catalog, Ninja Force is noted as including 7 figures in the wave.  The photo, though, only shows 6.  A seventh, Stormshadow, appears atop the Ninja Lightning motorcycle...likely as a placeholder for the T'Gin Tzu that  would use his mold.  The missing figure is Slice.  So, it's probable that Slice was the final addition to the 1993 Ninja Force lineup.  (He is numbered 7 in the set and the only repaint released in the 1993 carded series.)  And, when looking for something to make Slice more memorable, giving him the more distinctive weapon tree made some logical sense.  

It's pretty likely that someone out there has copies of the unproduced Night  Creeper weapon trees.  There may even be some people who picked up Hasbro overstock who have a bunch of alternate trees sitting in a box in their basement: not realizing what's actually there.  But, they are a fairly lost element of the late run line.  

Rarities & Oddities Month - 2025

I'm putting together Rarities Month for this year.  And, I don't really have much left.  The last few years have been a seller's market in the Joe world.  We've seen fewer and fewer items change hands.  Guys are holding onto things as they acquire them.  20 years ago, people would buy a rare item, hold it for a while and then sell it to buy another rare item.  Now, they just hold onto everything and keep acquiring.  It makes for a stagnant market.  So, we don't have the deluge of rare and oddball items hitting the marketplace.  Those that do, though, are often hidden in private uber-groups of select, well heeled collectors so that people like me don't make the information public.  So, this year is going to focus on some different aspects of the hobby.  There's going to be some pre-production photography, catalog imagery and other ephemera.  So, stop by throughout the month and check it out.