I've been looking for a loose example of this blaster for a while now, and recently was pleased to notice it was added to the TIG reference library (I had heard it was a unique sculpt, but photo references were few and far between) as V10.

A second example was added as a V10 with less sharp details...but the more I look at it, the more I wonder if it is really the same sculpt, or something rather close.  Does anyone have a MOC confirmed photo of the second V10 sculpt for a Takara "Stoomtrooper"?  In either case, I think it might warrant a V11 (or at least V10-a?)

The differences I see beyond the lack of sharp definition(TIG reference library images included here to save you the tab flipping):

V10 (sharp):



V10 (less defined):

• The oblong indentation on the opposite side of the clip is notably longer, and a bit taller, on the V10 (sharp).
  
• The pattern on the handle of the is different (on the V10 (sharp) I count only six diamonds on the bottom row, clip
  
• side, the V10(less defined) looks like seven, for example)
  
• The handle itself seems to have a slightly different length and angle to the bottom of the handle.
  
• The circle and line below the barrel appear different, particularly on the 'left' side.
  

Assuming this is confirmed MOC Takara, would this be better classified as a V11 or V10-a?  To me at least, it actually looks pretty similar to the V1-a sculpt - possibly a "fat, dent, small circle?" type?  Would this possibly mean the V1-a also made it onto Takara cards?

V1-a (fat, dent, small circle):


Any thoughts?

I'm going to pull this into the main section to give it a little attention.

If anyone has a carded Takara Stormtrooper (with the Takara Sculpt) , post some pics!!


Just an FYI, when people say "Takara" it's different for the Stormtrooper, C3PO and Vader than the others. There are distinct sculpts available for them in addition to the standard ones.

So, while I own a 12bk Takara Stormtrooper, it's not a "Takara Stormtrooper" (if that makes sense). For it to be the latter would mean the COO was Japan which is not the case on all carded ones.

Of the three Takara sculpt Stormtroopers I've owned all have had the top blaster. The bottom blaster is either a non-Takara sculpt one or a fake. I've also seen photos of a couple of other collector's blasters and all have been the same precise sculpt as the top image.

The Takara Stormtrooper blaster is without exception the sharpest molding of the blaster with unique features. Considering the limited market release and the very short time frame it was in production I would be very surprised to see more than one sculpt. Even if there was somehow a second version I doubt it would be such a poor quality as that pictured. The two blasters share no common identifiers at all.

Can we confirm how this image was added to the archive? Considering the blaster is obviously loose can it be 100% confirmed that it came from a Takara sculpt Stormtrooper card? There are plenty of loose MIJ Stormtroopers paired with regular Kenner blasters so perhaps it was acquired that way and assumptions were made. Alternately, perhaps it came from a Takara stickered but Kenner moulded Stormtrooper?

I once tried to do some research about this and mailed everyone i knew with a Takara Stormtrooper MOC (both versions) to check the blaster and/or provide me pictures. I am sure people here who recieved mails from me can back me up. (I even asked you John, but you had a regular HK coo stormtrooper i believe).
As far as i could gather data, the Alternative sculpt (Japan COO) Takara Stormtrooper had the Blaster with the unique sculpt from the first picture. The regular Takara (Hong Kong coo) Stormtrooper had the common regular blaster sculpts.

Well that would suck ass. The second set of photos we from my takara sculpt stormie. I didn't remove it from card myself but it was an AFA u-graded example, which you'd hope they couldn't balls that one up!!

Aw man, I'm really sorry to hear that

As far as I'm aware AFA don't really care too much about which accessory goes with which figure as long as it is basically right. We just have to look at recent discussions about the Luke Stormtrooper blaster to see that.

As for the U-graded Stormie, I know of at least one Takara Stormtrooper that appeared a few years back that had a badly squashed bubble with cracks in it and no weapon. It's not a great stretch to consider that someone sent that to AFA for U-grading and slipped a regular Kenner blaster in there with him. Chances are that AFA wouldn't have really cared so long as the figure itself was still sealed and couldn't have been removed.

Dax wrote:

Aw man, I'm really sorry to hear that

As far as I'm aware AFA don't really care too much about which accessory goes with which figure as long as it is basically right. We just have to look at recent discussions about the Luke Stormtrooper blaster to see that.

As for the U-graded Stormie, I know of at least one Takara Stormtrooper that appeared a few years back that had a badly squashed bubble with cracks in it and no weapon. It's not a great stretch to consider that someone sent that to AFA for U-grading and slipped a regular Kenner blaster in there with him. Chances are that AFA wouldn't have really cared so long as the figure itself was still sealed and couldn't have been removed.

I would agree with Dax here and say that a weapon on a U graded figure could have been switched if the bubble had a crack or anything large enough to slip a weapon in.

Like i said, i tried to do some research to it, that doesn't mean i am 100% right. I don't have th epictures anymore i collected back then as it was on my old computer, but maybe we can do something similar again, and ask all people who own a MOC Takara stormtrooper with alternate sculpt to post a detailed picture of the weapon inside the bubble.

Sorry to raise this which will no doubt be a sore point for Walkie (and I really feel for him), but I'm very sure that the Takara V2 blaster on the TIG list is just a regular Kenner blaster and should be removed from the site to avoid confusion for collectors. Given TIG is the authority for weapon accessories I think we need to correct the image archive. So, who do we speak to in order to fix this?

Thank you all for your feedback, much appreciated. It keeps us sharp.   

The TIG team will update the Takara blaster entry in the next release.

The version two pics have been removed and archived, and the Takara V10 section info updated.

scroll down to V10:  Imperial Blasters

Thanks everyone for your contribution.