Important Note!

A Brief Note On Plastic Colour

Several figures in the Star Wars line can be found with numerous plastic colour variations along side paint colour variations, Luke Skywalker in Bespin Fatigues does not really fall into this category as his entire body (torso & limbs) are the same colour, tan brown. To my knowledge there is no true variation of this or at least not to a point were it would be significant enough to class as a unique variation (an example of another figure where this would be relevant would be Boba Fett with his numerous shades of blue plastic). Bespin Luke can however be found with several skin/flesh tones concerning his head, the vast majority of these are once again, usually specific to the COO family that they are found on, and rarely pose the opportunity to add countless extra figures to the collections, but again, it wouldn’t be a complete overview if everything wasn’t covered. Below is a photo of several of the more common skin/flesh tones found in the plastic of Luke’s head:

A Brief Note On Things To Avoid

If there is one thing in the Star Wars collecting world that has caused more arguments and discussions across the boards, then it is probably the question of Discolouation vs. Variation.

There are a few things to be mindful of when buying Bespin Luke figures concerning discolouration and degradation which I will briefly outline here.

Firstly, the hands can discolour, the primary candidates for this are the pinker, thicker paints more commonly used on members of the HK Small family of figures, below is two example of discoloured hands:

It may seem silly to point it out as it appears so obvious, but we were all beginners at one point in the collecting game and have probably all been duped by some rouge seller claiming he had a ‘rare’ yellow handed Luke or something at some point before we gained an appreciation for degradation and such. To be clear, there is no yellow handed Luke!

Next, probably the most common discoloured feature of Bespin Luke that people claim as a variation, Green Boots. They don’t exist simple as, this also applies to ‘odd boots’ Lukes (one green, one brown) do not fall victim to this, sometimes you have to ask your self a simple commonsense question like “hey, why the Hell would some one at Kenner make the decision to paint his boots green for Christ’s sake!” Below is an example of the ‘green’ discolouration process beginning:

And below is a Photo of the green discolouration at it's absolutely peek, a fine example courtesy of Dr. Dengar, cheers for that Marco, much appreciated.

The sienna colour boots are the most susceptible to this greening process, but it can also happen to the chocolate boots and dark brown boots as well, but the green is less noticeable due to the dark colour of the brown.

It should be breifly mentiond also that there are, although rarely, some claims of a white haired Luke, I have no picture example to provide, but this is also a none variant and a result of the yeloow haired HK Small figures hair fading, so be mindful of this also.

As with the boots, there is no such thing as odd limbs either! A common feature on Bespin Luke is, like many figures, fading of the limbs, infact in some respects it can actually be quite difficult to find a good Bespin Luke with no fading of the limbs at all. The point is the figure was intended and left the factory with limbs which matched the torso in all cases, so if they have faded limbs, by all means buy them, as like I said before it’s getting to find them without, but just don’t be fooled into believing that they are variations. Below is two examples of figures with random faded odd limbs (sorry for the pic’ quality, it didn’t show up to well)

Finally, the one which winds me up considerably! The Translucent head Luke. Please understand that this is NOT a variation! There is NO Translucent head Luke!

The Translucent head Luke is a transformant, the plastic has degraded in exactly the same way as the limbs when they fade.

This particular occurrence is almost 100% exclusive to one specific figure, and that is the brown haired MIHK figure. The reason for this is that this specific figure appears to have been exclusively a baggie figure (I’ve seen a handful of questionable carded examples). The problem with baggie figures is that because the figure is sealed in the baggie which houses it closely, the figure tends to stew in the plastic chemicals it gives off, and as a result begins to discolour. The vast majority of ‘translucent’ head Luke’s also have faded limbs, which should once again set the alarm bells ringing.

The problem is that people always sell these as ‘rare’ and people seem to love paying a lot for them. The fact is that, it is absolutely no different what so ever from me saying “here buy this ‘rare’ yellow Stormtrooper”!

By all means, if you want the figure as a curiosity and accept the fact that it is degraded, then pay what ever your happy with, but don’t be duped into thinking it’s a variation.

If however after reading all this, a ‘Translucent Head’ Luke is still high on your ‘variation’ wants list, then perhaps I can interest you in this ultra rare ‘Invisible Head’ Luke for the bargain price of $100. PM me

Very Happy

Right, that pretty much sums up everything involving colour, thanks for reading

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the next chapter will discuss Sculpt