Most Sought after GI Joe Toys?:)

[galaxystarshooter]

HI All

Which figures and toys in the GI JOe line are the most sought after?

Just curious

Thank you All

[else3573]

I don't collect them, but I know the USS Flagg aircraft carrier, the Defiant space shuttle/crawler, and the "Pimp Daddy Destro" figure are all expensive and rare.

[Terrible Tony]

Rare figures would be Mail Order Starduster, Gold Steel Brigade figure, "Mickey Mouse" 1982 Cobra Commander and pretty much any vehicle driver & exclusive. Also, the Cobra Terror Drome, too.

[brcthrift]

I would say the most sought after that is actually attainable is the gold headed Steel Brigade.

[sinneD]

It depends on the collector, There are tons of joes that are a extremely rare color variant that might be considered prototypes, there are prototypes, recalled and cancelled joes

There are litterally hundreds of them are are more sought after then your generic domestic run

Then you have your Foreign joes that are super expensive as well like your Argen 7 figures

[galaxystarshooter]

Thank you everyone

Let me know if you can think of others as well

[Deleted]

There are a couple of Target exclusives that are hard to find mint on card: Ultimate Enemies with Zoltar and Muskrat and a Hit & Run figure on a larger card with a parachute pack. Ironically the figures and accessories are fairly common and no different from their original releases.

[galaxystarshooter]

Interesting Thank you jancooltoys

[bullvied]

The toysrus Nightforce figures are slightly more sought after than average.

[victoryleo19]

I'd say the prototypes of the manimals and aliens from the unproduced star brigade figures. They seem to go for a couple hundred each, and there's quite a few prototypes out there floating around. Depends on the collector I'd say.

[Toy Box Hero]

The toysrus Night force figures are slightly more sought after than average.

I'm not sure about the newer Night Force stuff, but those 80s Night Force figures and vehicles often command 2-3+ times what their standard counterparts do.

[sharpfork]

Foreign Exclusive figures.

The most sought after would be the Second wave of Argentina exclusives (Cobra Mortal, Glenda, Topson, Redmack, Shimik, Manleh) which go for high prices. A mint Cobra Mortal generally goes for close to $5-8,000.00. A Cobra Mortal Cardback (no MOC versions of any of these Argentina rarities are known to exist) sold for almost $3,000.00

The Funskool India early figures like Blue and Yellow Major Bludd (only 5 known to exist), Red Stalker (Only a handful), Blue Hawk (Only 3 exist), Emerald Zap, Red Buzzer, Purple Ripper. The last MOC Blue and Yellow Major Bludd to sell on Ebay went for $3,500.00. I heard one of the Blue Hawks sold privately for $6,000.00. Some of these wacky color variants are more common though, like the Powder Blue Snake Eyes which MOC goes for around $4-500

Any Brazilain Comandos Em Acao "Black Border" (look like 80s US cards but say Comandos Em Acao instead of GI joe) MOC figures, especially exclusives like the Tiger Force Shipwreck or the Carded version of Overlord are Big Money. Any of them easily sell for $200- $3,000.00. A Sealed Boxed Red Cobra Water Moccasin will set you back $5-800 bucks. A MOC Cobra De Aco, which only two or three are known to exist will set you back almost Ten Grand.

Domestic Stuff:

The Pimp Daddy Destro is a few thousand at this point.
African American Rock N Roll Stars and Stripes pack figure is a few thousand now.
Gold Head Steel Brigade is a few hundred bucks.
The DeSimone Convention "Police Officer" and "Race Car Driver" will put a heavy dent in your wallet.
Manimals Prototypes are about $1,000+ for mint loose examples.

[BoogDoc7]

On a more mundane level, probably the ones with the most affordability are the v2 Snake Eyes (probably the best mold of the series); a good, clean v1 Storm Shadow; and the v1 Firefly, another excellent mold.

[volleydan]

As has been mentioned before, once you cross over the void into international or pre-production collecting it can get very expensive very fast. Plus, much of this stuff can literally only come up for sale once every five or even ten years, and even then most sales are private and not on Ebay or such.

But if you limit your search to only production-level domestic items, there really aren't more than a dozen or so "rare" items. IMHO, the rarest domestic Joe items are (in no particular order):

The first three items are only valuable if MOC, because these are packaging variations only - the actual toy inside is common:

MOC Target Hit & Run
MOC Target Ultimate Enemies set
MISB Benny's Mudfighter/Hiss II gift set

I base the rest of the list on what's available loose - MOC items are obviously tougher to find and accordingly much more valuable:

Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander - first run from the Sears exclusive playset. later versions used an updated cobra logo on his chest
Gold Head Steel Brigade - last of several runs of this figure, but a very different color scheme from the others
Viper Glider Pilot w/mint symbol - the silver paint used by Hasbro wore off VERY easily so a mint specimen is rare
COMPLETE Heavy Metal (w/headset accessory) - the headset was so small it was often lost as soon as the box was opened
any of the mail away vehicle variants (Firebat, Cobra WOLF, Slugger, Triple T, Ferret, and a few others)
Listen & Fun Tripwire (particularly MOC)
Zarana w/earrings (first run, mold was revised as a running change)

You also can't go wrong with any of the Sears exclusive toys (Dreadnok Air Assault or Ground Assault sets, Cobra Missile Command HQ), or TRU exclusives like Night Force figures and vehicles or the Dino Hunters set.

Items like the Defiant, USS Flagg, and Terror Drome are expensive because they are large toys, but not particularly rare.

Someone mentioned the Desimone police officer and race car driver....though expensive, these were not Hasbro-sanctioned toys and many collectors think of them as little more than customs. It depends on your own perspective.