The Palitoy Star Wars Action Figure Scam

In December 2013 a seemingly innocent forum discussion on carded Vinyl Caped Jawa figures quickly turned into something much more sinister when a UK toy dealer, Jason, inadvertently reveals that another dealer, Toni, bought a huge stock (approx. 25,000) General Mills 45 back & Palitoy Star Wars backing cards, as well as sealed cases of MOC Boba Fetts, and Hoth Stormtroopers from the Palitoy factory in the UK when it closed down, and that he had been using these to make up MOC, Mint On Card, vintage figures.

This is confirm by a couple of other dealers and a few collectors who had heard similar rumours or knew about this happening.

Toni at this stage comes on to the forums and gives an account of what happened, saying that he hadn’t really had much to do with Mr A, and only bought a few bits off him, no card backs, and puts it down to a fabrication by Jason. It calms things down a little and the heat turns back onto Jason for a while.

However it is soon discovered that Mr A and Toni were actually partners.

Toni denies this by explaining that he only helped Mr A in setting an internet company as Mr A wasn't aware of how to do this.

It is at this a few of the hardcore, respected and savvy collectors start scrutinizing their figures.

Soon a pattern of common anomalies begins to become apparent and also previous anomalies of odd figures being sealed on the wrong cards, or with the wrong bubbles begins to make sense if figures were being randomly sealed on mint backing cards.

One of the forum members then mentions a second eBay account that Toni has been using to buy loose, mint figures.

Close examination of this “buy” account showed that it closely matched his “sales” account and it is also revealed that the secondary account’s name (the buy account) had had its name changed 30 times prior to this.

Soon after this revelation, the account details were made private and hidden.

By this time several forum members have posted images of the figures they had purchase from Toni and compared to genuine cards.

Jason also meets up with several of the affected collectors at FF4 and shows them the sealing process that Toni had used, with spray glue and a common household iron!

With this news things become more heated on the forums and collectors begin furiously checking their collections, many finding examples of this “resealed” figures.

Toni has since remained quiet on the subject, except for a short email he wrote to ine of the forum members to voice is dismay and regrets of the situation without any real rebuke or denial of the allegations.

It therefore seems fairly certain that most, if not all of the 45-back GM MOS figures sold by him were in fact these re-assembled figures using the loose components and second-hand loose figures.

To further add confusion to the situation many of these figures had been previously graded by both AFA and UKG.

He has since been barred from submitting any more figures for grading with either of these service, even using a third party.

A full listing of the affected figures and cards is listed below.

One of the easiest ways to check your figures authenticity is to check for the cross hatch/waffle pattern in the glue under the rim of the bubble.

This is impossible for fakers to replicate. Light scratch marks across the front of the card can be a sign of it being a recent seal.

However, the absence of a waffle pattern though does not mean it’s a fake as only the earliest figure were sealed in this way and later figures used a method of heat sealing that was generally was very smooth but this would show evidence of pressure having been applied on the back of the card.

But the presence of the waffle pattern means that your figure is 100% genuine as this pattern CANNOT be replicated by fakers.

There have also been a number of Boba Fett 45 back card fakes, which are easy to spot due to the action figure being too large for the bubble and the figure is crammed in at an angle.

Another tell-tale sign is the “V” shape marking that is left when using an iron to heat seal the bubble to the card.

Below are images of the waffle pattern, a single stem, the card code and the heat seal pressure mark, all of which you would find on an original, genuine figure.

However, the lack of a pressure mark or the waffle pattern DOES NOT mean it is a fake.

Other ways of tell are the stem sizes, clarity and position, also the absence of any price stickers or markings.

Also the Toni figures were packed “loose” in the bubbles whereas the originals were secured with a tie, also the accessories weren’t secured.

For more resources and tips on checking your fakes:

The original forum thread- http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t6544p300-the-general-mills-45-back-palitoy-non-factory-sealed-discussion

The Fake Britain episode: https://vid.me/d8mO

Mr Palitoy”s card back guide: http://www.freewebs.com/mrpalitoy/

This is the list of the known affected cards:-

Clipper ESB

• 72* Rebel Commander
• 69* Bespin Security Guard White
• 69+ Hammerhead
• 56+ Walrusman
• 11+ Dengar

General Mills ESB

• 563 Han Hoth (without english text)
• 526 Stormtrooper (without english text)
• 500* Bossk (without english text)
• 357 C3PO Removable Limbs (without english text)
• 320 AT-AT Driver (with and without english text)
• 318 Bespin Security Guard Black (with english text)
• 276 IG88 (without english text)
• 268 21B (with english text)
• 194 Han Solo (with and without english text)
• 171 R2D2 Sensorscope (without english text)
• 166 Leia Bespin (with english text)
• 162 Han Bespin (without english text)
• 138 Ben Kenobi (without english text)
• 118 Power Droid (with english text)
• 90 Cloud Car Pilot (with english text)
• 85 Yoda (without english text)
• 73* Rebel Commander (with english text)
• 70 AT-AT Commander (with english text)
• 69* Bespin Security Guard White (without english text)
• 66* Chewbacca (with english text)
• 50 Leia Hoth (with english text)
• 36 Rebel Soldier (with english text)
• 26 FX-7 (with english text)
• 25 Princess Leia (without english text)
• 11 R5D4 (with english text)

General Mills ROTJ

• 30 Cloud Car Pilot
• 6^ Imperial Tie Fighter Pilot

Palitoy ESB

• 500* Bossk (45b back)
• 264 Imperial Tie Fighter Pilot (45b back)
• 66* Chewbacca (45b back)

Palitoy ROTJ

• 1234 C3PO Removable Limbs (65d back)
• 1126 Imperial Hoth Trooper (65d back)
• 885 Luke Skywalker (45c back)
• 482 Boba Fett (45c back)
• 467 Lobot (45c back)
• 417 Death Star Droid (45c back)
• 301 21B (45c back)
• 143 Chewbacca (65d back)
• 132 Luke Bespin (45c back)
• 105 Luke Hoth (65d back)
• 86 Lando Skiff Guard (65c back)
• 81 Logray 65c back)
• 60 Squid Head (65c back)
• 47 Han Solo (45c back)
• 39 AT-AT Driver (65d back)
• 31 Gamorrean Guard (65c back)
• 30 Leia Boussh (65c back)
• 27 AT-AT Commander (45c back)
• 12 Yoda (45c back)
• 8 Cloud Car Pilot (45c back)

 *Both palitoy & clipper or german & clipper offered on toytoni.com, so a 50/50 split assumed rather than assuming all are german

+Clipper not listed, but offered on toytoni.com, no German figure offered

^Palitoy variation not known to exist, assumed to be German which does exist