Rouge R&D scientists are sneaking out top-secret Crimson Strike Team prototypes and selling them on the international black market. How? You guessed it: Taobao.

In anticipation of the upcoming GI Joe live-action movie, Rise of the Cobra, toy-collector supernerds are keeping track of any potential development on the action-figure scene. And they have found some interesting leads on Taobao. First in early February, there were sightings of new action figures for the new movie. The action figures were in-packaging and looked very clean and legit. Toy manufacturer Hasbro since asked that those images be removed from their fan website. That’s a pretty good indicator that they were the real deal.

Now another figure has appeared that fans are speculating is a vintage-themed repaint of a figure from GI Joe’s Crimson Strike Team. I found that info on TheTerrorDrome.com, which is what I was going to call TaobaoFieldGuide before I discovered that the name was already taken.  The entire GI Joe universe seems to be full of great names.

If you are a fan of awesome guides, you can also check out their tutorials on how to boil the paint off your GI Joe’s for customizing, or cutting up the hands to get more articulation out of the fingers. These just seem like a good excuse to play out torture scenarios with your little toy friends. What sickos!

Is Taobao a not-so-secret conduit between rogue toy factory R&D staff and rabid superfans?

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