gutstheberserker
10-12-2005, 02:02 PM
I submitted pics of the 1990 Metal Head all red visor that I got awile back and am aware of at least 2 of them. I e-mailed the archive and asked that it be added to the variant section but never got a response, so I was wondering what does it take for a variant to be recognized as a true variant?
They have a huge backlog, & usually (I think) prioritize new releases, since there is a greater demand on their info. A two month wait on an older fig really isn't that out of line, & I'm sure you'll probably hear from somebody before too much longer.
I don't know exactly how a variant & an error a distinguished from each other. There have been other threads asking the same question, but I don't think that a decissive answer has ever been given. Personally, I would say it depends on numbers actually released to the public.
danielmd06
10-13-2005, 06:15 PM
The differences between a "variant" and an "error" are probably unique to individual collectors.
In my mind, a "variant" is something that Hasbro intentionally produced - like the varying numbers of characters portrayed on 1983 cardbacks. I think of an "error" as an unintentional production variation in the toy or its packaging - the Sci-Fi filecard on my Cobra Blackstar cardback being an example.
notpicard
10-16-2005, 04:08 PM
The differences between a "variant" and an "error" are probably unique to individual collectors.
In my mind, a "variant" is something that Hasbro intentionally produced - like the varying numbers of characters portrayed on 1983 cardbacks. I think of an "error" as an unintentional production variation in the toy or its packaging - the Sci-Fi filecard on my Cobra Blackstar cardback being an example.
That sums it up.
I've not been around much lately because of personal stuff. But I recall your Metal Head.
When a possible variation is submitted, generally what I had been doing was to sort the intentional from the unintentional. This can be a little difficult to determine.
Here are a few good examples: your Metal Head, The recent VvV Viper with or without logo, and the Viper with Venom Cycle.
Your Metal Head is the only one I have ever seen that way. To my knowledge, it is the only one out there.
The VvV Viper was plentiful.
So was the Venom Cycle Viper.
So why among these 3 did only 1 get listed as a variation?
Your Metal Head appears to be unintentional. If it was this way as a result of a following year issue, cost cutting measure, mail-in exclusive...it would be listed as a variation.
VvV Viper is different from yours in that there were plenty out there. I could have listed it without anyone really noticing much that we were being inconsistent. VvV Viper was out there both ways, but they were all mixed in. But here is the problem: how are we to determine how many of them are out there? And for that matter, how are we to determine how many errors constitute a legit variation? We really can't. If we list the VvV Viper, that opens up a whole can of worms.
As another example, take the Capt. Grid-Iron and Storm Shadow v1 figures I got when they came out. My Grid-Iron came with 3 elbow pads. I can't very well say that everyone else's Grid-Iron is the less complete variation of my own. My SS v1 definitely did not come with nunchucks. Does that mean that SS can be considered complete as a variation that did not include them? No. But these are issues I wouldn't know how to address if we counted errors as variations.
Now why is the Venom Cycle Viper waist a variation? Because this change was consistent along side the vehicle. The first wave was one way, then they changed all of them to be different. That gives us the tip off that the change was intentional.
Now what do we do with things like the Medi-Viper belt? Those who ordered cases may have noticed. Each case I came across came with two differently painted belts. I guess it is open to debate, but I am not ready to list that as a variation. I would call it a very abundant error.
For the record, the way we have sorted these is NOT saying that some of these things are of value while others are not. IMO, there is a certain coolness factor to errors that would make them valuable to some people more than others, just as many people really just don't care about variations.
For example, imo:
Your Metal Head error = cool.
My SSv1 without nunchucks = definitely not cool. :(