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NEW Full Version Vintage Kenner Star Wars Figures COO Guide - YouTube
Channel: ActionFigureResource
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Colin Dorman: Hi there, my name
is Colin and this is the action
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figure resource the place for
all your action figure news,
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reviews, tutorials and guide.
Today I'm going to be talking
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about the COO of an action
figure, what it means, how
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relevant that is, and the
importance of it to your vintage
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action figures and their values,
particularly when we're talking
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about the vintage Star Wars
line. So, what does COO mean?
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What is his importance? And how
does it affect your figures for
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the sake of this video, I'm
gonna be referencing the vintage
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Star Wars figures
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Action Figure Resource: action-figure-resource.com
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Yesterday's toys, today's
treasures.
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Colin Dorman: The term COO is
short for country of origin. It
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is mostly used to specify the
country Mark but the term can
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also be used to talk about all
the information on the figure.
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The COO has three main
components the copyright, the
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year and the country. Let's take
a look at the copyright the
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copyright usually comes first
with the small c within a
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circle. On the vintage Star Wars
figures, it is followed by one
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of three different abbreviations
G.M.F.G.I for General Mills fun
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Group Inc. C.P.G Consumer
Product Group or L.F.L Lucas
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Film limited. The GMFGI was used
for the first 20 figures CPG was
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only used for the Boba Fet
figure and L.F.L for all other
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figures except the R2 D2 two
sensor scope. Empire Strikes
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Back figure. Because the mold of
the early R2 D2 solid drone was
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used for this figure. Next we
have The Year, the year is
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normally directly placed behind
the copyright. In this case, the
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year indicates when the
copyright was acquired for the
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character, not when the
character was made. It is often
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said misleadingly that this is
the year that the figure was
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produced, which quite simply is
wrong, because they didn't
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change the molds every year
while producing the figure. So
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it refers to when the copyright
to produce the figure was first
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acquired. This also explains why
the R2 D2 with pop up Sabre is
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marked with 1977 copyright,
although he was not produced
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before 1985 the year also
indicates the timeframe
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beginning with the production of
a character in his original
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form, because that simply goes
together with acquiring the
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copyright. Of course, also in
this case, there is some
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exceptions. For example, the
Brazilian R2 D2 with 1985 on it,
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or the Barada that exists with
1984 as well as 1985 (dates
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then). I would also like to
mention they R5 D4 which was
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which has 1977 marks and 1978
stamps on it, because the mold
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from the R2 D2 was used for the
1977 marked ones and the COO was
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not altered in this case. Next
is the country stamp. The
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country marks indiactes where
the figure was produced which
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means where the plastic was
injected or poured into the
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steel molds. This does not
indicate where it was finally
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assembled, painted, or packed,
which could differ from his
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actual country mark. For
example, many other figures
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carded in Spain were bought and
ordered and then assembled in
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Spain, not in the country, it
was stamped.
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From time to time, production
location was changed for several
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reasons, for example, to lower
costs, rising production
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numbers, etc. In these
situation, the molds were
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normally altered, and the
country marks were changed. In
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the later period of production
this all got messed up. And the
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no COO figures, meaning no
country marks were born. I think
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Kenner realized it was simpler
to just stamp the locations on
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the card back then to change the
molds every now and again. When
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production was changed to
another country. The first
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production location was for
sure, Hong Kong. There are many
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controversional opinions as to
what happened next. Taiwan COO's
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can appear on A New Hope
characters and Return of the
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Jedi characters, but not a
single Empire Strikes Back
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character. There are two facts
about the Taiwan COO's. The
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first is that these are not
altered molds. They belong to
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the original stamped ones and
already appeared on like Star
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Wars 12 back cards, for example,
Luke Skywalker. And the second
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is they will never changed into
a no COO. Regarding this, we
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probably can say the Taiwan
steel molds were produced for
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Taiwan and stayed in Taiwan,
while the Hong Kong steel molds
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made their way to China and
Macau, where some of them were
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altered. Also, the way their
stamps were altered, can differ
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heavily and I'll try to give an
overview which can never be 100%
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accurate, because of the
exceptions. Okay. So, first we
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have the Hong Kong standards.
