A GUIDE TO VINTAGE STAR WARS FIGURES & ACCESSORIES

Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DON’T RELY ON JUST THE COO TO IDENTIFY A FIGURE. Sculpt, Paint colour, plastic colour and figure assembly traits are also needed to confirm your figure’s origins.

FIGURE GUIDE:
OVERVIEW

Above you can see a group shot of nearly all important vintage Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi variants. First row is Unitoy Fam.I, second row is Unitoy Fam.II, and Lili Ledy, third row is Kader Fam.III plus POCH. I will go into deeper detail each group below:

COO Family I:

UNITOY/ POCH

Above you can see the following white hair variants from the COO Fam.I (left to right):

  • UNIITOY with pale brown eyes and light greyish hair, which is assumed to be the earliest UNITOY figure.
  • UNITOY with brown eyes and white hair is also one of the early figures produced.
  • UNITOY with black eyes, white hair and pinkish hands is produced midterm and is the latest white hair with Fam I COO (compare to grey hair below).
  • UNITOY with black eyes, dark white hair and pinkish hand. He seems to be produced after the first two Bens in that row.

The first 4 UNITOY figures can be considered as early produced. Their UV fluorescence helps identifying more early and later early figures. Unitoy changed from lettered M1 to flat tip transition M2 already on 12C-back.

Above you can see the following grey hair variants from the COO Fam.I (left to right):

  • UNIITOY with black eyes and light grey hair, which is assumed to be also one of the earliest UNITOY figures.
  • UNITOY with large black eyes and dark grey is the latest of all Fam.I produced figures.

Their UV fluorescence helps identifying early and later figures. All of the figures above came with a M2 or M3 lightsaber.

COO Family II:

UNITOY / LILI LEDY

Above you can see the following grey hair variants from the COO Fam.II (left to right):

  • UNITOY with black eyes, light grey hair and pale hands
  • UNITOY with dark brown eyes, grey hair and pink hands

Their UV fluorescence helps identifying more early and later early figures. In this case these are both later figures. UNITOY Fam.II came after Fam.I. UNITOY  changed from M2 to the later “thin tip, flat transition” M3 (21-back). So the figures shown above came with M2 or M3 sabers.

Above you can see following grey hair variants form the COO Fam.II with No COO (left to right):

  • UNITOY with black eyes, dark grey hair and yellowish hands. The pale face present occurs from degradation of the plastic.
  • UNITOY with black eyes, dark grey hair and flesh hands. The face is lighter produced.
  • UNITOY with black eyes,  grey hair and pinkish hands. The face has a more fleshier tone.
  • LILY LEDY with brown eyes, dark grey hair, pink hands and large head sculpt. There is three different head moulds present to the LILI LEDY version (see also: Colour Comparison below).
  • LILY LEDY with pale brown eyes, dark grey hair, pink hands and medium head sculpt.
  • LILY LEDY with pale brown eyes, dark grey hair, pink hands and small head sculpt.

Their UV fluorescence helps identifying UNITOY and LILI LEDY figures. The figures shown above came most likely with a M3 saber, but M2 is also possible.  The LILI LEDY figures came with their resident M9 sabers.

COO Family III:

KADER / POCH

Above you can see following white hair variants form the COO Fam.III (left to right):

  • KADER with pale brown eyes, bright white hair and beige hands. He is assumed to be the earliest KADER figure that came with a smooth cape (untextured) and sometimes a DT saber.
  • KADER with black eyes, bright white hair and pink hands. An early figure but came clearly after the figure mentioned above.
  • KADER with dull black eyes, bright white hair and beige hands. The so called “Lincoln Beard” versions are factory errors. The beard from Ben Kenobi was made out of two overlaying spray masks. If the second one was forgotten the beard appeared like this.
  • POCH with dull black eyes, bright white hair and pale hands. The POCH version stands out through his unique UV fluorescence and black paint: It’s more glossy and thinner sprayed. The pale hands are the additional unique feature.

Their UV fluorescence helps identifying early produced KADER figures and also to determine POCH eventually. These Kader figures can be considered as early produced and are more likely to come with “lettered” lightsaber M1. KADER changed from M1 to M5 around 12C-back. So the later ones of those surely came already with M5 sabers.

Above you can see following grey hair variants form the COO Fam.III (left to right):

  • POCH with black eyes, light grey hair and pale hands. It is a mixed figure obviously regarding the UV fluorescence.
  • KADER with dull black eyes, medium grey hair and pale flesh hands. An early figure but probably came after the white hair figures mentioned the picture before.
  • KADER with dull black eyes, blueish grey hair and flesh hands. A later KADER figure with changed spray mask to the eyes. It appeared shortly before the change to No COO.
  • KADER with dull black eyes, yellowish grey hair and flesh hands. A later KADER figure with changed spray mask to the eyes. It appeared shortly before the change to No COO.
  • KADER with dull black eyes, blueish grey hair and flesh hands. The so called “Lincoln Beard” versions are factory errors. The beard from Ben Kenobi was made out of two overlaying spray masks. If the second one was forgotten the beard appeared like this.

Their UV fluorescence helps identifying early and later produced KADER figures and also to determine POCH eventually. These Kader figures can be considered as midterm till later produced and are more likely to come with round tip transition saber M5.

Above you can see following grey hair variants form the COO Fam III with No COO (left to right):

  • KADER with dull black eyes, yellowish grey hair and flesh hands.
  • KADER with dull black eyes, blueish grey hair and flesh hands.
  • KADER with black eyes, bright white hair and light flesh hands plus dull black collar.
  • KADER with black eyes, bright white hair and pinkishhands plus glossy black collar.

 

Their UV fluorescence helps indentifying them as late prodcued KADER figures. In fact these both appeared also on Trilogo cards. The difference in paint, spray mask to face, UV fluorescence as the difference in the given sabers might make them produced in two different locations as well. However the two figures to left with grey hair appeared with round tip transition saber M5 whereas two white hair versions to the right appeared with M5 or M6 sabers.

Colour comparisons

Colour comparison of hair colours for Family I, II and III

Please note that the figures appear in the same sequence they appeared above on the pictures. It starts with white hair UNITOY Fam.I figures followed by grey haired figures. Same on the UNITOY Fam.II figures including the LILI LEDY figures. Please note the different head moulds on LILI LEDY: Large, medium and small. 

The KADER Fam.III is split into rows with white and grey hair. POCH and No COO figures are marked and can be filtered easily.

As you can see there are many shades of white or of greyish hair colours. A simple classification in “white” or “grey” hair Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi is common around collectors but not constructive at all.