Battle Armor He-Man (Spain)
The Spain Battle Armor He-Man was fabricated by Congost starting feb 1986, and culminating with the Battle Armor He-Man with Cassette, in may of 1988. In general, Spain BA He-mans share details in common such as soft heads, fluorescent hair (yellow to shades of orange), orange belts, pale maroon boots and bluish gray, highly flexible accessories. The torso markings on all are ©MATTEL INC. 1981. 1983
FRANCE. The battle damage is painted in gray, so a quick way to tell a Spain from a France apart is to look at the slash marks. France figures have black slash marks. Spain have gray slash marks.
The majority of these Spain (BA He-Man) figures share a peculiarity in that the torso is not molded in chrome (as is the case with all other BAs of other countries). Rather, the Spain BA He-Man is generally molded in gray, and then painted chrome. This leads to wear markings on the torso that are not seen on other BA He-Man from other countries. One of the later release BA He-Man variants was released with the chrome molded torso. Its a white leg band variant, so we can safely assume it was released later down the line.
The first Ba He-Man in Spain were molded in gray, and painted a somewhat dull chrome. They have black leg bands, and their accessories use the Congost mold (blank on the sword, just numbers on the axe). Subsequent Ba He-Man moved to using translucent leg bands, and it appears at this point is when they moved to using the French Marked Accessories. The Sword is marked “FRANCE”, and the Axe is marked “MADE IN FRANCE”.
Both a chrome painted and a chrome molded (white leg band variant) exist. The chrome painted has a much brighter torso than the initial release, and is commonly referred to in collector circles as the “Battle Armor Silver”. It also has a much softer head than the others. The chrome molded variant shares the same mold color as other Battle Armors from other countries, such as the France or Taiwan.
While there can be hue differences in the hair, belt and boots, I generally consider these to be minor changes and classify them as factory variances.
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#mattelspain #congost #motuvintagevariants
