LUKE SKYWALKER - JEDI KNIGHT - Answers To A Few Common Questions

Craig T wrote:Thank you for your warm welcome
I will follow-up with some photos of carded snap capes once I have a moment to take photos and write a few words.

That would be fantastic Craig!

Craig T wrote:
Thanks too [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for posting the link to JabbasCourt. I will need to make an account to join facebook before I can see, but is this the link to the photos that Alex was kind enough to share?

Yes it is. Some great info on the snap capes, weapons and info on the various factories and codes if you dig hard enough. But having seen your collection on here and TIG nothing you probably didn’t already know Craig

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, are the metal snaps made of steel?  If so, one way to tell whether a MOC contains a snap cape or not (where the relevant area of the cape is hidden) might be to hold a strong neodymium magnet to the back of the card and see whether there is any attraction or not.  Of course, if the snaps are not made of steel, but rather aluminium for example...

Anyway, please excuse my ignorance if this an already well known technique, or if it is known that the snaps are not made of steel!

That's a good question Jeremy. I've never given it much thought, but assumed that they were an alloy.

I'm sure someone will chime in with an answer.

The long awaited Holy Grail of snap capes! I am the proud owner of a Unitoy Jedi Luke MOC clearly packaged with a SNAP CAPE!  Just arrived today, and I was planning on looking into X-ray, however it's not necessary, the snap is quite visible.


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That's awesome Thomas John Thanks for sharing with us mate

Snaketibe wrote:At the risk of sounding like an idiot, are the metal snaps made of steel?  If so, one way to tell whether a MOC contains a snap cape or not (where the relevant area of the cape is hidden) might be to hold a strong neodymium magnet to the back of the card and see whether there is any attraction or not.  Of course, if the snaps are not made of steel, but rather aluminium for example...

Anyway, please excuse my ignorance if this an already well known technique, or if it is known that the snaps are not made of steel!

I just checked with rare earth magnets and none of the factory snaps were magnetic, so I'd suspect aluminum or nickel plated copper or some other nonferrous metal.

Thank you for the confirmation Thomas & congratulation on you Unitoy moc LJ with snap cape.

Snaketibe wrote:At the risk of sounding like an idiot, are the metal snaps made of steel?  If so, one way to tell whether a MOC contains a snap cape or not (where the relevant area of the cape is hidden) might be to hold a strong neodymium magnet to the back of the card and see whether there is any attraction or not.  Of course, if the snaps are not made of steel, but rather aluminium for example...

Anyway, please excuse my ignorance if this an already well known technique, or if it is known that the snaps are not made of steel!

Hello All

I echo Thomas John. None of the snaps will be magnetic. I remember trying that trick to my disappointment.

When you think about it, this would make sense as an important attribute; you would want to ensure that the snap wouldn't rust - kids would be likely to get the cloak/snap wet through play ; mums (moms?) might need to wash the cape so it would have to be an non ferrous material. You can get high quality stainless steels (both ferrous and nonferrous) - but these would be an expensive and unnecessary cost) so its most probably a nickel or brass alloy.

There is one sure way to test if there's a snap cape inside and that is by x-raying the MOC:

Wow thats great . Nice score and welcome!!

Nico wrote:

Craigy, that's a fantastic image mate    
It's interesting that two of the Luke's are dressed in their capes and the rest have the cape neatly tucked behind the figure, are they factory seals mate  
[300][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/300]
How many of your MOC's have the blue saber  
Thanks again for posting Craigy, great info   

Thanks for your interest Nico!

Just to be clear, any Luke Jedi figures packed at Smile (HN), Unitoys (HT), and Tiawan (TJ)* factories in the Far East, for the predominately US market will all be consistently packaged with cape behind Luke.

