Episode 3 - Trifecta

We don't sound that kind of thing up. What? Good joy. Left the way outside.

We don't want to get it. Hello and welcome. Once again to the Star Wars Forum, UK podcast. I'm Stuart Skinner.

Back as your host once again, better known on the boards, as Boga Skinner. This is episode three, Tri-Fector. Joining me this evening, I'll use your rag-a-muffin crew. We've got the forums at CC4, RHU.

He's a Northern up, but we won't hold that against him. It's Richard Hutchinson. Good evening, Rich. Good evening, guys.

Next up, fresh from his psychedelic glastonbury grinding with Michael Fassbender. We have the forums more to 79, Mr. Grant Cridder. Evening, buddy.

Richard Chihuahua. Next we have the member with Muggstamp 24 Head after we got proud since last month. Let's hope he's had a bit of few weeks with less people taking advantage. It's the forums, Mr.

Shifter. It's Ben Kumba. Welcome, Benji. Hello, everybody.

And finally, we have the forums, Naughty Jedi. Having gotten to know him over the last few weeks, I think it's not so much naughty, rather just a pervert. It's Purby Pete Davis. Good evening, Pete.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. So here we are at episode number three already. And I'm sure all the team here would agree that it seems to have flown past and can't believe they were already on our third edition. This episode has got a cork of a forum interview.

As myself and Mr. Quiddo got to chat with three pack collector and expert, Mr. Chris Caswell. We also have the concluding part of the F office episode.

I was wondering what everyone's been purchasing if anything's been asked altogether. Rich, you picked anything up? Yeah, I think I went a bit mentally last few weeks. I managed to pick up a cantina adventure set.

The creature cantina adventure set. I managed to pick up some erasers, which I thought with the smelly ones to pass on the ground, but the not. Pretty nice. So two are in the bottle.

Still one is loose. I picked up a box to go back. Torerest and four are set. And lots of critical cases from our good friend Ian Sanderson, the two-w critic reseller.

So I've had a pretty good one this month. Oh, actually I've also picked up on the slide, a 12-inch Obi-Wan Kenobi, which I've been looking for quite a while. So that's another one I've got for me this now. Cool, you know, it's been done.

Are these all boxed retro-loose? No, I don't collect boxed one. The only boxed item was the jubac, which I've got plans for the box. So I've had to sell me second kidney to fund all this.

So I'm running out of internal body organs. Wow. Then did you have any money left from your David Press experience to buy anything this month? I had money left over after meeting Mr.

Prowse, which was a surprise, nothing in my wallet, but luckily it didn't get to my bank account. I haven't actually bought anything for my collection this month. So it's been a pretty quiet month, but I have paid for plane tickets to Los Angeles for next April. I suppose it's a Star Wars related purchase, but yeah, I'm going to Anaheim.

You've seen on the plane with Grant? No, I bought the plane tickets and they managed to use all my YCM files to upgrade into premium economy. So I should be sitting by myself. Vanessa, will you Grant?

Are you sure about that, Ben? We'll have to check it out later, mate. We might be on the same plane. That'd be exciting, wouldn't they?

I can't wait. Ooh, Grant, wait, it's all kin. Have you picked anything else up? Yes, mate, I've broken the bank.

I have bought a scented Han Solo Star Wars E-reaser. But it is good, actually, because it completes the one display box. So it's one display box then, but that is it. Not much to buy.

I'm born much this month. Ben, I would just be careful not to go with the R's because obviously you may be going to Disney World next year and I would hate to get more buy little kids. Mr. J for one of the seven goals.

Ha ha ha ha. Well, unfortunately, I'm in capable of growing a beard, so that's nothing you have to worry about. Oh, sorry, Ben, I didn't realize you've not gone through a puberty yet, my fault. Oh, everyone's a comedian tonight.

And, Pete, take anything new up? Yeah, a couple of things. I got the Max Rebow box of Palisyniate on the forum. I have no idea why, they're just offensive.

I've magically been to the skate pod from the land of the Jowers and a couple of days ago, finally, after weeks and weeks away in all of eBay, I got a series of two of the top temporary swag cards on a very, very nice edition, actually. But no figures, really, this one. How about you, Steve? Have you picked up anything?

Yeah, I picked up a few lose mid figures and I've ordered one of Jacobine's displays, which I believe he's bringing to father's prom for me. The prom was about three months ago. I met his lack of grant on his podcast and he spoke about his passion for the other balls and it has bankrupted me at the moment. In the last three weeks, I bought a fair amount of stationery, different character soaps, lunch boxes, a lot of different records, coloring books, palobooks, thermos flasks, and I'm now bidding on about eight different signal items.

So, yes, my collection sounds look like a soul's charity shop. It's kind of a bit disjointed, but I do like the item. So, yeah, thanks for quickly, my bank account got on. That's really cool, man.

It's nice to see someone else collecting this stuff. That's awesome. Jill, you mentioned these display cases from Jackabena, which one have you went for? Because I think he's got a couple of designs, doesn't he?

And I think they look fantastic. Yeah, well, I'm actually, at the moment, I'm a stuff box stuff, I'm converting my garage into a command and a top thing. I'm doing one display of the bounty hunters' room, and post-rocks back, so he's putting six bounty hunters in there for me, but he's surprising me with a color scheme that will, which will match the figures. So, looking forward to seeing it, yeah.

