Okay, I know Kenner has released high-quality vintage reproductions of Star Wars figures. But while on flea-bay I spotted a seller selling what he describes as "...vintage Star Wars rocket firing Boba Fett custom figure. Custom-made from ABS [torso, launcher and missile] and PVC [head and limbs]. Pressure-cast in the same color and type of plastic as the original prototypes were. They look, feel and work like the real thing!" Not too sure how cool it is to point to the seller's page but how is this guy doing this? Does he have a connection to manufacturing in China that can pump out small "boutique" level runs? Anyone have any clue on the cost? Or heck, why can't Lucasfilm or Kenner stop him? I mean, more power to this seller for making such cool stuff but I'm a bit baffled by where this stuff he has is coming from.
There is currently a rocket firing mail away. I'd be very cautious approaching this at custom prices.
There is the aforementioned mailaway, but there are also some very high-quality rocket Fetts that have been sold for a while. Do a search on eBay for them, they come in solid blue and translucent. You can get them for about $20-25 and I've heard they're quite nice.
Yes, I know there was a mail-away; that is what I meant by the Kenner high quality repro. But Roger is right on point. Below are pictures from one auction I found. This stuff is not fan-made dreck; this is clearly higher quality. And the missile launching mechanism is a more exact replica of the original design than Kenner's "child friendly" long missile. But my larger question is how the heck does someone go about making something like this? I mean this is no joke.
Those are serious! They must have access to the molds or something. I'm rusty on the story, but I thought one of the two mechanisms was only a prototype, so would there even BE molds for both versions?
IIRC, they did it with all new tooling based on the production (non-firing) figure. It's. Not that hard to do this, just go to China and wave money in front of someone. who doesn't care about intellectual property. It isn't cheap but I'm sure they made their money back. Check the Rebelscum forums, there is some info floating around there. The guys who did it are pariahs around there, understandably.
Thanks for the info, Roger. Did some searches online and the seller of the specific repros above is actually very respected in the Star Wars collectors communities because he sells his repros for a lot less than another seller (see below), and is 100% honest and transparent about them being repros. But there is some guy who back in 2001 started selling figures like this on eBay buy would imply they were originals (how could he do that?) and sell them for an arm and a leg and then some. That guy is reviled.
I actually own one of these, bought from the seller on eBay, and I honestly have no clue how they would have made it produced it! Oddly enough, he is very well built by my close inspection and the missile fire function actually works incredibly (considering it is essentially a bootleg). I can take closer pics tonight/tomorrow!
Didn't Kenner already do one for special mailorder? There was a dude at NYCC with a stack of them and couldn't give them away and it was painted.
That looks good. Definitely not an original mold production level piece though. All of the parts are two part molds with seams rather than a steel injection mold as the original would have been. I think the highest end modern KO's out there are for Transformers still. Those things are pretty accurate.
Yes, mentioned that. The Kenner 2010 mail-away version. But the missile launching mechanism was different than the protypes and it came with 2 missiles: The long “don’t choke on that” missile and a non-firing display missile or something like that. Here is a pick from the official Star Wars blog. I don’t like that long missile. These knock-offs are more my style. And the guy also sells painted and repro carded versions: Pictures of the painted versions below. I am just more baffled as to how this guy is able to create and sell stuff like this. I guess waving money in China works! Not complaining. But still.
The Kenner one is completely resculpted from the ground up. I wonder how the bootleggers did theirs (new sculpt or casting off an original). The bootleg seems like a very cool collectible, but the only way I could support something like this is if they had something like "repro" molded into the figure.
Continuing this conversation about injection-molded Star Wars bootlegs... In addition to what is being sold by "swindyfan" on eBay (the rocket Fetts pictured above), the same person is also selling these amazing things: https://www.facebook.com/procustomfigures Then there is "hasnotalent," who has commissioned tooling for his own Boba and R2: http://www.ebay.com/sch/chaherri/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= And from Killer Bootlegs, this interesting item: http://killerbootlegs.storenvy.com/...oducts/products/18599065-gigantic-frankenfett
^ Hasnotalent is definitely a refreshing take on vintage Star Wars customs. The colour-pops are just great. Don't know if his stuff should be called repros though. Bootlegs maybe?
Hasnotalent is now doing Vader and K2SO bootlegs, all injection molded. Pretty slick. https://www.instagram.com/hasnotalent/
I'm pretty sure you can buy those Product Names here: http://craphound.com/images/translateservererror.jpg Check out Hasnotalent's Instagram, he is now selling injection-molded copies of the Procustomfigures kit-bash Fett, in normal and scaled-up versions, as well as chrome, glow, and clear Jawas.