For UK Palitoy 65-B and 65-C, European Equivalents (Meccano, PBP, and Tri-logo, etc.), this was more of a case of "in the hands of the gods" or more specifically:  in the hands of the packers. Bulk boxes of Luke Jedi baggies (200 pieces) would be sent from the Far East to be carded in factories in the UK and European partners like Meccano and PBP.

Depending on the preference of who packed the MOC you can find Luke with his cape on, off behind him, or in case of TJ baggies, still in the green sleeve behind luke.




*So far, I traced  (TJ) "Made in Taiwan" Luke Jedi figures to a vendor with the initials "UM" but I don't know what that stands for.

Thomas John wrote:The long awaited Holy Grail of snap capes! I am the proud owner of a Unitoy Jedi Luke MOC clearly packaged with a SNAP CAPE!  Just arrived today, and I was planning on looking into X-ray, however it's not necessary, the snap is quite visible.


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Thomas, these days picking up an early Luke Jedi MOC is hard enough task with out serious money; to pick up one with a Snap cape is nigh on impossible - Kudos!

Craig T wrote:

Thomas John wrote:The long awaited Holy Grail of snap capes! I am the proud owner of a Unitoy Jedi Luke MOC clearly packaged with a SNAP CAPE!  Just arrived today, and I was planning on looking into X-ray, however it's not necessary, the snap is quite visible.


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Thomas, these days picking up an early Luke Jedi MOC is hard enough task with out serious money; to pick up one with a Snap cape is nigh on impossible - Kudos!

Thank you! It was the perfect storm of luck in this case. I decided I would buy the next reasonably priced HT marked MOC I saw and have it X-rayed. This was literally my first try and you know the rest of the story. I'm primarily a loose collector, but I think this MOC is going to stay in my collection. I'm tempted to get HN and TJ examples now to complete the Snap Cape trifecta.

On the Subject of Early Editions of Luke Jedi and his Infamous Snap Cape...

There's seems to be currently a much stronger interest in Luke Jedi here on the Tantive XI forum, than back on old TIG. So I will attempt to draft out a mini intro here, edit it and incorporate any feedback and once happy, I will also update my blog over on TIG. Feel free to ask questions (but please give me a day or two to get back to you).

I will try to write the below info with the intention of helping people new to the hobby as well as old. This is a work in Progress, so bear with me as I finish it.  

What’s a Snap Cape? What’s a Stich Cape?

When Luke Jedi was debutant in the USA on a Kenner 65-A ROTJ card, it came with a special cape that had a snap clasp at the collar. This was replaced quite soon in the production run with capes that had a simple stich at the collar – most probably in an effort to save costs and increase margins.

Here is a photo of a “Made in Hong Kong” Luke Jedi - made by Unitoys (HT). This 100% legit and all original to the sealed beater I opened around about 8 Years ago.

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The last two photos show one of my other loose HT snap capes suffering from slight degradation - as the cape degrades, it takes on a redder appearance

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Which factory produced a Snap Cape?

All 3 original Luke Jedi factories the Far East originally produced a Luke Jedi with a snap cape. These are:

#1 Factory HN - Smile of Hong Kong

• HN marked on the reverse of the card back
  
• Figure stamped with “Hong Kong” on the calf
  
• The only true combination to have both a snap cape and blue lightsabre
  
• The head is moulded in brown plastic with a pink face painted on.
  

HN 1st Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape in a Baggie Behind Luke

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HN 2nd Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape Loose Behind Luke

[This is the only variation I need in order to complete the full possible set; so please (really pleeeeeeeeeease) contact me if you have one for sale!!!]

#2 Factory HT - Unitoys of Hong Kong

• HT marked on the reverse of the card back
  
• Figure stamped with “Made in Hong Kong” on the calf
  
• The heads for this variation were always moulded in brown plastic with a skin colour face painted on.
  
• The sabre was always green and unique to the Unitoys factory.
  

HT 1st Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape in a Baggie Behind Luke

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HT 2nd Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape Loose Behind Luke

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Snap is not visible to the eye, but can be clearly seen in the X-ray (Right Image).

