Toy of the week 2, Week 80, Battle Damaged X-Wing Fighter

Snaketibe said:

The '"Battle Damaged" X-Wing Fighter'.... Not content with simply reissuing the original Star Wars X-Wing Fighter in Empire packaging, which Kenner initially did, they quickly realised they could sell kids exactly the same toy all over again by including some crappy 'battle damage' stickers which made the toy look worse! Genius!

OK, I know the 'battle damage' stickers have their supporters, so I'll take my tongue out of my cheek and content myself by saying that I personally never liked them. You didn't see battle damage like that in the film, and once applied, you couldn't easily remove the stickers without damaging the main stickers!

Regardless of that, here is my opened Palitoy ESB version, plus my sealed Kenner ESB version. The X-wing itself went through a few changes over the years, but the most obvious difference to be found is that the Kenner version had electronic sounds and a baffling red LED light at the tip of its nose, both operated via a blue button on top of the ship, whilst the Palitoy version ditched the sounds and light and resculpted the rear of the ship, replacing it with a sticker.

View attachment 202940

View attachment 202942

View attachment 202946

View attachment 202947

View attachment 202944

View attachment 202945

Click to expand...

StarWarsFan said:

The feature is interesting but shame the stickers weren't removable.

Click to expand...

Snaketibe said:

The '"Battle Damaged" X-Wing Fighter'.... Not content with simply reissuing the original Star Wars X-Wing Fighter in Empire packaging, which Kenner initially did, they quickly realised they could sell kids exactly the same toy all over again by including some crappy 'battle damage' stickers which made the toy look worse! Genius!

OK, I know the 'battle damage' stickers have their supporters, so I'll take my tongue out of my cheek and content myself by saying that I personally never liked them. You didn't see battle damage like that in the film, and once applied, you couldn't easily remove the stickers without damaging the main stickers!

Regardless of that, here is my opened Palitoy ESB version, plus my sealed Kenner ESB version. The X-wing itself went through a few changes over the years, but the most obvious difference to be found is that the Kenner version had electronic sounds and a baffling red LED light at the tip of its nose, both operated via a blue button on top of the ship, whilst the Palitoy version ditched the sounds and light and resculpted the rear of the ship, replacing it with a sticker.

Click to expand...

Pomse2001 said:

Thanks mate for sharing your great collection, they look fantastic Yes kenner knew how to make money Any idea why the damaged stickers was not made better ?

Click to expand...

Snaketibe said:

No idea, sorry. I do think it's fair to say however that Kenner weren't really thinking long-term with any of their toys. They were running a business and wanted to make money. They weren't consciously making collectables to last decades . Battle damaged stickers were a convenient gimmick to appeal to kids and get them to buy the same toy all over again. I don't imagine a moment's thought was given to the fact that you couldn't remove them again once they were applied.

Click to expand...

Beeper383 said:

Apologies for late response on this thread. Here's mine - childhood acquired second hand toy - I do have the wing guns somewhere. It's the version without sounds. I liked this one when I got it, but, always wanted the grey version as I thought the grey was more true to the films. In contrast to the X-Wing, the Luke is in very good condition.

Click to expand...

Pomse2001 said:

5. The 5th X-wing are still confusing me a lot. I talked about it on the forum years ago and I have still no idea which box it was in or which country it was sold in The plastic looks harder just like PBP figures, so I am thinking could spain have used harder plastic to make this x-wing and sold it in the European ROTJ box that was made in spain Let me know if any of you know something ?

The stamp detalils are also much better to see because of the plastic is harder.

The only new thing I have learned are that it is more heavy.

I did a test with putting my 5 battle damaged x-wings on the weight

The 2 from the palitoy boxes and the 1 from the european box that look the same all weight the same 361g

The grey one from kenner with light and sound weight 398g

Now I come to the one in hard plastic that confuse me 378g and there are no sound or leight in it, it is more heavy than the palitoy and the european one from france

The only thing I know about this X-wing are that I found it in a danish childhood lot in 2014

View attachment 203124View attachment 203125View attachment 203126View attachment 203127View attachment 203128

Click to expand...

