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Mr Palitoy's Cardback Guide

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SW 12A Cardback

SW 12B Cardback

SW 12C Cardback

SW 20 Cardback

ESB 30A Cardback

ESB 30B Cardback

ESB 41A Cardback

ESB 41B Cardback

ESB 41C Cardback

ESB 45A Cardback

ESB 45B Cardback

ROTJ 45C Cardback

ROTJ 65A Cardback

ROTJ 65B Cardback

ROTJ 65C Cardback

ROTJ 65D Cardback

ROTJ/TL 70A Cardback

TL 70B Cardback

TL 70C Cardback

TL 70D Cardback

ESB GM45A Cardback

ESB GM45B Cardback

ROTJ GM45C Cardback

ESB CL45 Cardback

ESB KPS45A Cardback

ESB KPS47A Cardback

ESB KPS48B Cardback

ESB KPS48C Cardback

ROTJ KPS48D Cardback

ROTJ KPS48E Cardback

ROTJ KPS48F Cardback

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The 45A card variation added a third set of ESB figures to the range of figures available. There are 8 ESB figures that are known to have debuted on this card. They are Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With Sensorscope), C-3PO (Removeable Limbs), Luke Skywalker (Hoth Battle Gear), AT-AT Commander, (Twin-Pod) Cloud Car Pilot, Bespin Security Guard (Black), Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot and 4-LOM. The front of the card has the the familiar ESB logo and the same Palitoy logo as on the 41-back. Above the Palitoy logo is a blue circle with a special offer in it saying Become a Star Wars Bounty See Back for Details. This is the only Palitoy card with a special offer circle on the front unlike Kenner which had many. It was also the last card to feature the Palitoy logo on the front of the card. This makes the 45A card more popular among collectors. The back of the card featured the 45 figures to collect with details of the special offer underneath. The words Special Offers! are in big bold yellow letters to the left of this text. The offers you could get were Dengar the ruthless bounty hunter, a Survival Kit or the impressive Darth Vader collectors case, which holds 32 figures. Reference was made to the Bounty Hunter Capture Log and an address included for sending in for the special offers. There is also a Boba Fett symbol to the left of the address along with writing saying Offers open to U.K. residents only. This was the last card variation that was exclusively manufactured in Hong Kong at the Kader Industries or Smile factory by the Palitoy (Far East) Company Ltd and then shipped back assembled to the Coalville factory in the UK. You can see is says Made in Hong Kong on the bottom line of text on the back of the card.

The Boba Fett symbol appeared on boxed vehicles and playsets too, the larger the toy, the more symbols it had. The AT-AT Walker had an impressive 9 symbols on it. It is believed these symbols were to be cut out for a special offer that never happened in the end. The Bounty Hunter Capture Log came inside the box with larger vehicles and playsets or was available from toy stores. It detailed how the 3 special offers could be claimed. You had to cut out the name tag on the front of the figure card and send in the appropriate number of name tags along with postage and packaging costs. Dengar required 3 name tags, the Survival Kit required 4 and the Darth Vader collectors case needed 6. We can tell that this special offer was very popular with children because of the number of surviving cardbacks which have either had the name tag cut out completely from the cardboard or have the name cut out from the paper front of the cardboard.




It is believed all of the earlier Star Wars and ESB figures also appeared as a 45A with the exception of the original R2-D2 and C-3PO. Updated versions of these figures with a popup sensorscope and removable limbs debuted on the 45A instead. The new R2-D2 card has the text NOW!! WITH SENSORSCOPE to the right hand side underneath the name tag. There were 2 further figures that debuted on this card. They were Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot and 4-LOM. It is not known if Zuckuss appeared on this card. None of these 3 figures were listed on the back of the card. Confirmed examples are also missing for Hammerhead, Leia Organa Bespin Gown, Yoda and Ugnaught.

The text featuring trademark information under the Palitoy logo on the front of the card, is either on a black background or printed directly on the background picture for the figure except for the 4-LOM, Han Solo (Bespin Outfit), Luke Skywalker (Bespin Fatigues), Rebel Soldier (Hoth Battle Gear) and Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot figures. Here both variations exist giving rise to the 45AB sub variation for the one where the text is on a black background. The font used on the Become a Star Wars Bounty See Back for Details writing is also different between the 45A and 45AB sub variation. Only the smaller font is seen on the 45AB variation. Both types of font are seen on the 45A variation, giving rise to the 45AC variation for the thinner font text seen on the 45AB variation with the fatter text being the 45A variation. There is also a font which is slightly wider and shorter than the text on the 45AC variation giving rise to the 45AD variation. On this variation the A of 'Become A' is much further over than on the 45AC variation, above the letter R of 'Wars'. The R5-D4 and Sand People figures have also been found with both a 45A and 45AD variation. There is no example of a figure being found with both a 45A and 45AC variation or a 45AB and 45AC/45AD variation or a 45AC and 45AD variation. There does not seem to be a pattern as to which variation each figure is with the distribution being fairly random. 


The 45AD variation also has a spelling mistake on the back of the card with Leicester being spelt Leichester. This means that the 45AD variation was produced first, and the spelling mistake was spotted and then corrected on later card/figure variations. The text underneath the Palitoy address also stretches further to the right on the 45AD variation.


A small letter S appears to the left of the Boba Fett head on the back of the card on the 41AB and 41AC variations showing these were produced in the Smile factory. The 45A and 45AD variations were produced in the Kader factory and do not have this letter next to the Boba Fett head.


In the Netherlands, the 45A variation was sold with a wrap round Clipper sticker. The front of the card has the sticker on the right hand bottom corner with the same text that features on the 45BN in the tilted white box. The back of the card has the Clipper sticker on the lower half of the card covering up the English text that is there. Since this was not made up to be a Palitoy card, but a Clipper card, it is not given a sub variation on the Palitoy cardback guide. The background colour for the back of the wrap round sticker is normally black but can sometimes be white as well.  The text on the white version is a little different in places too compared to the black version. 


Single stemmed bubbles with a footplate were used on all figures on this card variation. This was the last card variation to feature the footplate. It was removed in subsequent card variations. There are some examples with rectangular bubbles that were used on this card variation. Death Squad Commander and Sand People are examples of figures on which this occurred. Some of the single stem bubbles have a number embossed on the bubble in the bottom right hand corner. Certain figures only used certain bubble numbers. IG-88 (Bounty Hunter) used 08, Imperial Commander used 01, 2-1B used 03, Princess Leia Organa used 03, Artoo Detoo (R2-D2) (With Sensorscope) used 12 and Chewbacca used 02.