I'm more worried that Grant has used mind control to control you, Stuart. I mean, this is only a star, isn't it? What's next? Jello mind control, actually.

Well, yeah, well, Criddle mind control. He just sounds like, he's got your brain. He's gonna do bad things, so you'll just watch out, right? I've already sold two erasers to him.

Oh my God, what have you done to him? You've got to kill him off. What's next? I've also been on the things like the money boxes on the Fectors' auction, and all those five items on there.

So, yeah, yeah, it's kind of a really skewish mind collection. Get out, get out, look at Skywalkity, partner. You'll never look back. Stuart, can you buy me the C-2PO tapes, that's my birthday next year?

I want that piece. He's nice. He's got one there, and he's gone. Yeah, totally love it, mate.

He loves him. Pulling that tape between his legs all the time. Right, Rich, would you rather ride to work on the back of a Tonton or do you back? Oh, good question.

I would say a Tonton, because it's all about speed, isn't it, nobody would want to be on a Jubac. You know what, Jubac. Actually, when you think about it, right, why is the storm too evading the Jubac? Should I let you be quicker to get off and walk?

You know, it's bizarre. With the Tonton, the speed, that, you get up there. Awesome. Obviously, we'd be lucky to get Chris Caswell on the spot for an interview.

Anyone knows who he is? We'll know that he's a huge expo on the three figure packs. So, a little question for all of you. If you could design your own three pack, which three figures would be in it?

And what would you call your pack? Let's go to Benji. I think I would have a Han Solo, a Lando Calrissian, and a Chewbacca, and it would be called the Pirates Pack. But which Han Solo and Lando you got there, man?

I'd go with the standard Han Solo, the first release. And I quite like the idea of putting a Lando Gemma pilot in there. But I think the original Lando Calrissian goes more with the pirate theme. And what about you, Pete?

I've actually noted down a few. So, if you want to bear with me on this one, I thought it could be a plastic savings pack with Wicked Jarren Yoda, because obviously, that will save plastic. Then a plastic no option pack, the Emperor, and Manaman, and Anakin, because they're absolutely loads of plastic in those. There's also the abandoned Anakin Skywalker family pack, which is Luke, Leah, and the C3BO.

And the Lando Calrissian's fantasy pack, which is Leah White, the first one, Leah Besvin, and Lando with his two-figure in. Awesome. That's three three packs, mate. I thought we were only choosing one.

I had to have more. Well, I wanted a second one as well. I wanted to get our Marvel's pack. I think Yoda, Aben, Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker in the Jedi Master's selection.

Why is Chewbacca in the Android set away? No, no, I'm just having trust. Have you shaved a stir off the scene, Pete? Good point.

I think Chris may have called that and then revealed that I want. So we'll leave it there for now. Well, I hope he doesn't have, because this isn't pre-recorded. Using the Force, I believe he does cover this.

Directly covers it, yeah? I'm looking into the future right now, and I think, yeah, you probably covered it. I've got a good idea. Why doesn't one of you guys ask him, perhaps, in the Force coming into the pre-recorded?

I like the way that you're seeing that. I want to go over two or three packs, because surely what you're seeing there is you won a six-part. Peace. That's not gonna happen.

I mean, I've got a barrel pack. Rich, what about your three pack? Right, I spent a bit of time on the other two, thinking about this and trying to put some kind of context to it. So wait.

Oh, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Mine was well thought out. That better way. It was mine.

Yeah. It's better be good. You set your setup up now. It's better be absolutely amazing.

Right, right. Give us your best, yeah? Give us your best. Very good.

Off ID4, the Millennium Falcon. What? You can't pull out a three pack. Why not?

That's random. It's just massive. No, I think you're a diecast version. Right?

Now think about this. Oh, OK. Oh, no, it's good. That's good.

I like that. It's good. Yeah. And the Java Sand Quarter, right?

And the title is the Unsung pieces of junk. Now if you think about it, each one of them is absolutely vital to Star Wars. If off ID4 didn't explode, R2 would have been sent off to the spice mines of Kessel or whatever, he would have ended up in. It would never have seen Ben Kenobi.

Without the Millennium Falcon, Vida could have possibly shot Luke down equally. Luke may have never got a title. I mean, without the Java Sand corner picking up the droids and bringing them to Luke, very, very short. So Unsung pieces of junk.

There he was. I think you probably need to call that the frigging massive pack. Yeah, I'm not having that. Right?

We should go down that line, right? I'm having a live time-traveled Princess Leia or Carrie Fisher in her white gown, slave Leia, a real one. And then any other, I don't know, Pat D'Amadala in my 30 starts pack. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second, right?

I said, I thought about this. Right? Just because I haven't spied you, now doesn't mean that you can come back. Right, you've had your chance.

That's for rubbish. Grant? Yeah. Ben, back me up.

I don't know what's left of that. Yeah, I've got three, actually. Java's Courtyard, which is EV99, a man-amann and yak face with the coins. Imperial infantry, which is the stormtrooper, the so-trooper, and the bikers, which are quite nice.

