BUSTED! "Archer Space Figure" Found to be Glencoe Models Re-Issue After Two Years of Not Noticing

UPDATE! Video lays it out.

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Our subject, obtained summer 2021 with an inexpensive "Lot" of other figures, most vintage, and presumed I'd gotten lucky with an undamaged Force Field Guy. Passed a "clink" test where you'd gently rap it on a wood surface, and both the color and swirl effect to the plastic convinced me I'd gotten lucky.

Only reason the issue came to light was landing a nice heap of all vintage figures (see last image) which included three in this pose. Sat down to make some comparison pix and was startled to learn something new.

My only explanation would be that at the time the figure was obtained I was so paranoid about that intact hose/cable connecting the device to his belt unit that I bubbled the thing up immediately. Boxed em up, found other figures to mull over and simply haven't paid much attention to my Archers since. All lame: One closer look should have tipped me off.

First indicator is the sice of the C in the circle above his suit tanks, and in my defense it isn't very clearly stamped. But from this angle one can clearly see that it's a rather small C relative to the size of the circle.

This was the shocker - I had not understood the underside of his projector was marked, and it is clearly stamped PAT.PEND. in the smaller modern fonts Glencoe used when manufacturing their re-issues.

With this new bundle came the green figure at left, which is the first time I'd had another of that pose to compare the lavender one against.

Difficult to see with something of a crack through it, but that C almost fills the circle, one of the indicators of a vintage Archer.

And the stamping is poor, but that is clearly the older PAT.PEND. script.

And yeah, those don't match. I'd only known to look for the script on the rifle butts of the two figures carrying long guns and the device that another figure is about to toss. I had not understood that the force field generator was marked as well.

The new bundle also featured some chromed figures which also pass the vintage test.

The helmets are wedged on too snugly to pull off for a picture - and look too damn good in place - but there is a large copyright C on both of the chromed guys which matches the green one.

Same vintage PAT.PEND. on all three.

I recall another detail about how one of his hands had to be re-constructed after the original mold had exploded? Or am I thinking of another pose. All that NASA era polyeurthane space plastic has rotted out my memory.

More on this soon. Best figure buy of 2023, other than Parker & Brett.