Imperial Tie Fighter Pilot
Chihuahua
Anthony Tugwell
Anthony Tugwell
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DON’T RELY ON JUST THE COO TO IDENTIFY A FIGURE. Mould, paint colour, plastic colour and figure assembly traits are also needed to confirm your figure’s origins.
SMILE MADE IN HONG KONG
Above you can see following figure and accessory combinations (left to right):
Made in Hong Kong COO Light orange buttons. Warm grey gloves/boots.
- Made in Hong Kong COO Orange chest buttons. Warm grey gloves/boots.
- No COO Orange chest buttons. Mid grey gloves/boots.
- No COO Orange chest buttons. Mid yellow grey gloves/boots.
Smile debuted their figure on the Palitoy 45 and Kenner 47 cardbacks and went through to 77 release. The Smile no COO figure is first found on Kenner 65C and continued through to Trilogo cardbacks.
There’s very little to differentiate the TIE Fighter Pilot mould families. In fact Smile and Unitoy are nearly identical in form. The colours are the easiest tell between the two figures, where the Smile figure has warmer grey, and the Unitoy figure blueish-grey gloves and boots.
Date and COO stamps were initially made into the front half of the leg cavities. The error was quickly picked up, and a rework was made to “erase” traces of the erroneous stamps. The same stamps were subsequently applied to the rear half of the leg tool. No figures exist with fully formed stamps on the front of the legs. Refer to the detail images below and you can see a partial outline of the existing “MADE IN HONG KONG” on the right, and some dotting and remnants from the removed date stamp on the left leg.
Diving deeper into the details, one of the torso cavities has a minor indent on the left shoulder harness. Torsos with and without this indent can be found in equal numbers.
Another interesting change to the leg tooling occurred during the transition from the HONG KONG stamped figure to the no COO. Refer to detail 3 where you can see a seam on the foot of the HK figure which was altered to a flat sole, with the seam now running around the boot edge on the no COO figure. To achieve a flat foot a new tooling component is introduced which resulted in a relocated peg hole.
SMILE (MADE IN HONG KONG) ACCESSORY: M4 Grey Pilot Blaster
SMILE (NO COO) ACCESSORY: M5 Grey Pilot Blaster
UNITOY MADE IN HONG KONG
Above you can see following figure and accessory combinations (left to right):
Made in Hong Kong COO Glossy orange buttons. Blue-grey gloves/boots.
- Made in Hong Kong COO Matt light orange chest buttons. Blue-grey gloves/boots.
Unitoy debuted on the Palitoy 45 and Kenner 47 cardbacks and went through to Kenner 65A cardbacks.
As noted above, there’s very little to differentiate the TIE Fighter Pilot mould families. The main difference is the colour, with Unitoy figures having blueish-grey gloves and boots, whereas Smile figures have a warmer grey.
A minor variation can be found between the two leg cavities for the Unitoy figure. Looking closely, the heel height is noticeably taller in the L1b leg cavity, and subsequent L2b and L3b derivatives. Both tall and mid heel variations can be found in equal numbers.
ACCESSORY: M1/M2 Grey Pilot Blaster
PBP/ MECCANO
PBP/MECCANO SCARRED NO COO
Above you can see following figure and accessory combinations (left to right):
PBP AT-AT Driver Helmet Emblems. Orange chest buttons. Grey gloves & boots.
- PBP Reddish-orange chest buttons. Grey gloves & boots.
- PBP (Meccano exclusive) Orange chest buttons. Blue-grey gloves & boots.
- PBP (Meccano exclusive) Orange chest buttons. Grey gloves & boots.
After a shorter run with Unitoy in Hong Kong, Kenner leased this mould to Spain for their production run of the TIE Fighter Pilot.
Numbers of intact PBP TFP mocs are low, however from what’s survived we know the earliest release is a 65 back offerless card. Subsequent to that, there’s a 65 back offer/black text PBP card which features the AT-AT emblems. It’s not known why PBP chose to use the alternate stamp, however possible theories could be a factory error (inadvertently mixing up the stamps), or some kind of detrimental damage to the original TFP stamp.
