Wolff
- October 25, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I: KADER
– Kader Accessories
– Kader Palitoy release
– Early Meccano release
– Kader “Green” Head
– Kader Transition
– Kader No COO
– Kader 65bk
– Kader 77bk
– Kader POTF
– Meccano
– Lili Ledy
– Lili Ledy “Imperio”
– Lili Ledy “Retorno”
– Lili Ledy “Regreso” No COO
– Lili Ledy “Transition”
– Lili Ledy “Made in Mexico”
II: UNITOY
– Unitoy “Cherry Eyes”
– Unitoy Orange Snake
– Unitoy “Apple Head”
POCH
– Poch “Grey Head”
– Poch “Apple Head”
– Accessories
– Poch Assembly
– Poch Mixed up Parts
The Yodfather
- October 25, 2020
Some figures found on the early French Miro Meccano cards were kader Yodas but they often had a cape with different fabric which had a Heavier line and a different snake that I’ve labelled a transition snake. The same cape can also be found on Smile Yodas that we’re used on the later Meccano cardbacks.
I’ve called this snake a “transition snake” as we will see it’s a transition from the earlier kader epm snake to the “no COO” EPM “snake we will see next.
You can tell the transition snake because it often has heavier flashing and is richer in colour and doesn’t tend to degrade. Kader obviously changed the material they were using for there snakes.
Like the transition snake just shown kader also changed the head plastic on there figure, The figure became more green and it doesn’t seem to degrade also. Maybe kader realised the rubber for there snakes and the plastic for there heads were perishing quickly? But this may have been to short of a time period for them to tell and just coincidence?
I’ve called this figure a “green head” again like the transition snake I feel it’s the easiest way to describe it.
Kader then seemed to change there head plastic again slightly, the head became more matte in finish and this figure became known as a “no COO” figure. You can see how close the green head figure and no coo figures are it’s only sheen that separates them.
There has been discussions in the past on this forum about which figure is on the 48c revenge offer and 65c emperor offer and the answer is it can be a “grey head” a “green” or a “no COO” figure.
One thing to note is the “green head “ figure has very fragile eye paint and is often found with paint rubs to the eyes.
So what do I mean when I say “no coo”. This is a interesting piece of the puzzle we can speculate on. We saw in my second post about the Unitoy factory that Unitoy stopped making Yodas after there 41d card back, we saw there Apple heads were there last figure.
What happened next is interesting, Kader seemed to take the Unitoy moulds and scar them creating the “no coo” mould. They also seem to stop using there original moulds for there figures. They also stopped using there EPM moulds for their accessories.
So this figure has the matte “ no coo” head of the figure we will see next but the body of the family I kader factory. These figures have EPM accessories but there different to the earlier kader accessories so again it’s easier to label them “no coo” EPM.
Here we can see a undegraded “greyhead” ,the green head transition figure and the transition no COO figure with matte head.
The “grey head” which was found on 48c revenge offer cards.
The green head transition figure with greener head and transition snake that doesn’t degrade, he is also found on 48c revenge offer cards and also 65c emperor cards.
And lastly the transition no COO figure with matte head and EPM no coo accessories, He is probably found mainly on 65 emperor offer.
And can have a mix of Kader no coo/no coo EPM accessories and Unitoy accessories.
After this we see the POTF figures from Kader.
Again using the scarred Unitoy figure and Unitoy canes, belts and cloaks and Kaders “no COO“ snake.
This particular figure also got Unitoys darker cloak.
Again some people say the paint variation is just how thickly the paint is applied which I feel is the case in some figures.
But I definitely don’t agree with this when it comes to Kader, there’s definitely brown, the common very dark brown/black and the true black eyes on the figure we will see next.
Meccano tends to have darker paint on limbs and true black paint on the eyes.
You can see on this figure the eyes are pretty round and filled in.
It’s hard buying this figure loose to make sure the cane is correct unless the seller has a side by side comparison and good photos. Buying graded is near on impossible and not recommended.
Like the evolution of the Kenner factories the Lili Ledy also followed suit by changing to paceman eyes and a darker head. Generally the limbs are darker then the Retorno figure but can vary from batch to batch.
These figures are sometimes called “cherry eyes” as they have a deeper colour red paint on there eyes compared to other orange snakes.
They also came with a HK label in there cloak, this stopped at some point as they obviously deemed it an unnecessary expense for production.
Some “cherry eyes” don’t have the label and Unitoys later figures also don’t have the label.
“Cherry eyes” cape with HK label
It also has the same brighter green head colour when compared to smiles orange snake figures.
All Unitoy figures are brighter in colour when compared.
So we have cherry on 32b and a orange snake on 41a.
It’s also worth noting that the limbs of the cherry eyes figures can have a iridescent quality too.
All iridescent paint on star wars figures washes off apparently.
This snake unlike the Smile figures was rigid like there orange snake and still has the gate in its mouth.
There are three main figures found in Spain, poch grey head , poch Apple head and lili Ledy/pbp regreso found on the 65 back cards.
The grey head is based on overstock Kader parts and the Apple head is based on unitoy overstock parts.
So one of the main differences between the two figures is the use of pochs own paint
The paint is often called “pistachio” in colour.
The paint is lighter and more muted then kenner factory’s colours.
Again with these two figure it’s the paint that stands out having that unique “pistachio” colour.
There often lightly oversprayed on the bottom compared to the thickly applied kenner.
Some people may have noticed the Apple poch pictured has a Kader EPM snake
Poch can have mixed accesories so Kader grey head or unitoy apple heads can be found with Kader or unitoy accessories mixed up. Unitoy rigid snake can be found on both Apple and grey heads.
This is a certain sign the figure is poch.
Kader body poch do not have this and are often not as heavily marked.
The over more complex component is mixing of limbs and paint. We can see the poch grey head on the left has Kader limbs and Kader body painted in Poch paint.
The figure in the left has a Unitoy body, Unitoy limbs painted in the Kenner Unitoy factory paint.
So the limbs would have been painted overstock sent to Spain and assembled
Kader limbs in poch paint left, overstock Unitoy limbs in Kenner unitoy paint right.
Painted poch Painted figure left mixed overstock figure right with unitoy body.
Kader Poch painted limbs left, Unitoy Poch painted limbs right.
So to show how mixed up these figures can get…
This is a Apple head mixed parts. The head is unitoy, the body is Kader, the left arm is Kader in poch, paint the right arm is Unitoy in Poch paint. The left foot is Kader in Poch paint ,the right foot is Unitoy in Unitoy paint!!!!!!!
So the limbs and head/ torso can all be mixed ups and a figure can be found with a mix of Kenner or Poch paint.
The belts were also supplied as overstock painted or unpainted so some have kenner supplied paint or some were painted by poch.
Unitoy Poch painted left you can see the badly applied dull silver paint.
The unitoy factory painted on the right you can see is better applied and brighter.
There are some subtle differences on the moulds of each family, most noticeable are the belts for the robes and the size of the feet. Family I belts hang vertically parallel and the feet are shorter, family II and III belts hang splayed and there feet are longer, family II belts have a more visible rope twist.
41d is where we see the first “brown snake” or “pacman” eyes figure from Smile.
It’s also where Unitoy changed there figure too.
There was possibly complaints from Lucasfilm about the fact that yoda had orange eyes and a bright orange snake.
Both Unitoy and Smile make similar changes to there figures. They both give them dark pacman eyes, they both change there snakes to brown, darken there heads and darken there canes.
