Early Preproduction figures

[Falcone]

I was wondering if anybody has any preproduction figures in their collection or know anyone that does. I'm not talking about the prototypes, but the figures in the prepro. section. These figures would be truely unuiqe to have in a collection.
In a few cases the figures look better than the actual release, like this cobra officer. I would rather they looked like that than what they actually looked like. The head sculpt is nice and the detail on the torso is great.

[Cavalry Man]

I don't have any early stuff. But I do have one of the unproduced "Tiger Force" Steel Brigade figures (in the misc. section of years). http://www.yojoe.com/action/unknown/unknown_tfsb.shtml

I used to have 2, but I sold one to a collector in Canada a few years ago.

[GI Steevy]

These figures would be truely unuiqe to have in a collection.
In a few cases the figures look better than the actual release, like this cobra officer. I would rather they looked like that than what they actually looked like. The head sculpt is nice and the detail on the torso is great.

Keep in mind that many of those catalog images were done with hand painted prototypes, not production level product. For the most part, because of how far in advance toy companies work a LOT of those preproduction figures shown in catalogs are one of a kind customs, and it is VERY rare that any would be in collector hands.

[SolidSnakeEyes]

Yeah, I've always thought those images looked better than the actual production figures. The gear wasn't flat, and actually looked like it could hold AK-47/Dragunov clips, haha.

[Falcone]

For the most part, because of how far in advance toy companies work a LOT of those preproduction figures shown in catalogs are one of a kind customs, and it is VERY rare that any would be in collector hands.

Thats my point

[Tattoo Shane]

I was wondering if anybody has any preproduction figures in their collection or know anyone that does. I'm not talking about the prototypes, but the figures in the prepro. section. These figures would be truely unuiqe to have in a collection. In a few cases the figures look better than the actual release, like this cobra officer. I would rather they looked like that than what they actually looked like. The head sculpt is nice and the detail on the torso is great.

For what it's worth, these figures are prototypes so i'm not 100% sure what distinction you're trying to make between prototypes and preproduction pieces - it's all one and the same.

These figures are all hand made resin "hardcopy" prototypes, which is why they have much greater detail. Each subsequent step in the production process shrinks the figure (1:1 hardcopies are actually about 3% bigger than a production figure) and reduces the crispness of the original sculpt (which is done at a 2:1 ratio). From 2:1 sculpt, to 1:1 HC, to 1:1 steel mold production, to first shots, detail is lost in each step. These early hardcopies also look better because they're hand painted.

In the case of the aforementioned Cobra Solider and many other figures (such as the alternate sculpt Tomax and Xamot prototypes) the sculpts will change over the course of the preproduction process and can differ slightly or greatly from the final production piece. These are especially sought after by prototype collectors.

As for the actual question of does anyone own some of them? Yes, a few are out there and reside in a handful of private collections.

[pitch6lack]

any pics of preproductions gi joes? anyone has a carded glenda or cobra de aco moc?

[RedClaw]

Pre-prod resin 1995 Dr. Mindbender

[Falcone]

...snip...

My mistake, the difference I was making between preproduction and prototype is-

Prototypes being the final form of a figure like this before being produced.

And Pre-production figures like this being figures that are handpainted and not the actual sculpt thats going to be used for the figure.

My original post is about the latter.

[RedClaw]

My mistake, the difference I was making between preproduction and prototype is-

Prototypes being the final form of a figure like this before being produced.

And Pre-production figures like this being figures that are handpainted and not the actual sculpt thats going to be used for the figure.

My original post is about the latter.

Then you should check out our pre-production archive