Palitoy78 said:
Interesting, although its down to conjecture as there is no real proof. I think this will be another mystery unless we track down a Palitoy employee to confirm.
Great read though 
Hi Lee,
I really do appreciate your interest and it is with pleasure that I will answer your questions. But first, I want to emphasize that I have no interest in convincing anybody overhere. In my 47 years, I have little left to prove to myself, much less to justify to others. For me, the history of European toy companies is a passion and a hobby as is collecting toys. I really enjoy it, and people who use to know me and with whom I use to share this kind of information know very well my passion for the toy industry. When it happens that in my research appear connections with Star Wars toys, I have no problem to share and post the info on the forums. After that, it's up to each other to make their own conclusion.
As you can see, I do not use the conditional data in my proposals. I do not have the habit of throwing unfounded theories... Respect the "Real proof" term as you mentioned, it's always subject to endless discussions. Even memories from a former employee can be discussed and questioned. You have to take them as they come and contrast them with other data on the company and tie everything together into a coherent context.
Here, my "real proof" has a name;
V. J. Tam, Director of Quality in Hon-Kong from 82 to 87 for
Palitoy Far-East ltd.(General Mills HK). Mr. Tam is now Director of Systems and Compliance for the
Jetta Company Ltd. Another HK company that manufactured SW toys for theGM group...
"Palitoy78": Another thought I would ask why Palitoy started carding them in house so late in the line??? Surely they shouldnt really have bothered if the HK theory is correct???
Well, i wouldn't considere 1982 as very late. But honestly, I don't have a concrete answer on this decision. But one can easily imagine that this is linked to a card format change and its standardization. What is certain is that just before the release of "Jedi" in theathers, Palitoy had accumulated a large stock of loose figures. Stocks that had brought Palitoy from the Far-East to provide its sister companies that were Meccano, Clipper and Parker. It was certainly an opportunity to move their old references stock with a new logo-ed card. But there are surely many other factors that led Palitoy to produce its own blisters as the acquisition of Airfix Industry in 81 and the transfer of a large part of its production to the French plant in Calais . This could have lighten his workload and focus on the production of blisters... But again, nothing really concrete here, sorry.
"Palitoy78": Last question Panastur, if your theory is correct why weren,t the Palitoy cases stamped with Palitoy etc like the Kenner versions?? That raises a flag to me.
Personally, I haven't had the opportunity to see a shipping box of Palitoy "Empire" or "SW" carded figures which came from the Far-East. Boxes presented on Vectis are boxes of "restocking" or "assortement" made in the factory in Coalville. Production that came from the Far-Eeast was packed in boxes of 200 pieces of the same carded character. We have the proof here with the box of the six "Death Star" that were manufactured, printed and packaged in England. Again, these stickerd boxes were "assortment" made and composed by Palitoy in England and they do not came from the Far-East.
Now, regarding the Assortment nº.33330: if the box wasn't manipulated and contains its original assortment, maybe we will get the chance to see carded versions that had not seen before. So wait and see...
JC :wink:
