Yep! What's cool about the Argentina figures is, like I said, they are made by TCDT, the same company/factory that manufactured the Playmates line in the USA/Germany/Italy.
The Playmates line was from 1999. The Jack line was from 2001. I'm assuming Jack went with TCDT because of their familiarity with Monster Rancher and maybe to reuse some old molds.
It can't be coincidence that the factory is the same and the molds are so similar. The Kato and Naga molds for the larger figures, for example, are nearly identical with just minor differences. And the Suezo molds are basically the same thing with different paint jobs. Maybe they had to make basic changes so as not to offend Playmates or something. But because of the similarities, I'm wondering if TCDT didn't have more production molds that were unused for the Playmates line two years before, and simply used them for the Jack line instead. That makes it very cool to see some of the Argentina figures that are full-size AND different than the Playmates figures.
Dragon, Gangster, Captain Jell, Kuro, Durahan, Dragon Moo, etc are all figures I would have expected to eventually make their way into the Playmates line as they are very popular characters and are unique as well. These Jack figures from two years after the Playmates line could very well be considered a partial spiritual successor! If I were ever able to find some of them for cheap I would definitely pick them up. They are certainly neat!
Yeah lol the major problem seems to be for cheap in this series. One of us needs to find some magical way of getting on that site. I think I am going to try this afternoon to make an account.