Luke Hoth grey jacket

Well, I'm not the most knowledgeable SW-variant-guy but over the years I had the chance to learn quite a few things ...

... but then I found this little guy whom I hadn't seen before    :




Does anyone know anything about this unusual grey jacket colour? Just plastic degradation? Or was it a small run of grey Luke Hoth figures?

And just to clarify, this is not a joke, the pic is not photoshopped. The grey colour of that jacket is like you see it in the photo!

Any input appreciated!

Cheers
Patrick

I don't recall ever seeing one like that before Patrick. My first though was degredation, but the limbs and paint apperar to be unaffected, so I would guess that it could be due to unstable chemicals or pigments in the plastic of the torso rather than UV light damage. Also, the tone of the  white paint on the torso suggests that the plastic underneath is also grey. Is there any grey plastic exposed by the scratches/chips to the white paint?  
The colour kind of reminds me of the 'degraded' grey limbed Snow Troopers which were being researched by Lee Bullock on SWFUK.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this interesting find.

Is it just an unpainted jacket, and we are seeing the gray plastic the torso was moulded in?

That is a very intersting figure! It looks from the pictures like the grey is actually the colour of the plastic, it also looks like this can be slightly seen on a scuff on his arse (not sure though)
But the plastic was never moulded in grey which is weird!
Anyway you can confirm if it is plastic or paint without damaging it? It looks like plastic from the pics.

Sorry guys, I should have included this information in my first post.

Yes, like all Luke Hoth jackets this grey jacket is moulded not painted.

I found this figure in Spain in November 2015. Unfortunately the seller wasn't willing to post to Germany.

But with the help of a very well known spanish collector friend I was able to add this figure to my collection!  Thanks again [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , you're a top bloke!

After a little odyssey in the postal system it arrived in January 2016. Due to my break from SW I didn't post this pics earlier

I've seen a million Luke Hoths and I've never seen one like this. Nice pickup.

that is a very cool figure . ive never seen one either

Well looking at my baggie one the boot holes seem to match the pants in colour but not really sure how close. I think I have a luke custom I did so scrapping the paint on that is not an issue to see for sure what is the tru plastic colour of the vest. The one I have is a Kenner Baggie one.

thats awesome

This was on FB this week, notice the grey torso, these pics are of a prototype but it shows that the torso was cast in grey at some point. Photos belong to Derek Ho

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Ahhh that's interesting Oscar.

I could be wrong but this seems to be a different mould, the one with less detail on the vest. Would that make a difference?

Not sure about if it makes a difference Christian, the grey also looks darker compared to Patricks figure, but I thought it is interesting seeing that the torso was used in a grey in Dereks pics.

Thanks for the input guys!

Interesting prototype pics, thanks for sharing Oscar!

Indeed it seems to be the other mould ... but I don't think that this is important here because I'm pretty sure my Luke is not a prototype figure. It's completely painted and it has COO markings which means in all likelihood that it's not a preproduction figure.


I'd think that it's probably one of the following three possibilities:

A) Someone has treated the figure with some chemicals so the torso faded to grey due to a chemical reaction ... (I'm absolutely unsure if this is plausible because I do not know enough chemistry...)

B) It's a fake figure like the Poon Stormtrooper or Poon Vlix... (But if this was true wouldn't there be much more figures like my Luke!?)

C) It's a (very, very, very) small run of grey Luke Hoths. (Possible but also improbable because finding a new variant these days is not that likely.)


Well, I don't know the truth ... anyone here who has seen a grey jacket Luke Hoth before and who is able to shed some more light on this?

My best guess would be there was one batch where the pigment in the plastic was missing, and somehow this one got through quality control - but that's 100% speculation.

Cool piece regardless.

Ian

That's really cool. Especially seeing the grey plastic colour under the paint beneath the waist. I use to have an unpainted first shot Luke Hoth and I seem to recall the torso being a more tan colour than light grey.

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That really is an interesting piece and I'd love to hear more about it. Hope someone has some ideas :-)

According to Javier's book, PBP would re use scrap plastic, like all the sprue trimmings in their injection moulding process. Re using plastic that has already undergone the injection process is one theory as to why so many PBP produced torsos are so brittle.

Perhaps other factories did the same? To me it looks like the torso is unpainted (factory error) and is moulded in light grey plastic. Perhaps from a batch of torsos produced from leftover plastic, taken from weapons and accessory sprues?

Just a theory

Anyway this is an awesome figure. Thanks for sharing this one. I can't imagine it to be any kind of degradation or chemical input. Patrick, maybe you can confirm, that under the white paint on the back of the torso grey plastic is visible. Some small scratches of paintrub are visible on the pic.

chris.75 wrote:... To me it looks like the torso is unpainted (factory error) and is moulded in light grey plastic. Perhaps from a batch of torsos produced from leftover plastic, taken from weapons and accessory sprues?

Just a theory

Chris, what do you mean by saying 'torso is unpainted (factory error)'? Isn't Luke Hoth's torso always unpainted but just moulded besides the belt, the binoculars, the breast pocket, and the snow goggles?

Akial wrote:Anyway this is an awesome figure. Thanks for sharing this one. I can't imagine it to be any kind of degradation or chemical input. Patrick, maybe you can confirm, that under the white paint on the back of the torso grey plastic is visible. Some small scratches of paintrub are visible on the pic.

Dirk, I can confirm that the torso is moulded in grey plastic and on Luke's arse you can see the grey plastic shining through the white paint.

On the other hand there are real strange colour "degradations" possible. I found this lavender rebel soldier recently. He is an COO China raised bar. the grey lavender plastic is under the white colour as well. Unbelievable strange guy IMO

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Wow lavender! I've never seen one of those before.

Very interesting thread, guys!

The lavendel Rebel Soldier, that is some transformant!

Akial wrote:On the other hand there are real strange colour "degradations" possible. I found this lavender rebel soldier recently. He is an COO China raised bar. the grey lavender plastic is under the white colour as well. Unbelievable strange guy IMO

 Wow!!!

Very cool lavender Rebel Soldier, Dirk! Thanks for sharing!

thatrebel soldier is very cool too . wish i owned both of them

Great thread and some great theories.

In my 20+ years as a collector and 15+ years as a variation collector, I have never seen a Luke Hoth this color until seeing it on FB a while ago. I do not believe it's a variation, as a variation this significant would have been discovered years ago. I tend to believe it's a result of discoloration, even thrugh it sounds strange at a tan / sand color can turn gray. But we have seen some very odd discolorations over the years: Leia Bespin with olive torso, Boba Fett with olieve torso and Boba Fett with bright purple limbs to mention three of the large and more obscure ones. How can a red figure turn olive?

Man that Rebel Soldier is very odd looking - but cool! Never seen anything like that!