Yes, unfortunately the DT saber was removed 10 or so years ago and replaced later with a translucent yellow DT saber from the Earth.
EDITED on 10/26/2012: The original DT blue production saber was separated 10 years ago and a proto yellow DT translucent saber was added. I bought the first shot Ben with the yellow saber included. Since then I have separated the yellow saber and Ben and have displayed them apart as they should be. Even though they are both prototypes, they did not come together! I someday would like to add a blue production DT saber to my first shot Ben to restore him to the way he was originally found.....
-Steve

:scratch: They took it out and replaced it with the Yellow one? Who's idea was that?
IMO these are the sort of pieces you don't swap and change bits on.
Each to their own, I guess.

Thanks Steve for the link! I am learning every day!

stevefdwyer wrote:

...
I would LOVE to reunite him with his original blue DT saber that was sadly sold separately 10 years ago (they should be together). If anyone can help me, please PM me. Thanks, -Steve

... I wonder if that was the DT which James G infamously shattered ('tis an'ol RS legend!) when removing from a figure one day...

Also, just out of interest sake the Mushroom Tipped DT Ben was being offered for sale approx 18 months ago IIRC asking price was $15k.

I currently own an EP Kenobi which goes very nicely with my ROTJ 65A proof

Good luck with the first shot focus.

Regards,
Christian

So with the help of some good friends I found this.
http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=48378
I am still putting all the facts together, but this is my First Shot Ben that is seen in the pics... This confirms the cape he has now was the original.

Christian wrote:

Also, just out of interest sake the Mushroom Tipped DT Ben was being offered for sale approx 18 months ago IIRC asking price was $15k.

I currently own an EP Kenobi which goes very nicely with my ROTJ 65A proof

Good luck with the first shot focus.

Regards,
Christian

Curious minds wonder if that is the same one that sold for 13K, then resold when the buyer went broke two months later..

Steve,

Congrats on finding the missing link for your prototype Ben..

Quote :

Curious minds wonder if that is the same one that sold for 13K, then resold when the buyer went broke two months later..

Smart buy, by the sound of it. :noooooo:

Even if he if he took a loss, all things considering, these are one off pieces and were hand made by Kenner.
Looking at what a "common" Rocket Fett goes for, this was a bargain actually. I am disappointed to hear that it
was even sold in the first place, then changed hands so quickly.
I can also confirm that, beyond question, Steve's FS Ben is indeed that same as the original on from the find as the MT
Vader. The documentation on these dates back to 1993/94' and has been well covered in various magazines and sites since
then. You couldn't expect, or reasonably hope for better provenance on a high profile SW piece.
I can only congratulate Steve on a truly historic acquisition for his collection. How this slipped though the cracks might very
well be one of the biggest oversights in SW record keeping and documentation in recent history. As I said previously, no one is
required to check resources, or do the appropriate research, but in this case I think it's fairly obvious for the lack of a better
or more appropriate term - someone really fucked up

Bill

Thank you Bill. I really appreciate your help with a lot of the historical facts and crosschecking the FS Ben to your years of documentation.
Like Bill stated his MT DT Vader was sold together (as a pair) with my Ben back in that auction. Bill's help has been tremendous piecing this puzzle together. I was also helped by Jason West (thank you Jason) who put me in contact with James Gallo. James gave me the swca link that nearly made me fall out of my chair when I saw my Ben (next to Bill's Vader). That online article was written by Ron Salvatore.
This all started out for me to see if the cape was the original one from the beginning and if it was a prototype. But then the more I searched, and the more friends that helped me search, this turned into something extremely unexpected. I reached out to others in the community for help and I certainly got it : ) Again, I just want to say thank you.
-Steve

Original add supplied by Bill McBride (picturing his first shot MT DT Vader and my first shot DT Ben)

It's a quite an interesting little Easter egg hunt you've been on guys.
You wll have to get a copy of that add framed up Stevo to go with your Ben.

