Palitoy playset Quality

[tiefighterboy]

I love all the Palitoy playsets...but one thing I have always wondered was why they used a cheaper thinner grade of plastic. Not sure if they were cheaper priced than their Kenner counter parts, but If you stomped on a Kenner droid factory it would survive.......a Palitoy one would be crushed. How many of you destroyed these playsets by accident??

 

[Palifan]

I still have my original cantina and that always held up well although I must admit it didn't really have much play value and didn't get much of a bashing. As for my Palitoy death star on the other hand, that really was well loved and was always being used. There's not really many plastic bits on that (as you know) but it held up pretty well other than the split level section getting ripped in two. It seems like that was the weakest point on that playset as it's nearly always torn in half on the ones that come up for sale on ebay.

Apart from a mini rig and figures that's all I had as a child.

 

[Richard_H]

I didn't know playsets existed as a kid.

 

[Michael Sith]

I wasn't aware of them either, they are cool though 8)

Love the Jabba I have though
We're there different versions of this :?:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94132256@N07/8676361936/

 

[dinner squadron 2]

I always wondered why they were crappier too. The death stars made of cardboard ffs and from what I remember it was priced high enough. Maybe it had something to do with the £-doller exchange rate, cost cutting, non existent quality control ect.
But it wasnt just the playsets, the x wing didnt have electronics and the landspeeder didnt have a lifting bonet. My guess is that because Kenner had the contract and sub contracted out to the UK France ect, they were making a larger profit so Palitoy had to make some cut backs
David

 

[dinner squadron 2]

I wasn't aware of them either, they are cool though 8)

Love the Jabba I have though
We're there different versions of this :?:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94132256@N07/8676361936/

No mate I think by rotj maybe esb everything was standard, I might be wrong though

 

[tiefighterboy]

Possibly Palitoy used engineering short cuts with the landspeeder and X-wing. But the design of the cantina and droid factory did not involve any of the original keener plans aside from the backdrop and the droids parts. Kenner must have given them some amount of design freedom. The palitoy deathstar although cardboard is just as sturdy as it's kenner counterpart....the struts on the kenner one always broke and the cardboard fronts were useless and always thrown out of the way (at least by me as a young one).

 

[Richard_H]

I'm thinking its purely a cost issue. In the early 80s the UK was in recession with mass unemployment and many trade union strikes.

 

[dinner squadron 2]

Possibly Palitoy used engineering short cuts with the landspeeder and X-wing. But the design of the cantina and droid factory did not involve any of the original keener plans aside from the backdrop and the droids parts. Kenner must have given them some amount of design freedom. The palitoy deathstar although cardboard is just as sturdy as it's kenner counterpart....the struts on the kenner one always broke and the cardboard fronts were useless and always thrown out of the way (at least by me as a young one).

Yeah but from a cost view its much cheaper to produce than it would be for the kenner version. Less plastic molds and the majority is just die cut cardboard. Personally Id rather have the Palitoy version

 

[itfciain]

I'm sure a lot of this was covered by Dave Tree at FF3 - it was down to the agreement between Palitoy and Kenner - and Palitoy's attempt to do things as cheap as possible.

Might be worth dropping Dave a PM as I am sure he can give a much better answer