GI Joe Masterpeice Edition Vol. II: Action Sailor

The second of the five Masterpiece Edition sets that had an "official release."



The figure is set in the right, and the book on the left, both are under a formed plastic insert, so as to keep them in place, but has been removed for photographs.





The figure is nicely done, and the uniform is even better than Joe40 in my opinion, because it feels vintage, Joe40 doesn't feel vintage to me.



The figure is pretty close to the vintage figure, but with different calves "to prevent over-extension."



The Head, inside the big box, it says "were mastered from an original 1964 rotomold. Every GI Joe head in this masterpiece collection originates from this long lost, never used master."


All in all, it's a great set. I bought one for dad after I broke his Joe40 putting on a frogman suit. I bought a Soldier (Vol. I) for myself because the guy selling them was selling them for 99 cents a piece.

Last year I bought the FAO Schwarz exclusive (Vol. V)

I have yet to purchase a Marine (Vol. III) or a Pilot (Vol. IV)

I know this topic is a year old, but it looks like a good place to ask a question about the Masterpiece Editions: so... WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE MASTERPIECE EDITIONS?
   
What I mean is, they seem surprisingly affordable, even cheap, on eBay right now, at least in the U.S. Is there something wrong with them?

Okay, granted, they are not nearly as cheap as the NINETY-NINE CENTS mentioned in this post, but even with shipping, between $30 and $40 USD, which is the same or less than any other "modern" figures currently sell for.

(If there's still a place to get 'em for 99¢, pleeeeze let me know!)

From the photos, they look like an extremely accurate reproduction of the 1960s figures, and the prices are far less than the prices asked for 1960s originals. I'm tempted to spend $40 to replace my blonde Action Pilot that I had as a kid (as seen in my icon photo) that I stupidly sold several years ago.

I'm just not understanding why the prices are so low, unless the figures are extremely poor quality.

Unfortunately, due to the immense size and weight of the box with the book, in most eBay offers the shipping cost exceeds the cost of the item. Prices seem to range from $10 to $25 for the figure with $15 to $25 for shipping.

Is there some reason I should avoid these guys? I don't plan on assembling a huge army of Joes (although I suppose everybody says that at the beginning, huh?), but I wouldn't mind having a core group of "classic" style figures, say maybe three or four... or five or six... of the Masterpiece guys, unless there's a reason to avoid them.

I'm asking before opening the box of my first Masterpiece purchase that arrived today. Quite frankly, the packaging looks too nice to open. It looks like a "rare and valuable collectable item." In fact, it's not a rare or valuable item. They're quite common on eBay, often for reasonable prices for mint-in-sealed-box examples. I guess I should just open him up and that might answer most of the questions I have.

But I'm curious as to what you guys think about the Masterpiece Edition, and if there are reasons to avoid them... or reasons this very thorough post about the Action Sailor has not received any comments over the past year.

Thanx for your input.

Depending on how early or late the figure is in the release, there can be lots of stress cracks, or relative few, respectively.

Unfortunately there's no way to tell until you open it.



But I find the sculpt to be nice, cothing of quality, and they have a good construction. Plus a nice book.

ActionYankee wrote:

Depending on how early or late the figure is in the release, there can be lots of stress cracks, or relative few, respectively.

Unfortunately there's no way to tell until you open it.

Stress cracks? That's interesting. Thanks for the info. So in other words, while the figures look a lot like the originals, the quality of the materials is not as good?

Like I said, it's a problem that was corrected later in production. I've got several ME figures. The only one that had a real problem was the Astronaut, who's arm is broken off, and I'm pretty sure that was only because of the rigid space suit.

Regarding quality? Vintage figures get stress cracks too. So there's little difference there.

Thanks. I think I'll see if I can find a Masterpiece "blonde guy" in an orange jumpsuit for a good price.

I have original Gijoes 1960's-70's era & some have stress cracks some do not...
The stress cracks are covered by clothing  so no big deal to me...And most of the
stress cracks are fine and not that bad....

I do not know much about the newer Gijoe figures...

By the way I missed this thread from last year...
Nice figures AY!

Very nice mate

My ME figures are still in the boxes. But I heard at one point they were prone to breaking, which is why I
guess I haven't gotten around to opening them. But I do have a couple I purchased loose, and they seem
to be okay.

Daryl