LUKE SKYWALKER - JEDI KNIGHT - Answers To A Few Common Questions

Over the last couple of years I have found myself answering more questions about Luke Jedi than the usual Luke Bespin, and I find in most questions it seems to be the same questions over and over again, "What saber goes with which Luke?" "Who has the blue saber?" "Who has what gun?" " Who has what cape?" etc. etc.
Now a little research here and there topped off with a bit of common sense can answer most of these question, but the impatient collector of today has no such time for these things, but here on board the Tantive XI we make the time!

Soooo...... where to start? Well I guess the best place would be to establish the three original sources from wear the figures where been produced. Like most figures, Luke Jedi was produced in several different factories in Asia, in this case three, two in Hong Kong and one in Taiwan.


So what I'll do here is go through each of the three 'families' and explain along the way....

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The figures produced at Unitoy with the 'Made in Hong Kong' COO stamp are pretty much the hardest of the 'standard' Luke Jedi figures to find. This is due to the fact that it was this mould which was sent to Mexico for Lili Ledy to use so actual production of this figure for Kenner was reasonably limited, and also seems to have only for the U.S. market.
The unique weapons for this figure are also difficult to find because of the short production run.

This figure can also be found with at least to variants concerning the hand colour, plastic colour for the head and cape colour.




The blaster is a brownish colour.


The lightsaber features the flat hilt and is a light green colour.



To my knowledge there is no evidence of this figure coming with a 'snap' cape so it's unlikely that the Unitoy factory produced this. The fabric is quite thick and fluffy compared to the other fabrics used in the other two factories as can be seen below:


The stitch on the cape was also in quite a low position and the hood generally smaller than the other capes which usually makes it difficult to display looks actual face as can be seen in the first group photo.


The cape can be found in two different colours, the standard greenish grey and a much redder cape:

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The Luke Jedi figures produced by Lili Ledy had one distinguishing feature that differs from there Kenner counterpart and that is the black eye print.


The Plastic stock used for the head is also a slightly different colour.



The blaster is grey in colour and is the same sculpt as the Kenner counterpart.


The lightsaber feature the thick hilt and is dark green. The most likely reason for the Lili Ledy lightsaber sculpt been different from the Kenner counterpart can be found here:

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On of the main variation focus points for LL Luke Jedi is the several different cape colours, brown, pinkish and green are known to exist.


The fabric used for the cape on LL Luke Jedi is also notably thinner the the Kenner fabrics:

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The figures produced at the Smile factory are some of the more abundant versions of the figure. The figures produced at Smile where also the ONLY figures to feature the infamous blue lightsaber. The Smile figures where produced for both the U.S. and European market and there are a couple of unique variations that exist for figure, blaster and lightsaber.

The figure can be found with two different face colours, flesh and pink (often referred to as sun burnt).




The blaster can be found in two different colour, greenish and brownish.



The lightsaber from the Smile factory was originally cast in blue plastic then corrected to green. It can be found in light and dark green also.




The cape fabric used at smile was not as thick or fluffy as the Unitoy fabric. It's possible that Smile issued the 'snap' cape in early production but difficult to confirm because of the numerous different ways that the capes where packed often hiding the clasp area making it impossible to tell which it is on MOC examples.

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During the later years of Jedi production, the COO marks were removed from the figures for the European market. It's most likely that the moulds were duplicated and the duplicates had the COO removed as in many cases it wasn't just the COO that changed but other elements of the mould like the head socket. Yet production continued for both the U.S. and European market which suggest a duplicated mould. The No COO Luke Jedi's usually tend to have a paler skin tone as seen below:

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The figures produced in the Taiwan factory are probably the most common of all and where produced for both the U.S. and European market. The earliest versions of the figure feature the infamous moulded face, unquestionably the best looking version of the figure. There are two notably different hair colour for the moulded face Luke, lighter and darker.



Shortly after production began, the 'very bad' decision was made to change to painted face same as all the other factories were doing.


There are two variations that exist for the painted face also, the eyes. One can be found with burgundy eyes, the other much darker.




The palace blaster from Taiwan was produced in dark grey plastic.


The lightsaber from Taiwan is similar to the smile one but it is different and also a different shade of green (Weapon comparisons shown at the end)




The 'snap' cape is definately confirmed with the early figure from Taiwan. The sown collar capes from Taiwan can be found made of a darker fabric.

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Palace blaster comparisons:




Lightsaber comparison between Smile and Taiwan, not the larger more defined buttom on the Smile saber and the prominent ejector mark on the Taiwan saber.


Thanks for reading

Another very informative thread Alex A pleasure to read mate

Outstanding work as always Alex.  I can double check that mine are matched with the correct accessories now.

That's a lovely Ledy Luke btw.

Another great article. You're the Luke "Bespin / Jedi" master. Thanks for all the hard work.

cantina patron wrote:That's a lovely Ledy Luke btw

Haha it certainly is!!! I'm tempted to give him a new home

Thanks for lending me him to me chief, I'll box him up and send back home

Cheers Alex, I'll look forward to getting him back.