And the DT collection, which is Luke, Vader, and Ben and the DT's abers. Yeah, Grant's got back to sense, right? Yeah. I've only picked one because I didn't realise we would have had a pick 94.

I've got him on a salacious crumb, a wicked Warwick, and Mac to reboot. And I've called my set, the Grant Criddle Fettish 3-pack. And he's got a backdrop, Grant laying on a bed in the slave layer outfit. I think you produced that pack anyway.

That sounds one to produce. I'm up for that. Maybe we could get it for a big tree prevention exclusive. I think I've seen a photo of Grant dressed up as a sleeve layout.

Isn't it on that Germany, Germany, Stobol's exhibition exhibition at the moment, the British Oh, what's your own history? What's the minute you've seen it? You were there. He emailed it to me.

Stuart, you said that we weren't allowed to pick three. But in the show notes, it just says, 10 sex each, and then any bollocks do his trims up. That's all he says in the show notes. So I just went back with it, you know?

Surely the Grant Criddle 3-pack will consist of a tie-fire pilot, a tie-fire pilot, and a tie-fire pilot. But all with slightly different CLOs. I made them three. Holy smokes, Ben.

That's the greatest 3-pack of all time. Anyway, he said he would have a 3-cell salacious crumb in the last podcast, and that he breastfeeds Wicket. Hell the 3-pack, though, Hell the 3-pack. This is the SWF UK podcast brought to you an association with Star Wars 4 and UK.

I'm Rachael Hive of Scum and Villainy. So let's crack on now with the latest acquisitions thread. Ben, over to you, sunshine. So the first thing I'd like to talk about in this month's latest acquisitions thread, or this month's look at the latest acquisitions thread, is a follow-up post from Coin That, which relates nicely to the first podcast that we did.

Now, a few of you may remember me bumbling my way through a section on Revenge of the Jedi stuff. We talked about the 48 Empire Strikes Back cards that were ported over to Revenge of the Jedi cards, and there were two other cards that made up 50, an RCD-2 card with no nameplate, and a C3P card as well, which is sometimes known as the blank card or the error card, because there's no picture on it. As if on cue, Coin That's picked up these two lovely items, and they're there for all to see on the latest acquisitions thread. So if you want to know what I was trying to talk about in the podcast one, you can go and have a look at them now.

The lovely pieces, both of them have been graded. And in addition to that, he's got a really, really nice item, something that I, I mean, I don't collect vehicles myself, but I think this is a piece of this blad really, really well, which is a Revenge of the Jedi X-Wing box flat, and I'm produced box for the Revenge of the Jedi around for the X-Wing before obviously it was packaged and sold. So really, really nice looking item. Wow, Ben, you've come such a long way in three months when it comes to Revenge of the Jedi stuff.

Congratulations, buddy. Thank you. I just wanted to ask everyone, does everyone know what a box flat is, just to check? Yeah, a flat box.

Amazing. You just want the words around? That's crazy. I tell you what, Richard, it's a good job you're here on this podcast, because without you, we just absolutely full to pieces, we really would.

They had been looking at Coin Notes collection there, and I've been really studying these Revenge groups, and something I've noticed on the box for the X-Wing, it says ages five and open. I've just looked for any kind of peculiarity on these boxes. And then I scroll back up and look at the R2, and it says ages four and open. So I thought, right, okay, the figures are ages four and open, but the ships are ages five and open.

Now, that sounds a bit odd to me, because Shuali, if it's for ages X and open, the reason being is because of small parts, that's only control. I would imagine the blast as the rifle is being the most dangerous, excessive use of choragon. Shuali, it would be the ships that would be okay for the younger kids, because it might be that, there's one getting smaller than the choragon. If you were four years old at Christmas, you could have the R2, you could have the figures, but you're not allowed to get the fighter.

Sounds like odd, what do you think of that? To be honest with you, Richard, I have no idea where that peculiarity comes from. I've never even noticed that. It was nothing to do with a Revenge groups.

I'm actually, because when I do my research, I actually look at everything I possibly can, in that ages five and open stuck in my mind. So then I thought, oh, I wonder if it's a revenge thing. So then when I looked at the return of the Jedi boxes, they were all five and open, then the Millennium Falcon five and open, the Thai five and open, but all of the basic figures are four and open. How's that?

That is weird, isn't it? There's got to be some sort of half and sighty thing. There's got to be something that pertains to an action figure versus a vehicle. There's got to be some reason there, because I don't think they just...

So you're telling me you haven't done your research again? I don't know why the figures are age four and up, and the vehicles are age five and up. It's not all the vehicles, because the many rigs are age four and up. Yeah.

Yeah, so who knows on this one? Maybe it's something to do with pocket money. It's got to be the loose parts, surely. On the boat ships.

Yeah, that vehicle maintenance energized, there's loads of tiny little parts coming from there. It's all that tooling. I think it's a four and five, but there's not much difference. It's not like a four-year-old suddenly develops different skills than a five.

I mean, if you've got any young kids, I've got a nephew. I mean, even two, he even puts stuff in his mouth at age two. He's got pass at stage ready. So four and five is pointless.

Could it be that we really did it? I think it's probably battery related. Is it just a battery operated toy that I've got the age five and above on them and everything else is four? I'm a pretty genius.

