Rarities - 1984 JC Penney Catalog Cobra Set

Retail catalogs sold a lot of product in the 1980's.  Christmas was an especially lucrative time as the catalogs were widely distributed and a staple of gift giving.  To capitalize on this phenomenon, Hasbro teamed up with large retailers to offer G.I. Joe figures.  Vehicles were perfectly designed for the catalog model.  Figures, though, were problematic since they had large packaging and weren't priced for individual sale through a catalog.  So, Hasbro bagged up sets of figures and offered them as exclusive offerings through the catalog retailers.  One such set was the 1984 JC Penney's "Bad Guy" 6 figure bundle.

This figure set included the four new Cobra characters introduced as single carded figures in 1984 as well as Destro and the classic Cobra Soldier.  The set was sold for $17.99.  This was only a slight premium over retail price.  The figures did not include full cardbacks.  They were, instead, bagged up with their full complement of accessories and a filecard.  As with most red backed filecards, the bio cards have become highly desirable and sought after by collectors.

In the fall of 1984, Stormshadow was still hard to find.  My brother had been fortunate enough to get one for his birthday in October.  I would get one for my birthday in December, too.  But, my friend with whom I most frequently played with Joes was not so lucky.  He could not find the figure.  So, his mother ordered him this 6 figure set, even though he had all the other figures in the set already.  Even though she bought it for him for Christmas, she let him open all the figures early so he could have a Stormshadow to play with.  I remember noticing the filecards were different.  But, since the figures were the same, didn't much care after that. 

Years later, I realized how rare these items probably were: at least when compared to standard, carded Joes.  The six figures in this set have the draw of being Cobra and being pretty much all the Cobra bigwigs of that era.  Below you will see pics of the figures, except for Baroness.  I have yet to come across one of her.

Destro:

Firefly:

Stormshadow:

Stormshadow was probably the reason why so many kids actually got this set.  He was hard to find and a sure thing was probably enticing for many kids.  You'll note the figure is extremely discolored, even though it was never removed from the bag.  This shows that the white plastic used on the Stormshadow can get damaged even if it's never been touched by human hands.  Heat, sunlight and drastic temperature changes can all affect Stormshadows and yellow them, even if they are still carded or bagged.

Scrap Iron:

Cobra Trooper:

You'll note that the Cobra Trooper's filecard has the original text and not the text from the 1982 JC Penney mail away set.

Baroness:

Each figure included a red back filecard that had a flag point printed in the cut away area.

Here is the box in which the set was shipped:

Of course, these figures are extremely hard to find.  Uncut filecards will command a substantial premium.  Still bagged figures will fetch a couple of hundred dollars each, depending upon the character.  The figures are no different than retail releases.  But, proof that the figure originated from this set will attract great interest and substantial prices.

Rarities - Zap Bazooka Variants

One of the most frequently asked questions around various Joe forums is in regards to the Zap bazooka variants.  The reason is fairly simple: a few of the variants are among the rarest accessories in the line and command up to hundreds of dollars.  And, a few of the rare variants look very similar to far more common variants.  The only real way to tell is a combination of the bazooka's mold, its color and the markings that appear on the handle.

Below is information and photos I've gathered over the years in regards to the various Zap bazooka variants.  It is unlikely to be complete.  We know Zap had tons of variants released in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Brazil and India.  And, his bazooka was used with some other figures at various times, too.

Here is another photo showing some of the variants.  From top to bottom, they are:

1982 Double Handle - no #
1982 Thin Handle - no #
1982 Thin Handle - B2
1982 JC Penny Thin Handle - A1
1983 Thick Handle - no #
Accessory Pack - 3
Accessory Pack - 7

Additional info:

1982 Double Handle - No#
Mexican Zap - #B2
1982 Thin Handle - No#
1982 Thin Handle - #B2
1982 Thin Handle JC Penney - #B1
1982 Thin Handle JC Penney - #A1
1997 Thin Handle Stars & Stripes - #B6
1997 Thick Handle Stars & Stripes - No#
UK Red Shadow Thick Handle - #4
US Accessory Pack Thick Handle - #2
1983 Thick Handle - No#
UK Dolphin Thick Handle - No#

A close up of the JC Penny Bazookas

It should be noted that while the B1 bazooka is a JC Penney exclusive, it came with two different figures.  One Cobra Trooper always included a B1 variant bazooka.  But, the Zap from the same 1982 catalog could also come with a B1.  Some Zaps had it.  Others had the B2.  So, the B1 is still pretty hard to find.  But, it's no where near as hard to find as the A1 which was only included with the other Cobra Trooper.

There is a Hasbro Direct Zap figure that was available via mail away around 1986 or so.  This figure has a very slight color variant to the previous Zap figures.  And, as such, there is also a bazooka color variant that is not listed above.  I have only seen the colors and not been able to verify the markings.  So, if you have any info on this Zap bazooka variant, please let me know so I can update the resource.

Rarities - Unproduced 2001 Manimal Vortex

In 2001, KB Toy Stores managed to snare a G.I. Joe exclusive.  Despite the heavy emphasis on "military realism" that dominated the 2000 and 2001 Hasbro offerings, KB managed to acquire the rights to the legendary Manimals figures.  To much fanfare, they released the oddball toys in separate waves.  The first wave consisted of Iguanus, Slythor and Warwolf.  This wave was dead on arrival at retail.  Within weeks, Manimals were backed up at every KB Toy Store in the country.  No one wanted them.  So, the planned second wave of Manimals was cancelled: making them the only twice cancelled concept in G.I. Joe history.

