Thank you guys for your warm words!

Just added some statistics facts to the post.

It would be fantastic to create here kind of database for Polish bootlegs


Jakub

Jakub, those statistics I didnt need to know. 120-150 each of the Stormies, Veers, Chewy and Vader. Oh my acheing wallet.

Oh Chris, so you wanted to have them all?

starwarsaw wrote:

Oh Chris, so you wanted to have them all?

That was my goal until you posted that. Im a completist. If Im going to go for something, I want to do it right and get it over with. But now Ill need a bigger house than I originally planned on finding and a better paying job.

No need As we tried to count the Polish bootlegs two years before, I can expect there is no more than 3000 items existing of all the series: unarts, originals, deluxes and Elektro 1st gens. You can display them in one little room I think. Although they need some respect, so maybe indeed one room for a series would be more accurate option

Im only after the unarts right now, so Im good to go on that front. One wall will do fine for them for now. But with this section up and running, I can already see Ill be back in the game real soon.

I still strongly believe, that collecting is an art of limitation... Limitation... Li...

Love that write-up Jakub! The unarts still hold a special place in my collecting heart

~Martijn

Thanks, Martijn!

Looking forward to your coming back to the Poles

Ok guys, next step :bball:


Elektrospółdzielnia series first generation

Long time ago, in a galaxy built on paradoxes...

...Some smartass got an idea to produce Star Wars non-licensed figures. He must have seen some Kenner carded items since he decided to create a movable, carded series. That was ambitious, since up to that time, only loose and bagged figures existed on the market in Poland (articulated Chewbacca, original series, first wave of unarticulated series). He choose 20 characters, but during the process of making molds for them, he must have go lazy because he decided to make only three sets of limbs for all of the figures. That's why the glorious twenty have mostly Biker Scout limbs, some of them got TIE Fighter Pilot arms and legs (but not the TIE Pilot - remember: galaxy of paradoxes) and in two cases we find arms of At-At Driver and legs of no-idea-which figure. To make the thing more complicated, some characters appeared in two limb versions. Note: the joints of the limbs were conical in shape, opposite to the balls appearing in laer generations.

This production was a private initiative, although the 'spółdzielnia' word means 'cooperative', and was linked in the communist Poland with the national companies. The private spółdzielnias as a society of handicraft companies, was a trick to omit the problems with the authorities, which all private business had in the 80's Poland. The company's address was Gdynia, 10 lutego street. Until now there is a home for a handicraft society:

https://maps.google.pl/maps?q=gdynia+10+lutego+33&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&ei=xKPMT8ayH8f_4QSS3oQj&oi=mode_link&cd=3&ved=0CEwQ_AUoAg

The card was printed only on the one side, presented some simply drawing of a bang and a spaceship. There was three main color variants of it: red, blue and dark blue. On the top there were titles of the three movies written in Polish: GWIEZDNE WOJNY, IMPERIUM KONTRATAKUJE, POWRÓT JEDI. That means the series could start not sooner than 1985, when the last movie was premiered in Poland. The figure was placed in a plastic bubble attached to the card by two pines.




The figures of the series:

BIKER SCOUT
Proper limbs, three color variants (with detail subvariants): black&white, black&alabaster, turquoise&white



STORMTROOPER
BS limbs, one variant: white with yellow upper arms and belt, details in black and red



AT-AT DRIVER
BS limbs. The torso made of white or alabaster rubber with green, red and black details, limbs made of grey rubber differing in shade, mostly with upper arms painted white. There is unique example of At-At made of almost black grey rubber, torso included.



SNOWTROOPER
BS limbs, black rubber painted all silver, with red details and black gloves. There is an example of all details painted black.



DARTH VADER
BS limbs, made of black rubber, with cape



GENERAL VEERS
BS limbs, made of grey rubber, could differ in shade. The details were blue and red, sometimes gold.



TIE FIGHTER PILOT
BS limbs, made of black rubber with red details. Most of the figures had painted upper arms and middle part of the helmet in blue, green or yellowish color.



HAN HOTH
BS limbs, two main versions: dark blue or blue rubber with painted head and belt; black rubber painted all metalic blue with details on head and belt.



LUKE PILOT
BS limbs, two main color variants: white figure painted orange&black and combined version of white torso (black painting on the chest) with orange rubber limbs.



REBEL HOTH
BS limbs, two versions: brown (deeper or lighter) rubber or reddish rubber. Painted head and some details.



