Millennium Falcon Variations - looking for collectors help!

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Hello all,

I have just posted this thread on Rebelscum (http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1117388/#post19533974) looking at different mold variants for the vintage Falcon. I know that a lot of you guys have childhood collections or NRFB items and I would really appreciate any input. If you have a Falcon that you know is still in the box it originally came in it would be great if you could have a look if you can match the variant to a specific box (ie: Variant 2 in Palitoy ESB for example). Hope someone can help!

The three variants have molding differences all over, but below are pics that show specific areas to look to tell between the 3 variants.

Thanks for your help!

 

[spoons]

I've a Palitoy one I'll look at - are you sure the last two are really different versions? It looks like the smaller bolt one is just a later in the production line when the mould is worn. All the details are a little less crisp. Just a thought

 

[MarkG]

My Palitoy ROTJ version looks very much like variation 3. The rivets look larger and more prominent.

 

[tiefighterboy]

I will have a look. Never really looked that close at them.

 

[Banton989]

My childhood Falcon, bought from Tesco is a no 3

Adam

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Spoons, thanks for the reply. Variants 2 and 3 look similar at a glance but on close inspection there are dozens of small differences, I highlight a few more on the RS link. If you look at the pics above you can see a little crossbar detailing on 3 that is entirely missing on 2. Thank you very much for your offer both to you and Todd for saying you'll have a look.

Mark, the Palitoy ROTJ box is variant 3? Good info, brilliant.

Adam, your Falcon bought in the UK is also 3? Can you be specific about the box - was it ESB or ROTJ bi logo?

This is great and the more examples that can be given will create a clearer picture.

 

[edd_jedi]

I'm with Spoons on this, none of these are 'variants' IMO, they're just anomalies from production. Nobody has deliberately made those changes to the mould, they're just areas where in some cases more or less plastic has set, or the mould has worn.

A 'variant' is something that was deliberately changed, eg vinyl > cloth vinyl cape. Not a Chewbacca with slightly different coloured limbs or a ship with a dot of plastic from the casting process still left on it :lol:

 

[spoons]

Spoons, thanks for the reply. Variants 2 and 3 look similar at a glance but on close inspection there are dozens of small differences, I highlight a few more on the RS link. If you look at the pics above you can see a little crossbar detailing on 3 that is entirely missing on 2. Thank you very much for your offer both to you and Todd for saying you'll have a look.

Mark, the Palitoy ROTJ box is variant 3? Good info, brilliant.

Adam, your Falcon bought in the UK is also 3? Can you be specific about the box - was it ESB or ROTJ bi logo?

This is great and the more examples that can be given will create a clearer picture.

I didn't see that bar - my pal falcon is version 3 as well. IF all the Kenners are version 1 it would be a way of identifying loose examples. Are you getting different responses on RS?

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

I'm with Spoons on this, none of these are 'variants' IMO, they're just anomalies from production. Nobody has deliberately made those changes to the mould, they're just areas where in some cases more or less plastic has set, or the mould has worn.

A 'variant' is something that was deliberately changed, eg vinyl > cloth vinyl cape. Not a Chewbacca with slightly different coloured limbs or a ship with a dot of plastic from the casting process still left on it :lol:

Hi Edd, I've done what I should have done originally and added all the pics from the RS thread so that you can see a larger number of the variations. These aren't casting differences like a short shot, these are 3 entirely different sculpts. Although the differences are subtle, like the Snaggletooth toe dent or the hollow eyes on IG-88, I still hope this is of some interest to the collecting community. And if we can ID a specific mold to a specific box (Variant 3 seems to be leaning towards Palitoy), then I think that would be some worthwhile knowledge for the hobby.

Again, many thanks to the SWFUK members who have contributed... sadly so far no one on RS has.

 

[spoons]

I'm with Spoons on this, none of these are 'variants' IMO, they're just anomalies from production. Nobody has deliberately made those changes to the mould, they're just areas where in some cases more or less plastic has set, or the mould has worn.

A 'variant' is something that was deliberately changed, eg vinyl > cloth vinyl cape. Not a Chewbacca with slightly different coloured limbs or a ship with a dot of plastic from the casting process still left on it :lol:

Again, many thanks to the SWFUK members who have contributed... sadly so far no one on RS has.

Often the way - my very first post in RS still hasn't be answered 9 yrs later :lol:

Those extra photos do show a lot of extra detailing - I'm convinced

 

[edd_jedi]

Sorry mate I personally still don't think any of those are deliberate design differences. The different width pipes must just be wear to the mould. The missing 'square' next to the copyright text could just be that that part of the mould was blocked. I can see loads of slight differences in all of your photos, eg sizes of dots and lines, I'm not saying they aren't there but they're not what I would call variations personally.

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Sorry mate I personally still don't think any of those are deliberate design differences. The different width pipes must just be wear to the mould. The missing 'square' next to the copyright text could just be that that part of the mould was blocked. I can see loads of slight differences in all of your photos, eg sizes of dots and lines, I'm not saying they aren't there but they're not what I would call variations personally.

Hello Edd, the variants that fall under the deliberate design changes criteria would be examples like the vinyl cape jawa, the small/big head Han Solo, and the DT Luke Saber to regular saber.

But in the murky world of variant collecting there are many, many more examples that do not fit this very tight criteria. One only has to look at pics of Wollfs collection (pictured below) in which every figure shown is different. That is all the word variant means 'different' and that certainly also applies to the three Falcon types. Compared to the number of figure variants three is actually relatively low and it would be interesting, at least to me, if we could assign the 3 variant types to specific producers.

 

[Jediknight3263827]

nice pics ,to me these are deffo different moulds and i would class them as variants i wonder how many moulds there actually was

 

[Pomse2001]

If I remember correct I have 4 falcon, I can check them if you want ?