Free Web Hosting
    
Mr Palitoy's Cardback Guide

Home

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

SW Diecasts

SW Vehicles

SW Spaceships

SW Playsets

SW Large Action Figures

SW Weapons

SW Board Games

SW Activities

SW Catalogues

SW History

SW Offers
 

   




This card variation is 45C and was the first card to be released for the third film. The front of the card features the ROTJ logo and no Palitoy logo. None of the ROTJ card variations have a Palitoy logo on the front. It was only released for figures that appeared on the Star Wars and ESB cards and and features the same set of 45 figures listed on the back of the card as are listed on the back of the 45B. The last 3 ESB figures which were Zuckuss, Imperial TIE fighter Pilot and 4-LOM are not shown on the back of the card despite being available on this card variation. Beneath the listed figures are details of a special offer to receive the Nien Nunb figure, a new ROTJ figure. This required sending 6 name tags to the given Palitoy address along with the current first class letter postage rate. There is also text saying Offer open to U.K. residents only to the left of the Palitoy address. In the bottom right hand corner on the back of the card are the letters (ROJ1) showing that this was the first release of a ROTJ card. This card variation was manufactured in the Coalville factory in the UK, despite it saying Made in Hong Kong on the front the card in the bottom right hand corner.

Again, the Palitoy factory ran out of 45C cards for certain figures and applied a Palitoy sticker to the bottom half of the reverse of the card of foreign cards. The German ROTJ card was used for this and it has an identical front to the 45C. With the Palitoy sticker applied to the back of the card the back also looked identical to the back of a 45C card with the exception of the the text listing the number of figures to collect which is absent on the German ROTJ card. R2-D2 With Sensorscope is known to have come out on this sub variation which is known as 45CD, the D standing for Deutschland/German.



There are two sub variations where the letters HG and HN follow the letters (ROJ1) on the bottom right hand corner on the back of the card. These cards were manufactured in Asia by the Palitoy (Far East) Ltd company. This factory code was added to differentiate the cards from the 45C variation which was manufactured in the Coalville factory in the UK. The first letter H denotes the factory location which is in Hong Kong. The second letter denotes the factory. HN was another Hong Kong factory. HG was Kader Industries, where all of the early card variations were made. The sub variation 45CG with the letters HG has been seen on the Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Jawa (Cloth Cape), Imperial Commander and Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot) figures. The sub variation 45CN with the letters HN has been seen on the Stormtrooper, Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear), IG-88 (Bounty Hunter), Han Solo (Hoth Outfit) and Lando Calrissian, Dengar, Rebel Commander, AT-AT Driver, 2-1B and Luke Skywalker (Hoth Battle Gear) figures. The 45CN variation also has a perforated punch when compared to the 45C variation.


In the Netherlands, the 45C 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. 

This card variation was also released with a tearaway mini catalogue on the back of the card.

This card variation used double stemmed bubbles.



There are examples of single stemmed bubbles being used, but these are quite rare. This has been seen on Chewbacca.


There are also examples of the larger Tri-Logo style bubble appearing on this card but they are not as common. These bubbles have rounded corners and square corners on the back plate.


There are also a few figures that have different sized rectangular bubbles with square corners and round corners on the back plate. 


Most of these bubbles are not sealed in the two areas where the double stem would be if the bubble being sealed was double stemmed. This is because the machine in the factory that sealed the bubbles was set up so that it could seal both double stemmed bubbles and rectangular bubbles without machinery parts needing to be changed. This is most noticeable on the Jawa example below.


Some cards were sent to Spain for packaging with PBP figures and sale on the Spanish market. The Han Solo Hoth shown here is a PBP figure with a Tri-Logo style bubble. Some of them had the tearaway mini catalogue shown above on the back which was added for sale in the Dutch market. There are also a lot of Tri-Logo bubbles found on Walrus Man with the PBP figure shown below.


On the 45CN variation, these rectangular bubbles were also used, some with numbers embossed on the bubble in the bottom right hand corner. 2-1B and Lando Calrissian have the number 03A. They are easily recognised by their perforated punch. The same bubbles were used on the 45CG variation. Boba Fett also had a folded footplate. AFA label this as a Transition Blister, but in practice it is the bubble that was used in the China factory. It is very unusual to see a footplate as these were not used after the 45A variation. Darth Vader used a bubble which is wider and shorter than that used on the 45C variation and has the number 05.

 

This card variation was in the stock of unused cardbacks acquired by Toy Toni after the Palitoy factory closed and subsequently made into MOC with unused bubbles. The most common unused cardbacks were 885 Luke Skywalker, 482 Boba Fett, 467 Lobot, 417 Death Star Droid, 301 2-1B and 132 Luke Skywalker (Bespin Fatigues). Then 47 Han Solo, 27 AT-AT Commander, 12 Yoda and 8 (Twin-Pod) Cloud Car Pilot. There are the three different types of Boba Fett categorised by AFA on this card that are due to Toy Toni. It has always been thought odd that later Tri Logo versions of Boba Fett could have legitimately appeared on this earlier card variation. 45CG and 45CN variations are unaffected and are not Toy Toni stock. Rectangular bubbles with square corners and rounded corners on the back plate were used by Toni and these bubbles are not seen on shop sold examples for the figures he used them on for this card variation, except for Han Solo.

