Daren since you and Steven are the gurus on these mexican sa figures is there a guide in the works? I mean without knowing what the originals from the 80s look like people will buy these thinking they are original. Someone really needs to make a guide of some sort on these bootleg lines and the sooner the better. Especially since it appears the original molds are being used and not new molds made from the older figures. With the original molds being used it makes it a lot harder to identify originals versus new stuff because there won't be mold differences.

I am far from a guru.stevens the one who records info and documents everything.ive just been in the game for a long time.so ive learned a little over the eons man i remember being new to bootlegs and john alveraz being my guru
As for a book,well i was going to do a small run of magazines which would have covered a different line each.but joe has a big hardback book in the pipeline.so no point doing the mags.until joe does the book,its just ask and ask and ask.
The mex line is definatly the most complicated of countrys to make bootlegs.theres just so many spanning so long.its a minefield to try and understand.but they definatly make some of the coolest.

Daren

Speaking of other mexican bootlegs since this is the Mexican thread.....those large blow mold storm troopers, did they or are they reproducing those also? Please tell me no as I just recently bought one. Haven't even recieved it yet. It did not have a blaster like others that I have seen, but the price reflected the incompleteness of it.

Ok, I took a trip to my local brewery and I find myself behind several posts, lol. The current makers of these bootlegs are not the sellers on Ebay or even the sellers in the markets in which they come from. The orgin of these boolegs are from a relative of the orginal owner (factory) and is making these in somewhat smaller quantities. I think the smaller operation accounts for the unpainted figures on sprues and even loose unpainted figures as in the early days the bigger operations of the company by the orginal owner was all loose painted figures and many in packaging. That was YEARS ago. These will have an impact on the value of the figures that they are packaged with, however, most of those have been common, easy to find figures anyway. They will have no impact on the value of rare early versions of this line.

As Daren said (thanks Daren! ) I guess I'm kind of a guru on this line and have been working on an article for this line for a while now. My focus on this line of bootlegs (and this line only) started back in 2006 and have learned a lot since then, however, information is changing even as we speak. A very complicated line it is. Honestly I miss the old days of the common figures like purple Leia, red AtAt Driver and green and tan Luke variants that I was trying to build back then from pictures I saw in the Star Wars Super Collectors Wish Book. Anyway, a basic article will be available soon involving a project that I'm involved in and will explain the basics of this line. However, the info on these new figures will not be in this project.

Steven have any of the 6 or 7 new mini jabbas you know of been made in a different color than this bright green? Are these being injection molded or are they a different method? The original mini jabba auction had some pics of the rear of the jabba with what appeared to be holes or cracks in it so maybe these newer ones have air bubbles and defects the originals don't? That might be a way to tell besides color. The problem is if they try to perfect these they can fool people and the lot I posted only shows a front image so the same cracks can't be seen.

On another note hurry up with that article. I can't wait to see it. This line has really captured my attention and I am ready to learn all I can on them.

Do you know if the original molds exist for all the original figures? Hopefully some don't so they will never be duplicated.

Guys, another question regarding the sa line. Was blue snaggletooth ever made as a mexican sa figure? I fond an old thread on rs where someone had one for sale and said it was one of 2 known. It isn't on the list so I was curious if this is a more modern item or not.

I would say no.i know joe has one.not sure of its story.it might be fully articulated.mine(the one you probably saw in the fs thread) is semi articulated.but it isnt made of the soft plastic that all the other s/a figures are,more like the harder plastic that luke in chains is made of.mine definatly isnt a repro(trying to look like a kenner figure) apart from the fact that its s/a,the paint scheme looks bootleggy.if that makes sense it came from a collection of a large bunch of mex bootlegs.most were the early 80s variants rather than any of the later colours.the original owner had them for a couple if decades.then sold them off.the blue snag didnt have a large price tag attatched to it when sold by the original owner.he valued them all about the same.so mine come from mexico,is s/a,dates at least to early 90s.but isnt the same material but most of all,why would mexican bootleggers make a blue snag.he was a short run american figure.most mex boots are the characters that ledy made.for a mex bootlegger to get a blue snag to copy back in the early 90s would have cost him an arm and a leg.unless it just happened that they owned an early u.s cantina set.but if that was the case why didnt hammerhead and walrusman make the cut aswell.my guess is mine at least is a low output bootleg from somebody who new this was the (at the time) rarest of american figures.

