How do we determine what year an item was released, and why is it important? This is actually a really good question. You'll notice that on most of our product pages we try to include a year in the product title and/or description. In many cases, especially from most of the bigger toy companies, there is a year in the copyright stamp somewhere on the item itself or on the item's packaging. This is one way to determine when an item was released. But this isn't always 100% accurate. For example, that mold may have been reused at some point for a subsequent repaint or re-release. This was somewhat common with some of Hasbro's GI Joe repaints in the late 80s and early 90s. For many of our products, we also tend to consult a trusted online database, which typically has a reliable release year for most collections. You may notice in real life though, that the official release year of the item, the copyright stamp, and the year that you actually see the item on store shelves, can be three very different things. It is not uncommon for an item to be officially released in 2023, with a 2022 copyright date, but not be seen on store shelves until 2024 or later. Distribution issues following the Covid-19 pandemic have further highlighted this problem. So why is showing a date important? Some of our dates may be a little off for the reasons explained above, but the goal is to let you know generally when the item dates back to. This is especially important in understanding if an item is vintage or modern, or if there are known variations of an item tied to a specific date or anniversary, etc. It's also surprising sometimes to see that an item that seems like it was released recently was actually released 10 or more years ago at this point! The date is there to help you better understand the item you're purchasing, how old it is, and whether or not it's the actual one you're looking for.