BOBA FETT
BS limbs, made of light grey or dark grey (sometimes greenish) rubber, with hands and boots painted black, brown, plum or even red, chest and crotch painted green or blue, helmet details painted red and gold, rocket painted red. There was no belt or knee painting in the first generation Fett.



ZUCKUSS
BS limbs, three color variants: deep green rubber, dusty green rubber, milky rubber painted all metalic green. The details were painted orange and silver.
At-At limbs: milky painted all metalic green.



PRINCESS LEIA
At-At limbs, three color versions: white, alabaster and black. All with silver hair. Cape included, orange-red. We don't know the color of the cape of black Leia since there are only two examples survived.
BS limbs - unique example exists, white rubber. Could be made by mistake, because of lack of proper limbs or customly by a first owner.



LANDO GENERAL
BS limbs, two color versions: brownish rubber or grey rubber.
TIE limbs - unique example exists, brownish rubber. Could be made by mistake, using Pruneface limbs.



DEATH STAR GUNNER
BS limbs: black version and milky rubber painted all gold version
TIE limbs: greenish rubber painted all gold



NIEN NUNB
TIE limbs, two main color variants: grey and blue, differing in shade and painting details (vest, hands, boots). Only the first generation Nunbs have painted lips.
BS limbs, unique variant made of grey rubber with blue hands and boots. Only one complete example survived, the other comes with one leg only.



WEEQUAY
TIE limbs, made of light pink, dark pink or brown rubber, with white, blue and grey details.



PRUNEFACE
TIE limbs, several rubber colors, from almost white, via different shades of grey, to brown. Different detail paintings on head and torso. One of the versions has painted hands and boots.



AT-ST DRIVER
TIE limbs, made of black rubber.
BS limbs, made of black rubber.



BARADA
TIE limbs, several rubber colors. Most popular are light blue and dark blue, with brown or violet hands and boots, black belt and different face paintings. There is unique grey Barada existing. This character was not produced in the next generations of Elektrospółdzielnia figures, which makes him unique within the series.




Here you may see an example set of all 20:





GUN - was sold separately, in bags, sometimes attached to the card. Most of the first generation gun is made of nice colors, sometimes translucent: green, red, violet, blue. There were also black guns though. The set included:

- Zuckuss riffle
- Snowtrooper riffle
- IG88 riffle
- Stormtrooper (Fett? IG88?) blaster
- Han Solo (or other similar) blaster
- TIE Pilot (or other similar) blaster
- Biker Scout blaster
- Veers (or other similar) blaster
- Cloud Pilot communicator
- Vader's saber




Elektrospółdzielnia figures were very popular in the 80's. They replaced older series such as articulated Chewie or the originals, and co-existed with the loose unarts. The limbs were very badly attached to the torso and sooner or later part of them were lost, but kids liked this series very much. The paradox was, that most of them - me included - did not see the Kenner origins of those figures, so it was kind of shock to discover, that most of them have different limbs than the Polish toys...

Their popularity caused the well known fact, that some of them served as a models for making the series of 10 unarticulated figures. Interesting thing is, that one of them, At-St Driver, was molded in the BS limb version, which was very rare, the TIE limb variant was way more popular.


What is sad today, the Elektrospółdzielnia series is not much sought after by the collectors. They deserve lot of love, they can give you great pleasure when displayed! And still, there is no complete collection of carded set! Glorious creatures, those 30-years old rubber figures...


To be continued...

Jakub

Oh black and white leia are so awesome!

Thanks for the education and pics, for me bootlegs as of late give
me the most satisfaction. Im cant seem to get enough info and pictures
no matter how much there is .

What a fantastic article Jakub, thanks VERY much for putting it together for us all! +1

Ladies and Gentlemen: Deluxe!


Łódź is the next important city on the map of serious bootleg lover. It is in the centre of Poland, counts about 740 000 people, for a long time was mainly a cotton industries center.

In the second half of the 80's, one of the handicraft private companies, working as a cooperative, started to produce a series of four Star Wars figures. It wasn't their only work; they made more toys and games, we can find interesting items with the company's name, 'wytwórczość różna', for example:



The series they started consists of At-At Driver, Yoda, Gamorrean Guard and Ree Yees. Each of them packed in a plastic bag with a little sheet of paper inside. It was the last series of SW figures in the communist Poland and one of the best made. It disappeared when the system broke down, about 1989. Therefore we have a short, about three-years period of producing one of the most sought after figures in the Polish bootleg world. You may see the building of the company here:

https://maps.google.pl/maps?q=%C5%82%C3%B3d%C5%BA+jaracza+3&ie=UTF8&ll=51.772705,19.456786&spn=0.005238,0.013937&sll=51.772583,19.456823&layer=c&cbp=13,169.37,,0,0&cbll=51.772705,19.456786&hnear=Stefana+Jaracza+3,+%C5%81%C3%B3d%C5%BA,+%C5%82%C3%B3dzkie&t=m&z=17&panoid=7Af6zQUB8lhtortqCSIiCg


