This may be the most exciting news about GI Joes history in a long time. I still wonder if they ever made or at least hand painted any Snake Eyes figures with the camo pants.

Wow -- just when I think I can't be surprised anymore. I'm amazed, really. Sort of feel like I'm looking at a Breaker from an alternate universe.

The Breaker head looks somewhat close to the Flash/Steeler/Short-Fuze/Hawk head, but clearly there's more detail in the hair.

I wonder to what degree this also explains the fact that in the comic book, Breaker WAS clean-shaven, and Zap DID have a mustache. (And yet, Breaker had a beard in the cartoon).

I can see why Hasbro might not want to "confuse" things with a bunch of new headsculpts in 1983 -- and yet, this is clearly a production level figure, which would indicate that the molds were ready to go, not to mention the paint stencils, which means that they had to eat that expense. Maybe G.I. Joe had been so successful, they could afford to do so.

I can also see why this didn't happen right off in 1982. G.I. Joe was untested, unknown, no one knew how it was going to fare, so the number of parts actually made were kept to as much of a minimum as they felt they could get away with.

I'm having deja vu. I'm sure I saw this before somewhere.

I'm sure the very early cartoon commercials might help tell as well. I think the MASS Device cartoons had more accurate turn around a when they began production. I'll also speculate the cartoon O13 had unique colors to help distinguish each character on screen.

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It's interesting that people theorize that Thunder was intended to be Clutch... I always felt that Thunder looked a lot like Clutch's portrayal in the Marvel run.

And yes, 2up wax info is interesting. How much info is out there? Blowtorch and Rip Cord would be good candidates for O13 heads.

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This is unbelievable news! I'm so used to seeing Rock & Roll as Breaker and Clutch, it's tough to rewire that face in my brain. But how cool is it to see something "new" from the '83/'84 vintage?!

Wow. It's never ceases to amaze me how much there is still to find out about 30 years ago. Really interesting.

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THAT would have made a kick ass 50th anniversary set.
The original 13 with their original head sculpts!

That's great info.

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No doubt about that!

I'll add the thanks Gyre for the pics and info. As an adult in the hobby my interests are modern era and customizing. However, ARAH, and the O13 especially have a place in my heart since childhood. So even though you never see me engaging in much ARAH talk, this image and thinking of what later heads were meant for original figures really has me enjoying this.

Actually one of the most fun things I've seen hobby wise in a long time

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Ripcord I could see, but Blowtorch I don't. The neck sculpt just doesn't match.

Ace, on the other hand, is a prime candidate. Notice how the hair is sculpted on both.

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Yeah Ace looks very similarly sculpted to this Breaker prototype.

How is Deep Six's neck done? I've never cracked him open before.

Also, could Airborne be a candidate?

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There is actually a long/short neck variation on Blowtorch.

I do kind of wonder why they didn't pull this out for Starduster. I bet they just didn't think to or it wasn't as handy as the one they did use.

I did crack one open once, and the head, for whatever peculiar reason, had a really extra long neck. I don't see it as being a contender for any of this.

I think that may be focusing too much on mold instead of sculpt.