Another add for the Toy Shop auction back in 1998. I found this on Chris G's scrapbook and wanted to share. Besides Bill McBride's first shot MT DT Vader and my first shot DT Ben, you can see some other prototype figures that were auctioned off too. This is pretty crazy considering it is pre-Ebay and truly is a historical auction. Just thought I'd share : )

Oh yes, that is one of three, maybe four first jawas with an unproduced cape. The cross hatching, texture and color is very different than the production version. The most interesting part of that figure are the legs, as they were placed on backwards. Ironically, the seller claimed that the figure matched early displays and the 1978 Action Figure Catalog. Unfortunately, he is incorrect. The one featured in those displays have the correct leg pairing ie straight..

sithtoys wrote:

Even if he if he took a loss, all things considering, these are one off pieces and were hand made by Kenner.
Looking at what a "common" Rocket Fett goes for, this was a bargain actually. I am disappointed to hear that it
was even sold in the first place, then changed hands so quickly.
I can also confirm that, beyond question, Steve's FS Ben is indeed that same as the original on from the find as the MT
Vader. The documentation on these dates back to 1993/94' and has been well covered in various magazines and sites since
then. You couldn't expect, or reasonably hope for better provenance on a high profile SW piece.
I can only congratulate Steve on a truly historic acquisition for his collection. How this slipped though the cracks might very
well be one of the biggest oversights in SW record keeping and documentation in recent history. As I said previously, no one is
required to check resources, or do the appropriate research, but in this case I think it's fairly obvious for the lack of a better
or more appropriate term - someone really fucked up

Bill

Like Bill say, incredible how this has slipped through the cracks over the years. My protomolded DT Luke (which we still need to talk about Bill was considered a FS for many years and passed through the hands of many collectors. I discovered it was a protomold when I got it and that adds so much to the piece.

Big congrats to a great piece Steve!

mattias

Thank you very much mattias. Yes, very unexpected and incredible chain of events that transpired with my first shot Ben.
I'd love to see your Luke. Can you possibly post pics of him when you have a moment : )
Thanks, -Steve

Mattias, you have to forgive me. I have seen your collection of proto Lukes. It is incredible! If anyone here hasn't seen it, check it out http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1062715/
I love the hand painted first shot Luke with cool proto DT saber.... AWESOME!!!! And I also love the protomold Luke! Did the DT tree come from the 2004 Earth find? I love the hand colored photo copies of the blue print Kenner Luke designs that you have on display? My God, that is beautiful. I have been studying a lot of these original blue prints and yours is just stunning.
Again, whomever has never seen Mattias's Luke collection check out the link above.... And the rest of your collection is quite awesome also....
-Steve

Holy S... what a collection!

Nice to see you posting here mattias
If you have some spare time it would be nice if you could post some pictures in the figure of the week threads

For those who do not frequent RS, here is one "sick" run..

First Twelve "First Shots"

Finally seeing the 2nd MT Vader is awesome !! I'm really happy to know Tom was finally able to track it down.
It came from a documented find back in 1993/94, and completely dropped off the radar until recently. Definitely
a cool set

Bill

I'm glad you can verify it Bill. Out of respect for Chris, I was going to wait for him to limelight it first. it is a beautiful set.

dylbacca wrote:

I'm glad you can verify it Bill. Out of respect for Chris, I was going to wait for him to limelight it first. it is a beautiful set.

I'm really not sure what the need for all the hush-hush/secrecy was really. I have documentation on the original find from the Earth, and follow up COAs
that mention have mentioned the 2nd MT Vader, since 1993/94. It was just a matter of tracking it down, and in a sense the whole process was sort of
maddening in a way. One find produces the two known examples - one vanishes off the radar, the other has more or less been in the limelight ever since.
From a collecting POV, those are about as extreme states as you can get. In effect it's always been a "known" piece, but just a tough one to track down
obviously considering how long it took to finally turn up.
There are some issues I'm seeing with the figure however, and the saber looks to be in poor condition, but those things aside, it is great to finally see it
surface after all these years

Bill

Here's my Engineering Pilot Leia I just received today. K28 is written under her feet and she comes from the 2004 Earth find.

