This is a project I've been slowly putting together for a while, it's a guide that is aimed at helping people identify the different mould families by the sculpt differences that they have. This is currently a 'work in progress' and the guide section will be added to over time.

The Country of Origin (COO) families represent different moulds used to make the figures, in the majority of cases each individual family has a unique sculpt. This is NOT an exact science that runs from start to finish though.
It would appear that the first figures, at least the first 12 don't really comply to the 'rule' there COO families range in numbers from a few to lots and in many cases there appears to be no real sculpt differences, or very subtle at best.
The second wave of 8 figures starts to show signs of family sculpt differences taking shape, but still usually quite subtle up until the later half where a kind of system seems to develop where the COO families have notable sculpt differences.
Boba Fett ultimately kind of sets the standard of 3 familes, 3 sculpts. The entire ESB line sticks pretty close to this with most figures having 2 or 3 families. Usually each family has 2 or 3 molds within it.
(Note - when I say 3 or 4 moulds, it is most likely that these where not seperate, but 3 or 4 cavities within one mould block, it's just easier to say it like that)

Naturally there are exceptions to this 'rule' but it works pretty well for ESB and most of the ROTJ line.
Toward the end of the ROTJ line the 'rule' changed with many figures ultimately having only one family, which in many cases have 3 or 4 moulds.

One trend that seems to have been part of this rule is that in many cases for example when there is 3 families, one will be notably different while the other two will be basically exactly the same but one of the two will have less defined detail. I'm not show what the reason for this is.

The purpose of this guide is to help identify the figures by there sculpts and to make it easier for people to understand the concept of COO families which are the basis of all variants.
The guide is aimed at being simple and easy to use and very visual to try and cut down on the text which can often confuse people, especially as we are an international comunity and much is often lost in translation.

To make things even less confusing, I've kept the COO families in the same order as Wolff's guide, so family 'I' in my guide will subsequently match family 'I' in Wolff's guide. I have done many figures which Wolff has not covered in his new guide yet, so here I have stuck roughly to his old guide.

The aim of this guide is to be visual and simple. Rather than point out every tiny difference I've tried to focus on the obvious and easy to spot differences. The first picture for each character shows all the different families with there COO below. These are listed with a numeral (I. II. III.) this is relevant to the COO. The following pictures then focus on specific areas of the figure, these pictures are doubled, the top section shows are clear image of the area in question, the lower section shows the same image but with the sculpt differences highlighted in an orange box. There is then a brief desription below which explains the highlighted areas.

The discussion area of this thread is for you all to throw in your thoughts, break down all the tiny details and just to generally discuss the topic, I'll look forward to your input  

I would like to thank the TIG team for helping me set up this thread, a big thanks to Wolff for introducing me to the concept of Mould families and also thanks to the people who will hopefully help contribute to this project. A Big thanks to Jay and Marco also for helping me with the technical side of things like Hyperlinks and stuff  

The sculpt differences on Luke like many early figures are pretty much none existant, however, there is a unique difference on his hand/lightsaber hilt which unfortunately is difficult to see on carded figures etc.

The first 12 figures where not produced in the same way as most of the figures that followed, at least in terms of sculpt differences for the COO families. Many had numerous families that all look almost, if not identical. Chewbacca is one such example, the overall torso sculpt appears identical on all families. There is one minor detail on the end of the left hand however that does appear different on all families, it is not the best means of identification by far, but it's about as good as it gets unfortunately.

As with Chewbacca, Ben Kenobi falls into the first 12 which, as said before are difficult to establish as different. Ben however falls into a slightly different catagory of first 12 where at least one other character falls into. This is where there are three families, two of which are seemingly identical and the other is slightly different. This is often the case in many of the ESB figures, but with them, the two that are alike are usually easily identified by one having less defined detail, this is not the case here. The other SW character that falls into this catagory is Han Solo. With Ben the best way to identify the two sculpts that are the same is by a small imperfection on the back of the heals of one of the families, which sometimes can be visible beneath the cape.

Walrus Man has several easy to spot differences between the two families, the best at least from the front are two crease on the right leg.

The easiest to spot differences are on the white 'flak' jacket are on the front and back of Luke. The patterns are different, the vertical line patterns are quite different from each other.

R5-D4 has several easy to spot key differences between the two families. The heads are actually different in size, but this is hard to see even in hand, so impossible to tell when seperate.

The sculpt differences on the Death Star Droid ar subtle but quite easy to spot. Because of the chroming, it can sometimes be difficult to clearly see detail, but generally speaking the subtle differences stand out.

Power Droid is essentiually really easy to spot, but given that he is often displayed from the front, it can still be quite awkard to identify the two families, from all over angles though the differences are easy to spot.

Identifying Boba Fett families is easy done by other variation factors, but the sculpt differences are still easy to spot.

Leia Bespin is an awkward one in some respects as she is one of only a couple of figures that actually had a major sculpt change along the way. This of course is the neck. The original neck (crew neck or flesh neck) was changed at some stage in production (Jay will probably be able to tell you when    ) The mold was retooled to produce a smaller neck which was not painted (turtle neck) The reason for this is un clear, but to me there is likely two reasons, the neck was probably changed because the original neck is not only way to fat, it's also to long giving Leia a rather odd, fat Giraffe neck. The new 'thinner' turtle neck is much better looking, but was left unpainted. Tis was probably because of the problems created by the flesh paint and gold paint on the original sculpt. Every family mould was re-tooled so can be found with both crew and turtle neck. I find the easiest way to identify the families is on the arms.

