Overstock MOCs

[phreatobite]

I picked up my Meccano Jawa fairly soon after I started collecting. It is quite dog-eared but I love the card especially the Blue Snaggletooth on the back.

 

[TEEBO1979]

I believe the main reason there are more ROTJ cards available compared to SW and ESB is that when the new movies came out retailers sent the unsold carded figures back to the factory to be resealed in the new packaging. The sacrilege of destroying all those 12 backs, nearly as bad as AFA with there U Grades.

 

[punk_pat]

Somebody say overstock?!

I love that every piece of vintage Kenner star wars has it's own story.

Got lucky last year and managed to buy 116 carded Rancor Keepers, some shown above. Somehow, these fat boys had found themselves in Australia in the 1980s. They must have been dumped down under like a lot of the Kenner stock seemed to be. Somebody bought them / kept them until 2014, then (bizarrely) donated them to a charity based in the USA which helped under-privileged kids get into photography and film making (I kid you not). From there, they made their way to Yorkshire & then distributed around the globe.

Wonder how many more caches are out there...

Ed

 

[threesheepio]

Funny how Klaatus are so plentiful now. I distinctly remember him being very difficult to find up here, would have been in 1983. I never actually managed to find one as a kid and lost interest shortly thereafter (ZX Spectrum ) Only one guy I knew at school had one, and he got it while on holiday in the states.

Ahh, the memories come flooding back! I also remember him coming back from that holiday having seen ROTJ before it was out here and with a Leia Boussh and Lando Skiff which I'm sure were not available here yet. Was there a delay in figures coming out over here or am I remembering wrong?

 

[peekaygee73]

I bought my Weequay Tri-logo MOC from an advert in Model Mart in the early/mid 90s. I remember the guy selling 4 different Tri-logo MOC figures and the only reason I went for one was the price (£3 + postage!!). It could be a case of the memory cheating but I'm sure these were overstock and this guy had large quantities of each of the ones he was selling. When it arrived it was in absolutely mint condition.

Funny how Klaatus are so plentiful now. I distinctly remember him being very difficult to find up here, would have been in 1983. I never actually managed to find one as a kid and lost interest shortly thereafter (ZX Spectrum ) Only one guy I knew at school had one, and he got it while on holiday in the states.

Ahh, the memories come flooding back! I also remember him coming back from that holiday having seen ROTJ before it was out here and with a Leia Boussh and Lando Skiff which I'm sure were not available here yet. Was there a delay in figures coming out over here or am I remembering wrong?

At the risk of going off at a tangent...I remember Klaatu being common around West Yorkshire once the first wave of Jedi figures had been around for a while. In fact you've reminded me of something... the parents of a lad at school worked in a town where most of our parents didn't go. He came into school one day not long after the first wave of Jedi figures were released with Boussh & Luke Jedi and none of us had seen either of them before. All we'd seen were ERG, Bib Fortuna, Ree Yees, Biker Scout and Madine. We were properly amazed with Boussh - and he was amazed with Bib Fortuna as he hadn't seen him before!

 

[bosk70]

I remember our local market shop always had two or three shipping boxes of Jedi figs open down the far end of the shop on the floor around 83-85, I remember going there about once a month to flick through them lick you used to with records and occasionally finding something I wanted , But they were nearly always jabba specials klaatu nikto ree yees think they were only 40 or 50 p at the time and remember thinking there must be some good one's soon but they were always 2 thirds full of all the usual above mentioned cards and always jedi never any others and the boxes were always full, shipping boxes cannot remember if they were palitoy boxes or not but all the ships there that were for sale were always Kenner and sure all the cards were to never any palitoy.
Years later about 92-93 I popped in there one day on the off chance and could not believe that there were 3 at-as's 2 jedi forest and one empire snow, and a slave one all fiver each I snapped them up as I was getting back into star wars at the time and said the usual " my son loves star wars do you have anymore about ????" :lol: but was told that was the last of it found in the stock room buried but was happy with the find. happy days!! :lol: :lol:

 

[TEEBO1979]

As you may of read in my introduction post, I had the same experience as a kid at the newsagent next to my Grandparents, which only had boxes of Teebo figures left for £0.50. I bought one a week with my pocket money for two months, hence my now obsession with Teebo.
He is now only one of two figures in my collection which originate from my childhood collection.

