The
GM45B was released very shortly after the GM45A. The first difference
is that the inverted V shape of the punch is replaced with the more
rounded U shape seen on the rest of the Palitoy cards. This makes the
front of the card identical to the Palitoy 45B card.
The
other change is the removal of the English text 'STAR WARS ACTION
FIGURES Collect all 45' that is above the picture of the 45 action
figures on the back of the card. This was because no English text was
wanted on cards destined for the German market. All of the figures can
be found on this card release except for Sand People, Jawa &
Zuckuss. Sand People has not been seen on Palitoy 45B or the Clipper
CL45 cards either, so it looks like it never existed. Jawa has been seen
on Clipper CL45 so there is a chance a German card may exist. And
Zuckuss has not been seen on Palitoy 45B so it is unlikely that existed
on a German card either. Almost all used cardbacks are of the GM45B
variation. This is because the GM45A variation was withdrawn shortly
after release so very few of them made it into shops.
The
text on the Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With Sensorscope) card under the
name plate on the front of the card was changed to 'jetzt mit
Sensorscope' on the German version of the card which translates to 'Now
with Sensorscope'. On C-3PO (Removeable Limbs) it was changed to 'jetzt
mit abnehmbaren Armen und Beinen sowie mit Rucksack' which translates to
'Now with detachable arms and legs as well as with backpack'.
The
Palitoy factory ran out of Palitoy 45B cards for some of it's figures
and used German General Mills cards instead. The card has a Palitoy
sticker covering the entire bottom half of the reverse of the card to
cover up the German writing. This sticker had the same text as on the
back of the bottom half of the Palitoy 45C variation. This sticker had
been seen on AT-AT Commander, Dengar and R2-D2 (With Sensorscope) and is
known as 45BD on the Palitoy matrix.
Also,
the black wrap round Clipper sticker seen on the Palitoy 45A card and
other Palitoy cards has been seen on the Leia Hoth figure on this card
variation.
This card also saw the same bubbles
being used to seal the cards as were used on the Palitoy 45B card. These
were double stemmed bubbles or single stemmed bubbles with a bubble
number embossed in the bottom right hand corner of the bubble. On the
Boba Fett figure, the factory sealer left a distinctive half moon gap in
the bubble seal at the top of the card on the wider double stemmed
bubble that was used with this figure. You can see the half moon gap
highlighted on the used cardback shown next to the MOC example.
For
the smaller figures like Yoda and Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With
Sensorscope), smaller double stemmed bubbles were used with long stems.
This can be seen on the 2 MOC examples on the left. On right there are 2
used cardback examples that show the bubble imprint for a longer bubble
that was used for Yoda and single stem bubble that was used for
Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With Sensorscope) as well.
German
cards were almost half of the 11534 unused cardbacks acquired by Toy
Toni after the Palitoy factory in Coalville closed and subsequently made
into MOC with unused bubbles. Of the 4714 German cards 3195 are of this
second card type GM45B. The unused cardbacks were 563 Han Solo
(Hoth Outfit), 526 Stormtrooper, 500 Bossk (Bounty Hunter), 357 C-3PO
(Removeable Limbs), 276 IG-88 (Bounty Hunter), 171 Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2)
(With Sensorscope), 162 Han Solo (Bespin Outift), 160 AT-AT Driver, 138
Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi, 97 Han Solo, 85 Yoda, 69 Bespin Security Guard
(White) and 25 Princess Leia Organa. The numbers for Bossk (Bounty
Hunter) and Bespin Security Guard (White) 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. The
numbers for Han Solo and AT-AT Driver is a 50/50 split between the GM45A
and later GM45B variation where both variations have been seen as Toy
Tonis.
Toni had 13 different figures of this
card variation so there is about a 50/50 split between different German
cards types he had as there were 14 GM45A cards he had as well. In
quantity he had almost twice as many of this card variation versus the
GM45A variation.
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.
You
can see that for C-3PO (Removeable Limbs) that the bubble he used isn't
wide enough to accommodate the arms of the figure and the sides of the
bubble bulge out where the hands are as a result.
Toni
also used double stemmed bubbles. The angle between the top 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. 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. For Yoda, he used a smaller double stemmed
bubble with shorter stems than double stemmed bubble with longer stems
seen in the genuine examples above. For Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With
Sensorscope) he used a larger double stemmed bubble with shorter stems
than the double stemmed bubble with longer stems seen in the genuine
examples above.