Saw Hasbro quote on a ARAH mold.....
 

This was the question and answer over at JoeCustoms from hasbro

When Hasbro sold the Vintage molds for scrap, was any consideration given to selling them to the Collector Market? Based on recent prices for Pre-Production items, I'm sure a number of High End Collectors would have paid Well over Scrap Value to own Original Tooling for their Favorite Vintage GI Joe toys. Please Consider the Collector Market in future purges.

Hasbro: Thanks for your passion and recommendation. However, the weight of the steel mold to be too heavy for a collection - most weigh-in around 1 ton each!

thats bullshI34T UNLESS there doing some super old schoolness and injection a huge mold for all the pieces at once which doesnt make sense. My dad was a mold maker i grew up in a machinist shop. smaller molds like that are better and only weight a couple hundred pounds. what he doesnt want to say is that the metal used to make them probably was cancerous! they had huge problems in the 80's with some tainted metal or something? my dad had to remake a bunch of molds for companies at one point. cheers! DD

I don't know, I have heard on several occasions that these molds were huge as they were pumping out way more toys then are made today. 1 ton doesnt seem that much based on what we have been told over the years.

LEAD - it's what's for dinner. I could totally see that; lighter environmental restrictions in 1980. But truthfully, they don't want to release the copyrights. Sell the mold and someone will try cranking out some figures. It's the old, if we don't use the molds, NOBODY WILL!

well about all those bootlegs? do you think they could have made their own or bought those molds from the big H??

They have smaller foot pegs and back pack pegs....IF they were the molds themselves they'd all be the same.... So probably created by the bootleggers themselves.. not including the Funskool molds or the Bronze Bomber ones.

DAYUM!!!! that takes skills!! wish i could do that :p

lol there's people out there creating their own custom figures from casted figures they make themselves so its difficult and expensive and takes time to learn to do it but there are tutorials out there.

Yes that's right i remeber a sight that does that. but it's crazy that they can get it so close to the original troopers and guardsmen.

You could get it the EXACT to the original if you took apart the figure....made the mold for it....then casted the parts for it....Hasbro don't care as long as its for yourself..what they frown upon is the exact reproduction with no altercations (thats why the bootlegs all have different sized holes, etc plus you also find the same bodies but without articulation for cheap in other places so it can be done) and selling it as a original which I know some are doing even mentioning its a custom but still charging the same price.. But like I said it takes a lot of practice. I thought about trying it but the more I looked into it the more I decided against it then I start thinking of it again just so I can make a new Hiss driver head that will fit a Snow Serpent body for a RAH comparison to the 25th Arctic HISS driver...but yea can never get myself motivated for it. :(