Discoloration - a.k.a. "prototypes and variations"

[PMSbull]

EDIT : Forget it, Vader with Ben sabre.



Came across a guy who has this today, a Vader figure with a blue sabre. Surely only Ben had blue sabres? Please take a close look and give me some feedback. Note circle on sabre hillt and circle on back of helmet.

 

[Kenner76]

I am posting this reply as I wonder if my figure is rare and possibly valuable? Can anyone help or give me any advice on this?

I only collect loose figures and have a complete set, including many variations: i.e. 8 x different Luke Skywalker Bespin fatigues, so any help you could give will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

New member Paul

Hi, nice "green limbed Chewbacca"! It's a cool toy, but it is considered plastic degradation and not a true variation. Here's some good reading on the topic:
Variant collectors: Your thoughts on "tan/green limbs"

 

[PMK916]

EDIT : Forget it, Vader with Ben sabre.



Came across a guy who has this today, a Vader figure with a blue sabre. Surely only Ben had blue sabres? Please take a close look and give me some feedback. Note circle on sabre hillt and circle on back of helmet.

Is this a joke? If it is, it's not that amusing. If it's not, please use the slightest bit of your imagination lol

 

[waffenmeister]

Anakin Variation?

Hello to RS,

Eventually got round to rummaging through some of my loose figures and went hunting for variations. Has anyone else come across an Anakin Skywalker with a different coloured face? I had 5 figures which all looked semi unhealthy with a greyish pink flesh tone and no discolouration to the body. One figure had a darker grey body so I took it out the storage bag for a better look. The face on this one looked like Anakins ghost had seen a ghost! The plastic on the head sculpt is much lighter with a greyish yellow hue. All the limbs on this figure are the same colour as the other figures.

The darker torso is the same colour over the entire piece as is the colour of the plastic on the head excluding the painted parts. Anakin's hair and cream inner robes appear the same colour as the other figures I have (maybe a shade lighter)? The top of the head has a larger than normal mold mark.

Does anyone have any ideas other than deterioration?



Normal/common Anakin is on the right of images for comparison.

Mark

 

[waffenmeister]

Hello,

I've had another delve into my storage box and had a look at Vader today. I couldn't find one of the variations on the 18 shown on TIG so thought I'd see if it is one?


Raised bar variation TIG Fig 13? The other one displays the Hong Kong with the same 2 ridges between C G.M.F.G.I. 1977




Big letters and giant C for both the H scar TIG Fig 8? The other one is as it should be.


Unusual TIG Fig 1 purely because of the silver mouth grill and addition of gold paint to the chest harness and belt. The helmet is also the worst cast I have seen, the cape for this was the long type. I bought this loose in the mid-90's so could have come from a warhammer hobbyist who liked to tart up his figures.

Any thoughts?

Anyone

 

[AussieFortuna]

Hi mate, 100% a customised figure, cheers

 

[waffenmeister]

Cheers for swift reply,
I had little doubt on the paint job, did think his helmet was a bit of a duffer though. I was curious on the first pics, as the one with the raised bar is recorded but I missed finding the COO Vader next to him, saying that there's too many idiosyncrasies and it would be never ending with detail differences. It's an HK figure and that will do me.

 

[aussiejames]

From the old CoO guide "

This should only be used as a pictorial guide. Some of the description labels are inaccurate, incomplete or missing.
There are many other slightly different leg markings as well not listed here.
Please click ​

here

to get a better understanding. "

New guide : ​

http://swspaceclub.com/wbobafett/coo-guide-3-0/anh/darth-vader/#a

​

 

[waffenmeister]

From the old CoO guide "

This should only be used as a pictorial guide. Some of the description labels are inaccurate, incomplete or missing.
There are many other slightly different leg markings as well not listed here.
Please click ​

here

to get a better understanding. "

New guide : ​

http://swspaceclub.com/wbobafett/coo-guide-3-0/anh/darth-vader/#a

​

Thanks,

This was what I needed and was a great source. I felt a bit paltry only donating a Euro but if everyone does it, then these Knowledge base sites can keep going and thanks to Wolff for his time to do this.

 

[MusicalJedi]

I hope this is the right place to post, apologies if it's not. I picked up something yesterday I was curious about.
Anyone ever see one of these before?


