I recently bought a nice light brown Sand People figure that was advertised as being all original, including the cape. The seller advised that 'This is the rare, 1st issue variant that was only released on the first run of 12 back A cards', although he was referring mainly to the light brown paint, not the cape.
It arrived today, and it's lovely, however I have some concerns over the cape. I own a lot of Sand People variants, and the capes on all of my figures are smooth on both sides, but with the characteristic zipping noise you would expect when you run a fingernail across one side of them. However, whilst my new figure does have a smooth inner surface to its cape which does make the zipping noise, the outside surface has slight texturing I've never seen before. It seems to be the right colour (perhaps a touch lighter than most of mine, but not by much at all), and also seems to be the right thickness.
I must stress that the seller has very high, 100% positive feedback, and also that (to my knowledge) I have never owned a Sand People figure from a 12A back before, and so this cape might be 100% original and correct. However, because I have never seen one like it before, I thought I would ask for your help to try to confirm whether it is indeed a vintage original, or whether (and I hope not) it is a repro.
Any assistance would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Jeremy
It arrived today, and it's lovely, however I have some concerns over the cape. I own a lot of Sand People variants, and the capes on all of my figures are smooth on both sides, but with the characteristic zipping noise you would expect when you run a fingernail across one side of them. However, whilst my new figure does have a smooth inner surface to its cape which does make the zipping noise, the outside surface has slight texturing I've never seen before. It seems to be the right colour (perhaps a touch lighter than most of mine, but not by much at all), and also seems to be the right thickness.
I must stress that the seller has very high, 100% positive feedback, and also that (to my knowledge) I have never owned a Sand People figure from a 12A back before, and so this cape might be 100% original and correct. However, because I have never seen one like it before, I thought I would ask for your help to try to confirm whether it is indeed a vintage original, or whether (and I hope not) it is a repro.
Any assistance would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Jeremy