Little Green Men.

I had been collecting figure variants for a few years before I started to take a special interest in Yoda figures. First of all I wanted a Ledy Yoda then I wanted a Yoda on an Empire card and before I knew it I had a character Focus

Start of my Focus 2006

At the start I collected mostly loose Yoda variants and avoided carded, mainly because of the cost but also because I have still heavily into collecting loose variants of other characters.  In June 2007 I was on holidays in Brussells and had decided to visit a comic shop that another collector had told me about where he had seen a few carded Clipper figures for sale. I found the shop and was quite suprised by some of the items that were on offer. Several nice boxed ships, lots of loose figures and about 20 carded figures including a couple of Palitoys and a few sweet Clippers. I found the Yoda in the picture below among the carded figures and made the shop owner an offer on it, took it home and posted an image of it on RS to see if I could gather any info on it.

Canadian 41 Back Yoda with Clipper Wraparound Offer (Green Snake)

The Brussells Yoda redirected my collecting ambitions and for the next few months or so and I become completely obsessed with aquiring carded Yodas from eBay, Forums & Trades.

My next big score came when I parted ways with the vast majority of my Modern collection to my good friend Robbie (Galactables). In exchange for several hundred carded Modern figures he traded me a beauiful AFA85 Yoda on 41B along with a breathtaking AFA90 Yoda on 77A.

Yoda 41B - AFA85

Yoda on 77A - AFA90

I picked up a few more carded examples over the following months including a very nice German 45 back from Toytoni and some amazing Yoda variants on 41D cardback off eBay along with a few other carded and loose  examples from other sources.

Yoda on German 45 Back

41D Variants

Various carded (October 2007).

Loose Variants (November 2007)

Around this time I was having luck picking up nice loose items too and was able to purchase a very nice  Ledy Yoda with Unpainted limbs and shortly after that I was able to pick up an unpainted Ledy Yoda head (see pic below). I also had luck finding a Bright Green, Orange Snake Yoda from a 41D cardback, a very nice Loose European Green Snake Yoda and a strange Grey head Yoda.

Ledy Yoda (Unpainted limbs), Ledy Yoda Head (Unpainted overstock) & Production Ledy Yoda.

Bright Green, Orange Snake Yoda off 41D cardback.

European Green Snake Yoda (Also appears in 6 Pack Baggies).

Grey Head Yoda (Have seen similiar versions on 48 backs).

In January 2008 I made what I reckon is probably my most exciting loose addition to date. It came from a collector in Denmark that a fellow RS member had hooked me up with after I spotted a strange looking Yoda in his webshots gallery. The seller knew very little of its history and was only able to tell me that it had orignially been owned by a collector in the US. At first I thought it was just an unpainted Production Yoda from the pics I had seen but when it arrived I was totally suprised at how different it looked compared to the other 20 or so Light Green (Orange Snake type) Yodas that I already had. His head was much lighter and appears to be made from an almost translucant light green plastic which is very similiar to the material used in Glow in the Dark plastics.

Unpainted Yoda

I was very excited and sent out several emails to other Yoda Focus collectors and a couple of people who I knew were familiar with Pre-Production processes and the like. None of them were able to give me any definate answers on its history but I did get a great link from the SWCA showing an identical First Shot Yoda From the collection of Dan Flarida. I did try to contact Dan to see if he could share any info but have sadly never had a reply . Would be cool to think the figure was a First Shot but without any proof, I’m just gonna have to keep dreaming

Back to the carded collection and by late last year I had luck finding another Clipper Offer Yoda card, a couple of Canadian Yodas, a couple of Palitoys and a decent Tri-Logo.

Canadian 32 Back

Palitoy 30 Back

Kenner 77A - Clipper Wraparound Offer

Palitoy Tri-Logo

Things were looking up for my US run too and by October last year I had been able to put together a set consisting of 32B, 41A, 41B, 41D (light green, orange snake), 41D (bright green, orange snake), 41D (bright green, brown snake), 41D (dark green, brown snake, 47A, 48B, 48C, 48D, 65A, 65A (Made in Mexico), 65B, 65B (Stemless bubble), 77A, 79A, 79B and POTF 92A leaving just 2 carded Yodas left to complete the US run.

Yoda 47A (4-LOM Offer)

Yoda 65A (Made in Mexico)

Yoda POTF 92 Back

The 2 remaining figures in the US run were  a 45A (which should have been easy) and Yoda on 48A which was an absolute nightmare to track down! First of all the 45A appeared on eBay and with a bit of luck and an AuctionSniper, I awake one morning to find I was the very happy winner of a longtime coming eBay lot

Yoda on 45A (Display Arena Offer)

A few weeks past and after 18 months and 3 attempts on eBay, a 48A appeared on the market. I contacted the seller and told him how desperate I was to aquire the piece and how it would complete my run. A few PM’s went back and forth and soon we realised that we recognised each others usernames from Rebelscum. The seller Jason (Sacko) was very helpful and we soon had a deal. The figure arrived a week later and my US run was complete :D

Yoda 48A - AFA80

Inbetween finding the final 2 carded figures I was lucky enough to get my hands of a couple of other loose Yoda variants that I had been after for a while including a TopToys Yoda from Argentina, a Model Trem Bootleg from Brazil and a Yoda with Green Snake in a 6 Pack baggie.

TopToys Yoda (Argentina)

Model Trem Bootleg from Brazil

Yoda (Green Snake) ESB Type B Baggie

With my US run complete and the imminent arrival of our first child I have decided to put my Yoda Focus on a brief hiatus. The remaining Foreign Yodas that I need to complete my collection are very costly and I really can’t justify spending that amount of money at the moment on toys, so for now I have changed my Focus from Yoda to completing a set of Empire Character on Empire Card backs (completed last month) and now Return of the Jedi Characters on Return of the Jedi cardbacks. A Focus which is proving to be a lot of fun and a lot less costly. Hope to be back again in the next couple of weeks with pics of the completed Jedi set to share.

For now I’ll leave you with a couple of random pics from my Yoda collection, enjoy

Yoda on Empire Cards

Yoda on Jedi cards

Various Loose Yoda variants

Close up of loose figures on Yoda shelf

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