Action Figure Resource Magazine October 2014 | Page 4

The basic sculpt is all the same, but it appears that the sword
was left off, and a holster was added. This of course, would be
accurate for the character representation of "Red Eye" so those
changes would have been necessary.
With the premise of these being prototypes, it would make sense
to reuse the old molds and then tweak where needed before
production, so it gives credence to the seller’s claims.
However, I know that foreign knockoffs are often made to look
like the real thing and some are very convincing. Hence my scepticism. If you compare these to the Joyride Studio Apollo and Starbuck figures from the second wave the moulds are identical.
The poses, sculpts, and accessories are all exactly the same. They
even share the same articulation points. The only difference I can
see is the colour of the plastic used on the uniforms and accessories (with exception to the black stands).
I did a quick comparison with my production released figures and
even the hair colour and skin tones appear to be the same for
each of the respective characters.
I’ve tried to find out more but the only other thing the seller told
me was that these figures were actually called “one offs” and
were made before the actually prototypes were produced. Supposedly, he knew someone from the now defunct Joyride Studios,
and this person told him that many times the design team made
these so called one offs for inner company consideration.