For Boba Fett, as well as the rectangular bubble, he also used a double stemmed bubble and this is narrower than the shop sold examples. This can also be seen on the imprint from the used cardback. Note the circular impression at the top of the bubble. This unsealed circle is an indication of a factory seal that is not present on Toni's seals. Also, it can be seen that the Toni double stem bubble is not big enough for the figure which is always in the bubble at an angle so it will fit. This is a mistake that would have been unlikely to have been made at the factory. The cards with double stem bubbles often have iron and score marks on them and melted bubbles showing that these were an early effort at attaching bubbles to unused cardbacks. 


On the double stem bubble, it can be seen on the genuine bubble that the distance between the stems is wider on the shop sold example on the left compared to the Toni on the right.

Toni also used a much deeper rectangular bubble shown on the left below. The genuine factory seal using this bubble is shown in the middle below. There are gaps in the bottom of the seal where there factory sealer was also configured to seal double stemmed bubbles. Seals with these gaps are genuine. The edge of the bubble is also unsealed on the left hand side. Unsealed edges like this are also the sign of a factory seal. There is also a one of a kind example using a single stemmed bubble on the right below which is due to Toy Toni.


For Luke Skywalker he used a wide rectangular bubble shown below on the left whereas the genuine example above uses a narrower rectangular bubble. The genuine rectangular bubble shown second from right has a narrower backplate and bubble when compared to the wider rectangular bubble that Toni used which is shown on the far right. The genuine bubble is also off center versus the bubble area. This is because the factory sealer placed the bubble at a fixed distance from the edge of the card regardless of what figure was being sealed. So on some figures, the bubble is quite offset from the coloured bubble area. Toni centered his over this coloured bubble area, so ones which are offset are the sign of a factory seal. 


Genuine factory seals can also been found with a double stemmed bubble. You can see the imprint of the double stems on the used cardback shown below on the left. Toni used the same narrow double stemmed bubble he used on Boba Fett and this bubble is different to the ones seen on genuine factory seals. He used this double stemmed bubble on many other figures too. 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. There is also a one of a kind example using a single stem bubble with an 03 embossed in the bottom right hand corner normally seen on the 45B variation which can be seen on the far right which is down to Toni.


For Lobot he used a wide rectangular bubble and also the same narrow double stemmed bubble he used on the figures above. The genuine example shown above also uses a double stemmed bubble. This can also be seen on the imprint from the used cardback.


The genuine double stemmed bubble is slightly shorter and wider than the narrower and taller double stemmed bubble Toni used. The genuine bubble is shown on the left and the Toni bubble is shown in the middle next to it. The Toni bubble has the same pointy look as the Luke Skywalker example above. Again, there is also a one of a kind example using a single stem bubble with an 03 embossed in the bottom right hand corner normally seen on the 45B variation which can be seen on the far right which is down to Toni. And this one came with a sales receipt from 2001 with Toni's name and address on it!


For Death Star Droid he also used a wide rectangular bubble whereas the genuine example shown above uses a double stemmed bubble. This can also be seen on the imprint from the used cardback. 


For 2-1B he used a wide rectangular bubble whereas the genuine example uses a double stemmed bubble as can be seen on the imprint from the used cardback. Almost all of Toni's cards for this figure used the rectangular bubble but he also used the same double stemmed bubble with the pointy look as the figures above on a few examples, the one below was purchased directly from Toy Toni. The 45CN variation was made and assembled in Hong Kong, and this genuine card can be easily spotted by the perforated punch as seen on the example above.


For Luke Skywalker (Bespin Fatigues) he used a rectangular bubble with square corners. This bubble has rounded corners on the back plate. The genuine Tri-Logo style bubble shown above has rounded corners and square corners on the back plate and you can see the comparison of these two bubbles below. Almost all of Toni's cards for this figure used the rectangular bubble but he also used the same double stemmed bubble with the pointy look as the figures above on a few examples, the one below was purchased directly from Toy Toni. There are also genuine examples of double stemmed bubbles being used as shown by the used cardback with the Tesco price sticker.


For Han Solo he used a rectangular bubble with square corners. This bubble has rounded corners on the back plate. Genuine examples have a Tri-Logo style bubble with rounded bubble corners and square corners on the back plate shown above and on the imprint on the used cardback below second from left. There are also used cardbacks with a double stem bubble imprint second from right below so double stemmed bubbles are genuine. And there is also an example of a shop sold used cardback with a rectangular bubble imprint shown on the right so some rectangular bubbles are also genuine. 


For AT-AT Commander he also used a wide rectangular bubble whereas the genuine example shown above uses a double stemmed, Tri-Logo style or narrower rectangular bubble. You can see the imprint of the double stems on the used cardback shown second from left. Toni used a rectangular bubble with square corners. This bubble has rounded corners on the back plate. The genuine rectangular bubble shown second from right has a narrower backplate and bubble when compared to the wider rectangular bubble that Toni used which is shown to the left of it in the middle picture. The genuine Tri-Logo style bubble shown above has rounded corners and square corners on the back plate and you can see this bubble on the picture on the far right.


The unused cardback counts for Yoda of 12 and Cloud Car Pilot of 8 are very low. They both only came on double stemmed bubbles as can be seen on the carded examples above and the imprints on the used cardbacks below. Yoda was on sale on toytoni.com using the correct double stemmed bubble for this figure. Cloud Car Pilot has not been seen for sale on toytoni.com.