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In 1998, Hasbro released a wave of toys that would go beyond what was seen in the theatrical movie releases. Vehicles and action figures were developed based on conceptual design art and memorable characters from Star Wars Dark Horse comics, Bantam novels, and LucasArts video games. The Air Speede

This blown up image is of an image that surfaced many years ago and perhaps the only image available of an unproduced comic pack featuring Ralrracheen "Ralrra" and Noghri Warrior (lower left). These characters were mentioned in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire series. From what we can tell, t

HasLab's Jabba's Sail Barge is one of the greatest crowd funded ship ever made! Here are some great images of the design process. Let's start off with some 3D renderings.

I have seen many posts over the years where people believe that they found some type of a preproduction mockup or rare mispack figure at retail. While the manufacturing plants do make mistakes from time to time, it is good to know how to determine whether a figure has been intentionally repackaged.

Here is an interesting internal Hasbro document that spells out the product development approval process. It helps better define the common preproduction terminology that is specific to 1999 era.

Here is a quick link that pulls up a photo library of first shot figures that CAS has graded/encased. Some of these items look very familiar to group members! 😉

Some of the early developed coins for the 30th Anniversary Series went through some design changes. Here is an example of an Engineering Pilot Luke Skywalker (Yavin Ceremony) with an early designed McQuarrie Stormtrooper coin. The bottom of the unproduced coin reads "Concept" at the bottom of the

Here is an interesting item that originated from the 1990's. It is believed to be a mockup holiday card that was designed to hold a Spirit of Obi-Wan action figure. To my knowledge, this concept never made it into production. If you have any information regarding this, please feel free to post he

Early first shots of the 1999 Episode OOM-9 were mistakenly tooled to have the antenna attach to the front side of the figure. The steel molds were later retooled to mount the antenna on the back prior to production.

There is so much preproduction information via the web. However, it is great to see many unproduced and preproduction engineering pilots in printed form! Star Wars Action Figure Database Vol. 2 is probably one of the greatest examples that features many of the holy grails from the POTF2 era.

This set was planned to have a blue lightsaber. However, due to the expense of the blue LED, it was changed to green. If you are interested in this print, click here.

Check out this interesting mock-up for the Expanded Universe figures. It is a Stormtrooper on Char-Broil cardstock. The back of the cardstock is perforated for the fold-out diorama as seen on the Expanded Universe figures. While this is still intact, I would suspect that if opened, it would revea

Here are some pictures of some of the unreleased Micro Machines action sets from the 2000 Hasbro Pre-Toy Fair catalog. Years ago, I had a chance to purchase the Anakin Inside Action Set (Engineering Pilot). However, I decided to pass as this was a little outside my primary focus. While I don't se

Here is another example of an unproduced SAGA carded set featuring toys from Galoob's Action Fleet Series. Others include Bespin Patrol Cloud Car and Defence of Naboo Gian Speeder. These production quality packaged sets were created as extremely limited samples and were never approved for final

Over the years, I have heard much speculation regarding the higher number of available of test shot prototypes that flooded the market between the POTJ & SAGA era. This surge created a theory of "coffee break" prototypes, suggesting that factory employees were using existing steel molds, to reprodu

Many of you may have already seen this. However, it is definitely worth taking some time to check out this amazing collection of prototypes. It is believed that many of these items have been sold, but just to see the color combinations of these first shots is awesome! Direct Links: Vintage (1

Here is a really cool set of ROTS Sneak Preview figures from the SWJUNK Collection! These differ from the production versions in that the bubbles aren't as wide and they are attached to the card front on the sides, rather than being folded over and taped to the card backs like their production count

There were plans to offer a Naboo Starfighter that would feature a removable dome! If you have more info on this piece, please share!

#PaganosProtos #VC01 Dengar Here's my Prototype run for the VC01 Dengar figure that kicked off The Vintage Collection that we all know and love. This run consists of: 1 x Paintmaster Hardcopy Prototype 2 x First Shot Rifle sprues (one in dull grey and one a silver/grey plastic) 1 x Test Shot Proto

While Shadows of the Empire is not considered canon, it was an amazing multimedia launch that included a book, comics, video game, action figures, soundtrack & much more! Here is a look at some of the preproduction paintmaster hardcopies. If you happen to have landed any of these, please, please p

Here are some of the first photos of the paint model prototype of The Ghost from the Rebels and Ahsoka TV Series. Currently The Ghost has enough backers for production release. However, unlocks to release the additional figures have not been met. There is still time to back this project by c

HasLab’s crowdfunded Star Wars The Black Series Rancor project ran from October 22nd to December 6th of 2022 and was planned to ship Spring of 2023. The price point was set at $350 and required a minimum of 9,000 backers. However, the campaign only received 8,533 backers, in which did not mee

Here is an interesting look into the design of the HasLab's crowdfunded The Vintage Collection Razor Crest vehicle. The campaign ran from September 25th, 2020 to November 9th, 2020. Shipping began around Fall 2021. Unlock #1 - Escape Pod Add-On Unlock #2 - "The Child" action figure

A number of years ago, a store in Japan displayed a massive modern prototype collection of Star Wars toys. Besides the size, you will notice some amazing pieces and some were never known to exist! I am reposting these photos for all to enjoy. If you collect modern Star Wars prototypes, you wil

Here is a look at an early design of the Han Solo in Carbonite. As you can see, it is lacking one of the side controls. This was later retooled and corrected prior to production. The figure itself has a much brighter paint deco compared to the production counterpart. The chest is a bright whit

Hardcopies offer a unique challenge when it comes to displaying. @Haynie came up with a great way to display hardcopy heads. Since many Star Wars hardcopy figures are pinned together with 1/8" pins, this recipe is great! You can purchase the stands and plastic rods on Amazon. Simply drill 1/8" h

Early advertisements of the Entertainment Earth Exclusive Holiday Jawas 2-pack reveal a much different look! They were originally designed in a red & green color scheme. The lighted eye ports appear to be in the traditional yellow color. The figures were based on the 1996 POTF2 design with new

*EDITED* Before the Black Series, Hasbro had plans to release a line of 6-inch action figures as part of the Episode I as shown in the 2000 Hasbro Toy Fair catalog. This assortment was planned to include Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Destroyer Droid. Ultimately line was cancelled and

Here is a video that shows how the most recent toys are designed and produced. Today many of the toys are digitally sculpted through a program called ZBrush, whereas many of the older toys were physically sculpted from wax.