Since taking a nap in 2014, it seemed that the Outer Space Men toy line was done. Well, it seems that with Colossus Rex 2.0 the manufacturing duties are being handled by the licensors, rather than the The Outer Space Men, LLC, although the original packaging templates and figure toolings are brought back to make a similar-but-different release. If you bought the 2014 original, good on you - it got expensive on eBay and Amazon if and when one showed up for sale. Based on some rough numbers at least 1,000 are estimated to exist of the original, and most fans ultimately just wanted the painted ones - so thankfully Gary Schaeffer brought this one back with a bluish deco variant. If you just want a painted Colossus Rex, either version of this 5-inch-and-change titan should be just fine for your shelves.
Before we continue, if you haven't ordered this one yet I would advise waiting for this Friday night. TheOuterSpaceMen.com will also be selling glow-in-the-dark Cosmic Radiation Gamma-X, so you can order both in the same box. Shipping ain't free, so get 'em both at the same time.
For those keeping track, as of this batch of figures there are now 5 different mass-produced Glyos-compatible Colossus Rex figures plus two hand-painted customized Galactic Holiday 2013 figures. Each one is made of 22 parts, many of which can pop apart at each point of articulation. The shield's clip is on a joint. Each moving arm and leg can be popped off. You can swap heads with other figures if you like. It's nice.
It's worth noting that changes were made beyond just paint. The original 2014 Colossus Rex [FOTD #525] was cast in white plastic and slathered in paint. The 2016 version is bluer, shinier, and slatered in paint - but cast in a metallic blue green plastic. The shield, axe, and mace are cast in clear plastic and painted gold. You might notice some of them have a small scrape, and the clear shows through. You probably won't notice this, but a tiny bit on the bottom of mine flaked off thanks to the tight right fist. The smaller mace weapon had no problems sliding in either hand.
What you may not know is that the original bendable figure from the 1960s has a deco variant. I don't mean like a Bullmark copy or one of the many knock-offs, but there's a bluer version with green eyes as opposed to a greener version with red eyes. The 2016 figure mimics much of that variant - the scales on his skin are a very bright and light blue green, which seems lighter than the original figure. The new figure's eyes are still red, but the belt has changed - the three dots on the buckles are gold, rather than purple. This sets it apart nicely.
His accessories are where this figure departs from the originals, which is either good news or bad news depending on how you view "collectibility" in toys. Me, I just want you to get your figure - but some people want many visible changes so they feel their original purchase is, somehow or another, preserved. As such, the accessories are also altered with the clear and metallic purple tints being swapped out for gold armor, a gold shield, a gold axe, and a gold mace. They do look more imposing than the originals, which were all inspired by the Colorforms' bendy figure's candy-like purple mace. It sort of looks like a magic wand, but it seemed appropriate given that he's a big alien gladiator and gold looks a bit more menacing than purple.
Inflation is increasingly cruel, between manufacturing costs and labor and just good ol' fashioned cost-of-living. A $5 figure may be $9, and now a $26 figure is $30... which doesn't feel like all that much of a pinch, even though this figure is not as big or fancy as some other $20-$30 figures out there. It's also a lower run, from a company with fewer employees. Gary's boxing and shipping this stuff himself, and while they're still stamped out in a factory in China this is as close as you can get to the hipster artisanal flavor of a typical action figure. If you're missing Colossus Rex from your stash of figures, this is the time to get it. If you don't have any, I wouldn't necessarily start off with the $30 buy-in, but it's not like he'll stick around forever and there aren't many other of the main characters in their proper colors available for a sensible price. As such, if you're placing an order for any Outer Space Men and it's still available? Why miss out? For those of you who already have everything it may not be enough to warrant buying again, but a variation based on an actual vintage variation? Yes please.
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