A figure available only inside a boxed set is a particular kind of rare. The variation here exists because a multi-figure set needed a reason to be bought whole, so one member of it was given a paint scheme sold nowhere else — the set is the release, and the figure is a component of it.

What follows is predictable and is why the distinction is recorded. Sets get split: the headline figures are sold on, the exclusive variant travels without the box that proves what it was, and within a few years the loose figure is being offered as an ordinary release by sellers who never saw the packaging. The set-only pieces end up both the hardest to authenticate and the hardest to replace. Anyone assembling a set back from single figures needs the entry that says which variant belonged to it, which is what this page records.