Hi, I have a vintage G1 Optimus Prime from IGA (Mexico) in MIB condition, 100% complete and mint. IGA was the manufacturer on Mexico under license from Hasbro back in the day. Does anyone have any idea about the value of this G1 Optimus Prime in this condition? This is one of the good ones, which comes with a 'non-toxic' notice sticker on the side of the package, yellow eyes and proper painting. It's not one of those with red eyes and bad painting. The quality is actually way better than the Encore reissue which I also have. I just want to have an idea on the value, I don't want to sell it!  

 

post a pic

 

Ok, I will post pics tomorrow or after tomorrow. I'll have to take it out of its box and then will take good pics of it.

 

Im interesting in this figure

 

Ok, I finally took some time to take detailed photos. I even took photos side-by-side with the Encore Optimus Prime for comparison. I'm posting now the first 20. There are more 19, which I'll try to post next. On the comparison photos the mexican Optimus Prime is always the one on the left side and the one on the right side is always the Encore reissue. There are 2 head close-up photos, it's easy to know which one is which because the vintage has stickers on its arms while the Encore has painted autobot symbols instead. Apart from that whenever it's a single Optimus Prime on the photo it's the mexican one. BTW, the gray ink on the mexican Optimus Prime has had a small touch up I did with Tamiya Chrome Silver because that ink was a bit faded at the time I did it.

Does anyone have any idea on the value of this Optimus Prime? Please note that I'm not selling it, this is a part of my collection and will continue to be.

I have to say that overall I actually prefer the mexican one. The plastic is better and the red and blue inks are better as well. Still, the head is a bit worse and the missile launchers on the trailer suffer from a common problem with mexican Optimus Primes, the missiles are hard to fit, but once fit they fire very well. I wasn't able to fit them well for the photos though.

 

The remaining 19 photos:

 

Why are Mexican TF's so... elusive?

 

What do you mean?

 

How do you know that Prime is a Mexican one? I've had 2 MIB mexican primes, but they were the versions with the red eyes and had no silver stripe on the chest. I bought them both for 200 dollar totally, about 6 years ago. I've sold them once I had a MIB European one. That was 4 years ago. I sold them for 150 each.
Mexican Transformers just aren't that hot, so my guess would be 120-160 at most.

 

Why wouldn't it be? They're not all the same and fortunately there are good ones without the horrible red eyes most had.

Anyway, this is all undoubtly vintage. The box and contents are undoubtly mexican (and I was the one who applied the stickers and opened the sealed bag of accessories and removed them from the plastic grids). Also, the trailer is undoubtly mexican, it has the same missile problems, same copyright marking with removed country, the factory stickers have that paper feel to them that they all have and the clear plastic on that thing that fires the missiles isn't colored.

As for Optimus itself, the difference in the head painting is just the yellow instead of red eyes (not all were red as far as I know), but the paint is not very carefully done, and I'm not talking about the careful silver touch up I did which was only to cover a bit of missing ink in the mouth plate and the part above the eyes. The silver stripes also have that paper feel to them, just like the factory stickers on the trailer. The plastic is good and solid, and its color plus the red ink color are brighter, a bit more "orange". Both red and blue paints are good and smooth, but thicker. The chrome is good but missing a bit or another from its age. And it has a rub sign, which is an original one, not a Reprolabels one.

So, if this Optimus cab wasn't mexican, at least it's impossible to be a KO. The good quality KOs are darker and the plastic quality is worse and less solid. I've seen many detailed pictures of those. Also, the rubber tires of those are bright and not very regular. And there was the need to have been recently bought so that someone could have switched the cab. But this isn't a KO for sure.

Would Optimus cab be a vintage from another country? Why would that have been done? The person doing it would have kept a worse toy for himself. It doesn't make much sense to me.

This cab has to be mexican just like the rest of the package and contents. This was from a friend of mine who collected only rare figures for value, but he has quit collecting. He had it for many years.

About the value, you're not considering this is a better version than those 2 you bought. It is in fact a good and more rare version. So, at least it must be worth more than that, I guess.

 

Some observations on this one;
- The cab has a rubsign, not normally associated with IGA.
- The trailer has a 1992 Hasbro trademark stamp, which would put it in the Euro Classics timeframe.
- No clue what the 'g1907' above the stamp indicates, judging by the uneven spacing it seems to be a temporary block stamp.

The box is most definitely first run IGA. How do you know it's Mexican, other than the box?

 

You're looking at the wrong trailer. That's the Encore one. The IGA one is the one on the left that has 1980-1982 on the copyright. Also, please read my previous post.

 

IGA toys didn't have rubsigns.

 

How can you be so sure about that? I've already seen a mexican person saying that some toys from IGA were Hasbro ones repackaged, or something like that.

Still, if someone wanted to pass a vintage from another country as a mexican vintage why wouldn't they have simply removed the rub sign? Having that said, it would also be possible that someone would have put there a rub sign too.

 

Paging Maz... Paging Maz...

 

Apologies for mixing up the trailers. It would indeed make the trailer most likely a Mexican trailer.

My guess? Somebody replaced the horrible cab that originally came in the package with a nicer one.

Why? If you're not concerned about keeping the originals together then it would be a no-brainer, you'll end up with a nice package.

 

No problem, I just used the Encore as comparison because that's the only other G1 Optimus Prime I have and it helps to spot the differences, especially in color.

Well, if somebody replaced the mexican cab for another vintage cab from another country, it's not a problem at all. It's still a MIB vintage   , although half IGA half Hasbro, if that's the case. Still I must say I find its colors nicer than the Encore, especially the plastic. But the silver stripes stickers on the cab look like paper stickers, like the mexican TFs have. And the paint on the face looks more mexican than anything else, but with yellow eyes.

Now I'm even more curious for more answers. I was just trying to figure out the value at first, but it seems like there's more than meets the eye (no pun intended).

 

Who's Maz?  

 

Maz is our G1 variant expert.

I also own a Mexican OP. He had red eyes (blotches actualy, which I paintet over) and he had no silver stripes on the chest. I had to cut the sticker sheet base to make stripes for his chest.

And when G1 transformers were being sold in my country they were all from Mexico, and neither of them had a rub sign.

 

This is getting more interesting by the minute. Where's an old IGA employee when you need one?...

BTW, the silver stripes on mine aren't cut from the sticker sheet. In fact, the material is different from the sticker sheet, it's paper, and it's just like the factory stickers on the trailer.

I've read stories about due to the lead paint many of already painted mexican Optimus Primes had to be repainted. Maybe that's the reason why many came without the silver stripes. And since mine has them, it's one that didn't got repainted and maybe is full of lead paint. I don't know, it's a guess.

About the rub sign, well... someone could have added it, I don't know. Are you sure there wasn't a single Optimus Prime from IGA with rub sign? With so many inconsistencies in mexican TFs I don't find surprising that some could have had rub signs even if most didn't have them.