Can anyone tell me what plastic was used for the 82-94 ARAH Joes? It's hard by today's standards but I remember it giving enough to be able to hold weapons without the thumbs breaking.

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Standard high impact ABS plastic for most figure parts. Occasionally some PVC would slip through. I have an 84 blowtorch with a rubber hand.

John M>

I liked the later O-rings that came out around 2000.. the ones where they were solid yet the hands gave enough that you could put weapons in without fear of breaking thumbs easily..

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I thought the lower arms were different plastic than the rest of the figure, on at least on part of the vintage run...not soft like 1997 onward, but different.

That sounds right. It's been so long I can't remember what vintage ARAH had "brittle" parts and what figures lasted. Just a few examples.

I had a 1984 Storm Shadow that would break (thumbs and crotch) just by looking at it funny. Even with those made to fit slim sword handles.

I recall a 1986 Viper with plenty of give in the hand/thumb area.

When I was collecting I bought some Joes from Brazil and they all broke fairly quickly (bearing in mind, I was an adult collector then and not heavy handed).

The different plastic occurred to me for the lower arms, but I wonder why they didn't do the same for the pelvis/crotch?

Switching to vehicles, I bought a vintage ARAH Snowcat MIB, assembled the thing and had the white part of the body (that holds the tracks in place) snap off after taking it out of storage.

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Brazil's plastic was poorer, which is why you see Slaughter's Marauders figures with broken thumbs a lot.

Straight arm Joes from series 1 all seem to have breakage prone thumbs and even fingers.

The ABS i mention is for 83 onward. The 82 figures where the more brittle plastic that had the phone break all the time. There was no difference in plastic across an entire figure intentionally from 83 through 94. He just might end up with different mixes different batches that came out a little more brittle Most figures from breaking was from poor design and fit of weapon in the hand unlike the 82's where it was just brittle plastic

John m.

Hmm. Interesting. I had a nice PM from LSA confirm the plastic was the same over the entire figure (although, apparently the mix changed several times).

It's odd because (only from memory) I felt there was more give in the hands for 86 figures onwards. I didn't perform test as such, I just used the weapons a lot.

It would make sense if someone at Hasbro noted the thumb problem and made some adjustments for that particular part.

Re: Brazil figures. Duly noted. Are there any other foreign figures that match the quality of the US ones? I was always curious about the Japanese versions.

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