The Hoth Stormtrooper like most has two moulds very a like and one slightly different. There are a couple of slightly different sculpt points on the figure but because of the spray aps. applied to those areas it make it difficult to tell the difference in some many cases, the visor and the two small depressions on his right side torso are good examples of this, different but often hard to tell because of the paint (uni-visor vs. split visor for example). Probably the best way to spot the family differences is to combine sculpt and spray differences with the circle on his belt and the 2 line spray applications on his shoulder.

The differences on the Hoth Rebel Soldier are subtle but they are still there and if you know what you are looking for they are fairly easy to spot, again, 2 are similar and one slightly different.

Bossk is very much like the Hoth Stormtrooper, two almost identical sculpts, one different one, but thankfully a handy spray aplication, again on the shoulder that helps identify the different families. The feet are a good focal point as well.

Bespin Luke has two sculpts which are very much alike and one different one. The two that are similar are like many of the figures that seem to follow this rule, the main differences seems to be the definition of the detail.

The differences on Dengar are quite subtle and can be difficult to spot, the best place to look is on the small details on Dengars chest armour.

The differences on Han Bespin are quite subtle and difficult to see, it's more about the definition of the detail. One of the best ways to identify the differences is the way the two torso halfs connect on the shoulder, however this is not visible from the front.

Leia Hoth has a couple of reasonisbly easy tell tale sculpt differences, again it involves a combination of a couple, the breast insignia mixed with the inside lapel. The right hand is also a good one as alll three are different.

The Imperial Commander has a couple of easily identifiable sculpt differences focusing mainly around the chest insignia and his belt.
It is important to note though that Family I underwent a slight retooling at some stage during production. This concerns the thumb on his left hand, originally straight it had a small bit added to the end to bend it. The general assumtion hear would be that this was to better hold hid his gun, despite having a right hand which held it just fine. To the best of my knowledge this mold alteration only happened on COO family I and no others. Both straight and curved thumb can be found on the Hong Kong marked versions of the family. The no COO altered version of this family can only be found with the curved thumb of course.

There is one easy way to spot the differences between the two families of the Bespin Security Guard which focuses on the small leaves that are part of the gold trimming.

Two of the Luke Jedi family are again similar while one is different. Both the Made In Hong Kong and Made In Taiwan are very a like, they also both have longer legs than the Hong Kong figure making them both taller. The ungloved hand is a good focal point, there is also a line on the chest and marks on the boots, but these can often either be obscured from view by the cape or difficult to see because of the black colour.

The Emperor's Royal Guard has several distinguishing features, the best is his robe belt, which unfortunately is covered by his cape. His head is an o.k. focal point, but his right hand is probably the best feature that isn't always obscured by his cape.

Like several figures, Bib is mostly covered up by his cape making it difficult to see any of him, thankfully his hands are actually onr of the best places to look for differences. With the Jcape off, the belt is also a good place like the ERG.

The Biker Scout is quite an east one as all the 4 families are very easy to spot sculpt differences which can be found on basically every part of the figure, but in fairness you don't really need to look any further than the torso. Naturally it goes without saying that the Lili Ledy figure is the easiest to spot because of the unique head sculpt which can be clearly seen in the group photo on the far right.

Han in Trench Coat can be easily identified by his head, the two families have a clearly different 'look' the sculpt differences are also very clearly different, but often hidden by the coat.

The Rancor Keeper falls into the catagory that several of the latter Jedi figures fall into where there is a Taiwan COO and a no COO (formerly Hong Kong) and both are almost identical. Differences are often minor at best. There is one feature that certainly appears to be across the coard and despite being quite small it is quite easy to spot. It concerns the studs on his gauntlets.

Like many foreign companies, Palitoy cut a few corners in order to cut costs. In the case of the vehicles and playsets that they released, some where produced in the U.K. particularly the larger vehicles which would have been costly to import. Some things they did import and others they kind of did a bit of both. In terms of the playsets which where not as important as the likes of the significant vehicles like the Falcon and X-Wing etc. they made them in the U.K. to cut cost and made changes as it was likely deemed insignificant.
The Land Of The Jawas is a good example. They basically vacuum formed there own base and didn't produce the Escape Pod, the rest is cardboard, so BAM, playset good to go on the cheap.
The Death Star Playset is of course the most famous with it's infamous cardboard half dome structure which allowed a large scale playset to be made without impoting a single part while also working with the smallest cost possible, and to top it off, it's actually really good!

The Droid Factory Playset is an example of both in-house making and importing. All the small actual Droid parts where imported and are identical to the Kenner parts. The problem was most likely importing the large base and crane for what was essentially an non screen insignificant playset. The descision was made to produce there own base and like The Land Of The Jawas playset, they simply made a vacuum formed thin plastic base (found in either Yellow or Blue plastic) with a sheet of cardboard glued to the base. This served the exact same purpose as the Kenner version in that it housed the Droid parts, it just lacked the quality of the Kenner one and the additional crane part.
What has made the Droid Factory Playset infamous over the years is the 'build it yourself' R2-D2 that came as part of the set. The main feature of course being the third leg, making this particular R2-D2 the only truly screen accurate version produced in the entire Star Wars line.
The R2-D2 that is featured in the Droid Factory Playset already has it's own unique little feature concerning the decal sticker in the fact that it is reversed compared to the standard R2-D2 figures released during the SW, ESB and POTF lines. But there is a little known variation of this sticker which was unique to the Palitoy Playset.
Because Palitoy produced there own base for the set, they also produced there own decal sticker sheet to be applied to it, and of course this included the R2-D2 sticker.
The R2 sticker for the Palitoy set is completely different to the Kenner version. The paper its self is a darker colour in general and so is the blue colour used, the sticker is also non glossy like the Kenner version. Below is a basic guide which highlights the amin differences.