So it was brought to my attention that there aren't any Stormtroopers featured here. I know for a fact that there is Stormtrooper pre-production/prototype stuff out there as I've been collecting it for years. So without further delay... let's rectify some glaring absences from this thread.

Lets start with Proof Cards. SW 12 back (from the John Kellerman collection and featured in his book), ESB 21 back Secret Offer Figure. Might be easier to find than the carded figure, ESB31 back, ESB 45 back with display arena, ROTJ 65 back sample card (no proofs of this known to exist, only the sample card and I only know of 2 of these), and the more common Revenge Proof.








So for figures, we also have a few that are out there. Kenner unpainted, non sonic welded first shot. (I don't know of any others that exist), No COO painted first shot, Engineering Pilot w/ number hand written on foot (two pics here). Also in this run is the Kenner Black and Yellow Stormtrooper from when they were looking at ways to expand the line with some figure repaints (this is the same one that was featured on the Collector's Archive and found in the same find that had the Leia with Blaster pack and Ree Yees with trinoculars).







For some Top Toys Stormtrooper items we have the Top Toys Hard Copy, Top Toys Sample Carded, and the Top Toys Silicon Mold. These all came from right around the same period of time, back in the early 2000's with the Top Toys find that uncovered the presentation board, the Darth Vader sample card, Luke Jedi sample card, the Chief Chirpa sample card, and the Lando Calrissian Skiff Guard hard copy. Having it offered to me originally and then sold to another collector (even though I was under the impression the deal was done), it took me several years to track down and get the Hard Copy figure, and that was only made possible with help from pretty significant collectors. The mock up sample carded is essentially a paste up (of the Yoda cardback) glued to cardboard with the bubble glued on. The back is blank and has some writing on it but it hasn't been deciphered. There are staples at the top corners where it appears there was paper attached, most likely a sign off sheet. The figure appears to be production but the arm has discolored somewhat.






Back to Kenner we have some 4 Ups from the micro line. These are unpainted dynacast. A couple from the Bespin Freeze set, one from the Death Star Escape, and one from the Death Star Compactor set.






And finally for the Stormtroopers we have the POTF coins. This is the original Sculpt, the Stage 1 Hardcopy, and the Soft Copy (or Rubber). These are the only ones that have surfaced and that are known to exist for the Stormtrooper coin. It's missing the Stage 2 Hardcopy and the dies, which have turned up for some of the other coins. So unless these other items turn up, this run is considered complete.





For some pre production items that aren't Stormtroopers, I have a few of those that I can hightlight.

Leia Hoth First Shot COO and peg holes. This is a first shot and features different shade of paint on the boots that was hand painted. It's not painted over the production paint and this was sold by a reputable Star Wars dealer from a find of items that belonged to a Kenner employee affiliated with the Sample Department.



Bagged First Shot Prune Face. It has COO but the green paint appears to be a slight shade different than production. The eyes on the production are orange while on the first shot they are yellow.



Klaatu POTF proof card. One sided printing with blank back. This was acquired directly from Tom Derby back in the Cloud City days, and a significant sale list that he had at the time.



Ree Yees Mock Up on ESB Zuckuss card. To me it looks like the boots are a slightly different color than production. Otherwise it looks pretty similar. Not sure about COO but I'm not about to take it off the card to find out.



That's my contributions for this thread. If you have any Stormtrooper pre-production/prototype material, or proof cards, or bootlegs please let me know. I've been a Stormtrooper focus collector for many years now and am always on the lookout to add items to the collection.

Don
bringing Project Stormtrooper buttons to CVI.. come find me.

I am speechless Oceans11! Great stuff, thanks for contributing to my SW education

Alex

Some absolutely beautiful pieces Don especially the 4 UPs - thanks for sharing!

I utterly adore this thread - long may it continue!

As we seem to be tracking down pieces from the 'Earth 2004' find - here's one:

Unpainted No COO FX-7 - glitterly plastic.



I also have one of the 19 translucent proto DT sabers.

Cheers,
Christian
who in homage to Don is undersigning his post and is still missing that 65C Sample Card!