Rarities - Carded Rubiplas Topson From Venezuela

We all know about the second series of Plastirama figures released in Argentina.  The six figures are stuff of legend and remain among the rarest and most expensive figures released anywhere in the world.  But, there are even rarer versions.  The Rubiplas toy company in Venezuela also produced the figures from this series.  Most of the figures have slight differences.  They are even rarer than the Argentine versions of the characters.  Below, though, is a carded sample of a Rubliplas Topson figure.

There is an obvious difference with this figure: the Recondo rifle.  This is interesting for a couple of reasons.  The Plastirama Topson (as far as we know) came with a version of Grunt's M-16.  We know that Recondo was sent to Brazil for release there around 1987 or 1988.  Recondo appeared on the cardbacks of Plastirama figures: but was never released in Argentina.  So, it's possible that Plastirama had the mold and Rubiplas got ahold of it.  But, why use the gun for this Topson?  Was the Grunt M-16 separated from theses figures and not available?  You'll also note he has a helmet mold originally from Blowtorch.  The Plastirama version has been found with the classic 1982 helmet, molded in grey instead of this Blowtorch version.  But, it's possible that both helmet combos were released in Argentina, too.

The card artwork for this figure is a combination of classic Joe excellence with a bit of foreign silliness.  We see Topson clearly holding the ammo pack originally included with Snake Eyes.  But, it has an added antenna to it to make it appear as a radio.  This Topson figure includes an unaltered ammo pack.  There is some disagreement as to what the Plastirama version of Topson includes in regards to the radio.  We'll have to find a carded version from Argentina to be sure.  But, the different Recondo rifle opens up the door that other accessories were changed between the countries, too.

Rarities - Sears Red Back Straight Arm Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes

From the beginning, Hasbro had a good relationship with Sears.  And, why not?  In the early 1980's, Sears was America's largest retailer.  No company who made retail products could get large without selling their wares through Sears.  And, the backbone of Sears's retail might was it's catalog business.

Long before the internet, if you didn't live in a place with retail stores, you had to resort to shopping and ordering goods from catalogs.  This wasn't just for hermits and those who were heavily isolated.  Even into the early 1980's, towns of 20,000 to 50,000 people would have limited retail options.  So, stores like Sears had huge swaths of the American population who were dependent upon them for ordering many items.

So, Hasbro got into bed with Sears rather quickly.  The downside to the catalog business, though, was shipping and handling.  The extra space for full figure cardbacks were a detriment for the shipping costs.  So, Hasbro and Sears came up with a solution.  Instead of putting the figures on full cardbacks, they packaged them into bubbles that were affixed to a reproduction of the figure's filecard.  This smaller size lent itself to mailing.  It also created a subset of collecting that contains some of the hardest to find items in the entire Joe line.

Below you will Sears catalog figures for the 1982 Snake Eyes and 1982 Cobra Commander.  The Commander is noteworthy because he is not the Mickey Mouse version.  But, he is the straight arm version.  This configuration of figure was available from Sears in the Missile Command set and this mail away.  I got two of them from the mail away offer in early 1983, as well.

You'll also note that the accessories are package right with the figure.  This was the standard for vehicle drivers and would appear again with JC Penny's catalog figures as well as bubbled overstock vehicle drivers from the Action Force line in Europe.

The figures were attached to a filecard that included a flagpoint.  It was a way to keep the characterization with the figure and still give the recipient of the toy an idea of the card art without incurring the additional hassle of superfluous packaging.

Figures still attached to their bubbles on these filecards are extremely rare and expensive.  Even the filecards alone (with the bubble marks on the red side) can command hundreds of dollars.  While Sears ordered enough product to make it worth Hasbro's while to create alternate packaging, the production numbers would have been substantially smaller than the standard carded figures.  Loose, the figures are indistinguishable from their retail counterparts.  But, the cards and evidence of the catalog origins remain grail type items for many collectors.

Rarities - 1995 Sea Wolf (Unproduced Whale)

Hasbro had lots of stuff planned for the 1995 line.  Sure, there was an abundance of ninjas and space stuff with an even greater emphasis on aliens.  But, there was also going to be a standard line that was more geared towards the traditional military themes that were so dear to just coming of age collectors in the mid 1990's.  Aside from the return of fan favorite characters in new outfits, Hasbro also looked at bringing back many classic vehicles.  Among them was a proposed repaint of the 1984 Whale Hovercraft called the Sea Wolf.

