International Spotlight: Rubiplas (Cobra Mortal)

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Mar 142014
 

From the desk of Cobra Mortal:

“After a short hiatus I’m back with another edition of “International Spotlight with Mortal”. This time we will be covering Rubiplas, a short lived, but far from forgotten company in Venezuela. Because of the short run, information on the company, figures, vehicles, and so on is really hard to come by. However, I felt it was one I had to cover. With that said, here’s what I was able to put together for you guys.

The Venezuelan government forbade importation from 1983 to 1992 so the Rubiplas Company only made figures from 1990 to early 1992. Using molds and production sheets acquired from the Plastirama Company, Rubiplas produced series 1 and 2. Now this is where things get foggy. It hasn’t been confirmed that Rubiplas made Scarlett, Glenda, or Grunt because no examples of the figures or cards have been found. I personally would think that they got all the molds to make these figures but at this point it is still unknown. Rubiplas also got molds and production sheets from Auriken and later from Hasbro to produce series 8 and 9. After the market was opened back up to imports Rubiplas closed the factories because it was cheaper to import the figures and later became Faventoys.

Rubiplas figures are some of the hardest figures, if not the hardest to find. Due to the fact that the Rubiplas production run was so short the figures and vehicles command a very high price tag, much higer than Plastirama. Other than the price difference, series 1 and 2 of Rubiplas are very similar to Plastirama but can be disguised by color, paint apps, and accessories. Probably the most noticeable differences figure-wise in series 1 are that Flash and Rock N Roll are much darker that their Argen counterparts, the color is closer to Estrela than Plastirama. As far as accessories go the weapons for both are solid black (other than Zap), but the Rubiplas weapons are much more ridged and not easily bent. Most of the series 1 and 2 Rubiplas helmets are Blowtorch helmets and only Short Fuze and Breaker had the standard ones.”

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CCE Canadian Spotlight: M.O.B.A.T – Char D’assaut (by Mike Hayden)

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Feb 272014
 

From the desk of Mike Hayden:

“As a new Admin to this great group (Crimson Cobra Elite) and one of the few Canadians in the group, I have decided to do a spotlight on a Canadian G.I. Joe exclusive vehicle.

This vehicle is an asset to Cobra Commander’s vast organization and one of my personal favorites, ladies and gentleman, I present to you the Canadian exclusive Consumers Distributing Cobra M.O.B.A.T also known as the Char D’assaut (French).

The Cobra Mobat was released by Hasbro Canada in 1983 and exclusively sold at Consumers Distributing Catalog store. The stores had nothing in them but a few counters with catalogs, pencils and order forms. You looked through the catalog, found an item, filled out the form, took it to a customer service rep and he would return with your product. That easy.

In the early 80’s, Walmart ,Toys R Us and KB Toys had no meaning to Canadians, let alone Canadian children. Zellers, Sears, Woolworths and Consumers Distributing were the only stores we knew that carried our favorite toy: G.I. Joe…

Though it may not have the most original name…”

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– images courtesy of yojoe.com –

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CCE Domestic Spotlight: Steel Brigade

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Jan 142014
 

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From the desk of Law:

“Hello Elite, it is time once again for the CCE Domestic Spotlight. This week we are taking a look at arguably the most successful Hasbro mail away figures, the Steel Brigade. These figures are very near and dear to many a collectors hart. They bring you back to you child hood for many different reasons but mostly because it was the first gi joe action figure to let you determine the back ground and all demographics of your joe so with out further delay lets take a look at the steel brigade.

Steel brigade was available through mail away beginning in 1987. There where actually six different steel brigade versions although many people only believe there were five.

Steel brigade was actually created from repainted Hasbro ARAH parts that were used on different figures though out the years. Steel brigade versions were A, B, C, D, E, and F.

Hasbro marketed steel brigade as a personalized figure. The figure came with a personalized BIO certificate which was filled out prior to children sending away for figure @ hasbro direct. The only original part was the head mold. All versions of steel brigades came with the same arms which were a repaint of Flashes arms.

The defining characteristics for each figure versions were just a mix and match of legs and torsos. For example: version A consisted of Airborne’s chest and Scrap irons legs while version B used Dukes chest while again reusing Scrap irons legs. Version A being the second rarest of the steel brigades only being surpassed by version F Aka Gold head. There is a debate about version E as it is easily kit bashed using version B and version D. The only recognized versions of E by most true collectors are the sealed Baggie versions.

The most difficult version to find is the Gold head. They began shipping them sometime in 1992 and abruptly stopped in 1993. This version was not widely ordered and is most likely the cause of its rarity, most reports say this version was only available for about a 6 month span. The gold head version also came with a different colored patch when compared to the other versions patches. Gold heads patch came with a purple center triangle not the light blue of the others also different was the art of the bio certificate. The art for the gold head represented the colors of the gold head figure this was the first art change for the bio certificates.
This has always been my favorite mail away and I own all versions except for B and C. They make an awesome army builder although you may have to take out a second mortgage to army build these badaases to a big size.

Thanks for tuning in to this weeks domestic spotlight

LAW out.”

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SPOTLIGHT: Crimson Cobra Elite

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Dec 052013
 

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Please join us in welcoming our friends at Crimson Cobra Elite to our community of Joe brotherhood and relative awesomeness.

“CRIMSON COBRA ELITE (CCE) is a Facebook group dedicated to the collecting of Vintage, Modern, and Foreign G.I. Joe figures. Like OG13, CCE is a brotherhood of like-minded collectors that come together to buy, sell, trade and talk about everything Joe related. At CCE, we also have a few informative articles once a week, and with these articles we strive to expand the collectors knowledge to help his or her collection grow. CCE holds contests and does trivia as well, and is a up and coming page.”

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