I just did a really close inspection of mine and this is what info I have, hopefully I did a good enough job letting you all know what I found and hopefully I didn't miss anything.
1- The colour under white and UV light has a definite purple colour tint to it
2- the rope is discoloured with time of course but where it goes around the ball is darker then the rest
3- there is a little imprint at the base of the ball looks like a melt mark with a line in it sorry I can't get a really close shot the one I have there is a white arrow pointing to the spot.
4- have a length measured out with a tape measure maybe we should get some more length comparisons of the real ones verses repos that may be a good way to help narrow them down.
5- On the  arm  you can clearly see the marks where it was held to the parts tree and removed
6- On mine there are no letters anywhere I can see
7- the Jedi ball has 8 squares from hole to hole beads made now may not
8- The arm floats the ball does not.
9- where the arm connects to the ship on one side there is a raised circle on the other none


The melt mark I mentioned



number of squares from hole to hole is 8


One side there is a raised circle on the other none



purple colour tint on ball


pour marks and parts tree holding marks

Brando1274 wrote:

Thank you so much!  Appreciate any help you can provide!

Brando

I am curious if anyone lives close to you who could see you Ball and Rod up close.

I checked though my vehicles and it appears mine also has the smooth Palitoy training ball.

With three 'moulds' stands to reason there will be other 'variant' parts.

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1117388/

I have faceted one in my loose falcon. So no way to check if fake or not? Drop test ?

Hi folks,

I'm cleaning up my Falcon so took the opportunity to picture of the Jedi Training Ball.

These both originally came with my Falcon, which I had since childhood. I know for sure the top one's had it's string replaced but the balls themselves are %100 authentic as I've had them since day one.



Best result I could get with my camera, hope they're clear enough to see...as for how I got two... I can only guess that there was a cock-up on Palitoy's production line

Cheers
T'shot

Just thought i would add mine for the log books........


The post/arm is light grey, it also has a epm/mold circle on the topside of the arm at the string tie end. It is also 60mm long and made by kenner (USA)








The Jedi training ball, it is solid black in colour not translucent or semi translucent. It is most likely that the ball was made with 2 solid halves fused together the same as the limbs process with figures as this would be the most cost effective way, mine does not line up perfectly and it has made a little ridge around the circumference of the ball, this again is a Kenner (USA) training ball.








The instructions showing the Jedi training ball (disco) again Kenner (USA).






I hope this helps

Mark, I would bet the ball is solid just molded with a two part mold like figures arms and legs. The mold probably didn't seat just right so the plastic came in odd on it, but I doubt it was two seperate pieces placed together like a figure torso. That would be an added process that would be more costly. I don't know for sure, but it makes more sense with factories trying to keep costs at a low.

trappedtexan wrote:

Mark, I would bet the ball is solid just molded with a two part mold like figures arms and legs.  The mold probably didn't seat just right so the plastic came in odd on it, but I doubt it was two seperate pieces placed together like a figure torso.  That would be an added process that would be more costly.  I don't know for sure, but it makes more sense with factories trying to keep costs at a low.

That makes perfect sense Bryan I was totally thinking of the torso process and dismissed the limbs, 2 solid parts fused together is obviously cheaper than the timely torso process  

I have just edited, I am always learning even if I make mistakes lol    

:scratch: Wouldn't Kenner of simply bought these "training balls" in from a third party manufacturer?

I mean, after all, it's a simple crafting bead.. surely it wouldn't of been worth their time (or the expense) tooling up such a small part when they could of out-sourced an existing item in bulk order for next to nothing.

It is possible that they outsourced the bead, but given the ease of casting and making a mold I would think it is more likely they made a mold for it. They would already have the plastic on hand. They wouldn't want to be at the mercy of another manufacturer for some quantity that the manufacturer may not be able to supply. I mean if they outsourced them then they run the risk of sitting on complete Falcons with just a bead keeping them from being ready to sell. I wonder if an interview has been conducted with anyone who can confirm if they had molded these or not?

Kenner could of produced there own...mind you, outsourcing could explain why there're 3 different variants to be found.

If Kenner's supplier had had problems with the usual ones they could of offered a substitute, to keep the business, or an alternative supply could of been easily found to keep production lines going.

And don't forget, say, a bag of 1000 beads would enough to supply 1000 Falcons... now, I'm no expert, but I reckon a dedicated factory would probably easily produce more beads in a day than Falcons Kenner produced, or even sold, in the toys life time.

I just picked up my Falcon at an auction for $9. It is missing a few pieces, the "glass" for the cockpit, the dish, the ramp struts, table, training ball and arm, lid for the smugglers keep, I can find most all of these easily, my question is were the action figures just regular star wars figures? Or special made to fit the falcon??

The falcon did not come with figures and figures on the box are regular vintage figures.

I can't recall any promo of a falcon coming with figures. If one existed.

Old thread bumped again.

I recently bought a childhood falcon from a local. He was never a collector later in life so almost impossible for this to be a repro.

The training ball is identical to the one on the left. Came from an ESB Palitoy Falcon.