To finish
the first batch of Tiger Force figures, I will show Outback and Psyche-Out
today. These two are "European Exclusive" figures; as we mentioned in the last entry, but we didn't specified what does this exactly mean: The "euro excl." figures
were only available in: Great Britain,
Spain, Italy, Netherlands,
Belgium, France, Greece,
Germany, Sweden, Finland
and Denmark, with only one curious exception: Duke and Lifeline were not available in Germany, Sweden,
Denmark or Finland. For
some reason, these figures do not appear in catalogues and promotional
leaflets. As a proof, I include the following two pictures:
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| German promotional leaflet |
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| German catalogue included in vehicles (blueprints on the back) |
It is very
interesting to see that the figures Outback and Psyche-Out in the previous images
are actually prototypes. If you know the figures, you'll probably notice
that Outback’s T-shirt is slightly different from the released one: the mouth of the tiger is orange,
while in produced figures, the mouth is black. The difference in Psyche-Out is
more difficult to see: the harness in his chest has black background instead of
grey. These same prototypes also appear in the catalogues for the rest of
European countries, see for example, next picture.
Also interesting is that in the last picture, all figures are mirrored, while in the German edition they’re not.
A further difference
about these two catalogue images is even more obvious: German catalogue depicts
the figures WITHOUT weapons. The reason for this is that laws in Germany are very
restrictive with violent games and toys, and it is forbidden to display weapons
of any kind in toy packages. As a result of this, a lot of blister artwork had
to be redone only for Germany
(plus Sweden, Finland and Denmark, although I don’t know if
in these countries weapons are allowed in toy packages).
And finally let's go to the figures:
Outback (v2)
The survivalist and jungle specialist is one of the most beloved figures in the
whole collection. It was originally released in 1987, and it was the figure I
always wanted to have, but for some reason, I never got. When the new 1988 wave
came, the figure was available in this other decoration and I got it a a
birthday present from my aunt. Now I am even gladder than then, because if I
had to buy it now, I would need a lot of money for that. The two versions have similar camo trousers, but the t-shirt
changes its color from one to the other.
The figure came with a brown backpack, a brown belt, a green torch that could be attached to his leg and a black rifle with strap. The torch in the picture above is not the original, but the one from Outback v1. In this version, the lamp of the torch should be painted white. The strap of the rifle (Hekler & Koch) is also broken, what is very common in this particular accesory.
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| Tiger Force Outback - Spanish Filecard (Jungla) |
Psyche-Out (v2)
The expert in deceptive warfare was another figure from 1987 re-released one
year later in a quite different outfit. While the original had a bright green
jacket, the new one came in orange, giving a complete different aspect to the
character. This figure is also an Euro exclusive figure, but it is not so
popular as Outback, and that´s why its price is not so high today.
The figure came with a grey antenna attached to his head, a black pistol, two antennas (2 pieces each red/grey) that would fit his wrists, and a grey communications device with a red antenna (2 pieces)
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| Tiger Force Psyche-Out - Spanish Filecard (Psico) |
Article continues HERE.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: OUTBACK and PSYCHE-OUT
- Alternate Names: JUNGLA and PSICO (Spain)
- Toy Line: G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero
- Year: 1988
- Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figures: 11 cms or 3,75’’
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