Buckle & Hips

Buckle & Hip

Probably the most significant of the ‘insignificant’ paint variations is the spray applications of the buckle and hip of Bespin Luke. But first a minor detail. The black paint used on the belt can be found either with a shiny glossy finish or a dull matte finish, this can be found on all sculpt types as shown below.

First sculpt

Second Sculpt

Most of the figure variations stick to one specific type, but some can be found with both. HK Large are always glossy, HK Small can be found with either, MIHK are glossy, MIHK Smoothed are glossy, MIHK China baggie figures are matte, MIHK Lili Ledy are glossy, or at least something roughly along those lines.

Now there are some rather interesting variations concerning the buckle & hip paint that are incredibly significant, especially when trying to identify some of the harder to find versions of Bespin Luke.

Firstly is the painted hip and unpainted hip variation. This is reference to the small bit of paint right at the top of Luke’s left leg that goes under his torso as shown below:

This particular variation is something most notably exclusive to European Bespin Luke’s of the MIHK family. The Poch Luke with the standard MIHK COO always has an unpainted hip, all the other standard MIHK figures, blonde or brown hair, have the painted hip.

The MIHK Smoothed figures can typically be found with either. So far Bespin Luke’s with the Caramel Boots all appear to have the painted hip, while the Chocolate Boots versions all appear to have the unpainted hip. The Dark Brown matte and the Dark Brown glossy can both be found with either painted or unpainted hips. The Blonde Lili Ledy figures (MIHK Smoothed) all feature the unpainted hip.

Now while we’re on the subject of the Blonde Lili Ledy figure, it’s important to point out another significant but subtle paint variation concerning the buckle & hip, this is the connecting strip of paint between the lightsaber hilt and Luke’s belt. The blonde Ledy features the sculpt where the Lightsaber hilt is kind of floating on Luke’s leg as apposed to the sculpt where the hilt is attached to the belt. Every single figure that features the detached hilt sculpt has no tiny connecting strip of paint apart from the Blonde Ledy, he’s the only one which helps when identifying this figure. This is shown below:

Finally, one last little note on buckle & hip paint is the overspray often found on Lili Ledy Luke’s. Although not really an actual variation, it is worth mentioning as once again this can really help when identifying a genuine Lili Ledy Luke. The picture below shows a good example of this, with the overspray lines identified:

It is however important to note that although this overspray can be found on the vast majority of Lili Ledy Bespin Luke’s or at least some form of slight overspray located somewhere on the buckle paint it doesn’t necessarily appear on all of them or at least not as boldly, so be mindful of this when identifying figures as it’s not always a sure fire winner.

And that should pretty much cover everything painted on Bespin Luke, hope this helps.