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Mr Palitoy's Cardback Guide |
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  The reverse of the 12A card was changed to remove the fact that the TIE fighter and X-Wing fighter in the UK did not have laser light and sound giving rise to the 12B variation. The original text saying with Laser Light and Sound from the 12A is faintly visible despite being blacked out. This is proof of a later release date for the 12B variation. The text removal was done in the printing process rather than with a black pen which is common on the later ROTJ card variations. This card variation, and all card variations up until 30B were manufactured in Hong Kong at the Kader Industries factory by the Palitoy (Far East) Company Ltd and then shipped back assembled to the Coalville factory in the UK. You can see it says Made in Hong Kong below the Palitoy logo on the back of the card and Palitoy, Coalville, Leicester, England to the left of the logo.   Han Solo has never been seen on this cardback variation, only on the 12A variation. All the other of the first 12 figures are available on this card variation. Single stemmed bubble with a
footplate were used on this variation like with the 12A
variation. There are examples of footplates with a black stripe
down the middle being used on this card variation. This has been seen on
See-Threepio (C-3PO).   There
have been quite a few examples of opened and sealed vinyl caped jawas
on the 12B cardback showing up in the last few years. There have been at
least 4 opened examples with the correct smaller sized bubble which
were used with vinyl caped jawa in the Kenner product line. And there
are now at least 5 known examples of ones which are sealed. None of
these were graded by AFA or UKG and until one was graded, there were two
camps who firmly believed or didn't believe that vinyl caped jawas were
ever sold on Palitoy cards. As of March 14 2013 the debate ended as AFA
have graded one of them as an AFA 75 example shown here. It's serial
number is 14166282 and can be verified on their website. The AFA graded
example was sold on ebay for £13200, though it is believed that sale
fell through and it was sold privately for a higher amount. And an
unpunched example was sold by Vectis auctions for £8500 (£10500 after
commission and VAT) on October 24 2013. The Vectis sale was well
publicised in the press and even appeared on BBC Breakfast on the Monday
before the sale. You can see the footage on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24611261. One
of the open examples has a Zodiac toys price sticker which would
indicate that it was shop sold. There is a clear plastic insert behind
the figure and a yellow cardboard footer under the figure. The footer is
present on all subsequent variations of the card. The left of the punch
which is used to hang up the card is level with the left side of the
'S' in Star Wars on this card.     The
vinyl cape on the Jawa was replaced with a darker brown cloth cape
making the vinyl cape very rare. Initially, the bubble that was used for
R2-D2 was used for the cloth cape jawa as it did not fit inside the
vinyl cape bubble as it was too small. This bubble is quite deep so a
folded yellow cardboard insert was placed behind the figure moving it
towards the front of the bubble, the top of which can be seen at
shoulder height behind the figure. The hood on the figure looks squashed
as the bubble is not high enough. This temporary solution was used
until a bigger bubble that could accommodate the hood was made. This new
bubble had no kind insert behind the figure. With the new bubble and
cloth cape figure the card did not hang correctly now, so the punch was
moved to the left a bit so it would hang correctly again. The punch
position is about 50/50 on carded palitoy jawas showing that it was a
while before they made this change. Fakes are common and many collectors
rue the day they swapped their inferior plastic caped Jawa for a cloth
one in the school playground when they were kids. All subsequent
cardback variations have the cloth cape jawa on them.   The
bubble for the vinyl cape is smaller and flatter than the one used for
the cloth cape which is not flat and slopes upwards towards the top of
the bubble. This is the only figure that has a bubble that slopes in
this manner.   The
difference in size between the Jawa and R2D2 figures shows why the
folded yellow cardboard insert was needed for Jawa inside the R2D2
bubble. The 3 types of bubble used on Palitoy cards also match those
used on Kenner cards which makes perfect sense since Kenner cards were
also manufactured at the Kader Industries factory in Hong Kong. |
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