JoeDeclassified.com

I picked up an Arctic Scarlett about a year ago sans any accessories. She looked good but there was no H on her upper left arm. A few months ago, I picked up one with all the accessories except the pistol and no head. This one has all the ski accessories and an H on her upper left arm. Since the second one was already decked out, I just added the head from the first one.

After adding the head, I was struck at how Scarlett's ponytail caused her to look down b/c of bulkiness of her vest. I assumed Hasbro used the same head sculpt from the 25th Scarlett. Mine looks like ones I've seen in reviews. Is anyone else that owns this figure having the same issue? I would hate to think I have the wrong head.

Also, is there any significance to not having the H burned into the arm?

Yeah, I assume yours looks like mine below. The ponytail hits the top of the coat to give her bedroom eyes. Your scarlett arms look the same as mine?

Here's the second Arctic Scarlett that I added the head from the first Arctic Scarlett.



That would be painful on a real person.

The second one does have H's on both arms.



The first one has no H's.

Nice, I guess yours didnt get branded. Also noticed mine has a "HFE" on the right of her chest and yours is blank. Looks like you have all the right parts, so just position her skiing downhill and you should be set

I checked the second one's chest and like you said, it is blank. Do they stop branding protos later in the production process?

Now I need to get my hands on her companion piece, Arctic CC.

Not sure, just think it was missed for some reason. Folks on here would know alot more about that than me. Hopefully someone will chime in. My artic CC is complete and has the "H" in both arms but thats it, no "HM" or "HFE" anywhere. Good luck in your search!

In my pics, her vest is a little open and you can see the black pen marks.

This is a perfect spot for Pat to speak up...

However, until he does, I will. Basically your test shots, painted and unpainted samples will have the H branding on the shoulder. As we've seen with Gary's collection, some of his figures have HFE in sharpie across the forehead or severe scratches across their face (see City Strike Scarlett). I've seen other figures with a letter and number combo written on them as well (ie those of you who own a Navy Reso Baroness). I've never cornered someone from Hasbro to ask them what the markings really mean. There's must be some Rosetta Stone translation for some of the stuff, while other markings such as the H and HFE are pretty explanatory. This is about all I can think of off the top of my head at this hour.

Most of what I have gathered about the H, HM, and HFE are just guesses based on where I bought them and what I was told. I think all the canceled PoC stuff seems to have shed a little more light on the subject.

Certain figures that showed up from Chinese sellers in gigantic numbers and without any markings (Zartan, Snow Job, Elite Ice Viper, White Out, Ripcord, Storm Shadow) I was told by one seller that they were obtained through a bulk purchase. But the same did not seem to hold true for other figures that were harder to find (Scarlett, Heavy Duty, Duke). And those figures had markings and usually burned faces plus an H in the shoulders. The fact that numbers available were lower on burned in H figures seemed to indicate to me that something weird happened with PoC. I am guessing that a run was done and Hasbro may have paid for them then actually just dumped them for sale in bulk rather than trying to get them carded and deal with retailers who were clogged with RoC at that point in time.

It seems to me that it is usually harder to find figures that are not marked. Most of mine have them. I thought that the markings must be a way of tracking who is responsible for items leaked. But if that is the case, I am not quite sure why there are only the HM and HFE. Why not 5 or 10 different sets of initials to really keep track of who leaked them online?

Someone once gave me a different suggestion. Since unmarked preproduction figures seem to be harder to find (except in cases like PoC where I think a run was made and dumped), perhaps the H and HFE are markings of figures that are actually allowed out of the factory (allowed by the factory...not necessarily allowed by Hasbro) . I am sure there are many ways that that could be the case. It makes sense if you consider the fact that they are not safety tested and it could be a way of marking them as a product that is not finalized.

I would guess that the headless Scarlett may have been a part of a safety test (it isn't like you can check chemical composition without ruining a part of it) or may have been torn apart for a parts compatibility test for a later figure. I do have a parts test for 25th Crankcase. I was really scratching my head over it when I first got it because Breaker head, shipwreck body, Cobra legs...no big deal. Except the head had a fully painted beard rather than a 5 o'clock shadow. Later, I found a preproduction Breaker with the same head. So apparently, a preproduction Breaker was torn apart to see how the parts would go together to make Crankcase.

What I find strange is that some preproduction figures show up in giant numbers while others barely show up at all. How does gold faced 5-pack Viper show up online in full package (twice...two different bubble inserts) and yet barely show up at all on eBay?

While I can't verify one way or the other where the markings come into play, I can tell you with certainty that HFE = Hasbro Far East, for whatever that's worth.