Hi,

I recently became the owner of a VC Jawa for the first time. I did a trade with an old school mate as he had two in his collection and was happy with the trade. I am very sure it is authentic as my friend used to go around to peoples houses in the 1994/95 (in Australia) and buy up their childhood collections. These people weren't collectors, and would have had no reason to fake a cape only to sit in a box with their other figures unloved. Below are images of the little guy:





And here is what I believe to be the all important cross-hatch pattern on the inside of the cape:



Alright, here's the thing though. I've never held one in my hands before but was immediately struck with the actual colour of the cape. I expected it to be more on the brown side but this looks more a deep red/murky brown colour. Are there known different makes/styles in a vinyl cape jawa cape? I guess the point I'm getting to is -- being sourced from Australia, could this be a Toltoys cape?

I am wondering if this jawa figure has been mixed up along the way (either in original owners collection or my friends) and I say this cause I had the privilege to go through my friends collection a couple weeks back. He had 6 or 7 Jawas in a bag and one of them was most definitely a Toltoys Jawa with the spotted discolouration blemishes ... however he was naked without a cape of any kind.

The cape in the picture does have a bit of a tear hole around one of the arms so it's conceivable it has been taken off at one point.

Does anyone have any expertise in this area - Toltoys figure knowledge, VC Jawa knowledge?

Cheers, Jared.

Hi Jared, congrats on the Jawa,it's the cape that makes the jawa Toltoys  and as far as i can tell from the pics it looks good so far . I'll try to take some pics to explain why a bit later . For now  this thread should give you a good idea why not every spotted jawa can be called Toltoys.

Thanks for the reply. I'll give that thread a read.

Cheers, Jared.

Here's an image of Obi with two jawas in Toltoys capes on the side and a regular Kenner vc jawa in front.
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The Kenner vcj is a brown colour close to the color of the figure it is on and the Toltoys capes are the same colour as Obi's cape which is often used to to make a fake Kenner cape.
The Toltoys cape has a slightly different design so you can tell it apart from a Kenner cape when it's lying folded out on a flat surface but it is impossible to be 100% sure from a picture and in hand it can still be tricky as the material is identical to the material used for some obi capes. At first sight your cape looks to have some Toltoys charactaristics and does not look handcut, so if your mate got this from a childhood collection that's a positive sign.

The spotted jawa is iconic for the Toltoys vcj but it is not the only figure it came on and spotted jawas can be found dressed in cloth capes.The last page of the link i posted earlier has a good image  of some different jawas with Toltoys capes. There have been no Toltoys carded cloth cape spotted jawas found so it is likely the jawa in your friends bag once had a vinyl cape but there's no way to be sure your cape didn't come with the figure it is on.

You could send a scan of the cape to a trusted colector who has a real one but with the material being so readily available it's nearly impossible to tell a real one from a well made fake and posting it online would make a perfect template for potential scammers in case it's the real deal.The only way to be sure about your cape is to compare it to a known real Toltoys example in hand or to get it graded.

Sorry for the lengthy reply without a definit answer but unfortunatly identifying a Toltoys vc can be a bit of a mine field unless it's carded

One of the 'tells' for a Toltoys vinyl cape is present in your example Jared


Here is my 'cross hatch'

aussiejames wrote:

One of the 'tells' for a Toltoys vinyl cape is present in your example Jared


Here is my 'cross hatch'

I highly reccomend James as a trusted member to send some more detailed pics or a scan of the cape to for further identification

Hi,

I finally got around to skimming through that forum thread -- there's a lot of text there! So I think I'm happy to leave things where they are on this one, I don't need to go asking my friend for that speckled Jawa to match it up with this cape.

I've no doubt the whole item is genuine due to the providence I outlined in my first post, but also nice to have a couple of you give a tentative "looks good" response too.

Cheers, Jared.

Hi all,

Hope you can help me. I just today opened my Darth Vader helmet carry case to see what remains of my childhood collection. My jawa is long gone but I still have the cape - the vinyl/plastic one.

There is no question it's real.. its the one from my own childhood jawa . I'm Australian. A bit of research (including this forum) tells me it's the TolToys one. Santa gave it to me along with all my ESB figures so I presume it was the ESB version.

There is a tear from one arm hole to the top edge of the cape.

Anyway, my question to you all is - is it worth anything? Also, is it worth tracking down a loose Aussie jawa to put the cape on?

Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Even with the rip the cape it is 'worth' $300+ The 'correct' Jawa will take a while to find- I've seen a handful (missing cape) in the past years.

Nice! The Toltoys Jawa is still one 'big' variants missing from my collection, one day maybe I will strike it lucky.

aussiejames wrote:

Even with the rip the cape it is 'worth' $300+  The 'correct' Jawa will take a while to find- I've seen a handful (missing cape) in the past years.  

cool. how do you identify the 'correct' one (apart from this 'spotting' ive read about)?

You know, the funny thing is i used to be down on my jawa coz of its crappy plastic cape, seeing the cloth caped one on the cards.. i wanted THAT one. I thought u could only get them in america or something