Vintage POTA Soldier Ape variants...

[PNGwynne]

Some questions about soldier apes/Ursus variants:

1. How (un)common is the brown soldier ape? I have a maroon (purple) Ursus, but I never seem to see the brown tunic on gorillas.

2. Is the lizard variant only in blue? I've seen pix of some tunics that appear black w/ alligator pattern--is that a variant or a trick of the camera?

Thank you!

[piecemaker]

I think the most common are the Blue tunic,then the brown/maroon,then the Lizard variants which(the ones i have) vary in shades of blue,some being a real dark blue which might look black when photographed.I think there is also a "regular"
Black tunic but i haven't found one of those yet so maybe its more uncommon than the rest.

[z3zep]

The maroon cuffed Ursus is more rare than the maroon soldier apes.

[piecemaker]

I forgot all about the maroon cuffed Ursus,i think someone on here had a boxed Ursus/Urko lizard variant also.

[megoapesnut]

Don't forget about the silver tunic soldier, which is the rarest. I have never seen or heard of a black tunic either with or without the "lizard skin" pattern

[piecemaker]

Wow,i'm getting senile in my old age,I cant believe i didn't mention the Silver Soldier Ape.

[Dave Mc]

There is indeed a black cuffed general suit. I have it. You don't run acrossed it that often and in pics it's hard to tell the black from the standard dark blue, but it exists.

[megozilla13]

There are a few variations of the lizard ape.... blue, black, high gloss, speckled, and pitted.
Maybe others, but those are the only ones I've seen.

mikej

[English Paul]

I've shown this before, but there's no harm in showing again....
L-R, Silver, blue cuffed, black cuffed, marron cuffed, blue gloved, lizard gloved, brown gloved.

Flickr Photo Download: Mego Soldier Ape army

On another tangent. Does anybody remember discussions about Dr Zaius with orange rather than brown detailing? - interesting auction here to view...
Vintage Mego Planet of the Apes Dr. Zaius POTA Loose on eBay (end time 07-Dec-09 0319 GMT)
"One fine day in 1974, I accidentally left him outside at my friends house. When I went to play with the figures again some days later, he was missing. I went nuts and even accused my friend of stealing him. Well, when I finally returned to the dirt pile where we played, there he was, face up in the sun. His formerly brown tunic had turned an interesting shade of orange to match his hair. This stint in the wilderness also took it's toll on the furry sleeves as you can see in the photo"

[PNGwynne]

Thank you all; this is very useful.

Great pic, Paul!

[kryptosmaster]

On another tangent. Does anybody remember discussions about Dr Zaius with orange rather than brown detailing? - [/I]

Bleach

Rich

[English Paul]

Rich. Yeah, that was said, but did you look at the auction I posted. Sun bleaching it seems is definitely a culprit and at least answers the question that sunlight will turn it orange.

[kryptosmaster]

Rich. Yeah, that was said, but did you look at the auction I posted. Sun bleaching it seems is definitely a culprit and at least answers the question that sunlight will turn it orange.

Yeah I did see that one but the first thing that came to my mind was not sun-bleaching. I would think that it would take far longer than a few days and that suit was sparkling white. Plus the cuffs looked very faded and I believe bleach would most likely do that to the cuffs material. I've actually wanted to experiment with a Zaius tunic or two but have never come across a ratty enough one that I wanted to sacrifice for that purpose.
I think the Zaius that was up earlier (last year or so) was a careful bleach job (avoiding the cuffs) and not some rare variant. I could be wrong.
All said and done though, I do think it looks nice and makes a neat alternate figure for your POTA display so you don't have 5 Zaius clones running around, LOL.
Rich

[English Paul]

I'd love to try the sun method, but the sun seems a bit of a rarity here in the UK at the moment
I did bleach one and it just went turned beige, so i'm keeping an open mind on the sun thing.