I don't want to look now. That was a great shout, Rich. Been quickly jumped on that, didn't they? I was thinking that at the same time.

The play sets have ages four and up. I reckon it's a battery thing, you know, guys. Yeah, that's a battery. What's the other thing about the unit?

I'll have a look at the app. I'll look at the app. I'll look at the app. Yeah, Scott Walker.

ETSD, Gusho. That is also a good shout out. Credit work ready to choose. Yeah, too right.

I'll call the non-batch operated land speeder. The set walkers four and up. What's the land speeder? Someone who's a battery operated.

Yeah, the ones aren't. Oh. How about we compare a battery operated one to a non-batch? Yes.

If the age is different. I think they have the evidence there too. I'm via this particular nugget of information onto the Star Wars community. Right, the E-T, E-T is ages four and up.

And that's about the operated. The land speeder without batteries is five and up. Yeah, right. OK, so we'll throw that one out to the forum then.

If anybody knows why some of the vehicles are aged five and up. But the vast majority of Star Wars items are aged four and up. OK, then please let me know because it's certainly interesting. It's a kind of thing that I have a genuine interest in.

You'll need a lot of these about these accessories. Can I just blow your mind? One, three. The Kenner Star Wars land speeder is five and up.

The Macano land speeder is four and up. Plenty to develop quicker than we do. That's the thing. They're giving them wine age two and a half.

OK. Maybe something to do with the metric system. Met big system. We're 10 months in a year.

We're in a bit in a bit. Is it? Yeah, yeah. There you go.

See? That makes more sense, isn't it? Age five inches and above. I've got a Kenner Star T.

I'll tell you each four and above as well. Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you know why that doesn't make any sense? Yeah.

That's an enigma wrapped in a riddle. The next item that I'd like to talk about is Nick Isle of Wight's purchase of an Empire Strikes Back Sankraller, a minting box. Now, this item is particularly, well, the box is in fantastic condition. And I asked Nick a few questions about that.

It's actually shop stock, so it's in absolutely pristine condition. This particular Sankraller is an Empire Strikes Back Sankraller. Now, these Empire Strikes Back Box Sankrallers were only released in Canada. The Canadians were late to get the Sankraller, hence the reason that it's in the Empire Strikes Back livery.

It's also obviously a bilingual box for the French speaking part of the Canadian population. What makes this particular Sankraller rarer than most Empire Strikes Back Sankrallers, which are rarer in themselves, is it came with two jars included as part of the package. This was an exclusive offer that was only found in the Sears Bushbook 1980 Christmas edition. This, the more controlled Sankraller seemed to be very pricey for back in the day, nearly $30.

Now, when you're taken to account that the Millennium Falcon was released for $25, so that's $5 cheaper. Are there a lot of these Sankrallers around? Because I would imagine that they weren't too popular back in the day, so are they easy to pick up these? They're pretty scarce for that reason, exactly.

It was one of the most expensive vehicles back in the day. So you're talking about TIE Fighters and X-Wings being available for about $10 each, and this thing being $30. One thing I think they did on the Star Wars release to try and encourage people to buy this was that they offered a $3 refund if certain terms of conditions have been awful were met. I'm not sure what the terms of conditions were, but obviously, it wasn't a particularly big seller, which is why it's quite a scarce thing now to actually find.

This particular version with the two free jars are very, very rare, virtually unseen. Yeah, I find that quite interesting because a lot of the other Canadian buy logo, Star Wars vehicles and playsets, they also came with free chowers. And I was gonna throw that to you guys. Can you think of any of the sets that also came with free chowers that are also really rare?

I could only think of two. I can't think of any, I'll be honest with you. That's not an easy question, man. Land of the gals?

Yeah, speed, land of the jowers is one of them. I could only think of another one. I could only think of a clue, think of jowers. The creature canteen, I said?

No, there's no jowers in that. Come on, rich, we covered that last month. Droid Factory, the buy logo, Empire Strikes Back, Droid Factory from Canada also had. Droid Factory?

Yeah. Oh, where's it going in there? I've looked at the front of the box. Oh, look.

It's a take away. That's madness. What are they doing in their little buggers? Yeah, Sophie jumped in there, but I thought that was really interesting because the Canadian packs with the stickers on there with the jowers that seems to be commanded to be high prices.

Well, moving on a little bit from that, Grant, this particular set with the two jowers included. This is a minting box, obviously the contents have been opened. And as I said before, I spoke to Nick a little bit about it, prior to doing the show. At the actual contents of this box, he believed may have possibly been swapped out from what was originally in there.

As I said before, the box is shop stock, so it's absolutely immaculate. But he did say to me that the contents not so much so. Now, this particular one comes with two jower baggies, which are Star Wars A baggies. As far as he knows, these are the rarest of the jower baggies that you can get your hands on.

But there is some speculation as to actually when the contents were minting seal box, whether it was baggies or whether they were some that were actually released with, in this instance, perhaps 41 back Canadian Empire Strikes Back Cardi Jowers. So it's another one of those things that they're not 100% certain of, or Nick didn't seem to think that there was 100% certain of, there was still some debate going on as to how they were packaged. Yeah, I got a Canadian by logo Land of the Jar was set. And on my research for that, I was told that it came with two carded by logo Canadian carded figures for that one.

