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Mr Palitoy's Cardback Guide

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SW 12A Cardback

SW 12B Cardback

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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 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 This is because the GM45A variation was withdrawn shortly after release so very few of them made it into shops.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.