Palitoy Mailers
Frank Mewes
- March 29, 2022
Chihuahua
- March 29, 2022
Chihuahua
- March 29, 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SINGLE FIGURE MAILERS
– Palitoy Issued Mailers
Survival Kit
4-LOM
Admiral Ackbar
Anakin
Boba Fett
Dengar
The Emperor
Nien Nunb
Rancor Keeper
Refund of Postage Cost Note
Apology Note
Flyers & Comic Book Adverts
ROTJ era Mail-in Offer
Luke Jedi & General Madine
– Clipper
– Toltoys
– Kenner
– Kenner Canada
– Poch/PBP
– Harbert
Palitoy mailers came as a plain white box with just the recipients address label & a bagged figure, no catalogs & paperwork like their Kenner counterparts, each country had its own mail away issued figures & some were issued in several.
Survival kit
The early issued Palitoy SK mailers came with Kenner baggies & were later changed to the Palitoy versions which did not have the Blue Box Kenner logo on them, similar to the Toltoys 4-Lom being issued in a Kenner baggie, assumed due to the fact production of euro baggies had not yet stared when these earlier offers were available, later issue above with Palitoy baggie.
4-LOM
Heat sealed
Palitoy-b baggie
The Anakin was an offer that went ahead in the States, but from what any of us can gather it never actually got as far as being offered up as a mail away promotion either here in the UK or In Australia, all the stock would seem to have been made & packed ready for the promotion to go ahead, yet (speculation) it would seem that due to the decline of the toy line through the POTF era they never actually got as far as doing the Anakin promotion outside of the U.S.
Not one addressed example of this mailer has ever turned up either in the UK or in Australia, no flyers/cardbacks stickers or wraparounds – nothing a total blank canvas, though we do know that the mailers have turned up sealed as overstock in the UK directly from Palitoy & also as overstock/dead stock in Australia.
So in short it being labeled as TT’s is no more wrong or right than it being labeled Palitoy, IMO they should be labeled as neither, but just graded as non kenner overstock Anakin mailers.
If anyone has any further information regarding these I would really appreciate it
Palitoy-a – Tape sealed
Palitoy Fett mailer photo now included with what is “considered” to be the correct combination of baggie & box I think for the ROTJ era promotion (overstock box – no addressee), as for the flyer, I had it included in the case for aesthetics as a plain white box is not much to look at, no flyer was included with the Palitoy issued ones, but there is still speculation the jedi era promotion Fett “could have” come with a different box size & possibly even a different baggie type – mine field!
Boba Fett SW/ESB era 1st issue
The 1st issue mail in offer Fett’s have now been confirmed to have been issued with the Kenner ESB-a (1st issue) baggie, again just the box & baggie (no flyer or paperwork), but this was not the 1st one to actually be issued, it was the 1st the be mailed out, BUT! – there was an even earlier issued one with the SW-d small font baggie which were handed out in plain overstock type boxes (un addressed / un posted)
There is also a 3rd known incarnation of the Palitoy Fett mailer, this was handed out on toy store visits of Darth Vader & possibly boba Fett, those contained a small font SW-d Kenner issued baggie again with an overstock blank box of the same dimensions as the 2 examples above, see below image.
SW-d small font
1st known incarnation of the Fett mailer, but never actually offered with this baggie type in the mail in offers (see above info). Please note I have had to splice 2 images together to show how this would have been as I don’t have a complete example.
Finally a posted example to show.
There were also some in-store promotions where a mailer version of the fett was given out to children, I think on fett visits to toy stores, these examples are possibly even earlier than the ESB-a version & were given out with overstock plain white boxes which had the Kenner SW-d (small font version) & sometimes a red sticker (shown above) offering the promotion.
Please also see this (now very outdated) thread for what, very little, is known to be right to date. SWFUK Palitoy Mailer Missing Link
Palitoy-j / ESB-d – Heat sealed
Above is the most well known example of the Palitoy Dengar mailer (left) with the Palitoy-j baggie & D1108 Coded box & with the later issue ROTJ era offered version (Right) with a nice mailed out example of the box, which is the same dimensions with the same flap arrangement (identical) but did not have the D1108 code printed on the box like the earlier ESB era one offered.
ESB-d – Heat seal
Above are 2 further examples, ESB era D1108 Coded box with alternate ESB-d baggie which has been confirmed to have been found in the mailer though infrequently, we are not sure if these were issued prior to the Palitoy/Bradgate/Parker Palitoy-j versions or afterward, either after to make up shortfall of stock, or prior to them before UK issued baggie stock became available, much like the Toltoys issued 4-Lom with Kenner baggie & the Palitoy fett mailers with SW-d & ESB-a baggies.
