Klaatu is something of a paradox for me. As a figure, I think it's boring. It's just my opinion of course, but I find the sculpt to be a little bit weak and uninteresting. And if ever there was a vintage figure that can be described this way (if any can be these days), it's the closest one to being common as muck carded. And loose, there are millions of the fecking things! As a figure, I simply don't like it much. And yet...
Well, the 'And yet' is that there are variants with Klaatu. Lots and lots of variants! In fact, from a variant hound standpoint (and I consider myself to increasingly be something of a variant hound), there are few more interesting figures. Now I'm certainly no wbobafett and my variant collection pales into insignificance next to super-impressive ones like his; I'm not really interested in collecting every COO variant of every figure out there, but I am interested in collecting figure variants which are visually different from one another... which brings us back to Klaatu! For starters, there's his kilt. It can be thin, thick, fluffy, brown or white. His face can be green or blueish green. Like many figures, he comes with his head moulded two ways; in silver plastic with his face painted green, or in green / blueish green plastic with his helmet painted silver. His boots can be a dark grey / black or jet black, and dull or shiny. But the real kicker are the limbs. Klaatu is not unique in having limbs moulded in two different coloured plastics (famously, the PBP Boba Fett is a much lighter blue than the Hong Kong and Taiwan variants), but where Klaatu wins hands down is the fact that he can be found with mixed colour limbs.
In the UK, easily the most common version is the no COO glossy grey plastic variant. However, he can also be found with an H.K. COO (this seems to be far more common in the States than it is over here), and it is this version that has the moulded green (and sometimes blueish green) face with painted silver helmet, and all the limb colour variants. Those limb colours are light grey (a slightly lighter and less glossy shade of grey than is found on the no COO variant) and also a light tan (a colour very close to, but distinctly different from the corresponding grey):
BTW, in the past I have read some collectors questioning whether the tan colour variants exist at all; whether it is actually nothing more than plastic degradation. To such people, I politely reply, bullshit!
Mixed limb variants exist both carded and loose, and the tan colour is so distinctly and consistently different from the grey, that whilst I am quite prepared to accept that some figures will suffer plastic and therefore also colour degradation, altering the shade of the limbs, if that was the cause of all the tan limbs out there then you would expect to see a full spectrum of colours / shades shifting subtly from grey to tan, and we simply don't find that.
I have no idea why the colour was changed, or why Kenner seem to have changed it mid-production. Perhaps it was a directive from Lucasfilm, perhaps the factory ran out of grey plastic dye, or perhaps it was simply a cockup? Whatever the reason, the result is that both tan and grey colour limbs were available during the figure's production at the same time, and this resulted in 16 different limb colour variants being made with the same H.K. COO! That's a lot of Klaatus!
When I first got back into collecting Vintage Star Wars figures in the 1990's, I already knew about some of the common figure variants (large and small head Han Solo, etc.). Steve Sansweet's brilliant 'From Concept to Screen to Collectible' book added some more to my knowledge (like blue Snaggletooth), however I also soon learned about other less well known ones. One of those was the mysterious 'tan limbs Klaatu'. At that stage, I'd never seen one, so when I discovered Brian's Toys and found they had some for sale, I wanted one. This was at the dawn of the internet, and the telephone was still king, so I rang up America and learned to my surprise that the 'tan limbs' variant was actually just one of sixteen different variants! Brian's Toys had 3 of them, and so I bought the lot!
I must admit though, when they arrived I was rather underwhelmed. I was expecting the tan colour to be more pronounced than it was. It was definitely different from the grey colour, but not eye-poppingly so. To add to my disillusionment, when viewing the figures from the front, the kilt and the bend of Klaatu's right arm, plus the force pike if you pose him holding his weapon, combined to make noticing the colour difference between the tan and grey limbs actually quite difficult! Also, since I already had the no COO grey version, plus these 3 tan / grey limb mixed variants, at the time I felt I had enough Klaatus and stopped looking for more:
Well, the years rolled by and I acquired no more of the tan limbed variants. I never stopped picking up the odd Vintage item from time to time, but I thought my days of finding lots of Vintage things to buy were behind me. My loose figure set had been 'complete' for years and I had turned much of my attention elsewhere. Then, about 18 months ago, I suddenly got properly bitten by the Vintage bug once again when I discovered a whole world of figure variants I previously knew next to nothing about. It rekindled my interest in Vintage generally, and specifically, I decided to start collecting figure variants. Klaatu was just one of the Vintage line of course, but since I already had 4 of the available variants, it naturally meant there were plenty more left out there for me to find, so I set about doing just that! Along the way, I learned about the Lili Ledy Klaatu variants too, which I promptly added to my Klaatu 'Wants List'.
I set myself the target of getting all 16 different tan / grey limb variants loose and in good condition, to go with my all grey no COO variant. I wasn't fussed about which kilt they came with or whether they had a green or blueish green face (that way would lie madness! If I went for every possible variant in existence, I'd have God knows how many Klaatus cluttering up the house!), but I did also target a couple of Lili Ledy variants, which makes 19 different Klaatus altogether
Well, 18 months and an awful lot of searching later, I am pleased to say that I have finally completed my loose Klaatu run, which I would like to present to you here.