I bought it from a local collectibles store yesterday, and was told it's a prototype for a "Paint-A-Figure" that never came out. It's cast in resin, I believe and has no LFL or markings on it that I can see. The store had several other characters, Vader, Chewie, etc. It was odd that I found this after drooling over the prototypes in "Plastic Galaxy" the night before. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[AussieFortuna]

I hope this is the right place to post, apologies if it's not. I picked up something yesterday I was curious about.
Anyone ever see one of these before?


I bought it from a local collectibles store yesterday, and was told it's a prototype for a "Paint-A-Figure" that never came out. It's cast in resin, I believe and has no LFL or markings on it that I can see. The store had several other characters, Vader, Chewie, etc. It was odd that I found this after drooling over the prototypes in "Plastic Galaxy" the night before. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi mate, nice score, you might want to put a blog up asking about this, im sure you will get an answer, there are plenty of fett fans around.

 

[pswalsh]

With regards to the Luke Skywalker Bespin Figure.

I have eight variations of this figure, seven different hair colours and the two with the same hair have totally different colour boots ie:Brown and Yellow. Does anybody know of any others or have more variations than me?
Thanks PAUL

 

[ChrisGeorgoulias]

I hope this is the right place to post, apologies if it's not. I picked up something yesterday I was curious about.
Anyone ever see one of these before?


I bought it from a local collectibles store yesterday, and was told it's a prototype for a "Paint-A-Figure" that never came out. It's cast in resin, I believe and has no LFL or markings on it that I can see. The store had several other characters, Vader, Chewie, etc. It was odd that I found this after drooling over the prototypes in "Plastic Galaxy" the night before. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Actually this thread is for discolored action figures that people think are prototypes.

However, to answer your question, what you have is a custom casting of a Kenner Action Masters Boba Fett 2-up prototype. They pop up on ebay from time to time. For $20 it's not too bad to have as an example, but the seller apparently didn't know what it was either. I suspect the other characters you saw are the same.

-chris

 

[MusicalJedi]

Actually this thread is for discolored action figures that people think are prototypes.

However, to answer your question, what you have is a custom casting of a Kenner Action Masters Boba Fett 2-up prototype. They pop up on ebay from time to time. For $20 it's not too bad to have as an example, but the seller apparently didn't know what it was either. I suspect the other characters you saw are the same.

-chris

Thanks a lot!

 

[waffenmeister]

Please ignore below post as I have just clocked that this thread is for discoloured variations, ooops!

Hello to all,

checked the star wars club guides for variations due to an unusual BOSSK baggie type, there are SW-A and ESB-c mentioned for the secret figure mailers.
The Bossk in question is in an ESB-f baggie, comes without a catalogue and the Bio insert is a matte paper finish. I have seen the matte finish insert with other graded mailers but not a Bossk in an ESB-f baggie.
Is it a variation for the Mailers not on the guides or am I looking at an old guide?

 

[Rock]

The sun continues to create variations every day. Keep em out of it.

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

The sun continues to create variations every day. Keep em out of it.

Don't it just...

 

[Teek]

Just found a small amount of fading/bleaching on the legs of this Luke Bespin.

 

[Teek]

Here's a heavily discoloured original Luke. All limbs are yellow as is the torso at the front. The head has turned a few shades darker as he's tanned. The interesting thing for me is his hands and neck are very pale almost POCH like but the back of his neck remains bright pink.

 

[jedikman]

I call this guy "desert" fett. Hope pic works,K

 

[TK114]

I call this guy "desert" fett. Hope pic works,K

That Fett actually looks really cool with all the battle damage. All he needsw is a touch up for his visor and he would look like he was almost made that way.

 

[jedikman]

That Fett actually looks really cool with all the battle damage. All he needsw is a touch up for his visor and he would look like he was almost made that way.

thanks tk114.he looks a lot cooler in person than in the pic! I could poke his head in the sun for a few years and maybe get the visor to match ��K

 

[SWAPIJ]

Has anyone ever suspected that the "Green Limb" Chewbacca is actually a production error? I'm assuming I am not the only one to notice that the earlier Chewbaccas seem to have a greenish body as well? I was working on a video to talk about the problems with boil-and-pop limb swapping when I started to realize that every legitimate Early Bird Chewbacca that I've seen has the slightly-greenish body in addition to the limbs, which match up much better. If someone can shoot me down here, please do, but I have a theory that they changed the body color sometime before ESB and were simply using up the stock of their older, "green" limbs with the new body. I'm not saying that there hasn't been further discoloration of some of these, but... what do you think? Is it possible?

