PS: The Grey limbed Snowtroopers have been the subject of debate since they first showed up, many experienced collectors have seen them and given their opinion. I can assure you that most feel the same way about them: IF (big IF) these did originate from Palitoy they may represent a mould purge situation where random plastic was used. There are some isolated cases where Palitoy were involved in or had some dealings with"prototypes" (Palitoy Death Star springs to mind as it was designed by Bob Brechin, the kitbashed speeder bike that appeared on promotional images *but eventually discovered in Australia*) but for the most part they had NO reason to be making "first/test shots" or anything else. It was all handled by Kenner.
Now..if you weren't sure of what these were at the time you bought them, it would have been pretty wrong to call them prototypes and sell them as prototypes without any solid provenance. I also believe at some point you stopped selling them for "£30" and may have been selling them for as much as £200..
To me, that's akin to Mexican collectors selling Ledy factory overstock as prototypes and hoodwinking other collectors into believing them. It's called a scam.
You probably didn't manufacture them, I will agree with you there but you did nothing to properly identify them in the years since you first saw them till the day you sold your last one..or do you still have a few knocking around
"Dealing" in fake goods and misrepresenting the items you sell to make them more appealing to a certain type of collector is just as bad as making them yourself.
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Joe i was there at the covantry sic-if show when i first found then Jim stevenson was there David oliver was there , Mark woollard was there other colelctors was also there , at the same time Hoth bacta fluid centre white metal unpaged figures also turned up including the 21b so why were they there also ? who knwos mate but they turned up there any how , you are then talking to other collectors and listign to there "opinion" they were not there mate , we were we found them we bought them we sold them on to other collators , you do not here storys about the 12x 21 B 's i found and sold off from the same sorce . no as the they are what they are and others have found them in the US but the Hoth troopers have not been found before anywere else why i do not know but mate they were found there they are real and they are what they are , and i sold them for £20 to £30 tops for £200 back then you could get a carded POTF yak so people need to get real here they were novae sold by me fore £200 , with my trader hat on i was in it to sell it at £200 i would have died with it , what you do not know back then i was selling Lule bespin large palitoy logo case fresh unpunched for £17.50 , Leia bespin £20.00 ben unpuched large palitoy logo case fresh £65 stomtrooper unpuched large palitoy £25 that was the prices for these things , and i have sealed cases of them ask jim stevenson he bought him from me at westminster hall comic mart , around 90% of the mint carded 12 , 20 and first esb palitoy carded figers came from me finding a werhouse is Essex's and it was the mother load , this is what i did back then and at the time there was jim stevenson david oliver and mark woollard and myself and we were the top people in the UK with this stuff and we turned loads of it , and being a collectors i kept one of ever verdant i came across , anyway back to the hoth troopers i am sorry they are real and anyone that says otherwise they just are un knowing and just do not know there history , its easy to say i made something and just right it off , look a year ago everyone said i made the Palitoy jawa , they were wrong then and the people that say this hoth trooper is a fake are very wrong now , sorry , they trying to re right history not me i am putting it striate , hope that helps clear this one up
and no Joe i did not manufacture them
also i did not sell them for something they were not if i remember at the time we all thought they were test shots , with hind site with the copyright being removed from the moulds it seems as they they may have been the test shots for the later figures made that were not made in Hong Kong ? but i am guesses ?
as to prototyping i am well aware what palitory made and develop here in the UK talking R2D2 hybrid from the 1974 Dalek , the green IMPIRAL TROOP TRASPORTER prototype which i know where that is located , i do not know if you know i sold off all the spear seat shots and prototypes that the prototype manufactures gave a way back in around 1997 in a public auction at cheshunt ? so i know a little bit about all this and there is very little i have not been involved with in the 1980s and 1990s in a very big way
one last point Joe you need to know this i have never knowingly sold a fake and i have never misrepresented something enable to sell it , i am not that sort of a person and i have never needed to earn money in that way , i have been lucky to have been able to pay for what ever i have needed over the years , at the time i made a good living buying and selling and i cannot remember a time when i could not buy any item i needed to in a collators show be it in the UK or the US , and it was things like that that did upset people a lot from time to time, if i was in the same room as another collector and i wanted something i just out bit them and i was good at doing that and going home with the item i wanted , i did that to steve in las vagus with the big kenner display stands and whent back with 18 lots i think and i did that when i needed my last imperial helmet in Christys when i outbid everyone and bought imp gunners helmet for a then record price of £19,000 , and then i found another around a year later for £5000 ho well you cannot whin them all
anyway you do not make friend collecting in this way ,but you get a great collection and plenty of enemies
, and i think thats the legacy i am dealing with here with these stories.
thank god a grew up and just keep my collecting low key and privet
hope that is of help
jason
good one mate
ok everyone i am 43 saw star wars in 1977 as Gary Kurtz told me i was his target audience, i told him back this is all his fault, he smiled