Rarities - Remco Ice Wonder/Yeti

Remco made an eclectic group of o-ring figures.  They were designed to be a cheap, non-licensed alternative to G.I. Joe figures that were available at discount chains.  (Many were K-Mart or Sears exclusives.)  Many of their early figures were, well, terrible.  The sculpting was bad, the quality was crap and the figures were boring.  But, as the company matured, so did the quality of their action figure offerings.  While I feel Remco peaked with their S.I.T. series, the reality is that many of their later designs are excellent.  Sadly, they are still defined by lower quality materials and wonky hands.  But, there's some interesting figures for collectors to discover.  Among them is the character of Ice Wonder: also known as Yeti.  Below are some samples that have captured my interest.

My main draw to this figure is the eerie similarity he has to Sub Zero.  But, the Remco figure debuted first.  While the idea of white and baby blue coloring on an arctic figure that also features a fur hooded coat isn't all that unique, the fact that Hasbro pretty much copied the exact design for Sub Zero seems like less of a coincidence and more an instance of influence.  But, all the military toy lines of the era seemed to borrow from one another.  It was just, usually, all the other knock-off companies copying Hasbro instead of vice-versa.

Once the figure appeared on my radar, I began to notice that he existed in a few different forms.  He was released in at least two different series: American Defense and U.S.  Forces.  (There might be more, Remco is a morass of poor documentation with few resources available.)  The few I've found seem to be named Ice Wonder for U.S. Forces and Yeti for American Defense.  But, again, there could be lots of variations among the packaging and naming, too.

Here you can see a carded Yeti and Ice Wonder:

The figure itself is full of variants.  Among them are different waists, heads with either a flesh colored neck or a white neck, and a sea of lower leg variants where the fur collars are positioned differently or don't exist at all.

Here are some head and waist variants.

Here is a figure with no fur collar on his boots.

Here is one with offset fur boot collars.  One is set at the knee and the other is set just below the knee.

Here is a sample where the fur boot collar is right above the ankle on both feet.

I'm sure there are more variants out there.  In the early days of Joe collecting, it wasn't uncommon  to get a lot of someone's childhood figures that would also include some Remco offerings.  As those collections were bought, sorted and resold, the Remco figures were removed.  Most were just tossed into junk bins as they had no collectability.  The result is that now, it's kind of hard to find decently conditioned Remco figures.  And, you tend to have to pay for them.  Back when you could buy a shoebox full of these guys for $4, it was fun to track down variants and various releases.  Now, it's more expensive that the end result is worth.  

Remco releases can be a challenging rabbit hole for a collector, though.  The Joe line is fairly well documented.  (Though, finding the documentation is now becoming hard due to the walled gardens & private communities.)  Something like Remco can keep you occupied for years as you try to track down all the various incarnations of their releases and all the variants within each one.

Rarities - Remco Captain Impermeable

The various Remco action figure lines are full of lower quality toys that were meant to mimic more popular, and expensive, brands of the '80's.  They were a cheap alternative for the media driven icons of the decade.  Despite the poor quality, their 3 3/4 military inspired lines actually featured some really interesting ideas.  The pinnacle was their S.I.T. series of figures.  But, earlier Remco lines also featured some very interesting character designs that created figures with some merit.  As an example, we look at Captain Impermeable.

First off, Captain Impermeable is a fantastic name.  It's both an unheard of level of superhero cheesiness and a great moniker for a one off villain.  (Though, to be fair, this guy has no character.  So, him being a good guy or a bad guy was entirely up to the kid who owned him.)  The figure is black and silver and dons a full hazmat suit.  The figure's look is a weird combo of '80's fear mongering and World War II nostalgia.  The suit looks modern.  But, the ancient gas mask combo mish-mashes the look into something right out of a comic book.

To my knowledge, this figure is the first hazmat suit wearing 3 3/4" figure.  His 1986 release year predates anything Hasbro would do in G.I. Joe.  (The Toxo Viper wouldn't appear until 1988.)  And, appears to have beaten Lanard's hazmat themed figures to market, too.  The black and silver color scheme is also rather unique.  It wouldn't appear in the Joe line until the 1989 Snake Eyes.  The Hasbro team would have been knowledgeable of other competition in the marketplace.  But, we'll look at some other ideas they "borrowed" from Remco in next year's Rarities posts.

