Wave 4 and 5 came today!!

[Devilbat]

Right now I'm collecting the 25th Anniversary figures, and for now I'm focusing on ones that are on mint cards. So I got a day off from work today, and I was pleasantly suprised to find a package from bbts.com on the porch, and I knew it was Waves 4 and 5. Yes! I had recently bought some DTC cases of figures, and most of them were not mint out of the factory case unfortunately. So I was kinda skeptical that I'd get any figures on good card-backs. But since I didn't have any of these waves, if any were on damaged cards, it was okay and I'd just keep them to open later. I was pleased to find that ALL of them were on mint cards except for Roadblock, but even his card-back was good; it was his bubble that was crinkled on the bottom left corner...

 

ANYWAY...that's not my point. As I was checking out the card-backs, I noticed that Gung-Ho's card-art looked identical to the original vintage card-art. So my question is this: Did Hasbro still have the artwork for some card-backs and others they didn't, and that's why some have reproduction art? And along those lines, who does the new art? I was looking at the artwork for the Cobra Jetpack Trooper and IG Destro, and it looks amazing. (BTW, I LOVE the Jetpack Trooper. I wasn't too crazy about this figure to begin with since it's not a reproduction of a vintage character, but it definitely looks like it could have been. I love it.)

[Stygian]

A very good question, and one I've often wondered myself lately. My best guess is that some of the original art for the card's was either sold, misplaced, or destroyed over the years, therefore recreations were needed.

 

Speaking of; some of the recreations are decently passable, and some are downright yucky. From the decent category I'd pull Duke, and from the yucky category I'd pull Torpedo. Now, let me just say that I'm compairing the new art to the old, and if you go back and look at that vintage card art, these are absolutely iconic images of these characters. In other words, it would be very difficult to top that vintage art IMHO.

[Devilbat]

I agree man. However I've not seen the artwork for Torpedo. Flash's artwork is passable, but I remember the original being much better; it was always one of the images that stood out to me over the years.

 

Scarlett's card-art seems unique though. I used to say that if they ever did new reproduction figures of old favorites, I'd love to see the Hildebrandt's do the card-art; their work was always colorful, dynamic, and sharp. Scarlett's to me looks indeed like their work slightly. Her art just has sharp lines and great colors like their work. That's one of my favorite reproductions of the vintage card-art.

 

I'd really like to do some more comparisons between the vintage card-art and the new stuff. Somebody's doing an awesome job...

 

Oh and by the way...upon closer inspection last night, my IG Destro has some veining on the left side of the back of the card-back, so his isn't mint either. (lol) Hey, two out of sixteen isn't a bad ratio at all.

[Riker]

Very interesting!

 

I haven't bought the lastest waves myself yet but when I do I am going to check this out. It's a shame that the toy companies from the 80s didn't keep an archive of their original merchandise.

[Devilbat]

Destro's art looks original also, as does the helmeted Cobra Commander's. But then I compared some of the card-backs' art on yojoe.com, and they look very similar to the originals, except the "explosion" background is obviously different on the new ones. I don't know...if they're all reproductions, they're very good.