Rarities - Unproduced 1995 Big Ben & Snow Serpent

The 1995 Joe line would have been pretty great.  Had it come to be, many of the items would be held in the same regard as precious items from the line's heyday in the 1980's.  And, with the lower production runs of the line's final year, many of the items would likely be super expensive to acquire today.  While the line featured a solid array of new figures, it was also going to include many repaints of earlier releases.  Two of these would have been the figures included in the planned 1995 repaint of the Tactical Battle Platform which would have been called the Battle Station.  For some reason, this set piece was going to include repaints of Big Ben and the Snow Serpent.

You can tell from the photos that both of these figures are hand painted prototypes that were used the 1993 mail away figures as their bases.  As such, you see production colors on the legs.  It's unlikely that the final figures would have matched these concepts, exactly.  But, they'd have been close enough.  So, you get the general idea of what the designers were trying to do.

Oddly, the concept art for the Battle Station doesn't actually feature the figures who would have been included with it.  Instead, it is a smorgasbord of unreleased 1995 figures and likely reissues of 1994 releases.  This would imply that the figures included with the set were more ways to just use molds that were available rather than really spice up the design.  But, the Battle Station concept art also showcases many of the figures in the cardart poses with positioning that suggests placeholder design.  So, it's likely that they box art would have changed upon release and probably featured the figures included with it.

I find it interesting that concepts from both of these figures did, eventually, see release.  The 1998 Snow Serpent borrows elements from this unproduced 1995 figure.  And, the 2001 Big Ben was an arctic repaint in the vein of this unreleased Big Ben.  So, it's nice that some of the work was eventually used...even if it was by a different team looking to save a few bucks rather than an homage to the founders of the brand.  

Seeing current prices of the 1993 mail versions of these two characters makes me shudder at what these 1995 figures would cost today had they seen release.  Being in a low production, high dollar playset would have made acquisition unlikely for many kids...meaning fewer figures going into the secondary market.  I take solace, though, knowing I'd have forked over the money for a Battle Station had it been released...just because it included these two figures.  I had a rule that I'd buy vehicles with figures included.  And, Big Ben was one of my earliest grail figures.  So, the Battle Station would have called my collection home.

Sure, it would now be yellowed and decaying in a box in the closet.  But, I'd have these figures and enjoy them for what they were.  I still maintain that collectors would hold the 1995 line in high regard had it seen production.  But, there were forces at work that were far beyond the G.I. Joe brand.  So, we're left with tidbits of what might have been.  Repaints like this aren't nearly as interesting as newly designed, unproduced pieces.  But, they would have been an important supporting cast for the planned new figures.  I'd still love to know if any of the 1994 molds that debuted that year would have gotten updated paint jobs for 1995: as was Hasbro's habit at the time.  I'm sure some would have been cool and others would have been...less so.  But, more figures are better than fewer.  And, we really missed out with the line's cancellation occurring in 1994.  

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.

Rarities - The 2023 Unproduced Lot - Mickey Mouse Cobra Trooper and Officer

In late 2023, a random Ebay lot appeared.  In it were loose versions of the unproduced alternate head Zap, Short Fuse and Breaker figures.  The figures had been played with.  But, the molds matched the known, existing samples of those three figures.  Also in the lot, though, were two other figures that had never before appeared publically: an alternate logo Cobra Trooper and Cobra Officer.

These figures feature the "Mickey Mouse" Cobra logo that appeared on  the early run Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander figure.  Up until this point, these logos had never been seen on either a Trooper or an Officer (in public).  And, the collecting community quickly went into overdrive to authenticate the figures.  

It certainly helped that the figures were found along with loose samples of the alternate head 1983 figures.  That gave them a  provenance boost since there were other items in similar condition that indicated a pre-production find.  And, those other items featured mold changes rather than the more easily faked paint differences.  The fact that the items had play wear meant that the original owner had no idea that they had anything special.

At the end  of the day, these figures aren't all that interesting.  We've seen the logo before.  And, the figure molds are the same as production releases.  Seeing the two together is notable when you put together a timeline of the design process.  The Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander, though, already gave us that information.  But, really, the Mickey Mouse Cobra logo sucks.  The logo that they went with for production is drastically superior.  So, Hasbro made the right choice with the change.  But, seeing production figures like these tells you how close this logo was to being the definitive symbol of everyone's favorite evil terrorist organization.  

The value on these figures is likely in the thousands of dollars.  Even if more of them appear (as happened with the alternate head 1983 figures after the first samples were discovered), it won't be enough to sate the high dollar demand.  Items like this don't appear all that often.  And, it's been a while since legit pre-production variants had been found on vintage Joe items.  

The fact that things like this still exist speak to the sheer volume of product that the Joe line encompasses and the fact that many people who had access to these items may not have really cared, or even noticed, that they had  something materially different from the full production items in  their possession.  It's great that there are still  finds to be made out in the world.  But, they are far more likely to be made by professional resellers who buy out old toy designer's closets and basement than actual collectors.  

Which means items like this will remain the domain  of well heeled collectors.  We can just hope that the original sales of the items continue to be in public forums so that the items in question don't get to just disappear into private collections with no documentation of their existence.  (Like the pre-existing samples of these did.  Yeah, other copies of these exist and are kept hidden for...reasons.)  So, at least we now know these figures exist: even if they aren't all that cool.

Rarities - Flash (Plastirama Version from Argentina)

The final Flash entry is this Plastirama figure from Argentina.  This guy also features a darker body color.  But, he has a flatter finish than the Estrela figure.  The green is also a slightly different hue.  While the 3rd series of Plastirama figures were widely imported to the U.S., the first series are surprisingly findable, today.  They're not cheap and you'll spend time searching them out.  But, they aren't mythic like the fabled 2nd series.

I find looking at the different releases of the same character kind of fun.  It really showcases how much figures changed between their international releases.  There was a time when most collectors dismissed figures like this, thinking they were all very similar.  But, as you can see from the past few days, each foreign company put their own, unique stamp on their releases.

Rarities - Flash (Rubiplas Version from Venezuela)

Today, we feature the rarest of the foreign Flash figures: the Rubiplas release from Venezuela.  Rubiplas figures are the last great, unexplored reaches of the Joe line.  While we have some good info about earlier releases, they were releasing figures in Venezuela for many years after these straight arms were retired.  

There are two points of interest on this figure.  First, he includes a dark green version of Doc's helmet instead of the standard 1982/1983 helmet.  The second is the light brown hair color.  It's very distinctive and nicely offsets the darker green of the body.  These two items represent the biggest tells of the Rubiplas figure.  

In general, Rubiplas figures are not easy to find.  There was a time for a couple of years where there were a couple of different ways to acquire them.  But, those seem to have dried up.  Now, you're left chasing the few samples that were imported when the Venezuelan sellers were active.

They're neat because they are different and have some weird oddities to them.  There's really no explanation why this Flash features a Doc helmet.  But, this helmet wasn't available in a similar color to the dark Rubiplas green anywhere else.  (The AP helmet from Hasbro is drastically different.)  So, the figures have a cachet since they are so distinguishable.  Someday, I hope to see better info on the full Rubiplas line come to light.  Until then, it's just crumbs here and there.