Following on from Shane FS Post on RS I thought I would start a discussion thread as This line has always intrigued me from I first read about it on the SWCA?
Why is it so rare and so few items have appeared?
Did they release any Yoda DSD PD or R5 items?

Look forward to your responses.


Liam

I've only ever seen the Chewy
( from stevemac's collection)

HK COO, Korea COO & BASA

They come from the gods themselves. Each month a small child is led up to a sacrificial alter in the small town of Morococha. Here they are fed there last bowl of corn puffed guinea pig before being sacrificed to the god Cocomama.


Not sure myself mate.
Here is what I could find for yah that is BASA related.

http://www.chewseum.com/perubacca/basadoll.html

http://theswca.com/images-forei/peru-3po.html

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=60040

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t945360/

I am sure someone who knows what they are on about will chime in. Looking foward to the read

Probably not many items were produced or did survive, which makes them so rare.

C-3PO and Yoda were released in the 3 3/4'' line.

Chewie, and Vader(?) in the 12'' line.


http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=60040

http://theswca.com/images-forei/peru-3po.html

http://www.freewebs.com/leebullock/lsafboxvariationmatrix.htm

http://www.foreignmego.com/peru.html


scooped by Josh!!

I can confirm that story. They are more rare now because of some law they call human rights have become stricter the last 20 years.

Is there even slightest possibility to be able to add a basa 3PO to a (my ) collection or are they all if there are more than one locked up in other collectons and the key thrown away?
Any one seen any for sale ever? Would be really cool addition to my focus

Liam, just on a side note and off topic, what's the point of asking the exact same question at three different forums simultaneously?

http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t4503-the-peruvian-basa-line-why-is-it-so-rare

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1083786/

http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11981


Members are now doing their best to give you more or less the same answer on three different boards. Surely, that can't be your intention.

Why not ask at one board first (which one you prefer most ) and in case you don't get a satisfying answer within a few days, ask another?

I see this happens more often (by other members), so pls don't take this personally, I am just making a point, that's all.

Maybe it is just me, and others don't see any issue here.

Feel free to discuss further, as the Basa question seems to be answered here.

Hi Marco.

Your right it wasnt my intention to get the same answer on all three boards.

The reason why I posted this on so many forums is I know there are collectors on TIG who dont use RS and Collectors on SWFUK that does use TIG etc etc. So I was just trying to pose my Question to as many as I could.

I understand what you are saying tho.

Feel free to discuss further

Liam

Funny Skye brought it up on the Chive Cast , then Shane shows up with loose Chewies.

I think Basa might be the rarest line period. I dint believe there is a single MOC known , just the Yoda card back and C3PO removable limbs card back. I mean you'd think one MOC would've survived.

If one ever surfaces for sale, I'd love to watch that bloodbath (and participate in it) because it could literally be a once in a lifetime chance.

I know there is a Basa R2 MOC and unfortunately it is not in my collection. Will have to look around and see if I have a photo or not. And I have to agree Basa is the rarest line as you never see anything show up from them.

Mike

Dark Sith Lord wrote:

Hi Marco.

Your right it wasnt my intention to get the same answer on all three boards.

The reason why I posted this on so many forums is I know there are collectors on TIG who dont use RS and Collectors on SWFUK that does use TIG etc etc. So I was just trying to pose my Question to as many as I could.

I understand what you are saying tho.

Feel free to discuss further

Liam

And I understand what you are saying. Thanks, Liam!

Just move on with Basa, nothing to see here.

I'm just going to cut and paste my post from RS as it seems easier to do haha.

I wasn't going to mention anything for a while but since this topic came up, it seems an appropriate time to throw out a teaser...

While i was in Peru I actually had an opportunity to sit down and interview the two former owners of Basa as well as a few other employees, including two engineers, who worked for Basa for many, many years. While they didn't have many specific insights directly into the Star Wars line, i was able to get a lot more information about the company in general and some of the toy lines they produced. I'm going to be doing a large article on the company very soon but i still have a few more leads to follow and interviews to conduct with a couple of other former employees down there which i hope provides more info. I hope to have it ready in a few months.