AT-AT DRIVER

One of the most popular SW figures in Poland ever. We may count about 150 examples existing today. It was made as a movable, direct copy of Kenner figure, but the guns attached to the figure was not proper ones: Rebel Commando rifle with cut link and Han Solo blaster. This figure was made in the countless color variants - until now we know about milky, grey, black, blue, green, pink, red or brown, with several shades. There was two ways of detail painting:

- more popular: gold or silver paints on chest, hands and head



- rare: gold or silver paint on chest and head plus other color paint on hands, boots and part of chest




YODA

A dream of Polish kids, missing in all previous series. When it appeared, it was a bit of dissapoint though. Not much similar in color to the Kenner origin or movie character, no cape. The rest of accessories was Kenner-like: snake, belt and cane - always in the color of arms of the figure. The combination of colors was:

- green figure, red arms & accessories



- red figure, green arms & accessories



- blue figure, red arms & accessories



The green version was the most popular. We may count about 40 of them existing, next to about 10 reds and about 5 blues.



GAMORREAN GUARD

Polish bootleg of Kenner Gamorrean Guard figure is one of the most interesting objects to collect. It is made with much care, has it's own gun and appears in numerous color variants. There are about 60 examples surfaced up to now in collectors possession, with 20 axes existing.

There were two color lines within Polish Gamorreans. First, more unique, is more detailed. The figures have painted torso, painted belt, painted details on belt buckle, painted circle on the chest, painted fangs and eyes, and painted sandals. Also the armour is painted not only on shoulders but above the hands as well. Those paintings seem to be made rather accidentally without much of precission. There are five known examples of this line existing in collector's possession. Among them only one is painted similar to the Kenner original. There is also one very incomplete example of this variant.



The other color line is more common and simplier. Not many operations were made on the molded forms here. We have painted belt, painted buckle with no details, painted armour on shoulders and sometimes painted fangs and eyes. The eyes could also appear with painted pupils. There were four possible colors of torso/legs - black, brown, green, blue - and five possible colors of head/arms - black, brown, green, yellow, red. All combinations of those two sections were possible although there is no record of: brown torso/black arms, brown torso/red arms, blue torso/yellow arms, green torso/green arms, green torso/black arms, green torso/yellow arms, black torso/black arms.




REE YEES
Mighty and misterious figure, surfaced very late to the bootleg market and for a long time was extremely rare. Molded of brown, green, grey or red plastic, with green, blue, black, or brown shoe painting and pink, black or silver head/hands. Only 21 examples are known today with 10 guns existing. I decided to gather them all on one picture (not all guns are shown):




What are the holy grails in this topic? We still don't have a bagged Gam guard or Ree Yees, no molds existing for any of those figures. It would be also nice to get unseen colors: yellow RY? grey Yoda? red Gam Guard? Who knows...


Jakub

Great stuff Jakub. Thanks for all the research. Its good to have such a person among us who can do so much to uncover the history of these toys we love.

Just a few things I'd like to add...

I recently saw a deluxe yoda with all green body including torso and arms. Do you believe it was a limb swap or another variation of that fig?

You need to add Fett under the brown color plastic unarts (you had one, you know that!)

The 1st gen fetts come with unpainted gloves/boots, unpainted crotch, green and yellow chest/crotch paint, and I have one example with small paint dots on the knee and red paint accents on the back of the arms that I believe to be original.





Keep up the good work guys! Great stuff coming together around here

Anyone else getting creeped out looking at Dylan's avatar?

Man that thing is fugly. His nose reminds me of this gaint belly button I had seen in a pub in outback Northern Territory. It belonged to some big fat, pisshead bushman, who was holding up the bar. One of those types whose shirt doesn't cover the bottom half of their guts.
Will never forget it.

I have here a couple 1st gen variations that many people might not have seen before.

rubberlike wrote:

I have here a couple 1st gen variations that many people might not have seen before.

Trevor,

This is why I was rather furious Adam send the pictures of those rare figures to me in PM, and when I reacted, he said they are sold already... I wish I have this white Pruneface and black AtAt. I wrote about them in the article though. The green neck AtSt is also nice. Han is unusual, as well as unusual is one of Hans from Joe's collection.

