[LE] Leia Organa (Bespin Gown) Poch Overview

[coo_intro  ITEM-TITLE="princess leia organa"  ITEM-SUBTITLE="bespin gown"  ITEM-COMPANY="poch"  IMAGE-URL-ONLY="https://i.servimg.com/u/f19/18/11/74/37/brown_10.jpg"  YEAR-RELEASED="1982 ?"  RELEASED-ON="EIC 37/41A"  FIRST-CARD="EIC 37a/41"  LAST-CARD="unconfirmed"  FACTORY-CODES="SA"  BOOKMARK-NAME="mlbpe"]

[toc title=" Leia Organa (Bespin Gown) - Poch factory variants"]

• Family 1 - Kader (K)
  
• Family 2 - Unitoy (U)
  

[/toc]

[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="Discussion Topic"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="Basic Coo Guide"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="Advanced Coo Guide"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="loose figure guide
Kenner"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="loose figure guide
late pbp (pbp)"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="loose figure guide
lili ledy"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="sealed baggie guide"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="MOC Guide"]Link to be added[/snippet]

[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="weapons & accessories"]Poch Leia Organa (Bespin Gown) came equipped with a blue  blaster and patterned vinyl cape[/snippet]
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[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="known variations"][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] & [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Dark Hair[/snippet]
[snippet  SNIPPET-NAME="notes"]Best guess for the year of release is 1981 or 1982. Any help to confirm the year would be appreciated![/snippet]

[title]POCH Leia Bespin[/title]

[subtitle]Introduction to COO Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.][/subtitle]

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[section_header]FAMILY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] COO STAMP[/section_header]

[section_header]INTROduction[/section_header]

The POCH figure shares the same mold as the blonde/light brown haired Lili Ledy & Palitoy version, just with a different paint scheme. I frequently call them sisters or cousins since they share the same mold. I still cannot confirm the existence of a true Kenner version of this variant.

Her hair paint color can be found in a reddish/brown color or a brownish/red color. Typically, the reddish/brown color is the most commonly found.

For the reddish/brown hair, the red tones are easiest to see near the edges of her hair lines since the paint application is usually a little under-sprayed which shows the true paint color best.
The under-spray is not always the case, but a little more common to find. It is also easier to see in very bright and/or direct light sources.

[section_header]COMPARIsonS[/section_header]

The following images compare the POCH figure next to a Palitoy version of the same variant.
[compare]POCH figure on the right[/compare]

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[compare]POCH figure on the right[/compare]
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[section_header]ACCessORIES[/section_header]

[section_header]MOC imAges[/section_header]

The following images come courtesy of Marino Arribas Muñoz from his awesome Star Wars Spanish Stuff's website.

She could be found carded on the POCH ESB "El Imperio Contraataca" 37/41 A Horizontal Backs.

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[info][mini_title]Leia Bespin Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Brown & Red Hair Comparisons[/mini_title]
These are the 4 available paint app combinations (all have the typical POCH pale hands and feet flesh tones) .

[compare]From left to right: red hair/brown eyes; red hair/black eyes; brown hair/brown eyes; brown hair/black eyes[/compare]
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I have to really thank Kenneth, Greg & Javi for helping with these over the past years.

And here is a little more detail and comparisons of the far left figure which was my latest pickup.

[mini_title]POCH Leia Bespin - Red Hair / Brown Eyes - Family 1, 4 line COO[/mini_title]
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[mini_title]Face Closeup[/mini_title]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As you can see her red hair has been massively over sprayed. I haven't seen any Leia, POCH or otherwise, quite this over sprayed.
Her left eye is misaligned (spray op error - left eye too low).
Her lips are also over sprayed. This is the most lipstick I have seen as well.

[compare]Here is a quick comparison of three red haired POCHs[/compare]
[600][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/600]
[compare][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Red Hair/Black Eyes - slight under sprayed hair line | [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (new figure) Red Hair/Brown Eyes - over sprayed hair line | [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Red Hair/Brown Eyes - perfect sprayed hair[/compare]

[compare]Now again without the cape and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is a Brown hair/Black eyes POCH figure[/compare]
[mini_title]the brown haired figure is mislabeled in my image! BLACK EYES, not brown![/mini_title]
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Marco spotted this as did Alex. This figures right hand appears a bit darker than her left hand (Label [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]).
Initial speculation was this figure might be a Pochenstein (mixed up Kenner and POCH parts). But I can tell you that in hand, that is not the case.

[mini_title]Here are all 4 POCHs hands up close[/mini_title]
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What I can tell you that in hand and in this picture, all right hands are the same.
Looking closely, this figure's left hand had a very, very light paint application so in reality, her left hand is lighter than the others making the right hand seem off.
So the left hand is just under sprayed.
Looking at all of them today, it appears that in all the figures, the lefts hands seem to have just a little less paint when compared to the right.
So while this figure's under sprayed left hand just makes it looked mixed up, it is not. I would have liked this to be a Pochenstein, mixed up figure. Maybe one day someone will find one.

