This card also saw the use of double stemmed bubbles used on 45 back cards.
Lastly,
this card variation also saw the use of rectangular bubbles with square
corners and rounded corners on the back plate for some figures. These
rectangular bubbles come in a variety of different sizes.
C-3P0
(Removable Limbs) has a black plastic sack for the unassembled figure
so it can be carried by Chewbacca and from this card variation onwards
to Tri-Logo, this black plastic sack came in a clear plastic bag inside
the bubble. There are also examples where the clear plastic bag is not
present.
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. It also has a PBP type Imperial Blaster. The
Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) is the PBP figure and comes
with a single stem bubble with a folded footplate, both of which are not
seen in general on this card variation. This also indicates that the
card was not packaged in the Coalville factory in the UK, but in
Spain.
This
card variation was the last 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 two most common unused
cardbacks were 1234 C-3P0 (Removable Limbs) and 1126 Imperial
Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear). Then 143 Chewbacca, 105 Luke Skywalker
(Hoth Battle Gear) and 39 AT-AT Driver. Toni used rectangular bubbles
with square corners and these are the correct bubbles for some of these
figures like C-3P0 (Removable Limbs), Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle
Gear) and Chewbacca. Not for Luke Skywalker (Hoth Battle Gear) where a
Tri-Logo style bubble is used on the genuine card. Imperial Stormtrooper
(Hoth Battle Gear) can also be found with a Tri-Logo style bubble and
this is also a genuine card. And AT-AT Driver uses a Tri-Logo style
bubble or narrower rectangular bubble with square corners on the genuine
card.
Imperial
Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) can also be found with a narrower
double stem that Toni used on the 45B variation. A lot of these cards
have iron marks and melted bubbles which show that they are early
efforts at attaching bubbles to unused cardbacks. It can also be found
with the infamous upside down single stemmed bubble with 03 embossed in
the corner also normally seen on the 45B variation, and many of these
cards also have iron marks visible. It can be seen that the head of the
figure fits in the gap from the single stem of the bubble which would
explain why the bubbles for this figure had to be put on upside down.
The
most common figure C-3P0 (Removable Limbs) has an easily
identifiable tell that indicates the MOC came from Toy Toni. The unused
cardback for this card has a printing flaw visible on the front of the
card that can only be seen on the few unused cardbacks that are out
there, and almost all of Toy Toni's MOCs. This is because the batch of
unused cards for this figure all came from the same printing batch with
the same printing flaw. The flaw is that there is a red dot visible
between the two diagonal lines underneath the first letter M of the
C-3PO Removable Limbs name on the front of the card. This red dot is not
visible on almost all shop sold cards so the absence of this red dot
indicates a genuine factory sealed MOC. The red dot is shown on the left
hand side picture of an AFA 90 graded example, and cannot be seen on
the used cardback shown in the picture second from left. Also the lack
of clear plastic bag for the black plastic sack is another indication
that the card is not genuine, but there are some genuine examples
without the clear plastic sack and without the red dot. The genuine card
with the clear plastic bag does not have the red dot printing flaw
either, as can be seen in the picture second from right. The genuine
example without the clear plastic sack is also missing the red dot as
can be seen in the right hand side picture.
Lastly,
despite using the correct rectangular bubble, there is another tell for
this figure. On the shop sold example below it can be seen that the
bubble is 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. Tri-Logo style bubbles with rounded corners
with square corners on the back plate were also used on this figure,
but they are rare, the example shown above also has the clear plastic
bag. If you have this style bubble then the card is also genuine. There
are also rare examples of a wider double stemmed bubble being used which
can also be seen above which is genuine too.
Imperial
Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) can be found with a Tri-Logo style
bubble and this is a genuine card. It also has the same tell on the
rectangular bubble that Toni used as C-3P0 (Removable Limbs). On the
shop sold example on the left it can be seen that the bubble is not
sealed in the two areas where the double stem would be if the bubble
being sealed was double stemmed. The used cardback in the middle has a
bubble imprint which is similar to the impression left by a double
stemmed bubble. The Toni on the right is completely sealed at the bottom
of the card in comparison and this can be used to tell it apart from a
genuine example. A narrower rectangular bubble was also used on genuine
shop sold examples and this can also be seen above.
On
the double stem bubble, it can bee seen that the genuine bubble is
wider than the narrow double stem bubble used by Toni. The distance
between the stems is wider and the backplate is also wider on the shop
sold example. 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.
Chewbacca
had a number of genuine bubbles. On the left is a Tri-Logo style bubble
with rounded corners with square corners on the back plate. Second from
left is a wide rectangular bubble with square corners with rounded
corners on the back plate. This bubble was less common than the narrower
rectangular bubble second from right. This last genuine bubble is also
the bubble that Toni used which can be seen on the right.
This
rectangular bubble can be seen with a similar tell to the rectangular
bubble for Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear). The shop sold
example on the left is not sealed at the bottom of the card whereas on
the Toni example on the right it is sealed.
Toni
used the wrong bubble for Luke Skywalker (Hoth Battle Gear). The
genuine example on the left uses a Tri-Logo style bubble with rounded
corners with square corners on the back plate. You can see the square
corners left in the imprint in the used cardback in the middle. The Toni
on the right uses a rectangular bubble with square corners and rounded
corners on the back plate.
For
AT-AT Driver, the Tri Logo Style bubble with rounded corners with
square corners on the back plate was used as can be seen on the left.
You can see the square corners left in the imprint in the used cardback
second from left. A rectangular bubble with square corners with rounded
corners on the back plate was also used as can be seen on the shop sold
example second from right. The bubble used by Toni was wider than this
as can be seen on the right.