Week 14: Jawa

Finally, I am back and hope to get this feature running on a more routine basis. So, without further b.s. from me, lets move on shall we.....

   

The vintage Jawa has long since been a favorite figure of mine for many reasons. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve my Jawas, Jawa Sandcrawler, Droid Factory, and Land of the Jawas play set. In fact, I almost considered doing a character focus on the Jawa figure. Glad I went with Vader though as I don’t really want to hunt down a REAL Vinyl Cape (VC) Jawa MOC. A MOC DT Vader purchase isn’t even conceivable to me so no worries there!

   

As most know, the Jawa figure was originally released with a vinyl cape much like that of Vader and Ben Kenobi. Early in the production, Kenner decided to go with a cloth cape I believe to offer something "more" since the figure was smaller than the rest and still cost the same amount as the others. This of course has made the figure somewhat rare and unfortunately HEAVILY faked. Most you see on EBay are fakes...many obvious, others not so obvious. There are some things to look for when purchasing this figure which I will discuss a little later on in this feature. I really like the look of the VC Jawa since with the cloth cape his features are covered up and hidden. However, since I had many cloth caped Jawas when I was a kid and only one VC (which I tore the cape off of...hey, I was only 6!!) I still favor the cloth cape somewhat over the VC.

The Jawa figure of course was offered on the 12-back and all the way through the Power of the Force line. Here is the known Kenner releases for the figure according to Kellerman's book:

SW 12-back A (Vinyl Cape...the rest are cloth capes)

SW 12-back B
SW 12-back C
SW 20-back A
SW 20-back I w/Fett offer and offer extended sticker and sticker over rocket firing picture
SW 20-back J w/Fett offer and offer extended sticker with new text
SW 20-back K w/"Secret Figure" offer sticker over Fett offer
ESB 21-back G w/"Secret Figure" offer
ESB 31-back A
ESB 41-back A w/Survival Kit offer
ESB 41-back C
ESB 45-back A w/Display Arena offer
ESB 47-back A w/4-LOM offer
ESB 48-back C w/Ackbar offer
ROTJ 48-back D w/Nein Nunb offer
ROTJ 65-back A
ROTJ 77-back A
ROTJ 79-back A
POTF 92-back

There are also many foreign releases of this figure including one that is quite common, The French Meccano 20-back Jawa: (pics of foreign mocs from www.toysrgus.com and www.12back.com)

The Italian Harbert "Capo Jawa":

The Mexican Lili Ledy Jawa: (a very neat foreign variant...keep reading!)

Palitoy (UK) 12-Back Jawa:

Tri-Logo European Jawa: (note the difference in the character picture this one is quite rare

Australian Toltoys 12-back Jawa:
 

Australian Toltoys ESB carded VC Jawa: *more about this figure here: http://www.toysrgus.com/images-forei/toltoys-esb-vcjawa.html

Before moving on to loose variations, I think I will say a few things regarding the Vinyl Cape Jawa. As I said before the Jawa is moderately rare (there are other figures that are MUCH more rare); however, as a result this figure is often faked (loose and carded). Since you can go on and on talking about the differences between real and repro VC's I thought I would just take a shortcut and direct you to www.12back.com who has an excellent article regarding loose and carded VC Jawas here: http://www.12back.com/features/vcjawa/vcjawa.php3  I suggest you check it out and when making a VC Jawa purchase make sure that it is coming from a respected and honest source even if it costs a little bit more. If you go bargain hunting for a VC you will probably end up overpaying for a fake or reproduction.

Here is a pic of my VC Jawas:

3 Total, but one is fake. Which one is it???

If you guessed the one on the far right of the screen you would be correct. The others are a Toltoys (Australia) VC Jawa (far left), Kenner VC Jawa (middle). The one with a repro cape is my first "VC" Jawa that I got on eBay for $8. I kept it just for the fun of it and even display it with my other figures, but if it is ever sold rest assured it's obviously a repro and would be sold as such. The Toltoys VC is an interesting piece. The cape is obviously more like the color of the Ben Kenobi figure's cape; however, the arm holes are snug, the cross-stitch pattern (see 12back.com article) is present, and the cape is pretty pliable though not as much as the Kenner VC. The figure is the same. My Kenner VC and Toltoys VC are couple of my favorite vintage possessions and both figures came from reputable sources.

One cannot talk about the VC Jawa without mention the Outer-Space Station play set featured in Woman's Day magazine in 1978. Which featured pics of 11 of the first 12 Star Wars figures (No Sandpeople??...odd). Rumor has it that the Ben, Luke and Vader were DT's or the Double Telescoping variety.

Most interesting however are the many Vinyl Cape Jawas that are picture in some really goofy poses.....roughly $2500 worth in today’s market!! A lot more info on this magazine and their play set can be found here: http://www.toysrgus.com/images-speci/womansday/index.html

Cloth Cape Jawas. I haven’t really spoken much about the cloth cape version of this figure since it's rarer VC cousin gets all the hype, but these are very interesting as well. The first soft goods on a vintage figure, and probably the best Jawa produced ever!! Hasbro has yet to come close with a decent Jawa figure, but I wont get into that! I have found that there are some fairly interesting variants here as well. Most notably the Lili Ledy Jawa from Mexico.

As you can see in the pic, this figure has some interesting features such as a removable hood, it comes with a black Nien Nunb gun, and has really weird lemon shaped eyes. This was one of my first Ledy variants I ever bought and still one of my favorites for it's uniqueness.

The other cloth cape variants I have found in my collection are as follows: (left to right)

1. cloth cape has lighter colored stitching, small hood
2. cloth cape has brown stitching, smaller text, med hood
3. cloth cape has lighter colored stitching large hood
4. cloth cape has very dark stitching, smoother cloth material, large hood

Of course these capes could have been replaced so it's impossible to say that these capes correlate to coo or other markings. These either have a Hong Kong coo or none at all.

Jawa Prices: (again, these are just guess-timates as prices fluctuate ALOT)

Loose Cloth cape with weapon will run $10 or less
Loose Vinyl Cape with weapon $200-$300+

MOC VC Jawa can cost $1500+
MOC Cloth Jawa can cost less than $75 to $300+ depending on card back, condition, grade, etc. French Maccano 20-backs are pretty common and usually cost around $100 sometimes less depending on condition, etc.

This FINALLY wraps up the first 12 figures. I have fallen way behind but hope to have this feature out on a more routine basis. Next time: Greedo.
 

 Thanks for reading!