Figures produced in Hong Kong
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was stamped either made in Hong
Kong, Hong Kong or simply H.K.
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These were normally the
unaltered steel molds. So they
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are called original COO's. Two,
the Taiwan molds. These were
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stamps made in Taiwan or Taiwan.
These are unaltered COO's, and
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also belong to the original
COO's. Next are the Macau
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stamps. Figures were found (Eva)
Macao spelled MACAU or MACAO or
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the country was deleted
completely making it's a no COO
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stamp. These are altered Hong
Kong COO's. These were stamped
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either made in China or China.
Always on a raised bar also the
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blank raised bars and other no
COO's can be Chinese produced
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figures. These are all altered
Hong Kong COO's.
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And lastly, we have no COO
stamped figures. figures with no
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country stamp on them can be
produced as they were or
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produced in altered molds where
the country was deleted. The
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method used to delete them is no
proof of the country where they
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were produced. There are several
terms used in order to describe
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how the country Mark was
deleted. which tend to describe
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how the marking appeared rather
than what was done to the molds.
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The first term is Smooth Deleted
COO, this describes where the
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country is not visible and the
place where it should be look
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Smooth, the area around the
former stamp is on the same
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height level. This means the
letters in the mold were filled
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up and precisely smooth. The
second term used to describe
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this process is the Melted Down
COO, this normally describes
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where the country code is still
slightly visible, but mostly
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looks (at melted egg) this term
is also used for smooth deleted
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COO's. The problem is deciding
which is which. The melted down
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ones always have a little
rampart and some letters can
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still be slightly visible. In
this case, the COO was scratched
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out in the mold and smoothed
over. The next term is the
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Scarred Out COO this normally
means that the figure always has
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a deep scar where the country
name formerly was. The scars
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look like someone has removed
COO, with a soldering iron or
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similar. In fact, the COO was
actually filled up with a kind
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of led-tin mixture in the area
on the mold. Fourth, we have the
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Blank Raised Bar COO. This is
the easiest one to spot, the COO
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was just drilled out. This can
be used to leave it blank or
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place another COO on top of it.
There are some further points to
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bear in mind with the scarred
out COO.
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This is the only one which is
roughly done, and with lots of
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additional material on top of
the former COO. That is the
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reason why the look of these can
change while producing them in
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high numbers. The fact is that
these fillups can change or
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become damaged fully or
partially because of wear on the
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mold. A famous example is the
half scarred Snaggletooth
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figure. It seems clear that half
of the scar broke off while
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producing full scarred figures.
Lots of them where produced and
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this mistake wasn't fixed or
wasn't changed, probably because
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it was not noticed within the
busy factory. That is why there
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are quite a few of them in
existence. In the case of the
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Lando Bespin scar, it is
difficult to be sure what
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happened exactly. There are lots
of different scars known. On
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some scars, even single letters
can be seen. The fact is the
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Lando is one of the more common
scarred figures and there was
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not only one mold us to produce
him. However regarding other
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scarred out figures, we can
assume that there were 2 to 4
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different scarred out molds. In
most cases, two different scars
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are known on the Greedo. ATAT
commander, Biker Scout, etc. But
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there is a real large number of
Lando scars existing. The only
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way to explain this is that the
fillups often broke out, or in
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the case often were repaired, or
the fillups were renewed. This
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is just a theory that it makes
the most sense. Also in the many
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different types of styles the
scars are probably due to the
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gradual wearing out of the (10)
OLED light material used to fill
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it in. Probably about the only
safe thing to say about most of
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the COO figures is one that the
first 20 figures were produced
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in Hong Kong from original steel
molds that were unaltered with
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the G.M.F.G.I. copyrights with a
1977 date and either made in
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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, or K.K.
for the country's stamp Any
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other figures is just general
speculation as the country stamp
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only proves where The plastic
was injected into the mold and
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not necessarily where the figure
was assembled, painted and
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packed. If you find this
information fascinating, and
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want to take a deeper dive into
the COO origins, the era COO's
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and the different altered COO,
please see the link in my
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description box below.
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Action Figure Resource: action-figure-resource.com
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Yesterday's toys, today's
treasures.
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