Hi Everyone,

Just recently bought this & was wondering if anyone has ever seen one before?

I personally have never seen one in my 14 years of collecting Vintage Star Wars. If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very grateful.


Description:

Palitoy Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back AT-AT, Kays catalogue issue, rare complete with plain card box (with Kay Co. sticker to foot), item is Near Mint to Mint still within original inner packaging, Good Plus to Excellent, complete with instructions and transfers/accessories unapplied, 1981 issue.

Mail Away Box Link: https://servimg.com/view/16674227/3

AT-AT Link: https://servimg.com/view/16674227/4


Thanks,
Rich

Great stuff. I have never seen anyone before either. It's cool to see that there are still Vintage pieces outthere waiting to be discovered. Thanks for sharing!

Yzerman wrote:

Great stuff. I have never seen anyone before either. It's cool to see that there are still Vintage pieces outthere waiting to be discovered. Thanks for sharing!

I know, it's amazing what still turns up. Thanks

Could it be some overstock , where the ran out of the sticker for the box ? Or employe store issue ?

BTW. There where a guy who had a MTV-7 mail away in a plain white box for sale on RS some weeks ago.

Any way is's very nice

Soren

soren wrote:

Could it be some overstock , where the ran out of the sticker for the box ? Or employe store issue ?

BTW. There where a guy who had a MTV-7 mail away in a plain white box for sale on RS some weeks ago.

Any way is's very nice

Soren

No, I believe it was a mail order purchuse from a catalogue called 'Kays' in the UK. Bought & put away & never used. 30 years later it turns up for sale & I buy it.

Nice score, mate. Thats a first for me, even if I am from the states. That thing is just sweet. Hope you can find out more on it.

Hi Rich, that's a great find!
One theory could be that the item had damaged packaging - there were quite a few shops in the UK selling ex-catalogue stuff at discount where the packaging had become damaged - maybe Kays mailed out there own damaged-packaging stuff for a discount price?
Another theory is that Kays (to keep costs even lower) may have directly ordered from the suppliers who shipped in a plain cardboard carton to cut out the expense of the printed boxes? Seem to have a distant memory of some Action Man vehicles arriving one Christmas morning via catalogue in plain brown boxes - but these still had the Action Man logo printed in plain ink on the side. Not sure if it was Kays though.
But congrats anyway! And please keep us informed if you find out any more info

Hi Rich,

My mam used to have the Freemans catalogue when I was a kid and I remember that a lot the things she got would come in large plain brown boxes like that also.

All my star wars came from the town's high street, but I think like Paul, that it reasonable that Palitoy issued bulk containers of cheaper plain boxed toys for catalogue companies. These companies would store and ship stock in dirty (ish) warehouses and vans, so shipping in robust plain mailers would protect the contents inside without have to worry about the pacakaging getting dirty, scuffed, or dented.

I was wandering if the outer box is a little more rigid or thicker than a normal At-At box and whether any labels were originally on the box somewhere.

If it is a original At-At mailer then you have something very special as I can imagine not many mums and dads would keep the plain mailer box after the toy had been opended.

Great find Rich, nice one.

I suspect the guys here are correct. Catalogue companies were well known to send items packaged in plane boxes, either overstock or damaged packaging. That's one of the ways they could keep the prices down.

I always wondered growing up in the UK if all families bought pretty much everything from catalogues like we did!!

This is not a theory,...

This is how Keys Stores (UK based mail order compagny now called K&Co) shipped toys and stuff. These toys were ordered directly to Palitoy who boxed them in plain and un-marked boxes...

The last example i saw had a large white sticker applied on the side with the Kays logo and the addressee. Many other large vehicles were found this way.
This particular AT-AT should be an un-sold/ex-stock example.

Nice find....Congrats,

JC

Panastur wrote:

This is not a theory,...

This is how Keys Stores (UK based mail order compagny now called K&Co) shipped toys and stuff. These toys were ordered directly to Palitoy who boxed them in plain and un-marked boxes...

The last example i saw had a large white sticker applied on the side with the Kays logo and the addressee. Many other large vehicles were found this way.
This particular AT-AT should be an un-sold/ex-stock example.

Nice find....Congrats,

JC

I think you are spot on there mate. I will add more picture of the Kays logo once I receive it in the post.