Daren

The only mini-Jabbas that I've seen have been made of the same light green plastic. I've been seeing a lot more of the other newer SA's around but not so much the mini-Jabba. The one auction was put down and other than the auction with the large lot of figures I haven't seen any other public sales of this mini-Jabba around and even I can't get any more at the moment. As far as the blue Snaggletooth, he is NOT a vintage bootleg, not sure if he's even Mexican from what I've heard but I don't know that for sure. Like Daren said, in that era bootleggers in Mexico (this is the 80's now) probably have never even heard of a blue Snaggletooth let alone get one in their hands to copy one. Most of the true 80's bootlegs ended in the ROTJ era. Even regular POTF figures were not sold that much or found in Mexico. LL figures were pretty much their choice of characters to bootleg. Believe me, I'd love to have a Mexican/SA Amanaman! HOWEVER, there are indeed Mexican POTF bootlegs, IF you can find them. There is a vintage Amanaman that Joe and myself have been looking for for years and even a Mexican/SA Han Carbonite (figure only). I have a Han Carbonite (yellow) and thier is one that was sold a few years ago (gray torso with yellow arms). There is also possibly two others but I'm not too sure where they are, one is orange and one is red... that's just a rumor. I also have a pic of a Mexican articulated Imperial Gunner (I'd have to dig it out) but not sure when he was actually made. These figures are very few and far between!

One of the things I was thinking about today regarding all these SA figures on Ebay is that they can deter sales of SA figures that are real and true to thier packaging. For instance, there are many figure in these 3-packs that have these newer sculpted in addition to regular SA's packaged on overstock header cards. Not a big mystery these days. However, there are also two figures, yes I'm outing them out, that are on Ebay that are ligit. One is a POTF2 Chewie and a blue Lando, both on mini-POTF2 cards that were produced in the 90's that are ligit in the sense that that is the orginal packaging and era in which they come from. I fear that many of these newer packaged figures could over showdow any ligit packaged figures out there and I'm sure that it will. They will, and have, overshadow any real 3-packs on header cards out there, as rare as they may be (mostly distinguished by the type of plastic bag). Then again, many of single pack SA's on mini-POTF2 cards have also been repackaged in recent years as there was a large find of overstock cards and many, many figures found in the markets. Only certain characters were repackaged though (Leia, blue AtAt Driver, Yoda and a small handful of others. These came from old store stock from two different locations and ended up in one market vendor a few years ago (I have pics).

Anyway, any other questions let me know... or Daren as he seems to be replying in a more timely manner than me, lol.

Steven, I don't know if you look around tig, but in the watchout section a sticky thread was made about reproduction Ledy items. I added a post in there about these mexican sa figures being reproduced and Paul was kind enough to link this thread there so others may see that these authentic bootlegs are also being reproduced. Just wanted to say a huge thank you to both you and Daren in regards to this. I know many hours of your lives has been spent on research into this line and if it can help one person not get scammed then I think it is worth it.

I think with the authentic figures being packed into the three packs with new figures the sellers are attempting to add authenticity to their items and that makes these types of threads all the more important. I saw that potf chewbacca on the backer with weapons but didn't bring it up. So it is legit? And the blue lando with weapons also? The blue lando looks just like some of the other recent blue lando figures. I didn't look at the auction though as I am not really interested in packaging for these at the moment.

No problem with the information, that is why myself and Daren are here. As far as the Chewie and Lando, they are good. The Lando is not the same as the recent Landos that are painted from the spru. If you look at the differnce the Lando on the sprue is more of a base, flat paint and the ligit one on the card is more glossy with the gloves painted white. I've already compare this one to mine and it's good, even with the weapons. Once I get my fake Lando in I'll sow you the difference.

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I've added some more pics of these recently made SA's that have started to appear.  As you can see they have come loose, on sprues, bagged mixed with other figures.  Lando and the brownish 21B are the only ones I know of so far painted.  I'll add more pics as I see them.

