Is it just me, or is this thread getting a little depressing?

I'd still like that Sand-Viper...

I wouldn't be too bummed-out about it. Toy companies have tons of concepts that never make it to retail. The internet has made it more possible to view these kinds of things. If anything, just enjoy the historical factoid for what it is. I think some of the un-produced ARAH stuff is more facinating than repaints of bad 25th figs

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True, there's a lot of unproduced stuff in ANY toy line. I think about the photos I've seen of the second year of Visionaries. Heck, the third year of COPS wasn't that bad, except that one of the more bizarre figures would have come with a weapon described in the text as a "noise-making bladder cannon". Hey, if someone used a cannon on my bladder, I think I'd make a noise, too...

And indeed, there's no shortage of RAH stuff that never made it. A fair bit of this was showcased in various forms at the 1993 G.I. Joe Convention for starters.

And personally, I'd LOVE to know who was "on deck" for the DC Universe Signature Series beyond the four that we're getting before that got its plug pulled thanks to insufficient subscriptions, but that'd probably just really tick me off.

So what did Desert Red Star look like?

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I saw pictures years back of the 25th Red Star in his 1991 figure colors, I'm guessing it was the "desert" one being talked about here. Wish I knew where to find a pic of it now. I'm pissed we never got the removable helmet Bludd. Lame.

Literally just a 25th Red Star head (no hat) on the same body as that Desert Major Bludd in the Declass Booth pic. Pretty much like the ROC Desert pack stuff we got, just different characters. ie Bludd and Red Star.

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No. That Red Star was going to be single carded as Resolute (aka Omega Force) Red Star in the later waves of the 25th. Resolute Red Star and Resolute Scrap-Iron would have been in that wave. Which is why those two show up from China together all the time.

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Resolute Scrap-Iron... was that the one that was based on the v1, but unlike the Comic Pack Scrap-Iron, would use Shipwreck and Airborne parts instead of Viper and Cobra Trooper parts?


That's unusual, those Red Star and Major Bludd figures, just their heads on KMart Duke bodies, then?
Weird.

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Yes. That Scrap-Iron. As for the ROC Desert figures it is really hard to tell what the finished product would have been like. At some point Hasbro started doing test shots that look more like mock-ups. These could very well be just test shots that work more like a mock up considering they were just going to be repaints and exclusives, etc.
No reason to do all the work again for things that don't need new tooling.

The test shot mock-up hybridization is really evident for the last two waves of POC. For example the Jungle-BAT test shot is actually a mock up of the 25th B.A.T. with a battle damaged Nano-BAT head. Rock-Viper's test shot is a mock up Jungle-Viper, ROC Arctic SE parts. If you click the link below, and scroll down past Kwinn and the 25th HISS test shots, you will see all of the POC final waves test shots. You can see that new parts or parts that for some reason look like they had to be redone, are cast in grey or blue or yellow.
But everything else is production level. Like Crazy Legs has both Zartan heads, but Blowtorch is completely unpainted. Just really weird but apparently makes sense in China and at Hasbro as far as how they did these particular test shots. So with the canceled ROC Desert figures, maybe they would have had new paint apps etc. Maybe new legs. Or a new torso. Really hard to tell. Unfortunately all we know is what we've found.
Here is the link to Glumby's collection thread on Joe Declassified. The weird POC mock up test shots start right after the HISS test shot. And continue onto the next page.
http://joedeclassified.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=478&start=135

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