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#3 Factory TJ – Made in Taiwan Luke Jedi

• TJ marked on the reverse of the card back
  
• Figure stamped with “Made in Taiwan” on the calf
  
• The heads for the first and second releases were moulded in pink plastic with a hair  painted on.
  
• The heads for the third release were moulded in brown plastic with a pink face painted on.
  
• The sabre was always green and unique to the Taiwan factory.
  
• Without question, the TJ factory was the most prolific of the three, when it came to pumping out LJ MOCs.
  

TJ 1st Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape in a Baggie Behind Luke (Moulded Head)

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TJ 2nd Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape Loose Behind Luke (Moulded Head)

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TJ 3rd Edition - 65-A; Snap Cape Loose Behind Luke (Painted Face)

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Craig, that's a lot of great information.  Well done.

This is right along a project path, that we've been working on.  Trying to link specific COO stamps & accessories to specific cards, for all the figures. As well as matching loose figures with their proper accessories that they originally came with.

It's great to have another focus collector around.

Craig T wrote:

Nico wrote:

Craigy, that's a fantastic image mate    
It's interesting that two of the Luke's are dressed in their capes and the rest have the cape neatly tucked behind the figure, are they factory seals mate  
[300][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/300]
How many of your MOC's have the blue saber  
Thanks again for posting Craigy, great info   

Thanks for your interest Nico!

Just to be clear, any Luke Jedi figures packed at Smile (HN), Unitoys (HT), and Tiawan (TJ)* factories in the Far East, for the predominately US market will all be consistently packaged with cape behind Luke.

For UK Palitoy 65-B and 65-C, European Equivalents (Meccano, PBP, and Tri-logo, etc.), this was more of a case of "in the hands of the gods" or more specifically:  in the hands of the packers. Bulk boxes of Luke Jedi baggies (200 pieces) would be sent from the Far East to be carded in factories in the UK and European partners like Meccano and PBP.

Depending on the preference of who packed the MOC you can find Luke with his cape on, off behind him, or in case of TJ baggies, still in the green sleeve behind luke.




*So far, I traced  (TJ) "Made in Taiwan" Luke Jedi figures to a vendor with the initials "UM" but I don't know what that stands for.

That's very interesting Craigy, thanks for sharing the knowledge mate
This is an awesome thread

Hi Clint,

No problem... when you have a moment, have a look at my original guide on Luke Jedi that I wrote on TIG back in  ~2010...

Craigys Luke Jedi 2010

If you scroll down to info for each of the factories that made Luke Jedi  (HN, HT, and TJ)... then in each factory section scroll past the MOCs, you'll find I also presented the loose variants and I gave the COO info that might be needed here.

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Let me know what you might need re-photographed for here! And I'll re-take shots - digital cameras are much better these days!

P.S. Ontario eh? I lived in Hamilton during my Year Abroad a great year!

Haha. I live about a 35-40 min. drive north of Hamilton.

I kind of remember that guide over on TIG. It's been a while since I've seen it.

Anything you can help us with, would be great. A lot of our COO guides are down at the moment due to Photobucket.

Commander Clint wrote:Haha.  I live about a 35-40 min. drive north of Hamilton.

I kind of remember that guide over on TIG.  It's been a while since I've seen it.

Anything you can help us with, would be great.  A lot of our COO guides are down at the moment due to Photobucket.

No Problems! I dug open my crates to get to the snaps, so I should be able to help here too...

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Here is the first COO comparison: TJ Made in Tiawan Luke Jedi

Both are from the TJ factory and both have moulded heads. However, you will find that one Luke has a COO stamp that is higher up the boot than his twin brother. Figure Moulds seemed to have been made in pairs; seeing as the COO and date markings were manually stamped in, you have two possible combinations.

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Note the exact same COO and Date Markings apply to both the Moulded Head and Painted face Variants

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