ShadoWolf
06-29-2005, 07:24 AM
I recently acquired a Blue Funskool Snake eyes and have a question for anyone who has one, but first a description.
The package arrived and of course, due to my inner child, I ripped it open. Upon a close inspection I noticed it looked like it had been painted and poorly. Now, just like you are I thought that I had been scammed so I took it apart to see if it was black on the inside; it was not, it was blue. So, I took a pen knife and scratched the inside paint, the figure had been painted blue but the plastic underneath was tan. So I checked a couple of other places (shoulder joints, inner elbow, etc...) and all of it is tan underneath.
Now for the questions:
Does anyone else have a blue Funskool Snake Eyes that has been painted?
Is that a standard for Funskool products?
Any information that you can provide will be much appreciated, even if it is to say that I got screwed. Thanks in advance for your help.
Respectfully,
C.
Pete The Greek
06-29-2005, 04:59 PM
If you have a picture of your figure, send it my way. I can compare it to the one I have. I can compare the the colours on the figure to the one I have. Or I can do the reverse and send you a picture.
From looking at mine, none of the shoulder, elbow and leg joints I have are visibly tan. But I am not going to scratch the one I have to find out whether the figure was first molded in tan/brown and then painted over. But remember this is Funskool, the company that is known for variants and some times cheap quality control.
If you suspect it's a fake, keep in mind that the amount of tan body parts out there to pull off a job like this is slim. The tanned Grunt shares some body parts with the Blue Snake Eyes but not all such as the legs.
Tattoo Shane
06-30-2005, 12:07 AM
Mine's still carded and there's no flipping way that i'm opening up, inner child or no! ;)
ShadoWolf
06-30-2005, 04:21 AM
NO, NO, I am not even considering asking anyone to open theirs; I was just wondering if anyone else has one that has been painted blue instead of molded in blue. By the way if anyone is selling a loose one I am likely to be back in the market since it is looking more and more like I got ripped off. I did however notice that one of the elbows is slightly cracked, another common trait of Funskool. Anyone got any other ideas?
jabba the drunk
06-30-2005, 06:52 AM
ShadowWolf, did you open a CARDED Funskool blue Snake Eyes?
It's your choice, of course. But, if it was carded...man...I'm cringing.
-Peter
Ron Conner - Treasures 'N Toys
06-30-2005, 09:39 AM
Hey guys,
This is the second case I have heard of this. There was a recent ebay auction for a loose India blue Snake Eyes. I noticed something looked different about it. All the arm pieces totally matched in color. The various blue SE I studied for the book all seemed to have slight variations in the color of the plastic elbow and inner shoulder connecter pieces. Those common/generic pieces that the metal rivet slides through that allows for articulation. Sometimes they are made in different color plastic, or sometimes they match the surrounding plastic pieces of the bicep and the lower arm. FS Beach Head figures are very common to be produced in either matching or having darker color green plastic elbow pieces. The second thing I noticed on this ebay auction figure was the actual metal rivet pin also matched and appeared to be painted. Which was very odd. Because Funskool used the same process as the US release where they anodized color onto the rivets giving them that "candy coat" look to them. You can still see the metal underneath the semi-clear anodized coat. But on this auction piece, it was solid blue like the rest of the figure. The only country that really painted their rivets to match the surrounding plastic like that was Brazil (and sometimes Mexico). After seeing this post, I contacted the winner of the auction and he said his is painted too!!! Tan body, but black legs and head. So it is odd this is just now happening since I never noticed or heard of this before. If yours was carded with no sign of tampering, then it is probably a legit piece. But here is one thing that will help cement the idea that you have a legit Funskool figure. Funskool used soft plastic on the hands much like how all 1997 and up U.S. release Joes used. Now if this was an elaborate scam, and someone used a tan grunt, I doubt the scammer remember to change the lower arms out to a newer, softer plastic. So if your blue Snake Eyes figures has flexible/soft hands, then I would say you have got a rare variation of a legit Fusnkool piece. Congrats!!!
If this does prove to be a legit piece, I would love to have one (or a submitted picture) for the update in my International figure book. We have 5 versions cataloged. See sample page of the 5 here:
http://www.treasuresntoys.com/images/a2j_052.jpg
I guess I gotta start looking again to find that variation. Funskool is a NEVER ending challenge to collect. There are probably more variations of Snake Eyes no one has reported yet since anything is possible. I rarely say the word impossible, but it would take about 2 lifetimes to find all the different weird variations Funskool did. Thus, impossible!!! Hehehehehehe!
Happy collecting :-)
God Bless and Yo Joe,
Ron Conner
G.I. Joe Book Author @ http://www.backinthedaytoys.com/bitdt.htm
G.I. Joe Toy Dealer @ http://www.treasuresntoys.com/gijoe334.htm
G.I. Joe Fan Site Webmaster @ http://www.treasuresntoys.com/webcamp.htm