Out of the Ordinary Collection

There’s nothing better then owning something that other collectors don’t have and to see things others have and dreaming of finding it one day. I am talking about everything out of the ordinary:

Variants

“In the interest of better quality and value we are constanly improving and updating our products. Consequently, pictures on this package may sometimes differ from the model enclosed“. This is the standard text on the back of Hasbro products. When a flaw is dicovered during a production run the product is altered. A slight paintjob correction or alternate pose of the figure inside the package is called a variant.

I’ve tried to keep up with every variant of figures ’till the SAGA line but there’s simply too much out there! I have sold almost every variant I had but I have some left. Here you see a ROTS Emperor Palpatine with a blue coloured lightsaber instead of the Sith-colour red. (On the back of the package you see a picture of the right, Sith lightsaber).

Errors

People make mistakes. In the factory or the design department people sometimes mess up. The cardback can be  misprinted, the figure can have too much or too little paint and sometimes accessoiries are not packed in the bubble while they should have been. The nicest type of error (in my opinion) is an action figure placed on a wrong cardback. Hasbro tries to pick all the mistakes and destroy them but sometimes these mistakes make it to the store shelves. Errors are mostly one of a kind and appeal to many collectors because of their uniqueness.

Sometimes a cardback has a wrong text or number on it (Episode I Captain Panaka for instance: the first release has a wrong CommTech speech line on the back which was corrected later). Some collector’s call this an error while most call this a variation because we’re talking about bigger numbers here and not a unique mistake. I agree with the last.

Here’s an example of some of the errors in my collection: an Episode I Watto on a Darth Sidious cardback and an Episode I Queen Amidala Battle (with CommTalk sticker btw - the only one i’ve ever seen!!) with the bubble glued not straight on the cardback.

Mockups

A mockup or mock up is an action figure on a test packaging. Hasbro does this before they start general production of the packed action figures to see how it will look. I have seen a mockup at POTF2.com of a fomecore picture (!) of POTF2 Flashback Anakin Skywalker inside a bubble on mockup packaging!
The action figure is usually a prototype figure without paint or handpainted because the final product is not done yet.

I own a mockup Red R2 unit (originally packed with the Episode I Naboo Royal Starship) on Episode I cardback. It was placed on a Gasgano cardback and Battle Droid CommTech chip.

Customs

Something I personally have never been interested in is customizing: collectors make their own version of an action figuring usually by using parts of existing Hasbro figures. By boiling them in water the limbs pop off and you can start mixing the parts together. The experienced customizers use all kinds of moulding clay and tools like a Dremel to make their own unique action figures. I don’t have cumtoms in my collection but if you’re interested in these you can find more information and pictures at this site:
http://www.thecustomalliance.com/

Prototypes

A prototype is an action figure before is goes into production. Often it’s a test figure in non-production colours. There are many different types of proto’s because there are a lot of production stages before an action figuge actually goed into production. I have one loose prototype of POTJ Mas Amedda. It is holding some kind of lightsaber hilt. I don’t know where it comes from because the actual production fig doesn’t come with any accessoiry.

Cancelled action figures

To design and produce an action figures costs a lot of money. Hasbro spends tens of thousands of dollars on one single figure before it goes into mass production. The sculpting is expensive as well as creating the mold to make different body parts. After the different stages of production Hasbro can get their investment back. You can imagine that it doesn’t make sense to create a figure and not release in onto the market but it sometimes happens.

After the hype of Episode I died, the toys didn’t sell well anymore. Hasbro was pretty far in the process of making a whole new collection of CommTech action figures (the oval shaped Commtech 2 or CTC2 chips with twice the speech capability) but they decided not to release them in the Episode I line.

Later these figures were released in the POTJ and SAGA lines for the reasons I described above. There are however quite some figures out there on cancelled Episode I cardbacks. I own one which you can see here below:

Unproduced

This type of collectible is almost impossible to find. Hasbro doesn’t design figures just to not sell them afterwards. There are a few. In the vintage line of figures there were some kit bashed figures that didn’t make it to production and also in the Episode I range there are in my knowledge four examples of toys that would (or should) have been but haven’t (yet) made it to the store shelves.

There’s the holographic Queen Amidala Coruscant and Obi-Wan Kenobi Light Up figures (the same type as the Walmart exclusive Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn figures). There’s also the holographic Nute Gunray figure that was planned in the cancelled oval CommTech2 (CTC2) line. Like the holographic Darth Sidious was made out of the regular Darth Didious mold, the holo Nuto was made with the regular Episode I Nute Gunray figure but made of translucent material. My guess is that the holo Nute Gunray will be released someday in a different Star Wars line.

I know of only one existing carded unproduced figure: Obi-Wan Kenobi with Gungan Sub Trophy. This figure was supposed to be the third in the exclusive Trophy assortment after Darth Maul with Sith Infiltrator trophy and OOM-9 with Trade Federation Tank Trophy (released later as a single carded figure without the “Trophy” after bad sales of the Darth Maul set). I have this one too (and I am selling it right now. Mail me if you’re interested). You can see it here below.

Kit bashed figures

Kit bashing is creating a “new” action figure using parts of existing figures. Now that there are no more Star Wars movies to be released and the demand for Star Wars action figures will get smaller Hasbro does this more and more. They don’t have to make costly new molds and just have to redo the paint job and sell it as a new figure. (Sad) examples of kit bashing are the SAGA Cantina Bar figures with Momaw Nadon, Greedo and some other old figs and the Jedi Foul Moudama made out of the POTF2 Muftak figure parts. I personally am not interested in kit bashed figures but Hasbro continues to make ‘em as long as there’s demand for it (so someone has to love ‘em I guess…).

Rehashed figures

It’s a flaw more and more common these days… Hasbro re-releases old action figures in new packaging. When you think you have a hard to find piece in your collection It’s just a matter of time before it’s rehashed by Hasbro. The #1 reason for collector’s to stop collecting. It’s great that kids get new opportunities to buy cool scarcely released figures but it doesn’t do the collectiong community much good. The OTC line of figures only has about four new sculpt. The rest of the figures was previously released.
The worst example is Cantina Han Solo from the CommTech POTF2 line which reïncarnated in the 2002 SAGA line, the OTC line and it was packed with some vehicles, like the rehashed Millennium Falcon in the OTC line. (these Han Solo pics come from Rebelscum.com).