LUKE BESPIN - Lili Ledy Retorno Transition New Variant

The title probably goes a long way to explaining what this figure is, so lets take a look at the evidence and explain the history behind the discovery of this new and rare Lili Ledy variation.
It started during in conversation with Ozio concerning the possibilities of both the Snowtrooper and Han Hoth as figures released on the El Imperio Contraataca line, this lead to Ozio saying he had an interesting Luke Bespin figure he would like me to have a look at. This was ultimately followed by a series of photo's of a blonde Luke Bespin figure that featured the no COO 'raised bar' typically associated with the Later Jedi Luke Bespin figure, which of course had brown hair. The only other variation to feature this country of origin stamp was the so called 'China Baggie' figure which of course also had brown hair.
Naturally this sparked an instant curiosity with me, but like everything that goes against the ordinary, my brain was first questioning it. The way I look at things like this is to first question it, and then question it again
The first thought that popped into my head was the obvious 'head swap' scenario. So I asked Ozio if the head moved freely or was it stiff? His response was that it moved freely like any other normal figure. The reason why I asked this question was because the rod which the head is attached to was altered for the raised bar figure from a simple ball design to a bell shaped design as shown below:

The cavity inside the head was also altered to accommodate this new design, the point being, that any heads intended to attach to the first design are a very tight fit on the later 'bell shaped' design and they are very stiff and hard to move.
ALL Luke Bespin COO families started with the ball shape design, the MIHK family kept the ball shape design after it's first alteration for the PBP figures and the Lili Ledy Imperio blonde figure but was changed to the bell design when the mould went to China. The HK Small family mould was also altered to the bell design when it had it's COO removed to the smoothed out no COO. At this stage it's important to note that NO Luke Bespin figures from any family featuring the later bell shaped design had blonde hair, brown or mustard was the standard colour at this stage.
This was evidence enough for me to rule out a head swap. It's also important to add that the alteration to the interior cavity of the head to accomodate the bell design on the MIHK family figure gives the head a wider 'fat' face look which is clearly visible on both the standard Jedi LL figure and the China Baggie figure. This new blonde Luke also has this wider 'fat' face look which again is strong evidence that this is the correct head for this figure especially as no other figure features this look.

There are several key features that can be found on this figure which place this figure firmly in the Lili Ledy time line and define it's authenticity.
Naturally the first place to start is with the hair as this is the primary 'oddity' concerning this figure. Below is a comparrison picture showing the 'new' figure on the right and the original Imperio LL Blonde Luke on the left:

As can be seen in the picture, the hair colour is a perfect match and again it is important to note that the hair colour used for the original Imperio Blonde Luke was completely unique to that figure, it was a pale yellow and no other Luke Bespin variation found anywhere has a hair colour that matches this which places the origin of this figure firmly in Mexico.

The next important feature to look at with this figure concerns the plastic used for the head. The original Imperio blonde Luke's featured a pale flesh tone plastic for the head where as the later Jedi Luke's featured a darker 'pink' tone.
This new figure features the 'pink' tone which is correct for the raised bar no COO and later Jedi production in Mexico.
This can be seen in the comparrison picture below.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, well that doesn't really work in an action figure, but here the eyes are definately a window into the origins of this variation.
The original Imperio blonde Luke featured larger eyes and thin straight eye brows where as the later Jedi Luke's featured smaller eyes and crescent shaped thicker 'tear drop' eye brows. It is these thicker tear drop eye brows that help define the later LL Jedi Luke's because they are completely unique to the LL figure and notebly different from his China baggie counterpart.
This 'new' Luke variation features the later crescent shaped tear drop eye brows as can be seen in the comparison pics below:

Next we have his boots. Luke is renowned for his huge array of boots colours with his Bespin outfit and one of the unique colours is the one found on the early Imperio blonde Luke, which features a darker brown colour similar to the PBP European counterparts but different in the fact that the LL Luke have reddish burgundy hint to them. The later Jedi LL Luke's feature a tan colour very similar to the standard colour used on the majority of Kenner Luke Bespin's.
The boot colour on this new Luke is very similar to the early Imperio blonde Luke's, much darker than the usual colour featured on the later brown haired Lukes and completely unique to the raised bar no COO figure as no other raised bar no COO variation features this colour.
This can be seen in the comparison photo below:

Finally, although only a small feature, it is relevant. This figure no longer has the small strip of paint that connects the lightsaber hilt to his belt, a unique feature of the Imperio blonde Luke. It also no longer features the unpainted hip. This is because the new spray mask was being used that belonged to the later brown haired Luke's.

The logical conclusion that can be drawn from this is that this figure fits in somewhere between the early Imperio blonde Lukes and the later Jedi brown haired Luke's.
Over the years I have heard many collectors state that the Lili Ledy blonde haired Luke could be found on the El Imperio Contraataca cards and also on early Retorno Del Jedi cards? Now this always bothered me because the Jedi run was a completely different production run so it didn't make sense that the blonde would have appeared on any Jedi cards unless there was some left over stock from the Imperio run, which again is unlikely as the Imperio run had small production number where cost effieciency was clearly high on the agenda, so it's unlikely that there would have been any overstock left from this run.
To me, this figure here answers this theory. When people referred to the 'blonde' LL Luke appearing on early Retorno cards, this is the blonde Luke they must have seen, a variant that truly fits the description of a Retorno Transitional figure. The figure it's self features the moulds used for the Jedi figures and also the spray masks but still features the paint scheme used on the early Imperio figures.
Former LL employee Mr. Alejandro Becerra stated that the LL factory worked very closely with Kenner head office in Cincinnati making sure everything was correct. This would have almost certainly been more prominant at the start and inaccuracies would have been noticed quickly. The fact this figure has taken so long to surface suggests that it is rare and had a very short life before the incorrect paint scheme was changed.

It is important to note at this point, that the brown haired Luke would have almost certainly appeared on the Retorno cards as well, but labelling the three variants as Imperio, Retorno and Regresso just seems logical

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