 

[Lobotscomb]

From the information i have gathered through the years while collecting toys (most notably Megos) Is that due to disruptions with the middle east in this time period (remember the gas shortages kids of the 70's and early 8o's?). There were problems securing petroleum oils and this led to manufacturers producing sub-par plastics. Toys were never thought of as being valuable nor collectable, so thats where corners were certainly cut. Look up any of the megos produced around the same time, the zombie gray heads were a direct result of these.. Thanks Ayatollah for ruining my toys if i get around to it there are a few doozies in my collection as well. Mostly figures i had since i was a kid, and were NOT left outside.

 

[JEDIWILL]

I found this awesome Luke X-wing variant recently and it's one of the coolest discolourations I've ever seen on vintage figures!

 

[Snowtrooper1138]

From the information i have gathered through the years while collecting toys (most notably Megos) Is that due to disruptions with the middle east in this time period (remember the gas shortages kids of the 70's and early 8o's?). There were problems securing petroleum oils and this led to manufacturers producing sub-par plastics. Toys were never thought of as being valuable nor collectable, so thats where corners were certainly cut. Look up any of the megos produced around the same time, the zombie gray heads were a direct result of these.. Thanks Ayatollah for ruining my toys if i get around to it there are a few doozies in my collection as well. Mostly figures i had since i was a kid, and were NOT left outside.

I have seen many Mego guys with those awful grey faces; now I know!

 

[Squishydeadewok]

Hi all, new to the forums. Not sure how active this thread still is but hopefully someone will see this and can give me some insight. Picked up a collection of vintage figures the other day, nothing special, just play use average figures. Anyway, there were some strange oddities in this batch. Probably about 100 figures total, most just well played with figures, no weapons, basically just left laying around from his childhood in a closet doing nothing. First thing I noticed was sandpeople wearing grey lando capes and had darker hands than my normal ones. Now, I know they had hand paint variations so no biggie, and the lando capes probably came from landos, although it was weird because there were no lando figures in the lot and the only grey capes were on the sandpeople.

Anyway, as I rummaged through them, the next oddity were the boba fetts. Now, one is what I would expect, a well worn, but normal colored fett. The other 4 however were very strange. They all have I guess you could call them "greenish grey" limbs and heads. These are all from the same batch of figures, again one normal, the other 4 the heads and limbs are all a uniform greenish gray color on them, not a normal color discoloration I've seen before and 100% uniform not splotchy or partial. the entire set of limbs is this color evenly, but not the chest. So, reading through here ok probably just some weird discoloration I'm assuming....

Now, for me at least and I dont know much tbh this last was the weirdest ones. There were 3 Leia's, one normal and the other two, well at first I thought this dude had torn apart some lobots and switched limbs but that is not the case. These two leias have grey arms and legs and they are definitely leia legs, straight and exactly like the normal white ones, same markings, same dates, same coo. What is going on with these? I can't imagine this is a discoloration issue on the leias. Ill post pictures and maybe someone here can tell me what's up.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1O-DrT7e4-DmJVbdy0_EOFy_jf7uHmkhs

Sorry about the link, I tried multiple times to add the pictures using the picture button but it wont copy them here for some reason? I tried my drive and my onedrive neither worked :-( Any help on these would be greatly appreciated.

 

[amanamanman]

Hi all, new to the forums. Not sure how active this thread still is but hopefully someone will see this and can give me some insight. Picked up a collection of vintage figures the other day, nothing special, just play use average figures. Anyway, there were some strange oddities in this batch. Probably about 100 figures total, most just well played with figures, no weapons, basically just left laying around from his childhood in a closet doing nothing. First thing I noticed was sandpeople wearing grey lando capes and had darker hands than my normal ones. Now, I know they had hand paint variations so no biggie, and the lando capes probably came from landos, although it was weird because there were no lando figures in the lot and the only grey capes were on the sandpeople.

