trappedtexan wrote:

So this is a fairly common miscarriage then I take it? Sticking to that theory of combining just what's left makes a little sense. But one would think since the factory knew these were mixed up, if done on purpose, then they would have some sort of clearance stickers all over them i would imagine. I mean surely a retailer didn't pay their full cost for these if these were purposely packed with leftovers.  Very neat little item. Sucks that the bubble is cracking so badly due to crushing. Wonder if you can create a band of sorts to run around the border of the bubble to support it. Not tape so it doesn't stick but something similar to plastic wrap just the width of the side of the bubble.  

Hi Bryan - do you mean something like transparent cling film? (the type used for covering sandwiches or other bits of food). That's a good idea. Thanks!

Agree with you on the mixed-up cards.  Come to think of it I don't recall seeing any price stickers of any kind on any of the cards I have seen. So maybe this theory is not as good I initially thought

I did wonder if they were bubble tests (i.e. mocked up figures, shipped out to a dummy address, to test the bubble sealing integrity during transit) but the bubble appears to be similar the one used for the original Yan solo MOC.

You're right though, although Meccano miscards are indeed very rare, the Luc (Luke Jedi) on a Yan Solo is does appear to one of the more commonest.

Here's a bit more info that I found this morning (SWCA).

Have a good day all!

Craig Well done and thanks for sharing this excellent Yan Solo example.

Really cool stuff.

Fantastic piece to add to your already awesome collection Craig, congrats mate

Yeah that is the plastic wrap I mean Craig. It may be hard to do since bubbles sometimes don't have 90° angles to cardbacks, would have to check to see.

Odd that none had any type of clearance sticker on it. I would more likely assume these were made for testing purpose or something other than retail. Either that or they truly are miscards and not made from leftovers, meaning that the factory really thought it was packing solo and no one even checked to see until some quantity of them was done. I could see that happening also and perhaps the factory didn't even know they had carded these wrong and shipped them out.

@TheSchwartz and @Nico - thanks guys!


Thanks too Bryan! - I will try the cling film.

You got me thinking now... I rechecked all the ones I have photos for; none of them have price stickers. More to this mystery we must solve me thinks!

That's such a cool moc, Craig, despite the damaged bubble. Agree keep it laid flat for now, maybe consider sticking an oversize modern bubble over it 'like a hood' with some cotton wool or similar placed in between the gap of the two bubbles by his feet. Super congrats on acquiring that!

Interesting ideas on the origins. For me it seems plausible that the factory packed these up with whatever they had at hand and offered them out to retailers at discount. No need for stickers as they would have left this up to retailers to mark them. Knowing the few that have survived, imagine how many were opened by kids to play with? It may also be possible these were packed at the factory at the end of a run and the employees were allowed to keep them. Again, many were opened but the few that stayed as moc ended up being given away, sold, swapped. Don't know. Whatever, it makes for a very good moc mystery

Paul!

You work so hard, I haven't heard from you in a while! Glad to you see you are OK and thank you for those tips!

I like your idea about people just taking the overstock home and hence no price stickers...it definitely a mystery for the mystery machine!

That's awesome. Was it Andy who got it? Just curious as I saw he was looking for one i think. It's really a fun thing when you can help out fellow collectors with stuff; best part of being in the community. Heck I enjoy hanging out and chatting and learning about stuff more than i enjoy the actual toys anymore. Though seeing my childhood wicket still brings a huge smile to my face; the kenner line, while still nice to see and occasionally compare things too, is not nearly as precious to me as the ledy line and both pale in comparison to the journey and friendships I made while collecting them.

Kudos for that Craigy, and it's a real minty LJ too. Sometimes letting things go is just as good as receiving. When I used to run prize compos I was aiming to give away one of my many loose Luke XW pilots as part of the prize. I found a couple of nice examples - it's not the easiest figure to find mint, was about to parcel one up then thought no... I searched out my most pristine and favourite LXWP, no paint rubs, perfect decals, tightest limbs and sent that. I tried to imagine how I would feel receiving such a nice figure and that's what swayed it really. On the other side of the coin I've also recieved prizes in TIG compos and it's a sweet feeling to find minty figures.

This thread is truly an inspiration... from the meticulous detail/knowledge @Craig T shares on Jedi Luke, to the sincere generosity of @trappedtexan and @Fito for bringing a smile to Craig's face during a challenging moment in life.

You guys are great.