Cheers
Rich

Anybody want to hazzard a guess as to what this could be worth?

Cheers
Rich

Great to find out the truth about this!

It's certainly a cool piece.

I have never seen such a box before, congratulations on your discoveries

That's really cool. Just to add my two cents, a US company called "Avon" was also known to do this kind of thing with modern Star Wars toys. I know of an Avon catalog Darth Vader Tie Fighter from Galoob's Action Fleet Line that shipped in a white box as opposed to the normal graphic box.

I would be curious if there were any other US catalog items that shipped like your Kay's AT-AT did. Or whether other retailers in other countries did the same thing. It would be really cool to put together a "Plain Box" focus collection. It makes sense that they would do this, since we know Kenner and Palitoy had plain white mailers for mail away figures and multi-packs, why not for larger vehicles?

Anyway, supper cool item, man! I love it when a cool find comes along that sparks a totally new discussion. It's great for the hobby, and always keeps it interesting!!

Thanks for posting.

Tank1252 wrote:

I always wondered growing up in the UK if all families bought pretty much everything from catalogues like we did!!

Deffo right Tim lol! For a while me and my younger brother were known as the 'catalogue kids' on our estate due to our clothing

But Christmas was always the best with lots of great toys! Thank you Kays, Grattons, Littlewoods, Freemans etc

That takes me back, my mum and dad got me one of them for christmas, remember unwraping it and thinking what is it? when I opend the box to find the AT-AT inside I was very excited but they had got me a Tie pilot to drive it and not an AT-AT driver
And yes that same year I also got a load of catalog clothes to wear.

Gorneesh wrote:

That takes me back, my mum and dad got me one of them for christmas, remember unwraping it and thinking what is it? when I opend the box to find the AT-AT inside I was very excited but they had got me a Tie pilot to drive it and not an AT-AT driver
And yes that same year I also got a load of catalog clothes to wear.

Great story Gorneesh

pomse2001 wrote:

Gorneesh wrote:

That takes me back, my mum and dad got me one of them for christmas, remember unwraping it and thinking what is it? when I opend the box to find the AT-AT inside I was very excited but they had got me a Tie pilot to drive it and not an AT-AT driver
And yes that same year I also got a load of catalog clothes to wear.

Great story Gorneesh

Thanks, as I am seeing them this weekend I might ask them if they will buy me a AT-AT driver to make up for there mistake but I already know tha answer " Are you not a little old to be buying toys?"

Gorneesh wrote:

pomse2001 wrote:

Gorneesh wrote:

That takes me back, my mum and dad got me one of them for christmas, remember unwraping it and thinking what is it? when I opend the box to find the AT-AT inside I was very excited but they had got me a Tie pilot to drive it and not an AT-AT driver
And yes that same year I also got a load of catalog clothes to wear.

Great story Gorneesh

Thanks, as I am seeing them this weekend I might ask them if they will buy me a AT-AT driver to make up for there mistake but I already know tha answer " Are you not a little old to be buying toys?"

That sounds like my mom and dad

Gorneesh wrote:

That takes me back, my mum and dad got me one of them for christmas, remember unwraping it and thinking what is it? when I opend the box to find the AT-AT inside I was very excited but they had got me a Tie pilot to drive it and not an AT-AT driver
And yes that same year I also got a load of catalog clothes to wear.

Wow! I can't believe you had this as a kid. What are the chances? Shame you got the wrong figure

I asked my mum and dad about this the other day, they said my dad had brought it from a shop that sold catalog returns, he says he even asked whys it in a plan box? and they told him it had got water damged on the box, hence the return and the selling on cheap. He also says that they shop that he got it from had loads of other Star Wars in stock but no AT-AT drivers and he thought that I would not notice it was the wrong one (He was wrong )

I saw a box full of MOTU Screeech some months ago, none of them had the Screeech boxes but where simply packed in some cardboard inserts, it wasn't even small boxes. The accessories where in plastic baggies. Think it was 48 Screeech in the box.

Rawlin wrote:

I saw a box full of MOTU Screeech some months ago, none of them had the Screeech boxes but where simply packed in some cardboard inserts, it wasn't even small boxes. The accessories where in plastic baggies. Think it was 48 Screeech in the box.

Was this on ebay UK?

It was on eBay.com