In the meantime, to answer some of the questions - what it more or less boils down to is population and economics. Peru is a pretty small country and in the 70s and 80s, it was not an overly wealthy one either. So by those facts alone, the production and release of Basa items was *significantly* smaller than most foreign licensees. When the distribution is that small, what's survived, especially in a country where there wasn't much need to hold on to old toys, is going to be even smaller.

Basa had a long working relationship with Kenner dating back to the late 60s so it was a given that they'd distribute the SW line. As it's been mentioned, they simply imported Kenner 3 3/4" figures and affixed a Basa sticker to the cardback. While we were at the Lima Comic Con two weeks ago, the Jedi Force group had a large display of Peruvian collectibles and there was also a Bossk cardback featured.

I spoke with a number of shop owners down there too and even they couldn't stress enough just how rare Basa items are, even there. One shop owner who had been open over a decade has only ever seen one boxed Basa toy from that era come through his hands. It was a Knight Rider KITT and he had it in his store when i was there. He wanted a lot for it, understandably so, and i was just thankful to even see it.

First of all a big welcome to TIG, Shane!

I am happy that you chimed in to add some new information to this intriguing foreign line.

Please keep us updated about your upcoming article!

I was privileged enough to have at one point owned both the Basa 12" Chewie AND Vader thanks to a great trade with a friend that is originally from Peru. They are great figures and if you didn't know the history, you'd swear that they are bootlegs based on their construction(thin hollow plastic, similar to a rotomolded figure). Incredibly rare pieces and VERY undervalued in my opinion.

Cheers
Joe

Shane Turgeon wrote:

I'm just going to cut and paste my post from RS as it seems easier to do haha.

I wasn't going to mention anything for a while but since this topic came up, it seems an appropriate time to throw out a teaser...

While i was in Peru I actually had an opportunity to sit down and interview the two former owners of Basa as well as a few other employees, including two engineers, who worked for Basa for many, many years. While they didn't have many specific insights directly into the Star Wars line, i was able to get a lot more information about the company in general and some of the toy lines they produced. I'm going to be doing a large article on the company very soon but i still have a few more leads to follow and interviews to conduct with a couple of other former employees down there which i hope provides more info. I hope to have it ready in a few months.

In the meantime, to answer some of the questions - what it more or less boils down to is population and economics. Peru is a pretty small country and in the 70s and 80s, it was not an overly wealthy one either. So by those facts alone, the production and release of Basa items was *significantly* smaller than most foreign licensees. When the distribution is that small, what's survived, especially in a country where there wasn't much need to hold on to old toys, is going to be even smaller.

Basa had a long working relationship with Kenner dating back to the late 60s so it was a given that they'd distribute the SW line. As it's been mentioned, they simply imported Kenner 3 3/4" figures and affixed a Basa sticker to the cardback. While we were at the Lima Comic Con two weeks ago, the Jedi Force group had a large display of Peruvian collectibles and there was also a Bossk cardback featured.

I spoke with a number of shop owners down there too and even they couldn't stress enough just how rare Basa items are, even there. One shop owner who had been open over a decade has only ever seen one boxed Basa toy from that era come through his hands. It was a Knight Rider KITT and he had it in his store when i was there. He wanted a lot for it, understandably so, and i was just thankful to even see it.

C'mon, Shane. The sacrifice thing sounded so much more exciting

Just kidding. Thanks for sharing what you found out on your travels. Awesome bit of info.

Thanks for the awesoeme Post Shane and welcome over to TIG

I'm looking forward to finding out more about these Basa cards, I had never herd of them till I read this thread, then I got really interested when Bossk was mentioned.

