Steel Brigade Variations

[Everett]

Yeah Guys,

I would like to take the time to make this posting. The Steel Brigade figure is one of my three favorite characters, you can probably guess my other two by looking at my Avatar. Anyways I plan to add alot to this posting in a short time to come. I think that this will be my best posting, mainly because it's one of my favorite characters, and the character being so popular.

I've been trying to figure this variation out for about a couple years now, I've even asked a collector that's been collecting three times as long as I have, and I've been collecting for eight years. They didn't even have an answer for me. Well to make a long story short, I recently scored an Ebay auction containing a MISB Steel Brigade Version A. It came complete with the original filecard sheet as well as the original mailer tube. This is the first time I've seen a sealed one on Ebay. In my opinion, I believe that the Steel Brigade Version A is more rare than the Gold Version.

To get back on track, when I got this, it solved my theory. So that's why I'm finally mentioning this variation. I'm going to show four variations with the Steel Brigade Version A, outside the physical appearance, which is obvious. I know that the archives doesn't mention these, so I don't know if they've been talked about before. Some of you guys that like to complete something down to the last detail, "like me", might be disappointed in this post.

Picture 1: A MISB Steel Brigade Version A and a regular version used for comparison. If you look closely, you'll notice that the Version A comes exclusively with a lighter green patch and also a crossback variation backpack, like the original 1983 Airborne, which would make sense because he has Airbornes chest. I would also like to note, in my opinion, I don't believe that the 1983 Duke ever came with a crossback variation backpack. The colors on the backpacks are a different shade (Duke =Tan color, Airborne=lighter Tan). I also believe that the crossback variation backpack was meant to resemble a parachute pack because of Airbornes skilled background.

Picture 2: Close up picture of loose regular patch that came with the other Steel Brigades and the lighter green one that came with the Steel Brigade Version A. Also in the picture are loose backpacks showing the two variations, the crossback variation goes with the Steel Brigade Version A.

Picture 3: The archives doesn't mention it when they break down the parts list of the Steel Brigade figure, the head is actually different on the inside of the figure. The Steel Brigade Version A doesn't have the two little side pegs on the lower neck like the others do.

Picture 4 & 5: Some of the paperwork collectors might be interested in this. It's not a major variation, but I find it interesting. On the filecard sheet that I got with the MISB Steel Brigade Version A, I noticed the color variation of the paper, but also I noticed that the words (Traits, Abilities, Personality) in the boxes were handtyped instead of printed like my other one and all of the others that I've seen. I would guess that this is one of the very early ones mailed out. These pictures are comparison pictures.

Picture 6: I tried to get a good picture to show how to tell which rifle goes with the Steel Brigade figure. It didn't turn out quite as good as I wanted it to. The darker gray is the 1983 Airborne version, the lighter gray is the 1986 Outpost defender, and the medium gray is the Steel Brigade version. The lighter gray Outpost Defender rifle is still attached to the parts tree in this picture. You'll notice that the lighter gray one is very dull and the knife is more thinner, instead of flaring out. I also noticed that the site has a more open loop in the center, and the barrow has a thinner tip.

It takes me along time to put these postings together, so if this interests you guys, please comment with some words of encouragement. I have alot more stuff that I'm going to be adding to this posting, so help me keep it at the top if you guys like it.

Thanks,
Everett

Here's the pictures:

[StkhlmDK]

Thanks for taking the time to make this comparison, very usefull for checking if parts match up and whether backpack/patch is mixed with other releases (I guess my version A is a mix up ).

[the_great_old]

Always a pleasure reading posts of you Everett.
Starting to reveil some of your stuff?:-)

[Kronz]

Interesting research, thanks for going to the trouble of all this. I am curious if anyone can confirm opening a MISB/MOC Duke and having gotten the cross backpack. None of my Dukes have ever had one, and somehow I've never owned Airborne so I've never seen one in person.

[spiderpumpkin]

Congrats Everett on scoring that for $151 shipped. You sure were quick because it only lasted 6 minutes before it sold.

Version A of the SB is one thing I was hoping to find sealed one day and open. I don't have a version A SB and that's the only 1982-1994 figure I still want to track down someday. I almost prefer the version A to the B,C,D,E because it's the first SB released.

[StkhlmDK]

Congrats Everett on scoring that for $151 shipped. You sure were quick because it only lasted 6 minutes before it sold.

Version A of the SB is one thing I was hoping to find sealed one day and open. I don't have a version A SB and that's the only 1982-1994 figure I still want to track down someday. I almost prefer the version A to the B,C,D,E because it's the first SB released.

andymclane has one for sale (not MISB though)?

http://forums.yojoe.com/sale/111501-...joes-sale.html

[notpicard]

Excellent investigative work. Often times, it is difficult or impossible to detarmine what combinations there were between figures and accessories without having packaged samples. I'd really like to see more input regarding accessories and figures and how they came sealed. For example, we know that Zap had thin thumbs, then thick thumbs, then swivel arm. But his bazooka had 2 handles, thin handle, and thick handle. How did the timeline of these changes happen? This thread really connects the dots for Steel Brigade. Nice work.