So I don't know for sure, so I'd be something interesting because I'd be able to find out. Nick has obviously been looking at this item at some time due to the rarity of it, and he had quite a little bit of background information on it. But the fact that they don't know whether they came with with baggies or not would be quite an interesting thing to say. I suppose the only way you'd ever find out will be to get a minting seal box one and open it up, but that's not something that anybody's ever gonna do.

Obviously, if you want a minting seal box one, you're gonna keep it as a minting seal box. There is another interesting thing that I found out in doing my research on this, and that was the, obviously the box is bilingual, and also the remote control has been made bilingual, and they took the Star Wars remote control, replaced it with, or not replaced it, but they stuck Empire Strikes Back stickers over the top of Star Wars ones, and also added bilingual stickers as well. So it's another part of this particular Sancrawler that's unique to the Canadian market. Anyone have anything else to say about that?

Now that's really good research, man. I didn't know half of that. Yeah, this is a quality item, isn't it? Nick's picked up an item that's in extremely good condition.

I really like it. I know that he's well-pleased with it, and it's something that doesn't come up very, very often at all. I know that he got it from Final Frontier Toys. Have you heard of them?

Yeah, I've heard of them, you guys? Yeah, I've never already been talking before, but I've heard about it on the website, and I've got some crack on top of them. The guy that sold it, actually, it's the only one that he'd seen in 20 years of buying and selling, so it's not something that ever comes up or upgraded at all, so I know he's absolutely stoked to have it. Ben, is this the first radio control toy that's had apart from the Sonic one here, the Sonic stuff?

Because of the Sonic stuff didn't work very well, so. Is this the first one that switched to radio control? Or was that earlier? I'm not sure on that.

I don't think this is the first radio control device, I'm just trying to think of anything prior to that. Can we have Sonic control stuff, which is rubbish? Yeah, no, this is actually radio control. It's pretty kind of radio.

It's not very easy to control. It goes forward or goes reverse and turns. There's only two buttons. It's very, very basic radio control, but it is a proper two-channel remote control, rather than something that makes a loud clicking noise.

So it is a genuine radio control item. I can't think of anything before that. Does that make a radio control R2D2 as well? Yeah, that's a good one, actually, Ben.

They did do a radio control R2D2, and they had a little board it went around. But I didn't think about it, but apart from that, yeah, I think that's it, isn't it? I can't think of anything else. Another pick up that I found quite interesting in the latest acquisition thread recently is a few Takara items that have been picked up by Yogi, whose real name is Craig.

Now, I know that he's got a bit of a Japanese focus going on. So what he's managed to pick up is a selection of loose Takara Stormtroopers and the Lucy 3PO, as well as a Takara Minton Car 3PO. The collection of loose niggas these picked up were, they're a bit bizarre looking. He's, they're actually, they belong to some kid in Japan who'd customised them.

So I think he's picked them up in a pretty poor state and has spent quite some time cleaning various bits of paint and customisation softener. But he's starting to get them looking quite good now. And he's also picked up the Fantastic C3PO, or would have been a Fantastic C3PO, which unfortunately we're gonna cover later on in the podcast. But the reason he's quite interesting, the Takara figures, they have alternative sculpts for three of the figures, and the C3PO is one of these alternative sculpts.

The three figures that were given alternative sculpts were Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper and C3PO. Now they were released in Japan at first on 10 or 12 A cards with Takara, what's known as the Takara A sticker. This first run was actually only nine of the 12 figures. You didn't have a Tuscan Raider, a Deskwell commander or a Jawa.

Then they went on to release Takara B's, which are Kenabe cards with the Takara B sticker, which is slightly different from the Takara A. With this came the Tuscan Raider figure as well, right at the end of the run. But what it also came with this is a new mold for the Vader, the Stormtrooper and the C3PO figure, and a new country of origin marking on them as well, which is made in Japan. So you've got Stormtroopers and Darth Vader, are considered the rarer of the two.

Vader's a universal acceptor as the rarest, however, recent discoveries that Craig, Craig sort of put me on the center of, that there's actually an alternative blaster that comes with these Takara Stormtroopers. So now, possibly the rarest one to find is a Takara Stormtrooper with a Takara blaster. And there's quite a few of these Takara Stormtroopers that have been graded a loose with the incorrect blaster because it wasn't until recently that the alternative blaster was discovered and confirmed as a Takara exclusive. The main difference in the sculpts are with the head, however, with the Stormtrooper, for example, the actual Takara Stormtrooper, the Takara Skullt Stormtrooper is shorter than the Kenestormtrooper.

It's got a different head sculpt and it's got thighs like Roberto Carlos. That's amazing, man. That's really interesting stuff. I've got a couple of questions.

I'm just gonna give two for the time being. Now, the first one, the sampleist and it came out on the second collection you said. I mean, is that really rare? Pass.

I'm not entirely certain of the rarity of these. I know it was released quite late in the run. Yeah, I didn't even know it was released, so that's something new. And I've got a question for Rich, actually, as a variation collector, are these candidates variations?

