Palitoy Death Stars

[Andyclarke]

Just noticed a couple of Death Stars come on eBay within minutes of each other. I always thought they were supposed to be rare.
Having done a quick check on eBay there are a staggering 10 Complete (and mainly boxed) Death Stars active on eBay. This seems an incredible amount and clearly they aren't rare any more!!!

 

[lejackal]

Is it 6 sold at Vectis in the last year or so? Seeing the prices they achieved maybe prompted people to get their backsides up the loft :lol:

 

[Snaketibe]

I suppose like most larger Star Wars toys, they were harder to lose all the parts of (especially since most of the PDS individual cardboard pieces are pretty big and, for the most part, robust), they were more likely to be kept in their boxes due to their size (so the number of boxes relative to the total number of Palitoy Death Stars out there is pretty good - although really good condition boxes are difficult and expensive to find), plus it's one of those toys, a bit like Yak Face, which has gained a reputation for being rare and valuable. Of course there are vastly fewer PDS sets out there than there are Yak Faces, but it does mean that people that have a PDS tucked away in their attic are more likely to decide to sell it when they learn about its value.

I still wouldn't exactly describe the PDS as plentiful, but if you want one and have the cash, they're certainly not difficult to obtain either.

 

[steve obi wan]

Yes , I noticed the amount of them on eBay aswell , prices are also all over the place .

 

[Andyclarke]

The highest price one has gone for over the last few months is £450 for a boxed example, 10 have sold in this time all for appreciably less. Looking at the buy it now prices they're going to be hanging around for a while.
What seems to be clear is it must have been a good seller when it originally came out. Lots of play value.

 

[SublevelStudios]

The Palitoy Land of the Jawas is the rarest of the playsets by a country mile. Death Stars are rare complete and in excellent condition but you can pick up the basic shell any day of the week. I got a really nice complete one boxed for £300 last year.

Value will also increase sharply if it has the little Palitoy colour catalogue with it, these can sell north of £100 and even the instruction sheet has been sold for £50 in the past!

 

[Andyclarke]

The Palitoy Land of the Jawas is the rarest of the playsets by a country mile. Death Stars are rare complete and in excellent condition but you can pick up the basic shell any day of the week. I got a really nice complete one boxed for £300 last year.

Value will also increase sharply if it has the little Palitoy colour catalogue with it, these can sell north of £100 and even the instruction sheet has been sold for £50 in the past!

Interestingly I used to own a shop stock Death Star, the tape had dried up and I opened it, but it never contained the small colour catalogue.

 

[andygo]

The meccano version is the real pig to find boxed and complete .... or even incomplete for that matter. .. Still looking for one of those, if anyone has one they're bored of...

 

[darth_daddius]

The New Zealand Toltoys version - that is the toughest to find I reckon.

Cheers
Pat

 

[SublevelStudios]

Interestingly I used to own a shop stock Death Star, the tape had dried up and I opened it, but it never contained the small colour catalogue.

That is weird, I was always under the impression the catalogues were included with the DS and I've seen some Palitoy X Wings have them included.

Anyone have a definitive answer to this? Where's out paperwork experts, Matt (Bonsai) and Stef (Walkie)?

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Interestingly I used to own a shop stock Death Star, the tape had dried up and I opened it, but it never contained the small colour catalogue.

That is weird, I was always under the impression the catalogues were included with the DS and I've seen some Palitoy X Wings have them included.

Anyone have a definitive answer to this? Where's out paperwork experts, Matt (Bonsai) and Stef (Walkie)?

I saw one sold on facebook just over a year ago (for $4,500!) it was opened but seemingly in a NRFB state with the contents bag and silver sticker, and it didn't have the product catalog. So I think that suggests they were sometimes missing them. When push comes to shove I suspect that product catalogs were seen as a non-essential item on the packing line, by that I mean that if you were out of the black clips for example you would have to halt packing until more came in as they were part of the itemised 'box contents'. But if they had run out of product catalogs and were waiting on a delivery from the printers then perhaps they would have kept on packing. From the accounts you hear about the toy line historically it sounds like those early years in particular (78-79) when demand for the SW toyline exploded beyond any expectations were a mad scramble to get product to shops.