The Sea Wolf was planned to be an arctic themed release that utilized either a white or grey base for the whale instead of the classic olive green.  It seems Hasbro was big on the arctic theme for 1995 since there exists quite a bit of box art showcasing arctic themed vehicles, figures and gift sets.  It seems odd as the US wasn't really engaged in any arctic combat.  But, it may have just been a phase and a way to release some cool toys in color schemes that were different from the originals, but not neon or oddball colors.

There are 4 characters shown the artwork.  The two in the cockpit are the 1994 Shipwreck figure (a likely choice and a figure that would almost certainly have been re-released in 1995 since he was new in 1994) and the 1993 Duke figure.  Duke, though, is in his desert cammo, 1993 release colors.  It seems unlikely that Duke would have seen a straight re-release in 1995.  It's been long rumored that the 1993 Duke was going to be released in 1995 in green and black cammo.  So, this picture might be a placeholder.  Or, it might not.  We don't really know.  The gunner stations are manned by the planned 1995 Battle Corps Rangers Footloose character.  This mold would have been repainted into Shipwreck, too.  But, the '94 Shipwreck's appearance in the cockpit really cements this gunner as Footloose.

The final figure is unknown to me.  It seems that this arctic figure would have been a single carded release.  Aside from appearing on the Sea Wolf art, he also shows up on the Battle Station artwork.  Anyone appearing on the art for two major releases was surely planned to be a carded figure.  But, who would he have been?  Snow Job is a possibility, though the figure lacks the signature red hair.  Frostbite is an obvious back up.  While he had a 1993 release, Hasbro was starting to reuse characters again and again as the line wound down.  So, it's entirely possible it would have been a new take on him.  Or, it could have been a new character.  Regardless, we can surmise he would have been a single carded release.  Since he appeared on so much vehicle artwork, we can also deduce he would have likely been in the first series of figures released in 1995.  So, his artwork and, possibly, resin prototype figures might still exist somewhere.  I'd love to see this character come to light.

The biggest thing to note about the artwork is that there's nothing really noteworthy about it.  In fact, it appears the Sea Wolf was going to be a straight Whale repaint.  Hasbro wasn't going to create spring loaded weapons to replace the classic missile launchers or cannons.  They weren't going to integrate some sort of action feature to make the toy "exciting" to the kids of the day.  It seems it was going to be the basic toy from 11 years earlier.  And, frankly, had it been released, there's a good chance that mint and complete Sea Wolves would be more expensive and harder to find than Whales today due to lower production numbers.  Being a Whale aficionado, I'm sure I'd have bought this in a second: even if it didn't include any figures.   It would then have quickly joined my childhood Whale and Shark 9000 as the backbone of my Joe navy.

This concept artwork was not really changed for the final box art.  The final product was planned to include a "Special Edition Duke Figure".  It's doubtful the Duke would have been a straight up 1993 repaint as shown on the artwork.  But, it might have used his mold.  The final presentation is a solid combo of the updated style of artwork we started to see in the mid 1990's while hearkening back to the classic vehicle box of the 1980's.  It really cements that the 1995 line would have included some gems.  It's very odd to me that planned items from 1995 never saw the light of day in either the 1997/1998 series or the 2000's era repaints.  If the Sea Wolf mold was ready to go in 1995, how was it not available just 2 years later?  With so many Battle Corps Rangers figures in the full resin prototype stage, why didn't we see at least one included in a Toys R Us ARAH style figure set?  These answers are probably lost to time at this point and would only result in contentious back and forth with a company who has largely left Joe behind at this point.

I often wonder what the Joe world would look like had many of the 1995 items come to fruition.  It's unlikely that they would have saved the line for a 1996 run.  Joe was fatigued.  But, then again, the return of Star Wars to toy shelves in 1995 really jump started the collecting world.  And, coupled with the rise of the cheap and ubiquitous internet, Star Wars invigorated a collecting culture that has survived and thrived since then.  So, it could be that had 1995 occurred, Joe would have hung around long enough to catch the collector wave of late 1997 and we might have never seen a true hiatus of vintage Joes.  But, that didn't happen.  And, we are left to salivate over items like this that never came to be.