There are a lot of reasons why this all happened.  A powerful person inside the KB family was a huge G.I. Joe fan.  And he, likely, had a lot to do with these forgotten concepts getting resurrected.  But, at the time, the hype of Manimals far outweighed their actual popularity.  While lots of carded Manimal figures had sold for around $1,000 each in the mid 1990's: the same figures were sitting unsold at half that price at the turn of the century.  The collectors of the day found the figures too far removed from what Joe should have been.  And, as such, those collectors had no interest in them: even if they were the most famous unproduced item in the Joe line at the time.

At the time, I was a Star Brigade junkie.  I saw the first three figures in the stores and didn't buy them.  They held no appeal to me.  Finally, after a month or so, I broke down.  KB's online arm was participating in the ridiculous Star Wars clearance sales of that time.  They had Stormtroopers in stock and I ordered a ton of them.  The price was stupidly low.  So, seeing that they had the Manimals in stock, too, I added the three figures to my order.  If not for the cheap Star Wars figs, I'd probably have left the Manimals behind.

But, in relative terms, the second wave of Manimals probably contained the more interesting molds from the series.  In this case, we see the Vortex figure.  As a closed up design, Vortex isn't all that spectacular.  He looks like a bulky, armored knight.  If he didn't open up, the figure would look right at home among a number of mid 1990's toy lines.  The special part of the figure occurs when you open him up, though.  Inside, you find a a super creepy, 6 nippled, smiling alien who's pointing to the sky.  (Or, kind of flipping you off.  Not that there's a message in there.)

Like all the Manimals, Vortex is not great.  But, just for sheer weirdness, the character has some value.  He's just so out there.  It's doubtful that Vortex would be any more popular than the other 5 Manimals had all 6 been released at retail. But, the stupid little alien inside is something a little different and kind of makes me want this guy.

In actuality, the unproduced 2001 Manimals are probably rarer than the 1994 unproduced Manimals.  It's just that no one really cares about the repaints in relation to the originals.  This figure is weird and strange and completely not a G.I. Joe figure.  And, all that makes it better.  Manimals aren't for everyone.  But, things like this Vortex show why.  I'm torn as to whether I'd have bought the 2nd wave of Manimals in 2001 had they been released.  On some level, I think I would have since I was kind of a completist back then.  But, I was also on an extremely limited budget in 2001 and 2002 and it's very probable that $30 worth of Manimals would not have made the cut of items I purchased. 

This Vortex, though, remains a reminder of what Joe could have been.  I think that if KB had, instead, offered a 6 figure set of unproduced 1995 Battle Corps Ranger figures, all six would have been made and they'd be among the most desired figures from the ARAHC era of the early 2000's.  Instead, we got 1/2 of the Manimal run since collector interest wasn't strong enough to justify a second wave.

Rarities - Unproduced 2003 Tiger Force Variants

In 2003, Hasbro released their first Toys R Us exclusive pack of figures.  The popular theme of Tiger Force was the chosen subject.  The production set featured variants on some figures.  The main difference was skin tone.  But, the Big Brawler figure was massively different as there was both a red haired and black haired version.  This was a big deal to collectors at the time.

But, there were some pre production variants of the figures that didn't see the light of day.  The main difference was that the Big Brawler figure featured the word "Survival" on his chest rather than "Brawler".  The Survival shirt was an obvious homage to Outback.  Hasbro decided to remove the reference, though, and keep the character closer to the lame Big Brawler meme.

You'll see two Jinx variants below, too.  You'll see the skin color variances...especially in the hands.  These figures show how the figures morphed from the pre-production versions to the actual production variants.  Hasbro got more careful with their exclusive figures.  There was really only one other variant that escaped: the Desert Patrol Gung Ho's tattoo size.  But, the Tiger Force set had so many variants that it seemed kind of cheap.



The next figure is Dial Tone.  While there are pale and tan skin variants of the production figure, you'll see a pre-production variant below with differently colored rivets.  It's not the most interesting variant.  But, it shows that Hasbro worried about such things before the figure went to production.

Rarities - 2004 Desert Patrol Set (Convention Prototypes)

At the 2004 G.I. Joe convention, Hasbro showcased some upcoming Toys R Us exclusive sets.  One such set was the Desert Patrol.  This five figure set showed some promise.  It included the long missing 1991 Snake Eyes figure as well as a spiffy looking version of Stalker and Ambush.  (Though, with Low Light's head.  Tunnel Rat and the odd hybrid figure that would be named Dusty weren't all that exciting.  But, it was enough to get collectors interested.

When the set finally showed up at TRU in 4th quarter of 2004, there were a couple of small differences in the actually released figures.  In addition to Gung Ho being added to the set, the Ambush figure went from a solid cammo pattern (like Stalker) to a combo of the agave green and desert colors that matched Dusty, Tunnel Rat and Snake Eyes.  It took a solid set and turned it into a dud.  But, overall retail sales of the set were strong as Christmas of 2004 saw TRU sell out of most of its exclusive Joe products.  (That the set only had around 16,000 total units produced also helped.)

Today, the production set has actually gotten somewhat hard to find.  There is a ridiculously hard to find set of unreleased Desert Patrol figures, too.  But, these photos from the 2004 San Diego Comic Con show a set that still had promise before Hasbro made it worse.  This was a theme in 2004 and really carried into 2005 as the line died at retail.  The DTC offerings that used ARAH molds turned the tide a little bit.  But, it was too late.

You'll note that the photos below have a combo of what appears to be production figures as well as hand painted samples.  I am not aware of any full cammo Ambush figures actually making their way into the collecting world.  The version below could be hand painted or it could be production.  I can't tell from the old photos.  But, it is a massive upgrade over the figure that was actually released.  With the "final" Joe convention occurring this weekend, it's kind of sad to look back at a time when a convention meant seeing lots of cool, new stuff.