I do like the charm of the poorly applied hair, eyes and lipstick. Reading through all the POCH stuff, POCH seems to have a reputation of poorly applied paint. Until this figure, all the Leia's I have seen from POCH have excellently applied paint overall and in most cases, even equal or better than her Kenner counterparts. One exception is some of the red hairs do have a little under spray as seen in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] near the front of the hair line which allows the red hair to really be seen. But as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 3 & 4 show, the paint generally is very well applied. So this figure ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) is a nice example of a sloppy POCH.


[section_header]MOC Pics[/section_header]
I don't own any, so these come courtesy of the folks listed below...

She could be found carded on the POCH ESB "El Imperio Contraataca" 37/41 A Horizontal Backs.

[mini_title]Family 1[/mini_title]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[mini_title]Back[/mini_title]
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Family 1 images courtesy of Marino Arribas Muñoz via the Star Wars Spanish Stuff website Star Wars Spanish Stuff[/info]

[coo_variant  ITEM-TITLE="leia bespin"  ITEM-SUBTITLE="turtle neck"  ITEM-COMPANY="poch"  IMAGE-URL-ONLY="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2936/14006161810_4682ed1208_c.jpg"  VARIANT-TYPE="n/a"  COO-FAMILY="#2"  RELEASED-ON="EIC 37/41A"  FACTORY-CODES="SA"  LIBRARY-THREAD="https://www.tantivexi.com/t312-poch-leia-organa-bespin-gown-read-only-reference"  DISCUSSION-THREAD="https://www.tantivexi.com/t204-leia-bespin-discussion"  BOOKMARK-NAME="plopf2"]

[section_header]FAMILY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] COO STAMP[/section_header]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[info][section_header]INTRODUCTION TO POCH Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.][/section_header]

Here are a few images of the newly confirmed POCH Leia Bespin sporting a different COO Family - Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Previously Leia Bespin POCHs were confirmed as Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. To date only one carded image has surfaced (see the end of this post).

I did not discover her. Kenneth B made a reference to it in late 2012 on TIG (the pictures no longer exist however) and it pretty much flew under the radar.
I have to thank Kenneth for securing her for me.

She is missing her cape and blaster and is far from mint, but a rare variant for sure!!!

I have seen a few pictures of her cape and it may turn out to be unique to this figure in the end. It has a V3 pattern but the arm holes are much larger and the cape itself is shorter and wider. I have found similar Kenner examples of the very large arm holes with a V3 pattern, but the die cut so far is different. This cape is hard to find regardless if it is POCH exclusive or shared with any Kenner variant. So far however, it seems it is POCH exclusive.

[mini_title]A closer look[/mini_title]
[compare]COMPARED TO HER KENNER SISTER - POCH ON THE LEFT[/compare]
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[mini_title]And a comparison of the two POCH families[/mini_title]
[compare]Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on the left - Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on the right[/compare]
[500][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.][/500]

[section_header]POCH TRAIts[/section_header]
Typical POCH traits can be seen such as:

• Pale flesh hands
  
• Pale flesh feet
  

[section_header]Observations[/section_header]

Comparing Kenner and POCH Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] you can see the typical POCH pale/white hands and feet.

You can also see that the necklace is very poorly applied. The necklace is very large and falls outside her collar which helps a bit to identify her when it is difficult to tell the paleness of the hands or feet. The few loose examples I have seen all have this necklace so my thought is the paint mask perhaps was slightly damaged or twisted so it wouldn't align correctly. But looking at the MOC picture, the necklace is OK. So you should be able to find this figure with a properly applied necklace as well.

I chose the closest Kenner sister I had handy for the shot.
Since she has been referred to as the dark haired POCH variant, I chose a similar dark hair Kenner sister to point out that Leia Bespin has more hair colors than Dennis Rodman
You can find pretty much any shade of red, brown and near black so I would say her hair color is not unique to this POCH.
The keys lie in the hands, feet and necklace (sometimes) in my opinion.

I do think this adds even more to the POCH/PBP mysteries as to now having yet another figure from POCH from two different mould families.  

I know of very few confirmed out there at this time. I again thank Kenneth B! Cheers KB!

If anyone else has one and would like to share, please do! Especially if you have the cape so we can see and discuss.
I have updated my research site with her as well.

[section_header]CAPE[/section_header]

Here are Kenneth's pics of the cape from the Leia Bespin family 2 figure he has.
It definitely appears to be have much larger arm holes than any other capes I have seen.
I had a chance to see it and hold it in person (again, thanks Kenneth) and compared it to a very similar cape with large arm holes, but Kenneth's cape was a bit different in height and width.
At this time, I have yet to find an exact Kenner match, but I am hopeful one day.

[500][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/500]

The comparison pic shows the standard POCH Leia cape on the left (family 1) which has narrow arm holes by default.
The one on the right does have much larger arm holes.
Also note that it is a different pattern/version [compare](v2 on the left / v3 on the right)[/compare]

[section_header]MOC Pics[/section_header]

[mini_title]Family [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.][/mini_title]
POCH 37/41A Horizontal

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]