The
CL45 card is an ESB Clipper card produced for the Dutch and Belgian
markets and is referred to as a Clipper card or Dutch Clipper card
or just Dutch card. This was produced in the factory at the same time as
the regular Palitoy 45B card and featured the same set of 45 figures on
the back of the card. The front of the card has 2 differences to the
Palitoy 45B card. The first difference is 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 Verso.' The
phrase is the Dutch and French for 'For free offers! See back'. The
second difference is in the top right hand corner where it is says '4
jaar en ouder' which is Dutch for '4 years and older'.
The
back of the CL45 card is the same as the back of the Palitoy 45B card
with the special offer at the bottom of the card being replaced with a
white box contained details of the special offers available in Dutch on
the left hand side and in French on the right hand side. Below this
white box is copyright and address details for Clipper Games and Toys
B.V.
There
were 3 offers which were available. These were roughly translated as
'With the purchase of 4 figurines Star Wars. A Boba Fett or a Survival
Kit. Free of charge', 'With the purchase of 12 Star Wars figurines, a
free Arena display' and 'With the purchase of 20 Star Wars figurines, a
collector's box'Darth Vader' free'. Following that are details of how to
send in for the special offers with an address in Amsterdam and
Brussels on the Dutch side of the white box, and a different address in
Brussels for the French side of the white box.
The
Dutch text 'AKTIEFIGUURTJES 1-45' is above the picture of the 45 action
figures on the back of the card. There are 5 figures which have yet to
be seen on this card variation. They are Han Solo, Sand People, Star
Destroyer Commander, Snaggletooth and Boba Fett. Sand People has not
been seen on Palitoy 45B or the German General Mills GM45A & GM45B
cards either, so it looks like it never existed. Boba Fett is unlikely
to exist too.
The
text on the Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With Sensorscope) card under the name
plate on the front of the card was changed to 'nu met Sensorscope' on
the Dutch version of the card which translates to 'Now with
Sensorscope'. On C-3PO (Removeable Limbs) it was changed to 'nu met
verwijderbare romp armen en benen + rugzak' which translates to 'Now
with removable trunk arms and legs + backpack'.
The
Palitoy factory ran out of Palitoy 45B cards for some of it's figures
and used Dutch Clipper cards instead. The card has a Palitoy sticker
covering the entire bottom half of the reverse of the card to cover up
the Dutch and French writing. This sticker had the same text as on the
back of the bottom half of the Palitoy 45C variation. This sticker had
only been seen on Zuckuss and is known as 45BN on the Palitoy matrix.
They would have used a German General Mills card if one was available,
but there is no Zuckuss card for this either.
This
card saw the same bubbles being used to seal the cards as were used on
the Palitoy 45B card. These were double stemmed bubbles that have a
waffle seal pattern visible or single stemmed bubbles with a bubble
number embossed in the bottom right hand corner of the bubble. The seals
on single stemmed bubbles have a smooth seal unlike the waffle seal
seen on the double stemmed bubbles. The Dengar card used a wide double
stemmed bubble which is very low down versus the coloured bubble area on
the card.
Clipper
cards accounted for 277 of the 11534 unused cardbacks acquired by
Toy Toni after the Palitoy factory in Coalville closed and subsequently
made into MOC with unused bubbles. The unused cardbacks were 72 Rebel
Commander, 69 Hammerhead, 69 Bespin Security Guard (White), 56 Walrus
Man and 11 Dengar. Rebel Commander and Bespin Security Guard (White)
were not listed as being Clipper on the original sales list that Toni
got, but both the German General Mills and Dutch Clipper were offered on
toytoni.com, so a 50/50 split is assumed. Hammerhead, Walrus Man and
Dengar were listed as German on the sales list but these were not
offered for sale on toytoni.com, but the Clipper versions were so they
are assumed to be Clipper.
Toni used single
stem bubbles which have no number embossed on them in the bottom right
hand corner. Bubbles used on genuine factory cards have this number.
Toni also had a supply of the 03 bubble, so bubbles with 03 embossed on
them could be his too. Figures used a fixed bubble number and these are
detailed on the Palitoy 45B page. So if a figure is using the wrong
bubble number, this is also a sign that the card is not genuine.
Toni
also used double stemmed bubbles and these are narrower than the double
stemmed bubbles that were normally used on genuine cards. He would
regularly offer both bubble types to collectors saying that it would
take him a few days to locate the other bubble type if they bought the
other one first. This was him making a made to order MOC.