Marty _Norfleet said:
Hi, I bought these Palitoy Fett baggies from a guy in the UK in April. I sent them into AFA and they say not only did this figure not come in this type of baggie, they both have overlapping paint on the head and belt which differs in color texture and accuracy from the original paint underneath. I have posted some pictures under a blacklight. When AFA inform me about the baggies I gave them the go-ahead to inspect the figures. The main reason I bought these 2 figures was because I've been trying for years to find a near perfect example.
Further to Marty's post & before I go on at any length I would first like to say that if these tro logo fett's were refused a grade regardless of if they were opened by AFA (which BTW if they were real would be a travesty IMO) & have been refused a grade for obvious tampering - having clear signs of being repainted then a full refund should be issued under Jeff's "no questions asked refunds policy" IMHO - my thinking - if they had been fine they would have graded & there would never have been any need for a refund simple as that.
It is worth noting that they differ in paint apps with one being a painted dart & the other unpainted even the paint colour of the yellow /mustard on the dart are, which to me would indicate they came from different batches, to me it also looks like at least one has touch ups to the belt, it is also worth nothing that the paint type used on the figures in the production process do not show up under a blacklight so even if it has been touched up at production due to bad take of the paint in the spray mask stage any further subsequent paint added would have not been viable under the black light as a different colour as the exact same paint type would have been used.
Below are examples I have on the baggie guide which till now I just took as being cool paint app variations, I will get to my point about all this further down to summarize after pointing out bit's on each so please bear with me.
Painted dart (mustard) /dark belt / painted knee / dark blaster / font at roughly crotch height
unpainted knee /unpainted dart (lighter lemon yellow) / lighter blue blaster / dark belt / font at shoulder height
Unpainted Dart / painted knee / belt with dark in the middle but light brown on both legs to the belt / dark blaster / teat at knee height
So to summarize the above - these were all bought from the same place - Jeff, all 3 are different in terms of paint app's one has a different colour weapon & Marty's 2 are also different (paint app's & blasters) these were all offered for sale with mailer boxes which "quote by Jeff" came with them when I got them & offered up for sale with them so though maybe not stated as a tri fett mailer, the images would indicate so, can't remember if they were indeed listed as mailer or just with mailer boxes, though I am sure someone can can clear that point up for us, to me also quite an important issue is where the font placement is on them as well as the boxes being the incorrect size for any known & confirmed fett mailer be in kenner SW or ESB era or Palitoy as all know examples are identical in dimensions, the boxes offered with these are the same size as is associated with the Nien Nunb mailer.
Now my reasoning -
1. till these turned up I owned the only ever confirmed palitoy-a tri logo fett which I will post a photos of below as a reference, I got it off long time baggie collector Del Hooper who was just selling up & getting out of the hobby when I was coming in to it, so it's been about a long time, it has the light blue blaster.
2. If these all came from the same place I.E Jeff bought them in for onward sale, then surely with the sum in question there would be some record of the transaction & a name of the seller as he had a lot of these I count 5 above alone & I know of at last one more owned by someone I know also from Jeff, most likely a great deal more of them as well that I do not know of, it's a recent transaction so must be some paper trail?
3. why if they all came from the same place would they have so many differences??, surely if they were from a single run which I would expect they were (hypothetical) then would not the entire batch be of the same paint applications as well as variation I.E all painted knee + unpainted dart + dark belt + same colour weapon for example??.
4. If they did indeed all come from the same batch would the bags not have also come from the same batch?, if so would the font not have been roughly in the same place on all of them give or take a few MM's as it the norm with batch runs off machinery.
For the record I am not stating they are fakes, I am stating there are a great many "possible" red flags with a single batch of figures of the same type, which I find worrying as a collector of baggies.
If however (speculation) they had been made up recently by "someone" not saying Jeff himself directly or maybe even indirectly as I simple do not have all the answers I would wish, but that would certainly explain the vast variations, does this not strike anyone else as a little odd at bear minimum??.
I know there is by no means anything concrete or conclusive, but there are enough red flags for this to warrant full investigation IMO considering many of these changed hands at I think up to 750 quid a pop,so not small potatoes by anyone's standards.
This is my older example which as said till these showed up was the only one found in the past 20+ years -
is also worthy of note that the oldest known example would seem to have a different top seal to any of these other examples from what I can tell from the photos alone.
