It
is believed that all of the earlier Star Wars and ESB figures appeared
on this card. The figures without confirmed examples are Sand People,
Hammerhead, Ugnaught, Lobot and Zuckuss. The Palitoy factory ran out of
Palitoy 45B cards for some of it's figures and used German General Mills
and Dutch Clipper cards which were also manufactured in the Coalville
factory. These cards had a Palitoy sticker covering the entire bottom
half of the reverse of the card to cover up the German and Dutch
writing. This sticker had the same text as on the back of the bottom
half of the 45C variation. The front of the German ESB card is identical
to the front of the 45B. Several figures appeared with this sticker on a
German card, AT-AT Commander, Dengar and R2-D2 with sensorscope for
example. There is still the German writing that says jetzt mit
Sensorscope on the front of the R2-D2 with sensorscope card which they
chose not to cover up. This sticker variation is known as 45BD, the D
standing for Deutschland/German. The Dutch Clipper ESB card has a tilted
white box on the top left hand corner on the front of the card that
says Gratis Premies! Zie Achterzijde and Offre Gratuite. Voir Au Vers.
The phrase is the Dutch and French for For free offers! See back. On the
top right hand corner is says 4 jaar en ouder which is Dutch for 4
years and older. Dengar, R2-D2 with sensorscope, Zuckuss, Imperial TIE
Fighter Pilot and 4-LOM are known to have appeared on this card with a
sticker on the back. This sticker variation is known as 45BN, the N
standing for Netherlands/Dutch. The R2-D2 card says NU MET SENSORSCOPE
instead of NOW!! WITH SENSORSCOPE on the front of the card. Zuckuss has
only ever been found on the Dutch card which means it may never have
existed as a 45B.
Single
stemmed bubbles were seen on this card variation, but they are less
common than the double stems. The single stem bubbles have a number
embossed on the bubble in the bottom right hand corner. Certain figures
only used certain bubble numbers. Han Solo used 04, Death Star Droid
used 02, C-3PO (Removable Limbs) used 015, AT-AT Commander used 01 &
03, Artoo Detoo (R2-D2) (With Sensorscope) used 12, Bespin Security
Guard (Black) used 01, TIE Fighter Pilot used 13, Cloud Car Pilot used
02 & 03, Luke Skywalker (Hoth Battle Gear) used 03, 4-LOM used 13,
FX-7 (Medical Droid) used 08, Imperial Commander used 01, Bossk (Bounty
Hunter) used 03, Chewbacca used 02, Darth Vader used 08, Luke Skywalker
used 02 & 04, Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi used 04 and Stormtrooper used 03.
C-3P0
(Removable Limbs) has the bubble number 015 written across the bottom
of the bubble rather than up the side. Also, the black plastic sack for
the unassembled figure is loose whereas it is inside a clear plastic bag
on later card variations.
This
card variation was the first card variation in the stock of unused
cardbacks acquired by Toy Toni after the Palitoy factory closed and
subsequently made into MOC with unused bubbles. The unused cardbacks
were 500 Bossk (Bounty Hunter), 264 Imperial TIE Fighter Pilot and 66
Chewbacca. The numbers for Bossk (Bounty Hunter) and Chewbacca is a
50/50 split between Palitoy and German cardbacks as large quantities of
mint MOCs exist for both and the original sales list of unused
cardbacks did not differentiate well between ESB Palitoy and German
cards. Also, both Palitoy and German cards for these figures were
available for sale on toytoni.com. Toni used both double stem and single
stem doubles on these figures.
For TIE Fighter
Pilot, he used a narrow double stemmed bubble which is different from
the factory used double stemmed bubble shown above. The angle between
the top of the double stemmed bubble and the sides of the double stemmed
bubble is more pronounced on Tonis bubbles making them look more
pointy, whereas on genuine double stemmed bubbles there is no angle and
they don't look pointy. Toni also used a single stem bubble with no
number and a single stem bubble with the wrong bubble number, 03 instead
of 13, so this can be used to detect a Toni card.
On
Bossk he used a single stem bubble with no number which is taller and
narrower than the genuine bubble with number 03. On Chewbacca he used a
single stem bubble with no number which is taller than the genuine
bubble with number 02. The bubble he used for Chewbacca is the one used
on the 65D variation. The seals on Toy Toni cards are generally very
weak and worsen with time, so older examples show signs of bubble
lifting and air pockets in the seal. The seal on the TIE Fighter Pilot
with single stem bubble number 03 above is quite poor.