Is this something variation collectors would be hunting for? That's a good question, that grand, because I've never even considered those, I suppose they're short to certainly the three with the alternative sculpts, the C3B or the V8 on the Stormtrooper. I think they should definitely be counted. The others, I'm not so certain about, I think they fall under the main variation category.

Great question. I think that's three more, I'm gonna have to pick up. You know, if the look has made in Japan, COO on the back, that would be a variation, wouldn't it? Yeah, I'm not gonna go down that good grand, because if you collect the C3B or alternatives, you're gonna end with 10 variations for every single figure.

I just haven't got the space for that. I don't think I'd appeal to us as much. So I'm gonna go and collect the major variations. So I think only C3B or the Stormtrooper and the V8 are what causes major thanks to these findings, just in.

Just a quick interjection there, actually, from my research, I found the only figures that had the made in Japan, CIO on the actual figures with the three Japanese alternate sculpts, the Vader, the Stormtrooper, and the C3PO. It's also worth noting that not all of the Takara, C3PO's, Vader's and Stormtroopers are the alternate sculpt ones. There were a lot of kennacarid figures that got the sticker and were then sold in Japan by Takara, that are exactly the same as the kennacanter parts. Another interesting thing that the alternate sculpts have versus, and I believe this is completely unique to these Takara sculpts, but if anybody can put me different, I'll be great to hear from you, but they've actually got a screw.

Each one of them's got a screw that holds the figure together rather than the sonic welding. Sorry, is that on all of them? All three of the Takara sculpts have got screws. Ah, right.

So this is something that makes the figure quite a bit different to any other version of the figure. Redshark's gotta be a variation there, mate. A screw in the back. Yeah, totally grand.

So by the major variation, I'm not talking about that a little bit shorter than the other figures, it's the screw of a classic major variation. Another interesting little thing about those three major variations, the card back, the Takara B card back that featured these alternative sculpts has got no country of origin on the card back either. The Darth Vader figure, if you get to look at one, has got a white background behind the Darth Vader as opposed to a yellow one, which the standard 12-back Darth Vader, the backing color behind the figure on the other is yellow, but on this Takara one, it's white, and it's quite a unique thing. I can't think of any other figures that sit on a white card back and what with obviously Vader being black, it's quite striking, it stands out, makes it look quite striking when it's on the card.

Yeah, welcome, and lots of information today. Also, of course, you had the Walking R2, which I don't know a great deal about, but I know that was another Takara release that was also sold in Canada. Can I ask you more science? It's a bit off topic, especially Ben and Grown.

It's 10 inches long, mate. Three inches, three inches, that's how I measure my Star Wars figures. Right, it's a bit off topic, it's not actually directly about this, okay. Right, obviously when you talk about 20 backs or 21 backs and things, then other things on the back.

Can you just explain the A, B, C, B? Different variations on the back of the card. 21, A will have a Boba Fett rocket firing offer. The second one will have rocket firing Boba Fett with text, the next one will have rocket firing Boba Fett with the text scribbled out, the next one will have the text removed, the next one will have the picture of the Boba Fett removed and different figures.

So if you've got like a 45B, might advertise in Millennium Falcon. Yeah, or do you back up under the ear, or there'll be a nine number on the front of whatever, and not on the front of the equivalent. It's just a slight variation in the print on the card. They'll have changed the text, they'll have changed what they're advertising, or they'll have changed.

It's just a very, very slight change. The 12 A's and the 12 B's, it's miniscule change, isn't it? It goes up to about Q, I think. There's also slight variations on the front of the cards on some of them where you'll have all rights reserved with a black background, and then all rights reserved with a transparent background.

So there are a list of these, that's what's what. There is, the Kellerman book is brilliant, and there's an out of date website as well. Wonderful, I'm running. I've got anything carry on now.

The last thing I'd just like to mention is our friend, Pancho Bell, leading on from our first podcast, look at his limelight. He's been on the Proud Four bargains again, and he's picked himself up an absolutely fantastic Tonton, boxed palatoy Tonton for an absolute steal. He got it for £50, I hope he doesn't mind me exposing this, but it normally goes more than double that in that sort of condition. So he got a real bargain there with that, nice to see.

You know what I'm like, I'm pretty in over these boxes. In this and all that, the Tonton's age have woven up, gone back to you. So we've got two Tontons, we've got the OpenBelly, and we've got the original closed Belly one. Now we'll be looking at the boxes.

On the OpenBelly, you've got Hoff Hahn, you've got Hoff Luke, and possibly a rebel commander on top of the Tonton there. But on the original one, what sticks out like a sore thumb is that you've got Lea from the first 12, not Hoff Lea. So any ideas why they went with the original Lea, not the Hoff one. No, it wasn't released to me.

A lot of the, like you have the rebel commander, but the Luke's guy walked off came later. So it's just the fact that the figures went out there then. Basically, they'd made the toy, and they wanted to get the box up done, and it was a case of, we haven't got what we actually want, but we'll just go with what we've got anyway. Yeah, there's like a 1980 release, a 1981 and a 1982 release for Empire Strikes Back.

So they come in three different waves. So I just don't think they had the figure ready for that point, it might come in a year later. The Lay at Bespin was the first layer out for Empire. So yeah, it probably wasn't.