Enjoy!
Well, the 'And yet' is that there are variants with Klaatu. Lots and lots of variants! In fact, from a variant hound standpoint (and I consider myself to increasingly be something of a variant hound), there are few more interesting figures. Now I'm certainly no wbobafett and my variant collection pales into insignificance next to super-impressive ones like his; I'm not really interested in collecting every COO variant of every figure out there, but I am interested in collecting figure variants which are visually different from one another... which brings us back to Klaatu! For starters, there's his kilt. It can be thin, thick, fluffy, brown or white. His face can be green or blueish green. Like many figures, he comes with his head moulded two ways; in silver plastic with his face painted green, or in green / blueish green plastic with his helmet painted silver. His boots can be a dark grey / black or jet black, and dull or shiny. But the real kicker are the limbs. Klaatu is not unique in having limbs moulded in two different coloured plastics (famously, the PBP Boba Fett is a much lighter blue than the Hong Kong and Taiwan variants), but where Klaatu wins hands down is the fact that he can be found with mixed colour limbs.
In the UK, easily the most common version is the no COO glossy grey plastic variant. However, he can also be found with an H.K. COO (this seems to be far more common in the States than it is over here), and it is this version that has the moulded green (and sometimes blueish green) face with painted silver helmet, and all the limb colour variants. Those limb colours are light grey (a slightly lighter and less glossy shade of grey than is found on the no COO variant) and also a light tan (a colour very close to, but distinctly different from the corresponding grey):
BTW, in the past I have read some collectors questioning whether the tan colour variants exist at all; whether it is actually nothing more than plastic degradation. To such people, I politely reply, bullshit!
Mixed limb variants exist both carded and loose, and the tan colour is so distinctly and consistently different from the grey, that whilst I am quite prepared to accept that some figures will suffer plastic and therefore also colour degradation, altering the shade of the limbs, if that was the cause of all the tan limbs out there then you would expect to see a full spectrum of colours / shades shifting subtly from grey to tan, and we simply don't find that.I have no idea why the colour was changed, or why Kenner seem to have changed it mid-production. Perhaps it was a directive from Lucasfilm, perhaps the factory ran out of grey plastic dye, or perhaps it was simply a cockup? Whatever the reason, the result is that both tan and grey colour limbs were available during the figure's production at the same time, and this resulted in 16 different limb colour variants being made with the same H.K. COO! That's a lot of Klaatus!
When I first got back into collecting Vintage Star Wars figures in the 1990's, I already knew about some of the common figure variants (large and small head Han Solo, etc.). Steve Sansweet's brilliant 'From Concept to Screen to Collectible' book added some more to my knowledge (like blue Snaggletooth), however I also soon learned about other less well known ones. One of those was the mysterious 'tan limbs Klaatu'. At that stage, I'd never seen one, so when I discovered Brian's Toys and found they had some for sale, I wanted one. This was at the dawn of the internet, and the telephone was still king, so I rang up America and learned to my surprise that the 'tan limbs' variant was actually just one of sixteen different variants! Brian's Toys had 3 of them, and so I bought the lot!
I must admit though, when they arrived I was rather underwhelmed. I was expecting the tan colour to be more pronounced than it was. It was definitely different from the grey colour, but not eye-poppingly so. To add to my disillusionment, when viewing the figures from the front, the kilt and the bend of Klaatu's right arm, plus the force pike if you pose him holding his weapon, combined to make noticing the colour difference between the tan and grey limbs actually quite difficult! Also, since I already had the no COO grey version, plus these 3 tan / grey limb mixed variants, at the time I felt I had enough Klaatus and stopped looking for more:
Well, the years rolled by and I acquired no more of the tan limbed variants. I never stopped picking up the odd Vintage item from time to time, but I thought my days of finding lots of Vintage things to buy were behind me. My loose figure set had been 'complete' for years and I had turned much of my attention elsewhere. Then, about 18 months ago, I suddenly got properly bitten by the Vintage bug once again when I discovered a whole world of figure variants I previously knew next to nothing about. It rekindled my interest in Vintage generally, and specifically, I decided to start collecting figure variants. Klaatu was just one of the Vintage line of course, but since I already had 4 of the available variants, it naturally meant there were plenty more left out there for me to find, so I set about doing just that! Along the way, I learned about the Lili Ledy Klaatu variants too, which I promptly added to my Klaatu 'Wants List'.
I set myself the target of getting all 16 different tan / grey limb variants loose and in good condition, to go with my all grey no COO variant. I wasn't fussed about which kilt they came with or whether they had a green or blueish green face (that way would lie madness! If I went for every possible variant in existence, I'd have God knows how many Klaatus cluttering up the house!), but I did also target a couple of Lili Ledy variants, which makes 19 different Klaatus altogether
Well, 18 months and an awful lot of searching later, I am pleased to say that I have finally completed my loose Klaatu run, which I would like to present to you here.
Enjoy!
