Well there´s a few things incorrect about the description but these figures are pretty unique items and they are real!
Although they are not really Prototypes as stated because that´s a passed station long ago but they are referred to as Testshots or so called Factory-rejects made within the factory in China. They´re produced in the exact same molds (which had to be revisited or fine tuned) as the original Beasts, as far as I´m able to tell but (some parts) just have not been painted. Besides the Mantfrenzy and Grencats there´s also Fly Dragon, Hornhead, Puzzlecolor and a couple others of which unpainted original parts have been found. What they actual do show is the base color in which this figure was casted, in this case the white of the Mantfrenzy. And although the marble or pearl like thing inside seems to be weird that is actually the thing it might´ve been all about I just realized because the ORB for the LB was obviously a standardized shape but all of the LB casts might be a little of so all of these test shots might´ve been needed to test whether or not the orb will fit in correctly (this is not a confirmed fact but a theory that I just made up because the logic behind those marbles inside was never explained before I believe).
But with the seller referring to LRG he´s not incorrect because these Chinese test shots have been discussed and on the table for quite a while for instance back in 2009;
http://www.littlerub...ina#entry242557
The seller clearly wasn´t the only one who got his hands on a couple because there are more of these out there since more people, back in the days, purchased a larger lot of these because as stated in that topic they were not very expensive back than.
What goes for the Marble theory is also applicable on the wrong and mixed matched arms because the arm holes in which the peg had to fit was also something that might´ve needed some extra checks so they just overproduced some Grencats or other arms and fitted these in the test molds of the bodies in order to ensure the orb as well as the arms would fit in there.
No clear theory/idea on where the paint around the eyes comes from but it clearly is the pink that´s been used for the eye color on the original fig so maybe that was something they just wanted to test in relation to the skin/base color of the figure. In the case of the Mantfrenzy you can see that the face area is a slightly different color than the skin/base color so maybe they decided they´d need a slightly different tone there in order to have the eye color jump out in a more correct way. Which is something that might´ve come from this test as well.
All in all this might look like a weird auction but if you check into the history of the LB discussions out here on the blog you´ll soon find out there´s not much wrong with it and it actually does represent an interesting part of LB History so even though it is not a prototype it is quite a unique item; a Chinese Test Shot.
The price might seem a bit high knowing they´ve been purchased for only a couple of bucks back in the days from China but there´re not a lot of them around anymore since most have ended up amongst die hard collectors meaning they´re not moving around that much and that means that the BIN price is actually not to bad at all.
So far todays lesson
It´s good to be critical but this listing proves you can also be fooled in some cases.
Enjoy the Beasts!
Edited by Beastformers, 13 January 2016 - 10:05 AM.