Thanks to a friend, I got pointed in the direction of this piece. I am pretty happy I picked it up, seeing as it was WAY cooler than I expected. I wasa told it was from Korea, and the lettering looks Korean to me but i could easily be wrong. I have seen a few of the Japanese model kits, both vehicle and figural, and the figural model kits are a little smaller than Joes (the Cobra Commander I saw definitely was). This Duke kit is 1:1, 33/4" tall. See pics for comparison of size.

I had a hard time photographing the box. It is actually in really bad shape, it was soaked in some sort of oil where is won't dry out, is really heavy, and is always shiny. The graphics are pretty cool but not too sharp, and the eagle fighting the Cobra logo is really sweet, I think it is originally from Japanese packages. The bag is still sealed and I could not bring myself to open it.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/cf623623.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/4aeaff84.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/8d4a315b.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/ca31575d.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/16d8e9a4.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/ddbbf6f5.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/9d2b8307.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/f20bd46c.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/81a16fa8.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/8c144849.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/af245c6a.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/7079e7a1.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/d4f1a3f6.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/8e82874f.jpg

I took lots of pics trying to get the box to show well, and to establish scale.

That Is Really Cool! I Would Love To See It Together!!
I Understand Why You Wouldn`t Though.

Kevin, that's simply AWESOME!!! Thanks so much for sharing your cool find! Pics are great!!!

Aire

Cool find! But of course, it had to be Duke instead of a figure someone might like ;)

That is really sweet. Can I come over and see your stuff?

Awesome item, Kevin!

As I mentioned to you, I LOVE the fact that it's in scale witht the 3 3/4" line. And...I just realized that the side of the box has the pics of the other avialable characters (I quickly looked at the pics last night. D'oh!). Looks like they also made Roadblock V2, Gung Ho, Rock N Roll, Stalker and Flint. Sweet.

I'd really like to know what country this is from. I checked the style of the logo of this packaging versus a Korean carded Joe and the styles/lettering don't match. Also, the packaging and the Eagle vs. Snake most like the Japanese Takara Joes and Kabaya models.

Hmnn....any members out there who understand what it says on this Duke box? Your insights would be most welcome!

-Peter

I am 90% certain this is Japanese. What leads me to believe that is, as Peter already pointed out, the similarity between the eagle symbols. Also, the symbol where the eagle is fighting the snake that says "Fight, Friendship, Freedom" is also on the Japanese inserts that were included with the vehicles. The only reason there is 10% doubt in my mind is because the G.I. Joe logo doesn't seem to perfectly match the other Japanese releases.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that this is NOT Korean. I was stationed in Korea for a year and I recognize hangul (the Korean written alphabet).

Nice piece, Kevin!

Dan

I am 90% certain this is Japanese. What leads me to believe that is, as Peter already pointed out, the similarity between the eagle symbols. Also, the symbol where the eagle is fighting the snake that says "Fight, Friendship, Freedom" is also on the Japanese inserts that were included with the vehicles. The only reason there is 10% doubt in my mind is because the G.I. Joe logo doesn't seem to perfectly match the other Japanese releases.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that this is NOT Korean. I was stationed in Korea for a year and I recognize hangul (the Korean written alphabet).

Dan

Good info to know Dan, that it's not Korean language on the box. Thanks for the input. I knew someone could shed some light on this.

We are in agreement that it's very akin to the Takara/Kabaya Joes. I wonder if there is another country near Japan, in which these were released?

Also, since all the characters shown on the box are Gijoes...I wonder if there is a compimenting line of Cobras? Destro? Cobra Soldier? :D

Are there any other members that are familiar with Asian countries and languages who might help put the pieces together?

-Peter

Great find! Maybe someday they'll discover a bunch of unsold overstock and get 'em all on ebay, like what happened with a bunch of the actual Japanese figures.

-PJ

One thing I can tell you for sure is that this is NOT Korean. I was stationed in Korea for a year and I recognize hangul (the Korean written alphabet).

Nice piece, Kevin!

Dan

Might wanna get an actual Korean to comment on this, since my pet Korean says its Korean on that box. :p

Well, maybe I don't recognize the Korean alphabet then. I emailed someone from Hong Kong with a link to the box so maybe they can help. We could just bombard ebay sellers from Asian countries until someone responds--I just emailed one!

I also tried to type "G.I. Joe" into a translation program to see if it looked similar to the G.I. Joe logo on that box. Of course I'm feeling pretty stupid now because my computer isn't set up to show those characters and I don't want to change anything. Babelfish at altavista is what I use for translating web pages.

I am lucky enough to work with so many people from different countries.

One of the Koreans here said that yes, it is Korean. She can't read it all because the picture is too small but the red and green part on the front reads more or less "grand ring leader".

If you can supply nice clear pics of the front and back, I can get the rest translated.

Yeah, Dock I guess I can't recoginize Korean after all. That's pretty sad because I lived there for a whole year!

Anyway, the ebay seller I contacted said it is from Korea also but he didn't know what it says either. If I had a better pic I could just take it onto post to the PX barber shop and ask one of the Korean ladies that works there what it says. All but two people that work there are Korean, including my favorite barber.

Sorry for leading you guys astray!

Dan

I usually have moderate luck placing the Korean alphabet over Japanese-Chinese lettering, Korean usually seems boxier, and less flowing. I mostly didn't think it was japanese because the japanese figure kits were in a smaller scale, like 3", maybe 3 1/4". Here are some pics of a Japanese Cobra Commander Kit. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pics with something next to it for scale, but you can see the construction is waaaayyyy different, with the chest and crotch together as one piece, and the legs attache on pegs. It is based on a Straight arm Cobra Commander, too, while the Duke is all swivel arm and has a way more complex construction.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/96a6bfef.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/a3cb16f6.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/736171c3.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/krymsyngard666/ebb4a269.jpg

I swear, what keeps throwing me off is that EVERY other Korean figure I've seen has a G.I. Joe logo that looks like it ends with an English "CH." Here are some examples:

http://www.yojoe.com/international/southkorea/eels.shtml

http://www.yojoe.com/international/southkorea/figures/officer/officer.shtml

http://www.yojoe.com/international/southkorea/us-snakeeyes.shtml

http://www.yojoe.com/international/southkorea/images/2nightcreeper1.jpg

See what I mean? Even the sticker on the Night Creeper ends with the CH although it is harder to tell. Oh well, who am I to argue with Dock's Korean friends?

Dan

Well either way this item is extremely cool even if it is Duke.:) I would love to see action figures like this available in the U.S. market. Imagine it a sorta make your own figure set. Sell maybe 3 or so of these type of figures in a box using parts that are completely interchangable. It would be a customizer's dream come true. No paint to worry about. You could completely paint the figures any way you wanted before assembling them and could create your own action figures. It would be like Stikfas only the figures would actually look human when assembled.

The language on the package in places is Korean, the art a mix of U.S. and Japanese packages, and the toy a bootleg. Sorry.

Korea is infamous for it's styled bootlegs. As oppossed to the stuff that comes out of Hong Kong which is really cheap and crappy, the Korean market is filled with very interesting and more quality controlled pieces. I know collectors who make it a habit to buy all bootlegs from Korea just for their novelty.