Fantastic work Alex

outstanding work Alex, its obvious that you've put a lot of time and effort into this, thanks for posting it up

Superb overview article, well written, and explained with clear pictures.

Thanks for all the hard work, Alex!

Fantastic work.

Hey Andre, good to see you around here as well!

Great article. I've found myself focusing more than other characters on Luke Jedi, and am thrilled to see a couple of variations to pursue! Thank you!

great arcticle as always alex . extremely informative

Awesome work Alex.

Thank you for confirming the snap cape issue too. As a kid, I was lucky enough to get the blue saber version from a relative in England. Mine came with a sown cape. Over the years, I started to hear people claiming the snap cape came with the blue saber, a 'fact' I vehemently opposed as it didn't match my childhood figure. Good to know the truth behind it all. Cheers.

Ian

What can someone tell me about this saber?  It's either some foreign released saber or a very very high quality repro.  It floats, sounds right when dropped, and is translucent in front of flashlight.  It's on right side in the side by side and bottom of the saber group pic

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Hi chief,

If you look in the vintage discussion thread there is an article I wrote specifically about this saber.

The generally thought from the information on that thread is that the saber is a repro, probably from China in the 90's

Have a look a read and see what you think, I'd also like to know if yours matches up with my two with the mould flaws which would add further credence to this been fake.

Here is a link to the page, your input would be greatly appreciated dude

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General Kahn wrote:Hi chief,

If you look in the vintage discussion thread there is an article I wrote specifically about this saber.

The generally thought from the information on that thread is that the saber is a repro, probably from China in the 90's

Have a look a read and see what you think, I'd also like to know if yours matches up with my two with the mould flaws which would add further credence to this been fake.

Here is a link to the page, your input would be greatly appreciated dude

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YES!!  You are 100% correct in identifying mine, right down to the flaw in the mold and the break point on the side of the handle rather than the end.  Thank you.  This is either a very troubling repro that is easy to mistake for vintage, or something really special....I'm leaning towards repro

great thread fantastic read

i enjoyed that

are you going to include the toptoys luke?

Just spent a good half hour correctly matching up accessories with the correct Luke. Realised I don't have a no COO, which is always good to learn. I actually never noticed that there were two shades of green before either which is happily in the hands of my Made In Hong Kong now.

I wanted to share my Jedi Luke focus, and welcome critique and suggestions.  I'm quite certain I may not have the right cloaks paired with the right COOs.  The sabers I'm also not 100% positive on either, but this was my best guess based on some research.  I won't be upset at anyone offering opinion or suggestion.  I am also aware I missed a few, especially the sunburned Luke HK (Smile).  Still need some blasters, but I'm slowly accumulating the missing pieces.

Made in Taiwan molded face snap cape V4 saber grey blaster
Made in Taiwan snap cape pale face V4 saber grey blaster
MIHK sewn cape bright plastic flesh hand V2 saber
MIHK sewn cape dull plastic pink hand V2 saber tan blaster
HK snap cape flesh face blue saber
HK sewn cape flesh face blue saber tan blaster
NCOO sewn cape pink face V3 saber tan blaster
NCOO sewn cape pale face V3 saber
(Beater) MIHK sewn cape with incorrect Taiwan accessories (grey blaster and V4 saber)

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Finally had the chance to read this and it's an absolute cracker! Your cover photos alone on these research threads are worth the read!

Alex you know how crap I am with Luke Jedi accessories, my weakest area of knowledge about Luke variants, so this will be a great reference thread for me. Was always wondering why the MIHK one has been so hard for me to find.

Thanks so much for investing the time into putting this altogether.

Thomas John wrote:I wanted to share my Jedi Luke focus, and welcome critique and suggestions.  I'm quite certain I may not have the right cloaks paired with the right COOs.  The sabers I'm also not 100% positive on either, but this was my best guess based on some research.  I won't be upset at anyone offering opinion or suggestion.  I am also aware I missed a few, especially the sunburned Luke HK (Smile).  Still need some blasters, but I'm slowly accumulating the missing pieces.

Made in Taiwan molded face snap cape V4 saber grey blaster
Made in Taiwan snap cape pale face V4 saber grey blaster
MIHK sewn cape bright plastic flesh hand V2 saber
MIHK sewn cape dull plastic pink hand V2 saber tan blaster
HK snap cape flesh face blue saber
HK sewn cape flesh face blue saber tan blaster
NCOO sewn cape pink face V3 saber tan blaster
NCOO sewn cape pale face V3 saber
(Beater) MIHK sewn cape with incorrect Taiwan accessories (grey blaster and V4 saber)

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Really nice line-up you have there Thomas!

Thanks ChristianC! I'm awaiting the arrival of a Ledy Jedi Luke from Mexico right now. No accessories except the cloak, but I'm still very excited.

The Ledy Luke Jedi is a sweet addition Thomas (I was delighted when I got mine). I hope you can get the other accessories at some point.

Anyone have a carded example of the gray gun with Luke Jedi? I've never seen one, so very interested.