"The Hood in Karate uniform" doll

[chrisbishop]

I received this email recently, from Matt, who I believe is from Hawaii:

Sorry to bother you but my Dad was give one of the talking Thunderbirds Action Figure a number of years ago. It was "the Hood" figure wearing a martial arts uniform. Actually it was a Tang Soo Do Uniform, a form of Korean martial arts. The box also contains a brown/beige jacket along with the other accessories. I have searched all over the net and cannot find anything about this figure dressed in that uniform. Have you ever heard of this? [...] I would just like to find some kind of info on this.
Thank you for your time.
Matthew F.

As I am not an expert in Thunderbirds merchandising, I asked Matt to send me some pictures, so I would present this question to you. If you have an answer, please write it here (if you are a member) or email me (scarlet1bishop@hotmail.com).

Thanks!

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[Kambei]

Okay. A couple of thoughts here.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert on Thunderbirds merchandise, I know an awful lot more about the OCS field, but I really do know my way around the area of action figures.

I had a good look round myself, and I cannot find any reference to this variant, and I don't remember seeing it when the figures were released, either in shops or in the trade magazines. That does not mean it doesn't exist. It could be ultra-rare. I can't remember The Hood ever appearing in martial arts gear in the programme, though. Somebody prove me wrong.

I would be very interested to know a few things:

Is the box sealed with the original tape? Or has it been opened and re-sealed?

How are the accessories attached to the backing card? Twist-ties or sealed on with clear plastic? If the latter, how is the 'spare uniform attached? It appears from the picture that the hat and binoculars are sealed to the internal backing card under clear plastic, but the beige uniform is loose.

As I said I have three thoughts about this:

1) It is a rare variant on the standard figure.

2) It is a variant that was produced exclusively for the Asian market. Again, in Europe/America it would still be rare and sought after.

3) Some collector/scalper has been playing silly buggers. They have bought a standard Hood figure and were trying to increase its value by putting a non-standard outfit on him, carefully folding and repackaging the original outfit in the box, and telling people they have a rare variant. This practice is far more common than you would think. There are a lot of unscrupulous dealers out there.

I really hope that it is one of the first two, but looking at the packaging, I do wonder.

[Mysteronslayer]

Wow. I wasn't actually even aware they sold Thunderbirds dolls at all so I'm amazed on so many levels.