One aspect of play that Remco leaned into in their various military themed 3 3/4" lines was horror.  This isn't all that surprising since Remco released the classic 3 3/4", 5 POA monster figures at the start of the 1980's.  They had the classics of Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon (among others.).  Remco later created their own Wolf Man character with a two-faced head for kids to mimic the transformation into the creature.  But, I see figures like Captain Impermeable in that same vein.  This guy looks like he crawled out of a crappy '80s slasher flick.  And, paired with some of the other Remco figures would have formed a creepy contingent of monsters and nightmares for the good guys to battle.  

Being a Remco figure, Captain Impermeable exists in a few different forms.  You can find his parts on other figures.  And, there are full repaints of the mold that are available.  I've seen them in both bright and olive green color schemes.  (This character was also sold under the name of Smokescreen.)  I'm not sure under which banners the repaints were released.  Remco is sparsely documented.  Which, makes it difficult to fully track down all uses of a figure's parts or even the universe of all the times the mold was repainted.

Back in the early days of online collecting, you'd often find lots of Joe figures that also included Remco and Lanard figures.  They were just mixed in because you were buying some kids' childhood toys.  Slowly, though, the knock-offs and discount lines were filtered out.  For many collectors, they all just went into a box or were sold off in large lots of non-Joe figures.  But, now, high quality Remco figures are pretty tough to find and they will cost you.  The poor quality of the original figures is part of this.  You'll often find Remco figures with broken parts (especially thumbs), heavily worn paint or missing accessories.  So, you'll pay a premium for mint specimens, especially if they happen to be interesting figures like this Captain Impermeable.

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 - Remco S.I.T. Figures

As soon as G.I. Joe figures proved to be a retail hit, other companies found ways to cheaply ride Hasbro's coat tails.  $2.79 was a pretty expensive action figure back in 1982.  And, many parents were more comfortable with a $1 or $2 price point for a cheap gift.  So knock off companies came in and tried to catch the scraps from the G.I. Joe buyers who weren't willing to pay the higher price for the Hasbro figure.  Most of the figures, frankly, are junk.  They have cheap plastic, terrible head sculpts, more parts reuse than even the 1982 Joe line, cheap accessories and hands that won't hold them.  But, over time, some of the knock off lines got better.  Some even got to the point where they created some pretty interesting figures that could have a nice characterization.  Remco started off as cheap, crappy Joe knock offs.  But, in time, their line evolved into some figures that are actually kind of fun.

You will see a few hallmarks of Remco figures that are common among the S.I.T. series as well as both earlier and later figures.  The first is the higher rivet on the arm.  Remco put the swivel joint higher on the figures' arms and used a large elbow joint than Hasbro.  This was likely due to lower quality plastic that required more mass to remain stable in construction.  The second feature is the wonky hands on Remco figures.  Remco figures feature a gap between their fingers.  This was a likely design choice similar to the unique thumb on Hasbro's 12" figures from the '60's.  But, it is an easy identifier for a Remco made figure.  The last thing to be on the lookout for are construction and accessory variants.  Remco would often mix up accessories on some figures.  And, in other series of figures, you'll see the construction change and figures will have different waists, feet or even arms depending upon the production run.  I don't have enough samples of S.I.T. figure to know if these things occurred in that specific series.  But, it was endemic to Remco as a whole.

Around 1989, Remco produced a line of 8 exclusive figures for K-Mart.  Sold for under $2 each, the figures were substantially cheaper than G.I. Joes.  These figures were branded as the American Defense Spy Series.  They had a secondary branding of S.I.T. for Strategic Intelligence Team.  The line featured 8 figures, all of whom represent some of Remco's best work.  And, they brought some interesting concepts to 3 3/4 action figures that would make some collector favorites.  Below is the full roster of S.I.T. figures and my thoughts on each.

Forest Green:

Forest Green is different as he includes plants that are part of his camouflage.  It's an early version of a ghillie suit and was something you hadn't seen on a 3 3/4 figure before.  His vest makes him a bit bulky.  But, the green color is eye-catching and his plants certainly set him apart.

Trenchcoat:

Trenchcoat might be my personal favorite figure in this line.  You've got a pretty standard bad guy in black.  But, the vinyl cape gives him some panache.  The mustache with sunglasses look is kind of standard for Remco.  But, I think it really works in this context.  I can see him as some kind of freelancer who can work for Cobra or even the Dreadnoks.  Sadly, he's pretty hard to find in decent condition.  But, he also tends to sell on the low end of S.I.T. figures when you can find one.

The Fish

The Fish has some cool colors for a diver.  And, his underwater gear isn't bad.  The goggles sculpted to his head could be used for a variety of things.  I do think the Swamp Man figure (released in a different series) is a more useful diver to integrate with Joe.  But, the Fish has a lot of properties that would make for a cool Joe character, too.

Control:

Control is the first figure in the S.I.T. series to feature a two sided head.  Each side has a face and you can change the figure's look and character by swiveling it around.  It's possible that this swivel head idea existed in 3 3/4 figure prior to Remco's use.  But, I'm not aware of it.  Regardless, it's something that set Remco figures apart from Hasbro's G.I. Joe.  In this case, Control can have either a human face or a robotic face.  He features a headpiece to disguise the non-displayed face.  But, it probably lead to the many figures out there with paint wear on the head.  The overall figure is like a cross between the Cobra Mortal and a Cobra Trooper.

Hidden Force:

Hidden force is a clear ninja.  And, because of this, is one of the more popular S.I.T. figures and commands a premium.  Mint, loose figures will sell over $100.  He's a very popular design as he's among the first clear o-ring figures to exist.  

Robo

Robo looks like he's meant to recall Robo-Cop while not treading too closely to the movie look.  The green is a different look for a robotic character.  But, it definitely makes him stand out.

Fake Out:

Fake Out is interesting because his head is similar to some earlier Remco figures.  But, you could also make the case that he's based on Magnum P.I., too.  The huge "SPY" on his t-shirt is also somewhat comical.  But, you get a pretty good looking civilian figure with Fake Out and that's something that Hasbro would introduce with Chuckles in 1987.

Wolfman:

Wolfman battles with Hidden Force to be the most popular and expensive S.I.T. figure.  Mint and complete figures will, again, cross $100.  As his head covering is often missing, you'll pay a premium for a figure that includes it.  In this case, the figure is a normal human by day and can turn into a wolfman at night.  It's actually a really neat idea and would have been a toy I might have actually used with my Joes had it come into my childhood collection.  

The entire S.I.T. series is pretty difficult to find.  Most loose figures are broken or incomplete.   Carded figures are scarce.  The S.I.T. figures are popular enough that a lot of collectors have removed them from the lots of Remco figures you can still find from time time.  But, you can get lucky on occasion.  Pricing on them is disparate, though.  Some high quality figures will sell for $15.  But, Hidden Force and Wolfman will go between $100 and $150 for high quality loose samples.

The best part about this series of figures, though, is that they offer a disparate variety of character types.  And, they use powerful colors and strong head sculpts to give the figures some personality.  The line looks like it could have been part of a Hasbro lineup of figures.  And, that was Remco's likely goal.  They wanted parents to buy their toys vs. the more expensive Joe figures.  While the S.I.T. series still isn't Hasbro quality, it's a marked improvement from earlier Remco designs.  

Figures like this are a neat way to expand a Joe collection.  The characters could be used alongside Joes and they would not stand out among Hasbro releases like most other knock off brands in the '80's.  It's an interesting juxtaposition as, today, all the Joe knock off brands are high end kickstarters that are geared towards collectors and their deeper wallets.  And, at their core, few of them are as original or interesting as the S.I.T. lineup.  I'd actually like to see one of the various non-Hasbro entities to attempt an update of some of these characters with modern sculpting and materials.  I'd be more interested in that than I am for many of the reductive offerings I've seen in recent years.