That is a really cool pin from Andy. So a not newly discovered baggie type but newly discovered figure combo in the bag? I wonder if Frank has seen this figure combo or if he would know?  Great display on the palitoy Luke's. Speaking of palitoy did you hear about the prototypes recently found? Apparently palitoy was sent some Kenner protos (reasons are still under speculation) and one that was found was a Luke Jedi with alternate sculpting. Previously a Luke had been found in America but it was incomplete, this one has the whole thing there. More can be read on this here: http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38027

And borrowing a pic from that proto thread:

trappedtexan wrote:

That is a really cool pin from Andy. So a not newly discovered baggie type but newly discovered figure combo in the bag? I wonder if Frank has seen this figure combo or if he would know?  Great display on the palitoy Luke's. Speaking of palitoy did you hear about the prototypes recently found? Apparently palitoy was sent some Kenner protos (reasons are still under speculation) and one that was found was a Luke Jedi with alternate sculpting. Previously a Luke had been found in America but it was incomplete, this one has the whole thing there. More can be read on this here: http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38027

And borrowing a pic from that proto thread:

@trappedtexan,

Hello Bryan, great to hear from you and hope all is well! Thanks for posting this, there was also discussion about it on the: {Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Vintage Collecting Group 1983 - 1985} group in Face Book, started by Matt Fox - the sculpts are genuine, I believe, but were not used to make additional moulds. Amazed that these were just lying around in the Engineer's Attic for the last 35 Years or so!

Recently Matt Fox hosted a panel with the Ex-Palitoy Employees who worked on Star Wars:

The Vintage Rebellion Podcast - is a great listen about all things Star Wars... See @Richard_H's post: ***Here***, for a link to Episode 54, where you can hear the full interview with the Ex-Palitoy Employees, who worked on Star Wars. Some great stories and memories... I won't spoil anything here!


Re question, "So a not newly discovered baggie type but newly discovered figure combo in the bag? I wonder if Frank has seen this figure combo or if he would know?"

Forgot to answer this... yes that's correct, the baggie is your standard ESB-h, but a new Luke Jedi COO inside. I spoke to Frank and to some other baggie collectors on the Baggie Focus Group. It appears this baggie was made in-house at Kenner to make-up shortfall in baggies from the Far East.

It appears they might have ripped figures from MOCs and resealed them in baggies to do this. The baggies were then used to make up ROTJ 3-packs, etc. for Sears and other Catalogue (Catalog) Stores. I also found evidence of other figures with multiple COOs all in the same baggie, which helps to prove that the ESB-h did not come from a single vendor in the Far East

That is a really neat proof. It looks great framed up. Very cool to get those pbp cardbacks too. Did you come up with the concept of the case so the figure can sit like that?

Craig, hi. Wow, some stellar new additions lately, the PBP card backs are all good success stories Thanks for sharing here, + another cheer for the preservation side you're working on - scary how fragile some of our collectables already are and will become. The Jabba proof looks good framed like that.

hello. new here, from Australia.
was wondering if someone could confirm for me.

just picked up a luke jedi 65 back a.
painted hair/ face
light green saber with raised buttons.
cape in bag.
made in hk. factory ht.

i understand the molded face (taiwan) came with snap cape in bag?

is it also the case with hk painted face? is the cape in bag a snap cape?
thank you.

trappedtexan wrote:

That is a really neat proof. It looks great framed up. Very cool to get those pbp cardbacks too. Did you come up with the concept of the case so the figure can sit like that?

Hi Bryan,

Thanks for your kind words. I think after being rolled up for 6 years, it was time to splash out a bit on the Jabba Proof.

I have a Rancor Cromalin to Frame as well (hopefully this won’t take another 6 years!)

The Cardback and Figure display is a specially made case from GW Acrylic. You can find their current selection of cool offerings here:

ArtooDetour wrote:

Craig, hi. Wow, some stellar new additions lately, the PBP card backs are all good success stories  Thanks for sharing here, + another cheer for the preservation side you're working on - scary how fragile some of our collectables already are and will become. The Jabba proof looks good framed like that.    

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for your kind words too. The PBP were just a distant non-achievable goal up until recently, so I’m very happy. The original owner of the PBP card has since come back to me and so I have a small update to make shortly.

I've have become more pro-active in the preservation side. It's an expensive investment to make, but it will pay dividends in the long run.

darthcon wrote:

hello. new here, from Australia.
was wondering if someone could confirm for me.

just picked up a luke jedi 65 back a.
painted hair/ face
light green saber with raised buttons.
cape in bag.
made in hk. factory ht.

i understand the molded face (taiwan) came with snap cape in bag?

is it also the case with hk painted face?  is the cape in bag a snap cape?
thank you

Hello Darthcon and Welcome!

Sorry to you, Paul and Bryan in the delay in getting back to you.

That's a very nice 1st Edition Luke Jedi from Unitoys of Hong Kong.

This vendor produced Kenner Luke Jedi figures, that have a COO of "Made in Hong Kong" stamped on their leg. As you know already, if you look on the reverse of the card, you will see a "HT" printed next to the POP, this is how Unitoys identified itself to Kenner, so that Kenner knew who made the product (for QA etc.).

There were three vendor factories that made a Kenner Luke Jedi and all three originally made Luke Jedi with a snap cape sealed in a baggie placed behind Luke.

I will try to give a better description in a future blog, but essentially, in the photo below of all my snap cape variants, each row represents Snap Cape Luke Jedi MOCs from a particular vendor:

"TJ" = U.M. of Taiwan
"HN" = Smile of Hong Kong
"HT" = Unitoys of Hong Kong.

Along each row, 1st Editions are on the left, Next are the 2nd Editions (these too also had snap capes, but the capes were nolonger sealed in baggies, they are packed loose behind Luke).