Mer-Man Leo (India)
In India, Leo Toys released a Mer-Man that comes in 2 different head consistencies. A hard plastic head, and the hard rubber head (Pictured here).
The rubber head in this case is molded in black, then painted a dark green. You can see this when the head starts to have some wear, as the black comes through the paint wear marks. There is also a hard rubber head molded in green, and a hard plastic head molded in green. That would be a total of 3 confirmed head variants. (I'm still trying to get confirmation if a plastic head molded in black and painted green exists.)
The highlights of the face are a muted yellow tone, but I've seen them in a light brown as well.
The Leo Mer-Man is marked MATTEL INC. 1981 INDIA, and the accessories are only marked with numbers. Still you can easily tell them apart, because the color of the accessories is a unique mustard yellow, they are both semi-rigid (some degree of flex to them). and the batch number (5) on both match both in number and in font. The harness additionally has the numbers 2269, and its curiously, a short strap harness. This is interesting, in that there are other LEOs with short strap harnesses, such as Stratos (with the short strap harness only seeing on blue beards), and he-man with a variant of the short straps as well.
The sword in addition has a short handle, similar to the France Merman sword mold. I've seen accessories in 2 distinct mustard yellow tones, one darker than the next. I'm unclear if this is just factory variance, color shifting, or truly a separate color released for say a rubber vs plastic head.
One of the stand outs with this figure are the dark green hues in the body, which are darker than any other Mer-Man from other COOs. It’s truly a remarkable figure and one I’m glad to have in the collection.
The rubber head in this case is molded in black, then painted a dark green. You can see this when the head starts to have some wear, as the black comes through the paint wear marks. There is also a hard rubber head molded in green, and a hard plastic head molded in green. That would be a total of 3 confirmed head variants. (I'm still trying to get confirmation if a plastic head molded in black and painted green exists.)
The highlights of the face are a muted yellow tone, but I've seen them in a light brown as well.
The Leo Mer-Man is marked MATTEL INC. 1981 INDIA, and the accessories are only marked with numbers. Still you can easily tell them apart, because the color of the accessories is a unique mustard yellow, they are both semi-rigid (some degree of flex to them). and the batch number (5) on both match both in number and in font. The harness additionally has the numbers 2269, and its curiously, a short strap harness. This is interesting, in that there are other LEOs with short strap harnesses, such as Stratos (with the short strap harness only seeing on blue beards), and he-man with a variant of the short straps as well.
The sword in addition has a short handle, similar to the France Merman sword mold. I've seen accessories in 2 distinct mustard yellow tones, one darker than the next. I'm unclear if this is just factory variance, color shifting, or truly a separate color released for say a rubber vs plastic head.
One of the stand outs with this figure are the dark green hues in the body, which are darker than any other Mer-Man from other COOs. It’s truly a remarkable figure and one I’m glad to have in the collection.