Bit more info posted on RS by Luis.G

Quote :

Hello

Answering the question of why the BASA figures are very rare nowadays, I can tell you that I’m from Peru and I live in Peru when the BASA figures were released, then I want to share some facts:

I remember perfectly when the Kenner Star Wars figures were released in USA they arrived to Peru in the smuggler way because by those days we had in Peru the final years of a military government (of 10 years), where the importation of foreign products had high taxes and also we had a high inflation ratio (73% in 1978, 66% in 1979 and 61% in 1980) then by those years the Kenner Star Wars toys cost around 4 to 5 times the same toys in USA L then those Star Wars toys were luxury toys for the kids.

In the beginning of the 80’s with a new democratic government the importation of products runs good again then by those days BASA began to import the Kenner ESB line and they applied a BASA ticker on the front of the cardbacks and boxes then the toys appeared for sale in the big department stores as Sears and Oechsle, and supermarkets as Monterrey and Scala. By those years the BASA/Kenner toys price was 2 to 3 times their prices in USA.

As I remember they import to Peru most of the ESB carded figure line plus some ships and creatures and also the ESB Micro Collection. I have some examples of cardbacks and boxed items with the BASA sticker in my collection.

BASA continued importing the toys also for the ROTJ line but they stopped to apply the BASA decal in the figures then most of the ROTJ figures sold in Peru were without the BASA decal; they didn’t import the POTF line.

By other hand, on 1981-82 BASA produced the only 2 figures made in Peru, they were the 12” Darth Vader and Chewbacca. These figures were made by license of Lucasfilm but BASA made its own molds based in the Kenner 12” Darth Vader and Chewbacca figures. Then these BASA figures were smaller around half inch than the Kenner versions and their accessories were a little different than Kenner’s.

Also BASA made its own boxes for these 12” figures using its own artwork and those BASA boxes don’t have a window (Kenner boxes has it) neither the side piece of cardboard as Kenner has on their boxes. I showed the BASA 12” box to Gus, Duncan and Chris and they confirmed that the artwork is special for these Peruvian boxes.

About the price of the 12” figures, they cost around a 30% more than a carded BASA/Kenner 3 3/4” figures because they were made in Peru and not imported as the small figures.

Finally, to understand the rarity of the BASA products it’s necessary to be more specific that Peru just imported the carded and boxed items (and applied a BASA decal on them) for the internal market that was a small market and also produced the two 12” figures just thinking in the local market and by those years nobody there has the “collecting culture” of keep the items in their original packages , they were just toys and the lucky kids whom has these toys played with them and destroyed them.

Probably some kids take care of the toys and played carefully then this is the reason because few figures still survived.

I hope this information helps.

Best

Luis Galvez

Quote :

Hello

I forgot to mention as Chris said that since BASA was a company that made plastic products for the Peruvian market, they made also in the 80’s Star Wars lunch boxes, thermos and pencil cases all with their original artwork.

Best

Luis

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1083786/#post18880291

What are other peoples thoughts on the 3PO Bill is talking about here?
He has a point. It never came on that card with removable limbs.
Or is this why John kellerman left it as a "possibly exists" card in his book. He knew of this one from Luis's collection, but maybe because it is just one confirmed example, he didn't put it down as confirmed?
Anyway. Bit interesting if you ask me.

I'm stumped on it too. I mean the Display Arena (I think) makes it 100% Kenner US since it wasn't offered anywhere else. Maybe Kellerman erred on the side of caution. I mean one cardback turning up in Peru isn't exactly a Toys R Us in Ohio I suppose.

DarthBerizing wrote:

I mean the Display Arena (I think) makes it 100% Kenner US since it wasn't offered anywhere else.

I have the display arena from my childhood.

aussiejames wrote:

DarthBerizing wrote:

I mean the Display Arena (I think) makes it 100% Kenner US since it wasn't offered anywhere else.

I have the display arena from my childhood.

But it wasn't a mail in offer from Toltoys right?

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=80980
Chris just posted up a new article.



What an impressive box they came up with Looks wicked.

Josh wrote:

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=80980
Chris just posted up a new article.



What an impressive box they came up with Looks wicked.

That is just super cool. What a badass box

That box rocks!!!