SUMMARY:
Buzz-Off, the “heroic spy in the sky” was produced in Hong Kong, Mexico (Aurimat), Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, France, and Spain. This bee-like figure twists his waist, spreads his wings, and comes with both an axe and a removable helmet.
The Rotoplast Buzz-Off is possibly the Rotoplast figure with the most individual variance. Each one truly is a fingerprint. In broad terms, when identifying this figure, we can point to the soft (or semi-hard) head with muted green eyes, yellow (or orange) face paint that is applied lightly/inconsistently (the paint is a gradient of yellow rather a solid yellow swatch), very translucent, soft, golden wings (no COO), usually rubbery arms (but not always), caramel skin tones, light yellow or yellow-orange body tones, and boots that will vary between brown, gray and hues in between. There has even been Buzz-Offs found with terracotta boots/claws/helmet!
The figure and the wings are marked © MATTEL. INC. 1983, the axe is soft, marked with a single digit batch number (1-4 typically), and has the darkest brown of all other Buzz-Off Axes of other COOs. The helmet is soft as well, and is marked © MATTEL. INC. 1983 vertically, and usually has a 1 or 2 batch number. It's common for the color of the helmet to match the boots and claws of the figure, but not necessarily.
The legs can either be the standard Buzz-Off spiky leg mold or can use the Skeletor leg mold.
The face sometimes can have a very haphazard paint application. I use to believe this was custom painted, but at this point, I’ve seen so many of these that I do believe they were also at some point painted by hand in factory.
A rare version of the Rotoplast Buzz-Off exists with he-man shorts (red shorts with mustard-color belt), and he-man legs. The boots are dark gray, just like the figure’s claws (and helmet).
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Soft/semi-hard head
2. Muted green eyes, yellow (or orange) face paint
3. Soft and translucent, no COO wings
4. Usually rubbery arms (but not always)
5. Caramel skin tones
6. Boot/Claw/Helmet color that varies between brown and grays
FIGURED MARKED: © MATTEL. INC. 1983
WINGS: © MATTEL. INC. 1983
HELMET: © MATTEL. INC. 1983 (and a batch number, usually 1 or 2)
VARIANTS:
(Not including paint variations)
1. Rubber Arms, Spiky Legs
2. Rubber Arms, Skeletor Legs
3. Hard Arms, Spiky Legs
4. Hard Arms, Skeletor Legs
5. He-Man Shorts and Legs