 

[edd_jedi]

Some great stories and photos in this thread

 

[Darth Bobby]

Fascinating thread, frustrating when looking at MOC prices today. Funny how unwanted plastic figures are now so cherished. My friend's daughter was asked at school "If you had a time machine, which time would you travel to?" She said "time of the dinosaurs". She asked her dad and he said "Back to the day I bunked off school and saw all the Star Wars figures reduced to 25p in Fenwicks". I guess you couldn't give them away back then.

 

[TEEBO1979]

With the mention of Fenwicks it reminded me of an Urban Legend I was told a few months ago by a vintage toy seller in Durham.
He told me that when the demand for Star Wars toys ended in the late 80's Fenwicks in Newcastle could not sell there remaining stock for love no money (that is proberly why they were priced at £0.25). So the story goes that the decision was made by the management to get rid and all the remaining stock was sent to a landfill.
If true I bet there is an ex Fenwicks employee who crys at the mention of Star Wars at the thought of all that lost stock worth thousands of pounds.

 

[sparkysx]

I read that there are thousands of power of the force mocs in landfill in Kent somewhere.

 

[Gorneesh]

I read that there are thousands of power of the force mocs in landfill in Kent somewhere.

I herd that it was shipping containers full of MOC's in the landfill but it was up near Leicester.

 

[Darth Bobby]

My mate says they were selling boxed speeder bikes for 50p in Fenwicks that day. He always gets a tear in his eye when we talk about it.

 

[Tickion]

I think by Jedi Pallitoy were ready to meet demand and over anticipated it by a long way. In London shops were cutting prices pretty quickly (e.g John Lewis/Peter Jones), notably with the second assortment ,and discounted SW figure were pretty much unprecedented. For the first film you were lucky to find the figures. With ESB it was a total bunfight to get your hands on them - the day they hit my local toyshop (Kiddy City, Lewisham)-it was mayhem with adults wading in and grabbing armfuls and the shelves being cleared. With Jedi I guess it was third time around... and there was more than plenty to go around. Too many in fact, and as others have mentioned, they started appearing in newsagents.

Round our way (south london) by 1987 Tesco's were clearing large amounts of Jedi figures at 49p each. My local big store in Catford, there were dozens of hangers packed with figures and an isle that included the Imperial Shuttle, B-Wings Tie Interceptors (no POTF though - I never once saw them in London)... I was 17 and well over SW by that point. About 10yrs later I met someone who bought a ton of them, but removed them all from the cards in order to store them, and I've still about a dozen of these mint loose figures.

 

[Tickion]

I read that there are thousands of power of the force mocs in landfill in Kent somewhere.

I herd that it was shipping containers full of MOC's in the landfill but it was up near Leicester.

I heard it was under the M1 by a guy who claimed it was his job to put them into landfill. He had no interest in SW or toys so had no reason to lie so in between traffic I'm going to start digging one of these days.

 

[Captainsolo1978]

There is a Palitoy landfill in Leicester. The chap who runs Leicester Vintage Toys told me he rescued some action men parts!

It's apparently a building now. Surely all these figures would be crushed now let alone still carded!!!!

 

[Darth Bobby]

Makes me think of Atari: Game Over the movie. There was word that thousands of Games and consoles were buried in landfill in Mexico in the 80's. It was folklore throughout the computer gaming fraternity for years. Some people got together with the local council and excavated the site! They found quite a bit of stuff too. Could be a gold mine out there waiting for us?!!

 

[elcroz]

Here in Cornwall we have a store called Jim's Cash & Carry in the town of Redruth. It would be 1988 and Jim's was selling Teebo's, Logray's & Rees Yees for 50p each, there was around 50-100 of each figure.
These would definitely be overstock.
I bought one of each to put on my wall as a kid. My dearest little brother opened them. Brat!

 

[chewbaccadave]

Makes me think of Atari: Game Over the movie. There was word that thousands of Games and consoles were buried in landfill in Mexico in the 80's. It was folklore throughout the computer gaming fraternity for years. Some people got together with the local council and excavated the site! They found quite a bit of stuff too. Could be a gold mine out there waiting for us?!!

I thought the game was E.T. and this helped the video game "crash".

Here's a cool story http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/26/diggers-find-ataris-et-games-in-landfill/8232609/

Edit: It helped the crash http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/04/26/diggers-find-ataris-et-games-in-landfill/8232609/

 

[tiefighterboy]

Oh..no..the landfill story again...............just search "Auggie Doggie"............for more info in the forum. :lol: :lol: :lol: