G.I. Joe fans are probably familiar with this guy:
After Ron Rudat’s design for a G.I. Joe action figure was approved by his boss in Research & Design, he would photocopy the drawing and color up to 20 variations for consideration. He and other people in R&D would hone it down to one. Some of these color mock-ups have made it out into the wild by themselves, and that is a little unfortunate. Without context, an observer might see such a piece and exclaim “Barbeque was almost yellow!!!!!” No, that was merely one of many ideas. A few near-complete or complete runs of such color options are in the hands of collectors, and these provide a proper view of the thinking that went into each figure. I’ve seen nine different marker on photocopy color options for Tomax and Xamot and 14 for Mutt, for example. But even still, a lone color comp for a vintage Real American Hero figure is an exciting find. Here’s one idea for the 1985 Barbeque figure, drawn and colored by Ron Rudat.
A Real American Book! 
I think Ed has sold others for BBQ over the years if u want more I may have.
Sent while on the run.
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I’ll just post my immediate reaction to the image here before I go and read the article properly….
OMG! Barbeque was almost yellow! I can’t believe it! What were they thinking!!!
Now to go and read the article. I’m sure my initial insightful observation will largely be echoed in the text.
And this was one of those blog posts where I tried hard to not even have an article, to spend little time on it, and to just post the darn image and let that do all the work!
Considering a lot of firefighter suits are yellow, that’s not a stretch (minus the pink of course). We actually got a yellow and black Barbecue in the modern line (v5) and it is my favorite version.
I know it would make uncovering this stuff less exciting, but I wish they had the foresight to archive this stuff.
Just found your blog, excited to dig in and learn more about your project. Maybe you can join us for JoeFest in Augusta in June 🙂