Burger King hardcopy prototype DBZ figures

doomprevails88 Sent me these and they are incredible. We don't know the history of these, and wish we did. I'm dying to know who sculpted these figures for Funimation!

What I do know, is what I can see with my eyes and feel with my hands in real life: these are hardcopy prototypes. (I don't know how you would know this just by seeing a photo.)

Action figure production is explained really well by this website. This website also has a cool write up about Star Wars prototypes. In short, figures are sculpted from wax. A silicone mold is made, and a resin hardcopy will be cast. They use metal pins for the articulation on the hardcopy prototypes. After that, steel molds are made based on the resin hardcopy prototype and the injection molding process is started to product first shots/test shots. First shots and test shots are the most common prototypes you find. They are in weird colors sometimes, but despite that odd feature, they can be identical to the production figure, or missing the copyright info. If they are early ones, they might even have differences from the production figures... like really pointy hair or some other feature that might be a safety hazard. Sometimes figures that look like they might be test shots are just figures that were taken off the production line before paint was applied. Either that... or they were late test shots. I would assume the crazier the colored plastic, the earlier the test shot. If the figure lacks the copyright text, it's certainly an earlier test shot!

Anyway, back on topic... these figures I received are hardcopy prototypes made from resin. They are an incredibly hard material compared to plastic... they are slightly larger than the production figures...  have a little bit more detail than the production figures... and they have several differences from the production figures! The one that doomprevails88 kept has a LOT of differences from the production figure!

So let me introduce you to these never-before-seen hardcopy prototypes! (Ok... ok... somebody has obviously seen these before, but I've never seen these on the internet myself, and don't know anyone who has).

I have SS Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo.

These were the prototypes used to create the toys that came in the 2000 Burger King Kids' Meals. And if you weren't collecting back then... let me tell you... we were all raving over how great these were. These figures were sculpted better than the figures we were paying $6 for in the stores (Irwin reissues of SBC and AB figures)! And they could be had for only $2 (if I remember right) at Burger King in the year 2000. I wish I had the ad in high quality to show... but I do have the actual images used on the ad in relatively high quality! I'm glad I saved those back in 2011 when they were still online!

So let's check out some comparisons...

Note the size is larger. But then when you look closely... you notice that the undershirt has more detail... the muscles on the arms are not bulging as much... there are no pupils on the eyes...

the nose is larger...

the pants have a lot more detail... the production figure's legs were smoothed for adding the copyright text...

The feet don't have that extra hollowed out area nor the peg holes...

A close up shot of the back of the legs as well as the metal peg that holds the top to the bottom half

At first I didn't think Vegeta had any differences... but I was wrong... the top of his hair is more pointy... he has no pupils... his nose has a bubble from a molding/casting error...

The question I wonder about is: Is the reason why the production figure's nose is kind of flat because the hardcopy prototype they made the mold from is missing the tip of the nose? Or is it a coincidence? Also, note the difference in the hair at the top. This particular production Vegeta has a casting flaw on his upper arm, but I don't think all of them were like that.

from the back, the only difference I see is the top of the hair

Again... I question whether the mold for Vegeta had a pointed nose or if the mold was made from this hardcopy Vegeta missing the tip of his nose...

Like SS Goku... the bottom of the feet are not hollowed and have no peg hole...

Close up of the copyright details

And now on to my favorite of the bunch: Piccolo

As soon as I unwrapped this Piccolo, I was impressed. The size of him is a lot more in line with 5 inch scale than the production figure. The cape on him is incredible... the production one is missing some of the sharp edge details completely. Like the others, the eyes have no pupils.

From the back you can see how much better the cape is. There is more detail around his collar and the cape lacks that harsh molding line that divides it horizontally on the the production figure.

No copyright details...

I don't see any major differences, but he looks incredible without any paint on him at all!

The height is obviously very different... The noses look the same.

A little bit of smoothing was done on the production figure where the copyright text is...

Note the casting flaw on the production figure's hand... these figures may look incredible for Burger King toys, but they do have slight imperfections sometimes...

Note the lack of peg holes and the hollowed out portion isn't there... that little circle on the hardcopy looks like it might have been a paint stain or something where a drip of water accumulated...? I'm not sure, but my fingernail doesn't catch on it.

Close up of the copyright text...