Yahoo i finally managed to post pics thanks to john and paul for all your help.
Anyways heres the blue snag previously mentioned.it has moveable arms only.they arent removeable.so the torso must have been sealed over them.unlike normal s/a's.it is also made from a more harder plastic rather than the soft waxy type plastic of normal s/a's.but as you can see the painting is bootleggy.so its not trying to be a fake kenner blue snag.its the same type of plastic used in the luke/leia/han in chains and klaatu indian.but all those are unarticulated.this blue snag would be easily breakable.this could be one of the reasons few survived.i also think this is low production aswell.like the chained figures.the original owner claimed to have owned it for 20 years or so and had bought it from mexico in that time
It was also in a mix of true 80s s/a boots.and it didnt have a particular high price tag compared to what he wanted for the others in the mix.if all this is true then it dates to early 90s at the latest.thats all i know unfortunatly.so make your own judgements.i cant see it being 80s as blue snag was never in mexico.but by the 90s,the collector wagon was already rolling
So anybody who liked sw new about blue snags.even in mexico.maybe he was chosen ti be bootlegged so mexican collectors could get a chance to own the infamous blue snag :scratch:
Daren

Even though the blue Snag is not from the same line it's still a very cool figure. I agree, probably the 90's era when Star Wars hype was coming back and bootlegs were getting very dominent in Mexico at that time as well. I have a few different semi articulated POTF2 bootlegs (non typical sa) that have similar arm sockets but just different plastics looks like. I do remember seeing a pic of this one a long time ago mixed with other Mexican and Polish bootlegs in a lot he had for sale.

Thanks for posting the pics of it. It is a very cool item for sure. Wish more would show up. would fit in nicely with a sa set even if it is a later figure.

Great posts everyone. Thanks for keeping this thread alive. Hasn't been too much activity around here lately. I find that strange because ebay sure is selling a lot of bootlegs these days.

The mini Jabbas have started to appear. A couple were seen on eBay.

There were a couple mini-Jabbas on Ebay, yes, one of the auctions was shut down and never reopened and the other was in a large lot of figures that ended a few days ago. There are a few of the loose ones still on there but all the three-packs have ended as well. Not sure many of them really sold.

And you said the manufactorers didnt read these posts

Daren

Personally, I think Joe is pumping these out using his Uzay molds and giving himself fake Mexican names on Ebay to sell them, of course I can't prove this.

There was a recently end auction for a red mini jabba so now we know they are in the green and the red.

Expect many more i would say.theyll be ok as long as they stay crazy colours.if they try to make them look like the actual vintage ones.then we'll have to be careful

Daren

I agree with Daren, as long as they don't start trying to emulate the actual colors it wont be as bad. In the end they are just shooting themselves in the foot for making this stuff. Not much is even selling... that's good for us.

I dont have a problem with anybody making modern bootlegs of sw figures.in fact i love them (most of them) i can understand if they had molds already,why they wouldnt invest in any new molds in which they can make bootlegs to sell to the masses.the problem with all these newer ones are,they have been made and sold with deliberate intent to sell to collectors at inflated prices.i can understand why they thought it would be a good idea to.but they cant expect any of us to not want to pay the kind of money we pay for true vintage for their made yesterday,pumped out by the shitload,modern stuff.if they actually worked a little harder and made the kind of numbers that any real bootlegger makes,so they can sell them on markets etc.then they would just be modern bootlegs and more credible.but they havent.theyve made them to sell for more than the $1 theyde sell for in markets.so they are really high output repro bootleg customs.shame really,as mini jabba rocks in any colour
The rest of the ones theyve made i dont understand why they botherd.most of the characters theyve done are still around by the ton.again i can only pressume they thought making different variants(colours) of them,would make us fight each other to the death for them

Daren

I was thinking about your statement in the end of your post about other characters. I could only assume that they only have certain molds. Other than the Jabba and POTF2 Chewie most of the characters being made today are the same ones that different variants were found about 5 years ago (gold/blue 21B, white Luke w/ red/blue paint, white/silver Snowtrooper, black AtAt Drivers, Yodas, Vaders, black B-Wing Pilots). Perhaps these are the same makers out for another batch using what molds they have. I've never seen any newer versions of Bib Fortuna, Emperor, Ackbar, Ugnaught, Gammy Guard, Bossk..etc.. I just wonder if these molds no longer exist or are in the hands of someone else. I'd still love to get my hands on some of these molds myself so I can start pumping out mini-Jabba jello shots for Halloween!