In one of the other threads the following surfaced, so I thought I'd take pictures and actually make a post specifically about this.

Back in 2002 we got bagged Fuchsia sets and boxed Crimson sets.

The bagged figures were a more pinkish tint of red, where as the boxed set was crimson red.

I can't remember how many bagged sets there were suppose so be (400 is stuck in my mind) and I believe the boxed sets were LE 500.

So the bagged sets were suppose to be fewer and more rare, but it seemed back in 2002 - '04, you could find Fuchsia every where and Crimson almost no where. Rumors started to flare that more Fuchsia were made than what was advertised.

I snagged 4 Fuchsia figures back in '03/'04. All 4 came from different people at different times. Attached is a picture of the 4 figures.

Look carefully at the two on the right versus the two on the left. The two on the left are what I would call complete Fuchsia vipers. Ones from those 400 bagged sets. The two on the right are what I could call kit based Fuchsia.

Its hard to see with the picture and lighting, but look at the arms and legs of the two on the right. They are crimson viper arms and legs. The rest of the figure are fuchsia parts.

I'd like to advance the idea that there were leftover pieces to both fuchsia and crimson figures. These parts were put together to complete kit bashed figures and then either sold directly at the convention, or perhaps behind the scenes at the convention. Either way, I'd like to go out on a limb and say, there are many more fuchsia figures out there because of these kit bashed versions being created and sold with the extra leftover parts. This would explain why we saw more fuchsia figures back during that time and it would explain the figures I currently own.

The only other idea that would really make sense in a not so logically way, would be someone leg and arm swapped the figures before I owned them. Why, I have no idea, but it could also explain the figures.

Oh and yes I do have a boxed set, this is actually when I noticed the paint differences with the Fuchsia Vipers. Before then, I didn't have anything crimson to compare against. After putting these figures next to the crimson vipers, it became very clear that the fuchsia vipers were indeed different (not just different versus the crimson vipers, but different to each other).

Anyways, here are pictures, share you thoughts.

Tanner

I noticed when i bought some bagged fuchsia vipers off ebay that they had some parts that were lighter or miscolored than the rest of the body..such as half of the legs. I thought this was just part of the factory error. Is this what you mean?

Nope, not at all...

I'm suggesting that entire crimson arm sets and leg sets were used to complete more Fuchsia figures...

The two figures I have, both arms are completely crimson, and both pairs of legs are completely crimson.

You could take the Fuchsia figure apart, take a Crimson Viper apart, and swap the Fuchsia legs in for the Crimson Viper and you' never see the difference.

Tanner

hmmmm... I betting there are quite a few more Bubble gum strike team Vipers than Crimson. Alot of the ones that still surface on eBay are coming directly from asia. More than likely they mass produced quite a few more parts in each color and the sellers smuggled them out and pieced the figures together for eBay sales. I mean if they were able to smuggle what was more than likely rejected paint schemes (Midnight Run). Than they could smuggle out a whole bunch of rejected Bubble Gum and Crimson pieces.

Thanks for posting those pics. I see what you mean now!

Glad mine is actually all Crimson

Great discovery!

Tanner,
The fuchsia ones were a mistake by Hasbro/factory. The original tests were the same color and MC said on their site at the time that the colors would be corrected.
From my memory of the con this is what I remember happened:
Basically they didnt correct them and made the order. Then MC had them redo it in the correct crimson. MC got those for next to nothing and sold them at the con as an "Exclusive Fuchsia Set". So to get a few more figures out of it they probably kit bashed a few/bunch of them.

There were 500 boxed and 250 bagged Crimson sets.

THus an edition of 750.

Master Collector received 750 sets of figures that were PINK. Thus they could do nothing but get over it and sell them as errors. (there are actually more than 750 sets ordered, but those are the "limited" numbers... this allowed for damages, mistake items, replacements etc...)

They said they needed 750 sets of correct color sets.

So all totalled, there are 1500 Crimson Strike Team sets, however, half of them are the Bubble Gum Strike Team (always loved that name). The Fuschia ones were already in hand when the pictures were posted and the corrected ones were then a second order. The 'tests' were the full run that they received, but they didn't let that be known until at the con, when they made them available for sale. They didn't push them as an "exclusive fuschia" set, but as, "hey, they goofed and we get more stuff that you can buy, even though they are the wrong color, have fun guys..."

As for mismatched figures, that's likely to be franken-Joe at work. All of the true sets I have seen and owned were all completely Crimson or completely fuschia (I opened quite a few bagged sets back in 2002 and just recently sold them).

John M> more useless info from the Human WHOBIT