Tell me when you get bored with those!

Jakub

GanjaFett wrote:

Great stuff Jakub. Thanks for all the research. Its good to have such a person among us who can do so much to uncover the history of these toys we love.

Just a few things I'd like to add...

I recently saw a deluxe yoda with all green body including torso and arms. Do you believe it was a limb swap or another variation of that fig?

You need to add Fett under the brown color plastic unarts (you had one, you know that!)

The 1st gen fetts come with unpainted gloves/boots, unpainted crotch, green and yellow chest/crotch paint, and I have one example with small paint dots on the knee and red paint accents on the back of the arms that I believe to be original.


Keep up the good work guys! Great stuff coming together around here

Hey Andy,

Yes, first gens Fetts had lot more variants than I wrote, just tried to make a general impression. Your collection should be posted here as a whole!

Of course, I added the brown unart, missed him while posting...

The all-green Yoda wasn't a 'line', just could be the company mistake or just there was no other limbs around. I know that figure, is quite nice, no accessories though.



Jakub

Actually I think its closer to thousands of each. Just because 150 have publicly changed hands in the past it doesnt mean there arent any more around. Please kep in mind that in the past decade there was less than a dozen people selling polish bootlegs from their country internationally. So what in the beginning looked like ultrarare became very common. IF more people were diging out their childhood colelctions heaps more would show up. Of course the ewoks and some others are very rare but the common ones definately exist in much larger quantities than 150. Just for comparison as I ust read the number yesterday. The "german" Yps Hoth Trooper variant which is considered relatively rare was sold 510,000 times in germany, austria annd switzerland....

Chris_J wrote:

Jakub, those statistics I didnt need to know. 120-150 each of the Stormies, Veers, Chewy and Vader. Oh my acheing wallet.

rubberlike wrote:

I have here a couple 1st gen variations that many people might not have seen before.

wow trevor, these are really new to me ! I love the weapons as well. You dont have one spare, do you?

Oh, Michael, of course your're right. I have only counted what I could count, which gives a picture of today's collector's market. I think the counting action we made two years before was ended with great success - literally all of collectors gave their numbers and I have quite good orientation in situation in Poland today. Believe or not but I know about almost every figure offered to you or other collectors by any Polish seller

What is more important for me, is the true proportion of number of preserved figures. It could mirror the proportion in which they were produced in the 80's. The popularity of Vaders and Stormtroopers are logical - kids wanted to have them badly. But I will never understand the huge number of Veers figures, although I liked it very much as a kid.

Below I tried to set the statistics of unarticulated figures that ever went through my hands, including the ones I had as a child, the ones I sold and the ones I have in my collection now. I checked my archives and realized that I just gained the number of 400. It is a good occassion to do some resume I organized them by their popularity - from the rarest to the most common (number of items written by the character's name). It is quite interesting to compare this to the prices they get on the real life - first three are OK, but what about Boba Fett? And the price of At-St Driver which is definitely not as high as Logray's?


1 Wicket: 4
2 Chief Chirpa: 5
3 Logray: 6
4 AtSt Driver: 6
5 Nien Nunb: 7
6 Prune Face: 8
7 Rebel Hoth: 9
8 IG88: 9
9 Han Solo: 10
10 Lando: 10

11 Leia: 11
12 C3PO: 12
13 Luke: 13
14 Biker Scout: 13
15 Snowtrooper: 13
16 Luke Pilot: 14
17 Barada: 14
18 Rebel Commando: 16
19 Obi Wan: 17
20 Imperial Gunner: 17
21 Zuckuss: 18

22 Tusken: 21
23 Boba Fett: 23
24 Chewbacca: 28
25 Darth Vader: 29
26 General Veers: 31
27 Stormtrooper: 37


That is only for fun! What do you think, guys?

Jakub

some later gens weapons that I am aware of:

That is a lot of SW gun mixed with polish G.I.Joe gun. On certain time they were rpoduced together...

Jakub

here are two bulks of 25 polish boba fetts i once owned.





Intersting to note that the darker fett is somewhat smaller. Also I got these 25 plus maybe 30 more from one source only. I have never heard of another source. The source was german and wouldnt tell me how he got these.
He just told me that his contact got these from evanplast company (he even sold these using the name of the company!) and that they wanted to stay under the radar cause they were afraif to get in trouble because of copyright violation. His impression was that these were produced recently but this cannot be proven.

Interesting to note, that i got the 2 packs from different sources (grey from poland/dark grey: germany) but both had a similar sticker on it with the same handwritten "25" on it...