Anyway, as I rummaged through them, the next oddity were the boba fetts. Now, one is what I would expect, a well worn, but normal colored fett. The other 4 however were very strange. They all have I guess you could call them "greenish grey" limbs and heads. These are all from the same batch of figures, again one normal, the other 4 the heads and limbs are all a uniform greenish gray color on them, not a normal color discoloration I've seen before and 100% uniform not splotchy or partial. the entire set of limbs is this color evenly, but not the chest. So, reading through here ok probably just some weird discoloration I'm assuming....

Now, for me at least and I dont know much tbh this last was the weirdest ones. There were 3 Leia's, one normal and the other two, well at first I thought this dude had torn apart some lobots and switched limbs but that is not the case. These two leias have grey arms and legs and they are definitely leia legs, straight and exactly like the normal white ones, same markings, same dates, same coo. What is going on with these? I can't imagine this is a discoloration issue on the leias. Ill post pictures and maybe someone here can tell me what's up.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1O-DrT7e4-DmJVbdy0_EOFy_jf7uHmkhs

Sorry about the link, I tried multiple times to add the pictures using the picture button but it wont copy them here for some reason? I tried my drive and my onedrive neither worked :-( Any help on these would be greatly appreciated.

Hey there, welcome. All discoloration. I've seen fetts like that before. Haven't seen Leia's that bad but for sure possible and nothing special unless your into that kind of thing. Depending on how they were all stored the last 30-40 years makes a difference.

Mike

 

[Squishydeadewok]

Hey there, welcome. All discoloration. I've seen fetts like that before. Haven't seen Leia's that bad but for sure possible and nothing special unless your into that kind of thing. Depending on how they were all stored the last 30-40 years makes a difference.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I never questioned the sandpeople, but why he wanted them to have lando capes I'll never know. I would never have questioned the fetts really if those darn leia's were not in there. I have had tons that had yellowing of course but grey? Never saw grey in all my life. Really threw me off. Didn't figure they were anything special, but so strange it wasn't the normal yellowing and that solid grey instead. It's funny, looking at them in your hand they look solid dark grey, but now that I look at them in my pics you can almost see a touch of white look still at the tops of the legs. Very strange. I guess I'll keep one of each in my collection just for conversation's sake

 

[amanamanman]

I now recall seeing a Leia graded 85 but wasn't stored properly and it turned a dark color. I thought I took a screen shot but couldn't find it. Limbs I believe are made of a softer plastic that's why they discolor more/quicker. Too bad about those fetts, the paint is near perfect! Yes odd you didn't see any landos. Probably long lost in an outside battle at some point

 

[StarWarsBus]

In local collectibles, there are a lot of great items and the new toys will be our favorite.

 

[hansnotscruffy]

I don't even understand that Leia. Yellowing happens all of the time, and even some have the skin tone-ish peach look to them, but that's like a molded wood look the way it has that grey/black tint. Weird.

 

[WampasGottaEat2]

What am I supposed to be looking for in this R2 variant? Is it the sticker version? Trying to figure out what is driving the price up on this particular one. Is it a Lily? The bottom isn't one I'm familiar with.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Or...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[amanamanman]

Its a r2 pop up saber without the saber. Really not a bad price, looks to be in decent shape. On the second photo you can see the hole where the saber goes.

Mike

 

[WampasGottaEat2]

Ok I swear I wasn't drinking. Don't know how I missed the giant hole in his head.....

 

[LooseBidstalker]

Has anyone seen figures that are almost rubber material? I have some like that and am wondering if that is due to plastic degradation or what. They all seem to either have a china or scarred COO. Also, is the metallic Vader due to discoloration?

 

[Mon]

No, I have not seen. But I think it would be a good quality. I would like to have this one myself.

 

[intwenothor]

My vintage wampa had one black palm and one white palm; was this common?

Edit; not a discolouration. Came out of the box that way.

 

[DarthBrit]

Just bought a couple of Dagobah playsets and noticed that the base on one is tan and the base on another is greener. Never seen this before or any discussion of it. Was this an overseas variant? Thanks.

 

[TieFighter]

I am calling this guy Avocado Max Rebo.