re: ARAH Explosion Back Cards

[bigjohnwoo]

It's nice to see my post revived after months of languishing. It seems we're making headway on the series 5/6 questions I had, but I'll again pose the others.

1. Are there any other explosion back cards besides series 1/2 and 5/6?
2. Which of the series 1/2 characters are available on explosion back? - because I've only seen the original 9 Joes and Cobra Commander on the 20-back explosion cards. I assume that the Cobra Soldier and Cobra Officer came on explosion cards, but I've never seen them. But besides Cobra Commander, were any of the other series 2 figures ever released on explosion back cards? Snow Job, Gung Ho, Airborne, and Doc are also pictured, but I've never seen an example of them.

[danielmd06]

Let me get home and dig out my stuff and I can answer your questions.

[danielmd06]

The only Explosion backs I know of are the two series lines you mentioned, the set from 1983 and the set from 1987.

I have found ZERO information or pictures in the Archives on these, but every time I try to send my own photos or information on the ones I have, they never get back to me. Time constraints I guess, but it is very valuable information to collectors such as myself, and even dealers. Any moderator out there have any suggestions on how I should contact whoever is in charge? Please?

You can read all I know about the 1987 ones in the previous posts.

The 1983 Explosion backs are sort of my Holy Grails. The few I have are the centerpieces of my entire collection. The original eleven 1982 figures plus Cobra Commander all came out on these variant backed cards. Lee's Toy Guide has never included the original eleven Joes and Cobras as being released like this--they're wrong. The card fronts had slightly different captions to the bottom left (if you're facing the figure) of the card (like the 20-backs). The backs had the starbursts with the "Coming Soon" captions on them for Major Bludd, Destro, Tripwire, and Torpedo. Snow Job, Gung-Ho, Doc, and Airborne were not released on Explosion backs despite false information printed in Lee's Toy Guide--their premier pieces were on the 20-back cards from 1983. You will find at least one hundred of the carded 1983 32-backs or 20-backs for every one Explosion back to be found in existence--depending on the rarity of the individual figure you're talking about to begin with. The ratio on some of the rarer ones (like Snake-Eyes or Scarlett) are arguably very much higher. To put it in further perspective, you will find about three 1982 carded figures for every one 1983 figure! Needless to say, they are ultra rare.

Hope I helped you out and spare you some of the trouble and years it took me to figure out all of this. Did I get all your questions, bro?

Daniel Thielemann

[keg_daddy]

I'm kinda curious about the Snake Eyes explosion back. Was there ever one carded on ebay? I'm thinking that would go for a very high amount. Even the full filecard would be impressive just as well. Was the f/c ever on ebay?

[smarchitelli]

For 1983, the following have been CONFIRMED to be on 20-back "Coming Soon" backs:

Grunt
Stalker
Snake Eyes
Short-Fuze
Breaker
Rock 'N Roll
Zap
Scarlett
Cobra
Cobra Commander

Apart from the 1983 and 1987 series, I have never seen any other series with the explosion cardback.

Steven

[bigjohnwoo]

Daniel,

You say that the caption on the bottom left of the card is different on the explosion backs than on the regular 20 backs? I didn't think there was a way you could tell them apart from the front....

20back:
http://www.dansjoes.com/html/cobra_officer1.html

Explosionback:
http://www.dansjoes.com/html/snake-eyes.html

I bought a shortfuze on ebay once that was only photographed from the front. It was advertised as a 20back and turned out to be an explosion back. If there's a way to tell them apart just from the front, I'd like to know, so I can repeat this dumbluck.

PS. Thanks for the info, guys. The archives really need some of this. I'd pieced most of this together observationally on ebay, but it's nice to have it confirmed.

[danielmd06]

John,

I misstyped. I meant to say that both the Explosion backs and 20-backs had the same front--and that these are different than the 32-back card fronts of the other figures released in 1983. The 32-back fronts did not have the word NEW in red on the yellow balloon caption in the bottom left corner of the card. The 20-backs and Explosion backs did. Explosion backs can be formally known as 20-backs to some collectors because there are actually 20 captions on the card back--just with four captions filled with starbursts. So there are really sixteen characters depicted. The four starburst captions eclipse the characters I mentioned earlier. When AFA graded my Explosion backs, they called them 20-backs/Explosion back variation.

The Snake-Eyes pictured actually looks tampered with and resealed--the uzi is not appropriately placed and the bubble looks like it has a slight crush to it. All and all though still a very pretty figure. I'd take it!

I've got some gorgeous pictures of a 1983 Snake-Eyes Explosion back from my own collection that graded out at AFA 85. The pictures are from before grading. I'll try to keep contacting the webmasters to get them posted and everyone can see them on the Archives then.

Daniel

[danielmd06]

To all interested. I have some pictures posted of an Explosion back Cobra Commander and Snake-Eyes if you guys want to see what we are talking about. They are listed under http://photos.yojoe.com under my screen name danielmd06. Hope these get more of you guys fired up about the vintage line. Enjoy!

Dan

[keg_daddy]

Thanks for the link to your explosion back figures! They look awesome. A Snake Eyes Explosion back graded AFA 85...very, very nice. And here I thought I was the only person with an explosion back Cobra Commander. Did you send in the Cobra Commander to AFA as well?

Webmasters, I strongly feel that Dan's pics should be more out in the open and easy to find. This website doesn't even have a mention about 'coming soon' backs on vintage cards (at least what I haven't found).

[danielmd06]

The Cobra Commander graded out to an AFA 90 (subs 90,90,90).