LEGO Island Two Versions Of Infomaniac Minifig?

[ZANTHERA]

This summer just gone I picked up the original 1997 Infomaniac minifig that came with the big box version of LEGO Island but it's one I've never seen before nor can find any info on.

 

The entire purchase was a bit of an oddity, I found it on a glitched listing on eBay that only showed up under certain circumstances, you couldn't find it through a regular search even though the title was perfectly fine, after buying it I tried to find info on this issue of the figure.

 

I have the polybag release which has suffered from the usual internal paint disintegration but this other version is in a purpose made clam shell that fits perfectly into the big box version of the game, does anyone else have this particular fig?

 

 

Below are the two box designs I've found online, and yes one of them is not a stock photo and a picture from eBay of one that sold last December, did anyone here get this copy that was sealed with an Infomaniac in it?

 

I was super bummed to have missed this, especially since it sold for 15 bucks!

 

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Lair]

2 hours ago, ZANTHERA said:

The entire purchase was a bit of an oddity, I found it on a glitched listing on eBay that only showed up under certain circumstances, you couldn't find it through a regular search even though the title was perfectly fine

I think you may have bought a cursed minifigure.

 

Is there any printing different with the Infomaniac figure you're talking about? Or is this just a different packaging that you mean here?

 

 

[ZANTHERA]

Nothing is different with the figure, as pictured above it's exactly the same as the polybag version, it also has the LEGO logo on the back like the polybag version too.

 

It's definitely real, the guy I got it from said it came from his own LEGO Island game box, the reason I pictured the two different variant of boxes is that maybe one of them has only the polybag version and the other has this clam shell version.

[ZANTHERA]

Not that many have looked at this but I think I have figured out which Infomaniac would have come first. The one with the sticker at the bottom right of the box must have been the first as they simply placed a sticker on existing boxes, hence the reason the "free comic" is advertised twice.

 

That means the second run that included the Infomaniac came from the second box design which has the "free inside" actually printed on the completely redesigned artwork for the box.

 

So my thinking is that the first run of figures are the ones that came in the polybag and then the second run are the ones that came in the clam shell.

 

I'm not sure why this didn't click earlier but this means that there is more than likely a chance that the sealed box with the Infomaniac inside would have contained the clam shell version I already have in mint condition, hell the one I have could very well be from that box unless someone here bought it.