I've just received a Luke with sliding saber, and it has HH on the hilt.

The only mention I can see on TIG for letters on the hilt is the Taiwan version, however my version will not rise to the surface when submerged and remains submerged.

Also Luke himself has a poor right heel casting, are their know Luke repos out there?

MightyMike wrote:

I've just received a Luke with sliding saber, and it has HH on the hilt.

The only mention I can see on TIG for letters on the hilt is the Taiwan version, however my version will not rise to the surface when submerged and remains submerged.

Also Luke himself has a poor right heel casting, are their know Luke repos out there?

Pictures would be useful to see what you mean by "poor right heel casting". However some figures do have moulding issues, such as the "short pour" where one leg is shorter than the other, if that's what you mean?
As for the saber, the letter (or letters in your case) show it's an early version. There is evidence that the sprew mold had a series of letters in the early days. Invariably they have a flat transition to the tip. The float test is SOOoo not valid for sabers, doubly so for luke ones. Congrats on having an original saber! Because no repros (afaik) mold any lettering, hence the lettered sabers tend to be quite sought after (certainly by me)

Thanks for the reply - hopefully I've managed to attach the pictures this time.

I've put the Luke saber next to Darth/Obi from my childhood (I had a habit of purposely removing the tip, so kept the theme for Luke)

Hopefully you can see the leg, appears to have extra material 'splonged' on after the moulding process

because the tip is gone its not as valuable

Need better pics of the figure, but I doubt it is a fake. More likely it has been damaged and repainted. Could be a factory issue, but I really don't think so.

As far as the saber, the early ones were lettered. There are some fakes that exist that have lettering of REV on the hilt. I have seen people scrape parts of those letters to try to pass off a repro as authentic. No original ever had REV on it, but I used paintshop just to make a quick example of what can be done with REV.



Notice the sections to the right I just used the selection tool and cut away parts of the original REV from each line. These are just examples of what can be done as there are probably more combinations and things you could do to it.

Really sorry to disagree a little with you here Bryan, but I've seen figures before with what looks like paint sprayer drip marks, including other colors, and some where the extra paint is flat which I believe is where a not-quite-dry figure fell over during the the production process. The HK factories has pretty shoddy QC.
I definitely have examples of this happening but I just can't quite put my hands on them right now.

Another reason this is what I believe is that I specifically remember having a luke farmboy with small black drips, and I tried to scratch it with my finger nails to clean it off, but it just wouldn't shift (I think I even have tried a craft knife). More recently when creating some custom models (I spliced a beater commander with a modern head from Tarkin) I use acrylic paints, but the new paint just isnt anywhere near that resilient.

If you used a magnifier you'd see brush strokes in the paint if it was repainted too - I've certainly seen that with my opticians 10x magnifier that I inspect all my acquisitions with.

I honestly think it looks like the sprayer just dripped on the figure in the factory.

That's my two Pennies worth anyway (I'm British)


Again sorry Bryan, you're my Star Wars collecting God but my inspection of these scenarios tells me it's most likely original.

That's why I said need better pics. the mark on the front of the leg appears to be protruding outward as if extra spray. This can happen via factory or custom. However the marks on the heels appear to be divets inward. this would not happen unless some obstruction was in the mold causing the plastic to not form there. It isn't a short shot I don't think, so either some obstruction prevented the plastic from getting solidly through the mold or it has been damaged afterwards. It is not logical that it could be air bubbles as this was an injection molding so air would have been pushed out by the pressure of the molding. I have just never seen this type of inward divet before so I do not believe that those marks are from the factory, but can not say with any certainty with the blurry picture that has been provided.

Hopefully this picture helps.

It is defiantly extra material on the boot heel and puttee, and it even looks like it follows the pattern a bit. I've tried to pick it off or lightly scratch it but it seems fixed. I can't see any brush marks when using a 10* lens

The peg holes seem larger than normal and quite deep (8mm), not sure if that is common..

It is a HK stamped, maybe a Friday afternoon figure rush job

And Mat8yr, shouldn't that be 'tuppence'?

Much better pic. That shows the material protruding like it is on the front of the leg and not actual divers into the plastic. Now I agree with Matt this looks like a layer of paint that was put on to thick and dried. Though I have not seen an example that was this exaggerated before, I don't see anything to indicate brush strokes from repainting. It is probable that this could leave the factory in this condition.

Thanks Bryan for your replies.
Maybe I'll replace him one day with a better finished one. One day...