Salesmen's Samples

Before the days of internet communication and massive TV ad campaigns, manufacturers relied on a large force of salesmen. Sometimes these were company employees, and sometimes they worked on a semi-independent basis or for distributors.   While major outlets like Sears and Woolworths were wooed directly by Hasbro, smaller retailers were often visited by the sales staff and shown samples of product to encourage orders.  Samples were also used for Toy Fair displays and in catalog photo shoots.  They also show up in some early commercials, like those you can see here. These items are very close or identical to production items, but exhibit a number of quirks that indicate  they were samples.  Some sample items, which were made in short runs of several hundred or thousand, made their way into standard retails packaging.  Others went home with employees or sales staff and ended up in their kids' hands.  Those that have survived are very popular with collectors.
If you can share examples of salesman's samples or prototype pieces, please contact me!

Branded Figure

The branded figure shown here lacks the Hasbro marks that show up on the butt of production figures, but is marked with a brand on the shoulder.  Other early issue feature include the brass rivets and red swirl on the chest.  This red material may be mold release agent from production, or red dye leaching from the plastic.  These branded chests are sometimes found with production marked hip pieces.

Salesmen's Sample Boxes

These early boxes are close in design to production examples but are infinitely more rare.  Differences include the plain panel in the lower right with only the "America's movable fighting man" slogan and side panels that show only box art as opposed to the photos of retail packages on the production versions.  These are printed in the same way production ones were, though the bottoms are a rarer paper wrapped type.  There are even rare silk screened versions, though those are more in the category of prototypes.  Soldier box lower left courtesy of Vectis Auctions, Marine box lower right courtesy of Dan Whitton.

Sample Accessories with Paper & Glue Residue

Since samples weren't meant to be played with, there wasn't much care taken of them.  Rather than being sewn to backing cards so they could be removed, they were simply glued in place.  When they eventually fell into the hands of kids they were unceremoniously ripped off the cards, leaving scraps of backing paper and glue residue.  Finding these on items can indicate that they were salesmen's samples.  Below, a number of  early items showing this residue.  The cloth cartridge belt and brass collar e-tool were very early items that were likely only samples, though no doubt a few made it into early packages.

Cloth Caps

Before the standard plastic and rubber caps, a small number of sewn cloth caps were made.  These show up in 1964 catalog images of figures, and turn up occasionally on the market.  As these caps have been reproduced, provenance is very important.  The sailor version is more common that the green billed caps for the other services.  The example below of a sailor cap is most likely authentic.  It was cleaned by the previous owner, which is almost always a mistake as it can end up casting doubt on the authenticity of the piece.

French Resistance Sweater

Rather than being a salesman's sample, the French Resistance sweater below, knit in navy blue rather than black, may have been an in-house production sample.  Other than the color, it is identical to the production version.