The Tantive XI COO Guides - A short explanation

The Tantive XI COO Guides: Basic and Advanced Guides

In the Tantive XI Library there are two different COO Guides:

First of all we have the Basic COO Guide for those who want to learn about the major COO variations of every produced vintage Star Wars figure.
Within this guide, you will find just one representant for all existing COOs within a certain COO family.

Then we have the Advanced COO Guide for those who want to go deeper into the concept of COO Families (aka Mould Families). Here you will find every single COO variation that has been "discovered" until now. (Well, that is at least our goal for that guide! )

COO literally stands for “Country Of Origin”. But among collectors the scope of the term has a broadened meaning.
In the Tantive Guides, COO stands for the complete label which is present on a vintage Star Wars figure, so including:
1) Copyright holder: e.g. G.M.F.G.I (General Mills Fun Group Inc.), C.P.G. (Consumer Product Group) and L.F.L. (Lucas Film Limited).
2) Year of copyright: e.g. 1977, 1980, 1985.
3) Country of origin: Made in Hong Kong, Made in Taiwan, Taiwan, etc. The country label indicates the location of the factory using the first unaltered steel moulds for a certain COO family.

General order for COO/Mould Families

We have sorted the COO/Mould Families by the following general order:

• Made in Hong Kong
  
  
• Made in Taiwan OR Made in China OR Made in Macau/Macao (Only if it has it's own COO/Mould Family and not just a modified Hong Kong COO.)
  
  
• No COO (Only if it has it's own COO/Mould Family and not just a modified Hong Kong COO.)
  
  
• Made in Japan (Takara)
  
  
• Toptoys (No COO stamp at all)
  

Notes:
Always “Made in COUNTRY” before just “COUNTRY”.
If there are different families from the same country then they are sorted by their size from large XY to small XY.

Contributing to the COO Guides

In the Advanced COO Guide there are still some COO images missing. We are trying to fill those gaps asap and if you would like to help us by providing your COO pictures, this would be much appreciated! Please click on the link below, to learn how to provide good quality pictures for the Tantive Library:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

or click here to learn more about our Library and its image policy in general:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

How to use the COO Guides?

BY hovering the mouse cursor over any COO pic, it will automatically generate a zoom function, enlarging the pic for better detailing of the coo. If you click on the pic you will get an even larger view.

Some pics show licensees/brand names (like PBP or Lili Ledy) at their top right corner. If there is no brand indicated that means that this figure is a Kenner release (or that we just forgot to label it correctly ).

1-A1 - The labelling system for single COOs

For single (non-composed) COOs - meaning COOs that are located on one position - we use a 3 digit labelling system, e.g. 1-A1, 1-B2, 2-A1, etc.
The COO can be located on one leg (e.g. Luke Farmboy), on the back (e.g. Yoda) or on the bottom (e.g. FX-7).

• The number at the beginning (1-A1) indicates the figure's COO or mould family. A COO/mould family is linked to a steelmould which was used to produce figures via the process of high pressure plastic injection.
  
• The different letters (A,B,C, etc.) indicate small variations in the typography of the COOs, representing different cavities within a certain steelmould. One steelmould could for instance have cavities for two left legs. As the COOs were hammered in the steelmoulds, you can imagine small differences were obtained among the two legs in the exact position of the letters and numbers comprising the COO. These small differences are indicated with A and B (, C, D, etc.). Note that only the Advanced Guide shows each known representant of these existing small COO differences with a CCO family.
  
• The different numbers connected to the letters (A1, A2, A3) indicate subsequent rounds of steelmould alterations. Often the COOs in the original steelmould were changed during its lifetime. This was the case when steelmoulds left the original factory and were sent to another country to continue production in a different factory there. To reflect the different location of the factory, the country label of the COO was changed by either replacing it by a different country name or by leaving it blank ('no COO'). In the Tantive Guides the first unaltered steel mould is indicated with 1. So A1 and B1, represent the mould cavities in the unaltered steel mould. The first alteration is indicated with 2: A2, B2. The next alteration is indicated with 3: A3, B3 etc.
  So if the country part of a COO was modified (e.g. from HONG KONG to No COO) the number increases. So it shifts from A1 to A2 (or from B1 to B2, ...) because HK was version 1 and NoCOO is version 2.
  

We realize this might seem very complicated upon reading it the first time, but trust us you will soon get used to it, and realize how handy the system is to describe COO variants.

1-A1A1 - The labelling system for composed (two leg) COOs

For composed COOs - meaning  COOs that are located on two different leg positions -we use a 5 digit labelling system (like 1-A1A1) representing the two different legs.
An example is the Tie Fighter Pilot figure

• Again the number at the beginning (1-A1A1) indicates the figure's COO or mould family.
  
• The first letter number combination (1-A1A1) represents the left leg. On many figures there are two (or more) slightly different left leg COOs, representing different mould cavities. One of them is labelled A1 the other B1, C1, etc. This is exactly as what has been discussed before with single COOs.
  
• For composed CCos, the second letter number combination (1-A1A1) is representing the right leg. Like for the left leg, slightly different right leg COOs are labelled A1, B1, etc.
  

REMARK: Having two different left legs and two different right legs leads to four possible different leg combinations. In case of the TFP figure in COO family 1 it's 1-A1A1, 1-A1B1, 1-B1A1, and 1-B1B1. In order to keep our COO guide simple we just show two completely different combinations 1-A1A1 and 1-B1B1 (because the mixed ones 1-A1B1 and 1-B1A1 are redundant.).

Here are the pics to illustrate TFP's family 1:



Note: In the published guide we don't show the mixed combinations (1-A1B1 and so on) as mentioned before.