OK, after some reseach I guess I've a cleared the story of their history after contacting the seller and after I've verified his story amongst some other BB connections in Greece.
When and where available?These Greek Battle Beasts Bootlegs were available in the late '80s or begin '90s in Greece but unlike the GBB these were not for sale in a toyshop since they came as a surprise gift in a
ice cream cup. Think everybody knows these
ice cups with their double bottom and a little toy underneath it which you could find after eating the
ice cream. So that's were these little BB bootlegs could be found.
But are they related to the El Greco Factory in Greece? Yes and no, these little bootlegs were produced by an
Ice cream company which got the l
icence from Psilikoko which was a subsidairy from El Greco. Its not totally clear if this l
icense was transfered or if their design was used legally. During that time the legal frame on copyrights was ''loose'' back, so it was not uncommon for something like that to happen and these bootlegs got released. So eventhough the company that produced these bootlegs did have connections with El Greco there are serious doubts if the were directly connected to them.
Which Ice cream cups? During the late '80s and begin '90s two companies in Greece offered these cup-toy concepts one of them which is the one that's mentioned to most is EVGA (ΕΒΓΑ in Greek) that sold the Karampola (ΚαÏαμπόλα) and the other was Delta (ΔÎλτα) with the Lucky Cup. It was common in Greece in the '80s that
ice cream companies co-operated with toy companies. Both of them kept selling from the early 80s all the way to the mid 90s. During that time they were constantly changing the toys according to what was wanted at the time or what was playing on TV etc. You could find anything from Mickey Mouse figures, Garfield, little soldiers, GI JOE, Battle Beasts bootlegs, Exogini bootlegs, keychains, toy bikes and cars etc. Anything that could fit in there.
The BB bootlegs appeared sometime in the late '80s.
Why didn't they show up so far when these Bootlegs were actually for 'free'? The reason you don't see them very often nowadays is simply, because at the time they were considered toys and we used to play our heart out of them until they were broken, lost or destroyed. Also Moms are a big factor on their disappearance. Greek moms are obsessed with cleaning. Cleaning children rooms, cleaning warehouses, cleaning everything!!! Once we were old enough and left home, most of them were dumped as trash.
How many are known? By now its clear that Soupie's Yellow Crab belongs to this line as well so with that 3 of these Greek BB bootleg figs are known.
This Blue Boar, the Yellow Crab and the Green Tortoise the Greek seller is mentioning in his auction.
Soupie's figure got quite some attention a couple of years ago on this board in a topic on Exogini.
The old topic In the end this figure (Yellow Crab) got sold in a private transaction.
And now Soupie is the lucky one to have one in his collection.
Which material was used? So far it looks like the same material has been used that was used for BB and exogini figures so they're not made of hard plastic but rubber-like material similar to the Greek Battle Beasts. UPDATE: There might have been a little miscommunication on this point since to me they looked like hard plastic figs in the beginning (confirmed by Soupie bellow) but this didn't came totally trough in the communication as the seller clearly stated a more flexible plastic was used similar to exogini and GBB. As for now I think hard plastic it the most safe and reliable to say as material being used.
How many colors? By now its clear that their idea on the color (was stolen?) came from the original GBB and similar to them these BB bootlegs were produced in a huge amounts of colors and due to that its easy to say they can show up in almost all known colors.
So far the story on these little mini GBB bootlegs or decoys.
Thanks to xag (board member) and the seller for all the information and verifying important parts of it.
I think that with this story we've another piece of GBB history revealed!
Edited by GJNL, 02 May 2012 - 05:16 PM.