Pre-production, Q.C Sign Offs & Internal Samples
Frank Mewes
Chihuahua
Chihuahua
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Photo Courtesy of Charles Jones
Rather the rare find this, a Q.C sign off Palitoy Survival Kit mailer & I think the sole baggie related Palitoy Q.C piece I have seen.
The first of a total of 4 known examples of Multi Packs with this signature (more details of the signature coming I hope) but it is a confirmed Q.C sign off, all 4 examples have the same signature & all also sport the same red text, 3 are brown box SW era & the 4th is a white box cantina pack but again the same era.
Second example & obviously one of my fave packs having been the only one ever issued with the Power Droid.
Third example, again what a cracking line up of figures.
4th one is the cantina red text 2 pack, which see’s the 4 confirmed examples now all shown on the guide at long last.
All the Red signatures are Ken Collins who was a known Q.C guy at Kenner.
Courtesy of Broc Walker
QC Sign off ESB 4 pack, Q.C signature is Don Huber who was a well known Q.C signer.
QC Sign off ESB 4 pack – full details on this 4 pack in the ESB Multipack section.
The above ESB Q.C pack shown both open & just the box (same pack code 38932).
“U.I.” which is abbreviated from Universal Industries (Unitoy) who was a Hong Kong based vendor.
Signature “suspected” to be Mike Carroll who was a known Kenner employee, but we know nothing more about him sadly.
Several more ESB era Q.C sign off packs, I can not 100% confirm each ones authenticity as that is not my focus area, Signature is throught to be John Kraus who was a known Q.C signer.
Photo Courtesy of Darrell Johnson & Brendi Burton
J slots Rocket Firing Fett – This awesome piece turned up last year & amazed everyone, it’s J slots Rocket Firing Fett with no text baggie & mailer box (internal sample).
Unpainted General Veers in ESB-d baggie (internal sample).
1st shot Luke Hoth in ESB-d.
CCP is ESB-d baggie, assumed to be a photo sample example with weapon cast in non standard colours (black as opposed to grey) also note the pistol is a factory error (short shot) I was mortified when I missed out on this example when it went to auction a number of years ago, assumed to be a standard production figure.
First shot General Veers (At-At Commander) sorry for the poor photos, but they are the best I have.
First shot Luke Hoth, sadly again rather poor quality images but all I have.
1st shot Emperor Kenner mailer
Q.C Sign of Survival Kit signed off by Don Huber, Photo Courtesy of Mark Huber
Q.C sign off Anakin.
Q.C Sample Logray ESB-h baggie
We believe all the above were some form of internal Kenner sample baggies found after the death of Jeanne Yvonne Sexton. who worked for Kenner for over 30 years. we can’t be certain, but we “think” that she worked in the shipping department (‘shipping’ – unknown capacity), with some background checking she passed in 1994 at age 65 in Hamilton County, Ohio.
All the baggies were found & subsequently sold by her grandson, 2 of the above Q.C sign off multi packs were also discovered in the find after her death, all were no text baggies with some very unusual frosted scotch tape securing them, there were multiple baggie types & some were not even sealed, one (Klaatu) was just held together with an elastic band, we can not confirm if they were taped in house at Kenner or at a later point to keep the figures secured, a very unusual find & very much each baggie is a one of a kind / worlds only known example.
ESB toy fair sample stand – this came with 6 figures & all in SW-a small font baggies, it is speculated several other examples exist with all ESB-c baggies which are said to be sales man samples, the stand never made it to production in the end.
These were all discovered in a single find back in the 90’s, I have been trying to piece the puzzle together for many years & get them all documented, but to date these are the only ones I have images for, I am still trying to gather more background on the find as well as further images, this is all we have to go on at this time.
It is however confirmed that there were a total of 42 of these QC sign off samples, sadly I have no idea if there were any duplicates or which other figures & items were in the ones missing from what’s shown below.
These were obtained by Joe Y as a lot direct from a Hasbro worker, mostly ESB through to POTF but also a few SW era ones which were all signed off in the Jedi era.
ESB-c Barada
Euro-a Chief Chirpa
Euro-a Chewbacca
Euro-i Biker Scout
What looks to be a plain Ziplock baggie & the 1st of these I have seen like it, but these never came in baggies so that makes sense,
Euro-a Macau Hoth Trooper
Euro-a Rebel Commando & the first photo were we can actually have a look at the card in full.
Signed Q.C sample. Palitoy-i Yak Face Staff – Quite the exciting piece this & a bit of a missing link / void in previous thinking filler, a Q.C sign of card with Yak staff issued to Palitoy to confirm going forward of the 10/06/85 that any carded yak face figures should have the staff included, this also seems to stretch over to baggies, interestingly this time in a Palitoy-i baggie which was the same baggie type Palitoy issued yak faces have been found in, suspected ex Woolies 99p 8 pack stock / dead stock / overstock, Note than most POTF era Palitoy baggies are not yet covered in the guide(s).
Euro-a Chewbacca
Euro-a 2-1B
Euro-a Leia Boushh
Euro-a Admiral Ackbar
Euro-a AT-AT Commander
Special thanks to these contributors for their knowledge and image contributions:
Laurence Dyer, Arnaud Heyser, Andrew Neo, AJ, Snaggletooth, Kevin Bletsoe, Brett Meyer, DEL, Gary Borbidge, Edd Grant, Chris Eddleman, Vince Hely, Nathan Maunder, Jamie Woollard, Niels Pit, Andrew MacLachlan, cantina_patron, Franck Gadal, Joe, Richard Temple, Sven Schneider, Steve Savory, Shane Carter, Chris Fawcett, Andy Clarke, psybertech, Jake Neilheisel, Alex Pardi, Marc Caraway, Spookedhippy, Frank Ferro, James Body, Jonathan Freeman, Grant Criddle, Chris Arbizzani, RobbieZombbie, Narayan S. Naik, Mark Yeo, SHAWN_K, Andy Raymond, MOMIKE, theguiltyone, Sublevel Studios, Mike Silver, Mr Palitoy, Ronny Anngren, Willem-Jan Bos, Robert Heron, Darren H, REBELALLIANCE, Uncle Ron, LandoSkiff (Dan), Mike Horn, Pat O’Brien, Benjamin, Samir Krim, Pete Fizke, Final Frontier, Mike Heel, MR KENNER, John Kellerman, Paul Naylor, Matthieu Barthelemy, Stéphane Faucourt, Yogi, Chris Simmons, Stormtrooper37, Thomas Derby, Todd G, Sheldon Wagstaffe, Derek Ho, Broc Walker, Adam Marks, James Gallo, Charles Jones, Darrell Johnson & Brendi Burton, Christian Somma, Johnpaul Ragusa, Jesse Cedar Soberman, Dorothée Drouin, Dennis Hall, Javier Ruilopez, Enric Rovira, Matthew Carlise, Stephen Tzaras.
Photos in the guide galleries below are compiled from a number of photo sources. It’s not been possible to find credits for each one, however, if you own one of the featured images and want to have your credit added, or don’t wish to have your photo included, please let me know and I’ll arrange.
Thanks, Chihuahua.