Snaketibe said:

That's a wonderful collection, Lars. Thanks for sharing it

The ESB Palitoy instructions that were printed in France I would guess are simply a different print run from those that were not printed in France. We know these toys were manufactured in lots of different places over the years, so I see no reason why the instructions might not have been as well.

As for your heavier X-wing, when I get a chance I will dig out my PBP reference book and see if I can find it in that. If it is made from a harder heavier plastic it does seem likely that it could be PBP. Of course it could simply be a Kenner issue made in a different country, but it's definitely worth checking out the PBP possibility. I'll let you know what I find.

Click to expand...

Gadders said:

Thank you for posting those @Pomse2001
As a paperwork collector, I wasn't actually aware of the additional ESB variation of the Palitoy instruction sheet.
But now my checklist is updated and I'm on the lookout for it..

Click to expand...

Matthieu said:

This is not your usual battle damaged X-Wing! This is a X-Wing in Kenner box with a large Miro-Meccano "Chasseur X" import sticker for distribution in France. it includes the exclusive Meccano instruction sheet (not to be found with any other version). I have only seen two examples, including this one, so I believe not too many of these were distributed.

Click to expand...

Pomse2001 said:

5. The 5th X-wing are still confusing me a lot. I talked about it on the forum years ago and I have still no idea which box it was in or which country it was sold in The plastic looks harder just like PBP figures, so I am thinking could spain have used harder plastic to make this x-wing and sold it in the European ROTJ box that was made in spain Let me know if any of you know something ?

The stamp detalils are also much better to see because of the plastic is harder.

The only new thing I have learned are that it is more heavy.

I did a test with putting my 5 battle damaged x-wings on the weight

The 2 from the palitoy boxes and the 1 from the european box that look the same all weight the same 361g

The grey one from kenner with light and sound weight 398g

Now I come to the one in hard plastic that confuse me 378g and there are no sound or leight in it, it is more heavy than the palitoy and the european one from france

The only thing I know about this X-wing are that I found it in a danish childhood lot in 2014

View attachment 203124View attachment 203125View attachment 203126View attachment 203127View attachment 203128

Click to expand...

Snaketibe said:

OK, so I've been through all 3 volumes of the PBP / Poch Made in Spain volumes, and disappointingly I can't find any photos of ship or vehicle COO's. To be fair, the main focus of the volumes is the loose figures, figure cardbacks and toy boxes, rather than the loose craft. Even so, if your X-wing is made of hard plastic and weighs a different amount to all the others, it must be from a different production run and or factory to the rest, so I'd still wager it might be PBP. Sorry I can't be more definitive.

Jeremy

Click to expand...

Pomse2001 said:

Hi Jeremy, thanks for trying, I have the first 2 books, but I have not bought the 3rd yet. I was a little bit disappointed with the 2nd, I had hoped it was with pictures of vehicles and figures and coo etc. etc. like the first book. Are the 3rd book any good ? Had I been knowing you would look in the books then I could have told you not to look in the first 2, sorry about that.

Let me know if you hear or find any info about the x-wing, I can't be the only one who have one in the world, there must have been made many of them 1000s or more with that plastic type.

Click to expand...

Snaketibe said:

Hi Lars,

Sorry for the late reply. The 3rd volume is more of the same as the first 2 really. It mainly contains even more loose figure variants, but also covers printed adverts, store display stands, mailer offers and some PBP/Poch rare items (other packaging for things like Colgate toothpaste and paper kites, etc.). Like the first 2 volumes, it's very good at what it covers, but it is a bit disappointing if you want pictures of loose ships, vehicles and playsets and their COO's, as those are not covered.

Jeremy

Click to expand...

Pomse2001 said:

Hi Jeremy, so there are pictures of variants of figures in book 3 like there was in book 1 ? with info about how to ID the figures and the correct weapons for them.

Click to expand...

Snaketibe said:

Yes that's correct. It's the majority of the book in fact. They must have found a lot more variants after releasing the first 2 books.

Click to expand...

Frunkstar said:

Wow you have quite the extensive run of these Lars & Matthieu that's one I must admit I have never seen before myself, must be rare if you've only ever seen 2 of them.

I got this version when I eventually got an X wing, but have to say much like the B.D Tie I prefer the previous incarnations without the B.D, good selling point from the vendors aspect though, just reissue the same toy with some different stickers, marketing genius

Click to expand...