Rarities - Unproduced 1994 Manimal Slythor

As one of my Halloween profiles, I dug out the Manimal Slythor.  My sample was the KB Toys exclusive release from 2001.  Below, though, you will the Slythor figure as he was originally designed.  In 2001, Hasbro and KB were concerned about creating a figure that could be confused with an original Manimal and deliberately produced them with different colors.  While the KB version was green, the original intent was for Slythor to be red.

You will note that the figure still has his inappropriately placed tongue.  But, the yellow eyes are far more pronounced on this version than on the later paint job.  The weapon is also cast in gold plastic rather than the black from 2001.  In general, this figure appears angrier than the 2001 release.  But, I think the 2001 paint job is actually better.  It looks more like a snake and the darker eyes give the beast a more plausible appearance in his non-transformed state.  If you're going to repaint something, I'd always prefer the repaint be an upgrade over the original.  And, in this case, I think it is.

Here you can see the Manimal cards.

You'll note that Manimals are not only part of Star Brigade, but also part of the Lunaritx Empire.  This ties them more closely with Carcass, Lobotomaxx and Predacon.  (You'll note that this figure's color scheme is also very similar to the Mexican Predacon's.)

The cardback shows off just the Manimals with cross sells of the new Power Fighters and the then pegwarming Armor Bot from 1993.  Another noteworthy item is that Slythor is number 44 in the planned releases of 1994 Joes.  However, the second wave of Star Brigade figures that were released in 1994 begin their numbering at 49: after the Manimals.  So, the Manimals were planned for release within the Star Brigade window.  Why they were cancelled when the wave of Lunartix aliens who were planned after them made it out is anybody's guess.  You will also note that the Manimals were made in Indonesia as Hasbro sought ways to further cut costs on a dying line.

In looking back, there probably wasn't anything that was going to change Joe's fate in 1994.  Had the Manimals been released, they couldn't have hastened the demise of a franchise that was already deceased.  In that respect, it's unfortunate we didn't get them.  But, at the same time, were these actually released figures, no one would care about them at all.  I'm about as big a Star Brigade fan as there is.  Yet, I don't really consider the 2001 Manimals part of that line.  I don't display with the other astronauts and I can't find a way to integrate them: even though I've found Predacon, Lobotomaxx and Carcass relatively simple to do so.

For me, the Manimals remain an interesting part of Joe lore.  Lots of casual toy collectors in the mid to late 1990's were aware of the brand only because of the Manimals and the few specimens that seeped into the collecting world.  There are more carded Manimals than many would like to believe.  In the late 1990's and early 2000's, Manimals were a staple on Ebay.  Usually, you could get a few each year.  Carded versions would sell for a couple of hundred dollars at the most since collectors didn't care.  That's not the case now as real rarities and unproduced Joe items have exploded in price and popularity.  Now, this figure is easily over $1,000 for a carded sample, maybe even a few times that.  It's not a price I'd pay as I don't find the figures all that interesting as far an unproduced Joe items go.  But, your mileage may vary.

Rarities - Unproduced Lotus Steel Concept Art

As part of Hascon in 2017, Hasbro released some never before seen artwork of unreleased figures.  Among these were two Ron Rudat concepts for a female ninja named Lotus Steel.  Below you will see two conceptual designs for the character.

The red head, of course, looks like Scarlett.  And, to get the figure actually produced, it's possible that Hasbro would have insisted upon the character being a new version of an existing, recognizable G.I. Joe team member.  (There was only one female figure released in the Joe line after 1987 and it was a new version of Scarlett.)  The dark haired portrait looks more like a unique character.  The big staff could have been a fun accessory for her, too.

Were this figure released in 1993 or 1994, though, it would likely be about as popular as the Ninja Force Scarlett figure is.  The non-traditional construction and bulky design of that era would doom this character to obscurity.  The same is true were she released prior to 1985.  There, the simplicity of her design would obfuscate the mold's intricacy.  However, were this figure released between 1988 and 1991, it would likely be immensely popular.  That was the height of Hasbro's sculpting prowess and this figure would have benefited from that quality as well as the novelty of being the Joe line's only female from that era.

The character art looks interesting enough.  And, collectors would greatly appreciate more female figures in the vintage style: even if it was another martial arts themed character.  The white uniform would have made a decent foil for Stormshadow.  But, it would have also been a nice color to see on another Joe.  The designs are ornate.  And, it's likely that much of that detail would have been lost upon the concept's conversion to plastic from paper.  But, Lotus Steel remains an interesting part of Joe history.