Unless my eyes had a thermal curtain failure, I think I read 1992 on the leg of a Recoil figure. Is this correct, and is it something common?


The 1989 Recoil figure is Made In Hong Kong.

The 1992 Recoil figure is Made In China. The brown paint on this may be a little bit different as well, maybe a bit darker. Both figures do look identical, unless you read the writing.


Would be interested to know anything about this, if this is correct, and if this occurs with other figures. Maybe the 1992 on Recoil has something to do with Colonel Courage that used the same legs.


Recoil at YoJoe.com

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YoJoe doesn't list it on the main Recoil page, but this is listed under the variations section:



Might be related to what you're observing.

Most, if not all, 1989 figures have a variant. usualy it's defined by the switch from "Made in Hong Kong" mark to a "Made in China" mark.


Can you get some pics of your Recoil....I'd have to do some checking...but I think I recall seeing bagged Recoil figures from the 1992 convention http://www.yojoe.com/action/convention/ either that or it could be a Chinese or Korean carded figure.

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I have "inside" information on this very matter, or at least a related matter... And I have talked about it every since I got on the various boards, but no one seem to care about it.

In Europe, all figures were "made in china".
We thought "made in Hong Kong" ment they were fake.

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It is likely that the different date has to do with the legs being used on a later figure. It could be that your figure is actually from Europe or maybe, China. There are other figures with the date stamp issues such as the '91 Sonic Falcon (Euro version has a different date stamp.)

As Hasbro reused the parts and updated the molds, they did go back and make more of the original figures for other markets. These will often then have the tell tale date changes. But, I don't think there is a definitive list of all the variants like that out there.

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I think you're pretty close to the mark on this, Mike.

Recoil was released in China for that market around the same time as SAW-Viper, Storm Shadow (v1), Cobra Commander (v1.5), Chinese Major Bludd, Duke, and Tiger Force Flint (Lt Falcon/Dusty).

The release date of these figures circles around 1992/93 and matches the use of similar tooling in the 1992/93 figure assortments (Ninja Viper/Storm Shadow, Destro being the v3 1992 version).

So, seeing a Recoil or SAW-Viper or Tiger Force Roadblock or Cobra Commander with a "Made in China" versus "Made in Hong Kong" and a 1992 date stamp or no date stamp at all is fairly common.

Thank you to everyone for your help, it was very informative.

Tried to take pictures of the date stamp but it was too blurry, but here is a picture to compare the figures. The 1989 Recoil is on the left, the one Made In China from 1992 is on the right.

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An update. In a bag of parts I noticed the lower half of a Recoil figure. This one was 1989, and Made In China.

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The "Made in Hong Kong" vs "Made in China" US Recoil figures are both dated 1989.

The 1992 date change comes from the legs being reused on Colonel Courage....then more Recoil figures being made after 1992. That is most definitely a figure that was made for release in China.

I have a question...look at the foot holes. The one from the US is round. But many of the figures made for China are hexagonal. (The carded chinese Destro I have has round...so it isn't all of them) Are his foot holes hexagonal?

Speaking from a stirctly US perspective, I always thought this had to do with Hasbro's shift of figure tooling to China for the 1990 product.

Hasbro started making vehicle drivers in China in '87, but the main single-carded figures were made in Hong Kong through 1989. New carded figures for 1990 were made in China, and re-releases of the 1989 figures that year were also made in China (the "Made In" mold marks indicated this). My assumption there was that Hasbro moved their existing figure tooling for the 1989 figures to the new plant in China where they were making the 1990 figures.

But, um, yeah...I gots no input on the date stamp thing.

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The foot holes are round.

Thank you again for everyone's help. It is very interesting how the same figure can come in different varieties.

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