Short Pour & Factory Error Figures

Come on dude, two left arms!!!

Crap, it is two left arms. By the way Alex you should have a pm.

Great thread Chris, great idea. Nice to see all these errors under one roof. I've always been a fan of errors, just because they are interesting figures to have, but there is a dark side to them the same as there is with everything these days    Here are a few from my collection.


Probably the most common error that turns up is paint errors, usually the lack of a specific application.






The chance are that if you have a reasonably sized Star Wars collection, then you very well may have a a couple of factory errors that you have never even noticed before. The two figure above had been in my collection for years before I even noticed the tiny errors, tiny, but errors all the same.



Another form of paint error, is spray mask errors, these usually come in the form of scruffy looking overspray, when the mask has not been attached correctly, how ever sometimes this can produce interesting effects.


The figure on the left has an interesting error. Typically spray masks are like clamps or tongs, where the part is placed into it a shaped plate on the end of the tongs with a cavity to fit the part in but with cut aways leaving the areas that need to be painted exposed. When the tongs are clamped together the part is held in place and then the paint is simply sprayed over using an air brush, the result is that once released from the tongs, only the exposed part will be painted. In the case of Luke's left leg, we definately know that there was two different masks used, one for the belt part, one for the saber, this can be seen in my first pic where the belt part is missing and the saber hilt is painted, I've also seen an MOC with this same error. a year or so ago on ebay in Australia I saw a Luke with the belt painted and the saber hilt unpainted which again shows the two different masks used, this figure would be in my collection now if it wasn't for a certain Aussie James forgetting to bid on it for me!!!!!! DAMN you AJ, you still owe me for that!  
This example must have had the part move before the clamp was closed so only half the saber got the paint. The other example is just a case of sloppy overspray.



This is an interesting spray issue, it's basically overspray, but in this example it actually adds a bit of character to the face in my opinion, kind of creates shadows down his nose and on his eye brows, giving him a more 3D and realistic look. Below is a comparison to how the average Snaggletooth looks. The Bossk on the other hand not so good, the PBP 'fat lips' looks like he's wearing lipstick, this one looks like he's wearing lipstick and applied it in the dark while pissed!  






If you look closely at the COO you can see the slightly raised area where the Hong Kong stamp was removed which shows that this was actually the No COO European Luke and it was just the 1980 L.F.L. that didn't get filled with plastic.






Now it's important to note that short legs are NOT short pours. I have seen it said several times in this thread. A short shot or pour is the result of not enough plastic been injected into the mould, or in some cases, the plastic is restricted by a foreign body or dirt. When a leg or limb is too short this is the result of shrinkage. How this happens, I'm not entirely sure, but the general assumption is due to cooling to fast or been removed from the mould to quickly which has been mentioned already. The major difference is that these small limbs still have all the detail because the entire mould cavity was filled with plastic, but at some stage the limbs shrunk, so it is smaller but still complete, short shots are not complete, they are missing something. Essentially though it is still a kind of error, because it's most likely the result of a production error for example removing it from the mould to quickly if that is the cause. Another similar thing is the depression that can sometimes be found on the torso of figures, this is always in the place where the internal connecting rod and socket are within the torso, so most likely a sonic welding issue.




These guys I'm not entirely sure about, like I said earlier, there is a dark side to everything and so unfortunately some factory errors are certainly the result of fakes. The 4 figures here are not necessarily faked but I'm just not sure about them.

The DSC is missing it's entire chest emblem, now one thing that always stands out to me as dodgy is when an error is missing two things or has two errors on the one figure for example, both hands unpainted. thousands of figure where produced each day so it stands to reason that some are going to miss things, but for one figure to miss two things.... the odds become stacked. The DSC looks pretty clean but on a close inspection you can see a small mark on the chest in the place where the emblem was which could have been caused by it's removal.


If you look at my other two DSC's which are missing the red, you can see that the blue is perfect, removing the red without damaging the blue would be damn near impossible.


The Imperial Commander is missing the red from his emblem, Now the figure it's self is not in the best condition, so it could be wear, however there is now evidence of red anywhere even under the looking glass and the surface is not flat, so to remove the red and not effect the silver to much would be very difficult, especially as metallic paints are the easiest to damage. The chances are that this figure never had the red applied but it's hard to say because of the overall condition.