 

[SublevelStudios]

Totally plausible explanation, wonder if anyone who won some of the Vecits sealed examples is prepared to open theirs to let us know? :wink:

I have heard of the catalogues placed on shop counters in little piles for customers to take one FOC too.

 

[yoda]

Was it cost why kenner is a different model? I have a kenner made design. I would love one of the palitoy designs but they are expensive. Was there any other play sets palitoy made that had a different design from kenners?

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Was it cost why kenner is a different model? I have a kenner made design. I would love one of the palitoy designs but they are expensive. Was there any other play sets palitoy made that had a different design from kenners?

All 4 of the Palitoy playsets made for the Star Wars line are different (Death Star, Cantina, Droid Facroty, Land Of The Jawas), although the Death Star is the most radically different.

 

[itfciain]

Am sure Dave Tree did a really good presentation on these (and the reasons why Palitoy used cardboard) at one of the Furthest Froms - from memory the money men were still not convinced that the 3.75' line was going to be a success and therefore wanted to keep costs down - pretty sure there were other reasons as well but sure Dave can chime in with the info when he gets a chance

 

[Palifan]

Totally plausible explanation, wonder if anyone who won some of the Vecits sealed examples is prepared to open theirs to let us know? :wink:

I have heard of the catalogues placed on shop counters in little piles for customers to take one FOC too.

I remember mine having the catalogue in it I was bought in 78 and in fact I still have the same one as I stuck it in my hand made scrapbook and amazingly managed to keep hold of it for all these years (even has a Darth Vader and Boba Fett autograph from when they visited my local toy shop around 78-80). Also it's true that these same catalogues were left on the counter of the same toy shop I mentioned as i remember a pile of them and me grading a few. This was after I had my Death Star and could have been around 1980 with the release of Empire as I remember it being quite a while after Star Wars had been released. I'm pretty sure I still have one of these floating around somewhere but it would take a good rummage to know for sure.

Ian

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

I expect most are aware, but always worth mentioning that you have to be a bit careful as the Pali Death Star catalog was reproduced (they have Area 51 in small text on the back cover).

 

[edd_jedi]

The cardboard death star is an "old school" grail item like Blue Snag, Yak Face, and the Vinyl Caped Jawa. This is before people even knew the kind of things we call grails these days existed. But the reality is most of these old grails are not rare at all, they were only rare in the 90s because it was so much harder to find ANYTHING back then without the internet, Facebook or Ebay.

These days you really can't call anything production rare, by the very definition of "production" there were thousands if not millions made, these were mass-produced toys. That's why I can help but face palm every time I see somebody paying silly money for any of them, they really don't deserve their high price tags any more (and in fact most had been getting more reasonable until fairly recently.)

 

[Snaketibe]

I have read a much better, longer interview with Bob Brechin, former chief toy designer for Palitoy, in which he goes into greater detail about why the UK playsets were redesigned, but annoyingly I cannot find it currently. Instead, here's an interesting BBC article about Palitoy and Star Wars and Action Man. In it, Bob Brechin gives the reason for redesigning the playsets for the UK market as being economic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34196426

The relevant section is:

"The firm was responsible for the redesign of some Star Wars products for a UK audience, including a cardboard, self-assembly version of the Death Star.

Mr Brechin said the plastic playset was originally considered too expensive for the British market."

 

[currymonster6290]

Interestingly I used to own a shop stock Death Star, the tape had dried up and I opened it, but it never contained the small colour catalogue.

That is weird, I was always under the impression the catalogues were included with the DS and I've seen some Palitoy X Wings have them included.

Anyone have a definitive answer to this? Where's out paperwork experts, Matt (Bonsai) and Stef (Walkie)?

yes the x-wing also came with the catalogue in. it is possible the catalogue slide out of the sealed box
before you got it as the boxes are quite flexible!