Funskool Scrap-Iron
Scrap-Iron’s always been a favorite character of mine, which I mostly attribute to this Funskool figure I got cheaply early in my collecting years. As a child I was somewhat of a germaphobe, and going into my early teenage years I retained this feature; which closed a lot of doors when it comes to an interest in old toys. For a brief window I only bought MOSC figures, which prompted me to buy more Funskool items than I probably would have otherwise (at the time, I had a very scathing opinion on them). In hindsight this was very good, but I’ve wondered if it hadn’t been for that, if Scrap-iron might’ve been overlooked for every other classic Cobra I could’ve had.
The funny thing is though, is that rather than being excited and satisfied with carded o-ring joes that didn’t trigger my germaphobia… I was rather unsatisfied. So much so that I got over myself and started buying old stuff, cause I had too much I wanted and Funskool figures seemed pretty lame at the time. Before they were chic, cool and overpriced, Funskool figures came across as toys for cheapskates, since they were generally like Hasbro figures, just with less paint and terrible quality-control. Then at some point the government changed the chemicals they were putting in the water, which is what made us collectively decide that Funskool rules and the neon-90‘s were actually pretty cool!
Funskool’s release of Scrap-Iron is reasonably solid and interesting. For the most part, he’s the same colors as the Hasbro release, though noticeably the blue is somewhat brighter and now his chest is painted flesh-tone instead of red like an undershirt. I’ve always thought this made the figure look like he’s somewhere unbearably hot like a desert or a jungle, so it has it’s charm, although it’s not too convincing. The upper-arms have also been swapped for Toxo-Viper biceps, which I do think is a small upgrade.
The downside in all of this is that the quality of this figure is complete crap. I do know that Funskool made Scrap-Iron’s for a very long time, and some of them were painted better than others (Vehicle pack-ins and certain odd years too.), but this figure was painted like poo. The paint is thin and smeared in several places, and along his collar is a noticeable bubble that I find very distracting. Now that we’re all old and hunting for novelties, it’s easy to sometimes forget why Funskool overstock was a thing into the early 10‘s.
Of course, a place where you don’t loose out in this instance is the accessories. Funskool Scrap-Iron comes with all the parts you’d get with Hasbro Scrap-Iron, and that alone validated this figure’s existence for a long time. That includes his RAR machine-pistol, and his complete rocket launcher system, all in colors similar to the original’s. At a time when this figure only cost $3, these accessories certainly made him worth it, although that’s mostly lost on newer collectors.
I’ve recently made an unfortunate discovery that my Funskool Scrap-Iron has yellowed suddenly. This one’s partially my fault, as unlike with Hasbro’s 2000‘s plastic that turns for no reason, my Funskool Scrap-Iron got nabbed by his launcher’s missiles. When I pulled them out of his bag, they were extremely sticky, meaning they leaked plasticizer, which probably is what discolored my figure. So if you have this guy, I recommend keeping his missiles somewhere else, isolated from any other parts or figures.
The only two Funskool Scrap-Irons that sold recently were BiN’s, that went for $65 each. I find that very silly, but it is what it is. For figures like this one, the sad fact is that a lot of the novelty they provided is lost once they started hitting around $20, and anything past that would be a very questionable purchase. There’s a lot of very interesting international figures you can get for not much more than that, and a mint complete Hasbro figure doesn’t fetch $65, in fact they barely go for $30.
The Viper Pit 