Not even a portal tape, anything I got to fall into the office. Well, not that hard, man. They thought you should do kick-bash stuff up like that, where they needed a figure, and they may have started the production of it, maybe had a torso and a head. They'd just sort of find some limbs to go on it, so they could get it photographed, or get it pictured, and just sort of make up a Frankenstein figure with the bits that they had left.

Yeah, they did. If you get the Star Wars German catalog, I'm not sure even sure what the catalog came in. If you go to the page there, where you see the figures that come on the 20 backs, they're all kick-bash heavy protos, I mean, you wouldn't even recognise some of them, they're totally different. So they have done it.

After you give us the show notes, a little investigation here, now, Pancho Bell got a beautiful sealed tonton for £50. If you think it's an AFA80, one of those went recently for £177, so he's tripled his money there, and I think it might be an AFA85, and one of those went for £475, so he got it for a tenth of its value. What a steal. He's certainly got a nice, just nothing about bargains as Pancho Bell.

This is the top half of the vital accessibility of Jawa, International Needs Association. We at Vegeta are sensitive to the plight of the vital-caped Jawa. This shy and extremely valuable creature has been hunted to deer extinction, being driven from its natural habitat, seeking refuge in the loft spaces above houses of people up and down the country, hiding behind the lagging around the water tank, underneath the floorboards, or behind the large pile of filthy magazines that your father tells you not to look at. These frightened, shy, extremely valuable creatures may be helped.

At Vegeta, we have just opened a state of the art of research and rehabilitation facility based on our site in the Isle of Fight. Should you find one of these extremely rare and valuable creatures in your loft or the loft of a family member, contact the gyro immediately, where we can help assist you in beckoning this poor creature out and giving it the help and support that it needs. You can find more about our appeal of the plight of the vital-caped Jawa on our website at www.starwarsforum.co.uk. With your help, we may be able to save the last remaining examples of these extremely valuable and shy creatures.

Help us make a difference. Thank you for your support. Right, and I'm delighted to welcome now Chris Kaswell from the forum, but I know you've got as Kaswell, but hello, Chris. Hello Stuart.

And joining us tonight with the interview is obviously our very own Grant Criddle. Hey, Chris, how you doing? Hi, Grant, good night. Thank you very much, take your time, Chris, to talk to us, we really do appreciate it.

Well, thanks a lot, lovely. One of the best jobs on the podcast is me doing the forum interviews because I get to look through the alarm and ask the collections. I must admit, yours is absolutely outstanding and stunning. It's so much to talk about.

I'm worried we're going to get through it in time in this interview. Well, there's only a few pieces in there, so hopefully we will be able to, but I really appreciate the comments. That's very kind of you. Now, you're well known for being a three-pack expert, and only many three-packs, including a few pre-production items, as well, I believe.

Yeah, mainly pre-production now. A lot of the production stuff has gone out of the window. I've still got one or two production bits. Wonderful.

We'll get onto the three-packs a bit later. We'll close it with that because obviously I think that's going to be the biggest chunk of the interview. Wanted to start with your earliest memories when you first saw the films and the toys. Taking you back to your youth.

Right. This may or may not surprise you. I'm a real youngster. I was born in 83.

So my first memories of the films were probably when I was about four or five. And my older brother had some of the toys knocking around, I need to play with those. But I never really got into it properly. I never really played with the toys as much as my older brother did.

I got into it later on when I was at secondary school for a little, when things came to kick off again in the mid-90s or early-to-big-90s really. And my mom is an antiques dealer. And so she introduced me to this idea of collecting. And she said, what do you want to collect?

And naturally the first thing that came to my mom is collecting Star Wars figures. And so we started going to car boot fairs and we used to go to fairs at Chessen and various places. There's a great place in Egon called the Twilight Zone. And a place called the Toy Box in Shepperson.

I needed to pick up loose figures and was trying to piece together a loose run at around the age of 12. And yeah, just kind of snowballed from there really. So starting out in the 90s, obviously, you're searching for those vintage items. Did you, at that point, pair of four stores come out?

Did you get into that as well? And purchase any of that? Yes. For my sins, yeah.

I mean, a few bits and pieces, but lucky, I didn't spend a fortune on it. I didn't have a fortune. I was still at school. So anything that I bought was really with pocket money and birthday money.

So yeah, I said, you want to break in the bank? And did that continue in the Phantom Menace arrived? I hate to say it. Well, I actually picked up about 30 or 40 carded figures we got friends who live in the US.

And they said, I'll become an over. Is there anything you want us to bring? And I said, oh, you know, load up a suitcase of these F-SAD1 carded figures. I mean, I'm not saying hope that they might someday be worth something.

I swear they might be one day, but I don't know if I'll be around to see that. And yes, probably about nine years after I purchased them, they went very cheaply. Chris, I remember the Twilight Zone advertising in Model Mart. Really?

Yeah. Probably a few people know about it, but it was good fun. What I'd be interested in is, you know, as someone who's collected back in the early 90s, can you remember seeing many carded figures? I mean, pre-internet, like carded figures and box ships like you can today on eBay?

Yes. Yeah. I mean, it definitely shows like chessing. But that was, if you go in there, it was just water, loads and loads of vintage.