The AT-AT commander is missing all the paint from the torso front, the problem here is that there was red and silver paint, so it managed to miss two different spray applications, like I said before, the odds are stacked against this so it automatically has the alarm bells ringing. The belt buckle has a tiny light spot in one of the grooves which is difficult to identify, even under the looking glass, could be a tiny flake of silver paint but also looks like a tiny nik in the plastic. The silver paint on the back torso on the clips at the top of the armour is still present. The details in the plastic where the paint should be would always make it difficult to remove so it's tough to say really, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but the 'missing two' is a red flag for me.


Finally the AT0AT Driver, he is missing his helmet emblems, these can be removed with ease of cause so it's difficult to say. The figure it's self is a bit of an anomolie it's self, unusually glossy black paint, lots of overspray, melt marks etc. an odd one, but again, so easy to fake it's difficult to say.


It's worth mentioning that all the 4 figures above where not advertised as 'factory errors' with none of the faults pointed out, which does add a small amount of credibility to them, if you where going to fake somethingm then usually it would be for financial gain, so worth mentioning when selling.


The non sonic welded figures When the figures are assembled they 'snap' together via a rod and socket inside the body, this is quite a tight fit and will hold, so a figure could quite easily miss the sonic welding process and not flag up because it would stay together. The several MOC examples that exist with collapsed figures inside are testament to this.


This Boba Fett was one such example of a figure that was not sonic welded, the seem around the torso is evidence of this as it is noticeably separated, how ever who ever grew up with this figure at some stage glued it together, this can be seen by the frosting under one of the arms, similar to that created by super glue.


Thankfully, who ever glued this together never glued the rocket in so both the rocket and the internal rocket slot have zero melt marks due to the fact the weld was not done making this one of only a handful of Tri-Logo Fett's with a removable rocket on Earth The original seller missed this too and it only cost me £40  which is about £600 than the last one that I saw sell for

Fantastic write up giving a splendid overview, Alex!!!

I think we should integrate it with Chris' first post to get a great introduction to this thread.
And/or maybe bribe the Librarian to make it a library article.

I had the honour to see your non sonic welded Trilogo Fett last year in Scarborough.
There are unconfirmed rumours a historic picture was taken that day with another Fett. I wish that rumour was true and that one day that picture would surface. .

Dr. Dengar wrote:I had the honour to see your non sonic welded Trilogo Fett last year in Scarborough.
There are unconfirmed rumours a historic picture was taken that day with another Fett. I wish that rumour was true and that one day that picture would surface.

Ah yes, I remember the one

So the rumours are true........

Lili Ledy and Trilogo Fett.

Probably the only picture of these two famous factory error Fetts standing next to each other.

This is as great write up Alex. Like you I would be skeptical of the figures that have multiple things missing (unless they are from overstock finds I.e. Ledy)
It would be near impossible for a figure to miss multiple spray mask.

Excellent overview and explanations of what leads to different factory errors Alex

Thank you for clarifying the difference between a short pour and a short limb . I had brought up the cooling error theory when I posted my pin head Lando because I was thinking it wasn't the result of a short pour but was caused by something else . Would you say his small head is the result of the head being pulled too soon from the mold and then shrinking ?

Some fantastic posts to this section recently, I really love those Vader paint errors
An awesome write up Alex, its good to have you back posting again buddy

dr dengar wrote:
I think we should integrate it with Chris' first post to get a great introduction to this thread.
And/or maybe bribe the Librarian to make it a library article. Very Happy

I agree Marco, Alex's post should be added to the top of the thread, or we extract the info from this thread and re structure it for a Library entry.
great stuff guys

Yes I agree - Alex's post would be a excellent lead in for a Library entry and then we can organize , group together and add all the various errors that have been shown here for future reference

Alex, that was a fantastic write up.

His mascara is running.

some great new additions . Nicolas that poch leia is Awesome ,
James that x wing luke is hilarious mascara is running lol good one
84th those are some great snaggles!!!

I love that at at commander

jawa.57 wrote:

Boba Fett paint error :

What is the error? Is that a string around neck?

why is the string there ?