I spent practically an entire vacation in Florida trying to hunt that Greg Valentine figure down but obviously to no avail...Hasbro never actually made it. The one in the picture was simply a prototype!!!
So 20 years later, having seen numerous customs which were wrong in one way or another, I set out to produce the best replica of this figure ever made.
So what do we know about the 'Rhythm and Blues' Valentine?
Here's the Valentine in the picture:
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If you look at all of the other figures in the advert it's clear that this picture was printed in mirror image...so in real life the Greg would have looked like this:
It's this image which inspired many of us to dream of owning that Greg...but there are actually a couple more pictures of it. The first was from an action figure magazine and was taken at a trade show. It is not known whether it was the same figure as in the advert picture. The two things which make me question it are the width of the separation at the front of the jacket and how much the jacket overhangs the trunks:
It is commonly thought that only one Greg prototype existed but here is a picture from another magazine which brings that into doubt. The paintjob clearly has more notes on the jacket and coloured dots:
I personally chose to base my replica off of the most famous picture, i.e. that from the magazine advertisement.
The Greatest Greg Valentine 'Rhythm and Blues' Hasbro replica in the World!
And here it is! (compared to the original):
So why is it so great?
It isn't just a repainted Honky Tonk Man
Many of the Greg customs have clear flaws. For example, there is no separation at the front of the jacket, e.g.:
My replica has a clearly modelled separation:
Many of the customs do not have the correct arm action and are simply a repainted Honky Tonk Man Torso. Here's a prime example (please note this also only has a painted on skin line at front of jacket):
My replica has the correct arm action for this figure. Moreover the shoulder joint has been seamlessly blended into the figure...it looks perfect! See below:
As noted, generally customs are simply a repainted Honky Tonk Man torso...i.e. the surface of the jacket is very different to the original, the notes are simply painted where they were on Honky's jacket. Also generally Honky's belt is left in place. See either of the examples above. My replica has been totally smoothed out and the notes have been painted exactly as they were in the original figure.
Where other custom have got the arm action right they have generally just repainted a donor arm in white. See below:
For my figure I custom sculpted a sleeve ending onto the arm:
Another key error in many customs is that they leave Greg's shin guard in place on his left leg (from his actual released figure:
Or simply paint a boot over it:
For my replica I fully ground back the shin guard and molded a knee. The boot was then painted over this:
So there we have it...the greatest, most accurate Greg Valentine 'Rhythm & Blues' replica ever produced!
