Some of your others came from the 04 find right, or just the chewbacca? Is the han first shot and the leia blaster the same one from the earth 04 find? I know the Ben came from the earth also, but an earlier find (not rereading but I think you said it was in the early 90s). Amazing that they were originally all sold by the same place to different people only to come full circle and be together again.

I know your probably ecstatic over acquiring it. You did not disappoint when you said it was a Grail piece. I have never ventured into the proto stage, but your collection and the write ups you give with them is something I always love to look at.

Thank you. I have really enjoyed doing research on the pieces. It is a huge part of why I collect. Recording the history, to me, is very important for prototypes. Not only for yourself, but to share with others.
Chewwy came from the 2004 Earth find also. So, besides my new Stormtrooper, all my other first shots came from other finds. The Leia, Han and DSC came from a former Kenner Salesman find that was put up for auction, by Tom Derby 3 to 4 years back. The unproduced prototype Leia Blaster is 1 of 2 known to exist. Mine came from the Salesman find, and the other came from the 2004 Earth find and is in Chris Prince's great collection now.
My Ben came from a Earth find from 1994 and then auctioned off in 1998. That auction was one of the earliest public auctions for prototypes of any pieces from the first 12. So that is pretty neat.

Congrats, Steve. That's fantastic you get to add this Stormie to your lineup.
I learned that Wayne Thompson is the editor of BehindTheToys.com  
and found some photos showing his sets:

http://behindthetoys.com/archive/detail.asp?toyID=959
http://behindthetoys.com/archive/detail.asp?toyID=954

Is that your Stormie I see in there?


Photo: Wayne Thompson

It's cool Wayne still had the original 2004 emails to help nail down the history. Great stuff  

That is 100% correct : )
That is my First Shot Stormtrooper in Wayne's pic, above. He got very close to completing the first 12 First Shot run. He did end up adding a 3PO also, but the Vader was a production DT, not a First Shot. BUT, pretty incredible regardless. Yea, he eventually sold everything off. But his collection was quite incredible, and he has given me quite a bit of advice since I started collecting protos. He is very nice guy.

I am going to bump this up for those that may not have seen the first shot stormtrooper that was added recently. Steve has for sure locked down a truly iconic collection and a ton of history and info in this thread.

EP Jawa added on Page 1 : )

Steve, that's a fantastic new piece of "EP" goodness.

Thank you Clint

Hey Steve,

Fantastic addition!

So when is the next group shot?

cheers man!

Sooooon, I hope.

Fantastic addition Steve.  I thought you would have to bump someone off to get the jawa.  You know I like your collection and can't wait to see the new group shot.

Again, thanks for the kind words guys : )
I'm waiting on a couple more pieces, and then I think I'll try to get that group shot. Photography is one thing I really struggle at....

nice addition , what a great collection

Congrats on Jawa, Steve. Always a treat to see this collection grow

Thank you guys, means a lot : )

Darth Vader EP added on page 1

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Steve, another great addition. The picture is really hard to see is that a "u" on one foot and a "3" on the other?

Thanks Bryan, U and 8, yup hard to see. It is an "un-aged test piece", #8 in the bunch. Thanks buddy. I appreciate the kind words. One more note//// what's cool about him, is his chest plate paint, He has pink paint, rather the red, and some crazy over spray of the white. Neat piece, coming from a former Kenner, Product Integrity, employee.

Congrats again, Steve!
See what you mean about the pink spray ops on the chest plate.
Cool piece!

Vader is one figure I am not the best versed in. So it was helpful to get Tom Derby's take on it. I pretty much repeated what he said. But, the chest plate is pretty neat when comparing to a production piece. Thanks Paul
: )

Steve,
  I think your collection is absolutely amazing mate  
It's been a pleasure to read and learn about Pre-production pieces, something I know very little about  
Cheers Andy  

Thanks Andy. I love learning about them too. I still have lots to learn.

I just saw the comment about the pink paint. Is it possible it is not a spray mask painting and rather hand painted? If they put white on all of it and then went back with just a small amount of red maybe it mixed and turned pink. It is hard to see on the pic but maybe some looks more red than other areas? The handpainting theory could account for that? Even a spray mask if they sprayed it all white then just oversprayed some of the white areas with red it could account, but not as likely.

Those are some really good points. It is arriving tomorrow. I will snap some close up pics of the chest plate and get your guy's opinions. Tom was the one that told me about the paint on the chest plate being different. That's what he liked about it. So I'll post a couple pics within this week : )

Tom would be infinitely more knowledgeable than me. I look forward to seeing close ups of it, but I doubt I would be able to give any kind of insight. I am going to send you a pm also.