Each helmet and shoulder emblem is applied separately, so it’s not unusual to find asymmetrical emblem positions. The PBP figure has larger helmet emblems compared to the Kenner counterpart.
The chest buttons also varied in batches between orange and a reddish-orange, plus the gloves and boots can be found in either a grey or blue-grey colour.
French Meccano Trilogo: A later PBP release of the TFP was exported to Meccano in France and released on their French Trilogo cardbacks. The large emblems on this later batch were always positioned closer to the centre spine of the helmet. An interesting point to note is that all of the PBP COO iterations have been also found on the Meccano figure. This suggests the Meccano figure parts are exactly the same as the parts used throughout the PBP production run, with the paint application occurring at a later stage when the Meccano order was placed.
ACCESSORY: M1 PBP Light Grey Pilot Blaster
LILI LEDY
LILI LEDY SCARRED NO COO
Above you can see following figure and accessory combination:
Scarred no COO Orange chest buttons. Purple-grey gloves & boots.
After PBP’s production run in Spain, Kenner then leased this mould to Lili Ledy in Mexico for their production run of the TIE Fighter Pilot.
Lili Ledy continued TFP production where the Spanish had stopped. There wasn’t any attempt to alter or remove the temporary filler over the COO. This was the end of the line for this mould family.
ACCESSORY: M6 Lili Ledy Black Jawa Blaster
Left leg: “MADE IN (raised bar) CHINA”
The mould which was used in the Kader China factory was brand new and hadn’t featured in the production run till this point. Kader China debuted on Kenner 65C cardbacks and continued through to at least the 79A cardback.
Originally stamped with a unique “MADE IN HONG KONG” COO, the HONG KONG section of text was milled out to form a blank raised bar, which was stamped with “CHINA”.
The torso is virtually identical to both of the other mould families, however the limbs feature some minor differences. Most notably a fold in the fabric on the rear of the right leg which can be seen in the comparison detail below.
ACCESSORY: M3 Kader China Light Grey Pilot Blaster
DON’T RELY ON JUST THE COO TO IDENTIFY A FIGURE. Mould, paint colour, plastic colour and figure assembly traits are also needed to confirm your figure’s origins.
Right leg: “MADE IN HONG KONG” or smoothed over No COO
Strap indent to upper right hand of aspirator tube. This is found on only 1 of the 2 cavities in the steel mould. Both mould variations are found in even numbers.
Coos were accidentally stamped into the FRONT of the leg moulds. Due to the expense in creating new moulds, the incorrect stamps were filled in. There is a partial outline of the existing “MADE IN HONG KONG” and on the opposite leg, some dotting and remnants from the removed date stamp.
Right leg: Unitoy “MADE IN HONG KONG” > PBP/ Meccano/ Lili Ledy: Scarred and filled in COO
Raised boot TFP. Here there were also 2 cavities for the legs within the Fam.2 steel mould, and it turns out the heel height differs slightly between them. Both mould variations are found in even numbers.
PBP: After a shorter HK run, this was the mould that was distributed around the world to Spain and Mexico. PBP were producing TFP figures prior to Lili Ledy. PBP TFP can be found with RED & ORANGE button variations
French Meccano Trilogo: The torso & limb plastic is consistent with PBP produced parts. This figure is found with ORANGE chest buttons and larger emblems on the helmet..
Lili Ledy: I believe this was the end of the line for this mould family. There are Lili Ledy TFP examples with signs of raised pitting in the plastic, suggesting the beryllium had begun to degrade and would have been due for replacement had the SW line not ended anyway.
Left leg: “MADE IN (raised bar) CHINA”
Odd COO stamp. This Kader “MADE IN HONG KONG” coo was never used in production before being milled out then stamped CHINA. Why did Kader HK have unused expensive moulds on hand, but never put them to use? Suggestions welcomed here too.
The torso is virtually identical to both of the other mould families, however the limbs feature some minor differences. Most notably a fold in the fabric on the rear of the right leg.