I mean, at that point, I was paying less attention to it. I mean, I was remembering it all by it. But I knew that it was so far out of my reach that it was just not worth thinking about. So I was treated around it with my brothers and my mum.

And I was spending pocket money and birthday money on loose figures. And I remember really had to save and beg my mum for the last 17 characters. And the early days, it was quite nice and funny because you could spend five pounds on a complete figure. And then, you know, we were playing like 50 pounds for a back face.

That was just like, oh my god, you know, beyond belief money. So yeah, it was interesting. And we certainly had to work my way up to finding out based on some of the harder to find figures. But yeah, I remember seeing carded and box items.

We're just thinking they're completely average. The first, funny enough, the first carded figure I've owned was a try-logo prune face. I bought it from chess and I think. And it ended up with blue tack on the back of it.

It sucked my whole criminal. I know I look back at it now, shiver. But at least it was a prune face. Yeah, they were hard to display back then without the saw cases and the credit cases.

There was nothing there. And I used the profit after that. I was just going to fill out the profit up and I just stuck a bit of blue tack on it. So yeah, sorry everyone.

Did you ever go to the Jason Joiner shows in Chassen? Yes it is, yes. Really? Which ones do you go to?

My memories get you best because this is probably when I was about 12. So I wouldn't be able to say names of them, but I certainly would be going to them and buying them. A guy who no longer sells it, I think any more guy called Adrian Cordray. And he lived quite local to me.

He lived in in Bolton. And so I used to see him at shows and then every now and then I've brought around his house and a few things from him. I do have a bite with him. He sold me a red cake before June when I was 12 and I'll never forgive him.

Yikes. Needless to say, it wasn't real. What would it be for me to be fair? I went to one of those shows when I was a kid back in 1995.

So it's really odd to think that maybe a really young vision of yourself and myself might have been at the same time. Cross paths. Yeah, I was a frecky loser looking for loose figures. I was the Welsh Redneck child.

I believe we didn't meet. I was probably still holding my mum's hand there to be fair. All looking through her purse to see what change she had for the next year. Chris, you became a member of the forum back in 2010 now.

How did you come across the forum initially and how has it changed in time in the time you've been a member? Oh, that's a very good question. How's my colour plus forum? I think it was probably just Google searching.

What happened is, obviously, I put together a loose run when I was at school. I kind of completed it just as I was leaving Stikfall. And I took a break out of collecting for about three or four years. And during that time, obviously, I went off to university, came back.

And got myself a job and started to get a bit of money coming in. I just thought, let's upgrade some of the loose figures. And I started rebying loose figures and buying box bits and pieces and card figures. And they just got snowballed from there.

I don't know. I stumbled upon the forum, really. It wasn't necessarily anyone introduced me to it. I just one day, obviously, was googling and came across it and decided to sign up.

In terms of how it's changed, though, I mean, there's certainly been a lot of people come and go. But then again, I don't play anywhere near as big a part on the forum as I used to. I'm not anywhere near as far as I don't comment half as much. But yeah, I mean, there's been some great people on there.

I remember Stu Burnsey and very rarely see Emile anymore, Kate Town on there. Obviously, Ed, who was a very good collective friend, has lost his way, shall we say, in terms of collecting. But it's still well. It's doing touch with him.

So yeah, it's interesting to see people coming and going. Obviously, there's a lot of new fresh places on there. And it's just a great forum to be on there because it's got a really good atmosphere. Everyone is really friendly, unless you're a one-time one- the poster, or if you're trying to flog something, which later goes to where you buy.

It's a pretty comforting, you know, good homey feel to it. So that's why it's my favourite forum. I remember on the other forums, but it's not. I would say SWF UK is certainly home, if it's such a thing as a forum.

Is there anything on the other forums that you think I do better than Star Wars 4 and UK? I suppose, you know, what would I consider as being better? I think you get access to a wide arrangement and certainly more of the top end items from the items for sale section on RS. But generally, the people that are on there and some of the attitudes and some of the conversations, yeah, it doesn't really make you want to be a real active member, I think it's still a little bit of an old boys club.

You know, there are some great guys on there, which is, you know, which is a little bit of a shame. I don't feel as comfortable posting on there as I do on SWF. So, no, it's got other things to offer, but for me, you know, for a chat and for people, certainly SWF UK is the place to be. I know just on the forum back in April that you were selling one of your three packs to raise funds for your impending wedding.

Massive congratulations, mate. When's the big day? Thank you very much. It's a lot to tell you about.

So, it's coming around very, very fast. And that three pack is still for sale. This is not me plugging it, but it's still for sale. Wait a minute, plug away.

No. I'm a little bit surprised it hasn't gone. I put it up for the next is auction with a fairly high reserve. But, you know, I thought, well, maybe, you know, I've seen some pretty ridiculous auctions on there to be honest over the last year or so.

So, I'll try my hand. But, no, it's still with me. I think, you know, if it doesn't sell on eBay, then it'll just go back into the collection for a while and I'll just have to stare at it. Which one is the Chris?

Is the series two Star Wars villain set the one with Bet? That's Saggletooth and the Sandpeople. That's the one. Yeah.

Fantastic. Yeah, it's a cool base. But, it's one of these things. It's pretty much the last one I bought.