The other example is he same as the one shown in Dengar one above, but this time with an overstock un-mailed example box where you can clearly see they were never printed with the codes.
Some further great info on the Dengar Palitoy mailer above in the form of the apology letter from Palitoy for the delay in postage of the figure due to the demand for it.
Finally some solid conformation on which baggie came with at least one of the 2 issued Dengar mailers, this is now 100% confirmed as the baggie which came with the first issue ESB era Palitoy Dengar mailer, same as the apology letter above but having come from a childhood collection with both the letter & the baggie, its very nice to put this one to rest after several years of speculation regarding the baggie type, though it is still not know if the same baggie & mailer box was used for the later ROTJ mail in offer (new info added above confirming more).
A cracking group photo of the Dengars that were sold in the final Astons auctions sale, the seller had a total of 8 Dengars / 5 Fett’s & 13 survival kit mailers all in the same auction, apparently a long time collector who passed away leaving a garage full of toys for his elderly neighbours in his will which included all of these fantastic mailers which almost ended up binned with the rest of the collection from what I gather, thankfully they were saved from the pending skip & sold off along with the rest of the collection in the Astons auction, a little paper clipping below the Dengar group shot for a little more detail.
Please note that one of the Dengars is in a Kenner issued ESB-d baggie which makes for another confirmed example of baggie type issued with the Palitoy Dengar mail in offer, we can confirm it’s correct with it coming from this collection, this is the 1st time this baggie has ever been seen with the mailer & likely used as a substitute due to a shortfall of the Bradgate font baggies normally seen with the ESB era mailer, another interesting snippet of info in the history of Palitoy issued mail away figures (more info on the above images)
Also note that 3 of the 8 in the auction are still sealed, these are the first ever known examples of a sealed Dengar mailer to date & then 3 in one go, amazing what still turns up, I think maybe even more amazing is the fact the owner was obviously quite fanatical about the offers as 3 of the Denars are bundled together with a single address label & a single postage stamp mark, there was a 2nd box which also had 3 Dengars written on the box, so one would assume the collector ordered 3 at a time at least twice as well as some individually.
Dengar QVC mailer
And lastly the 4th & final incarnation of the Dengar Palitoy mailer ( what a 4th type I hear you cry?? 
), this was not an official Palitoy offer, but rarer a promotion offered after the death of the toy line by the Q.V.C shopping channel,the details are a little hazy but lots of examples have been confirmed, the offer was for 2 figures, both in Palitoy-a baggies & came in a rather plain padded envelope, all examples confirmed to date are un-mailed examples as it is assumed they never did shift all the stock even through the shopping channel, seems at least 3 figures were offered up in this promotion via QVC (Dengar/ Emperor/ Rancor Keeper).
It is speculated that some other single mailer issued baggies/figures were also available through this offer, likely Anakin & possibly others, but this has not been 100% confirmed.
With Palitoy-a baggie.
PHOTO TO BE ADDED
With Palitoy-a baggie, paint app’s error (unpainted left hand)
Palitoy-n – all these 3 examples came from the same shipping case, so I assume a new shipment of baggies came in halfway through packing the case & it was of no concern which baggie type came with the mailers back then & most likely not even considered at the time, though of great interest to myself now.
There was another stash of Palitoy Emperors found a few years after my shipping case find (mad as they were insanely rare till I found the shipper), this find was actually under some guys bed, they’d been sat there for over 20 years & when he opened one only then was it known what they were as he had assumed they were in fact Hornby train parts – mad world, this type was fractionally different though with a Mat rather then Glossy finish to the boxes & was 2mm wider in size, so one would assume from a different total count shipper, likely 200 count like most other shippers discovered.
I will make an effort to get a comparison shot put up of the 2 side by side.
Emperor in Palitoy-a with factory error paint drag error.
Emperor in QVC shopping channel promotion mailer envelope, which would have had the Palitoy-a baggie included. Code for all 3 figures in this offer seems to be the same (012071).
Available as a blank box in overstock form, the above shows one of the very few mailed out examples known to exist. Note the Palitoy-n baggie.
Nien Nunb in Palitoy-a baggie overstock mailer, shown with a sealed example, font close up below.
Nien Nunb in Kenner box but Palitoy address label & Clipper mailer baggie (Palitoy-n) Talk about just get it together & sell it with whatever we have at hand to fill the shortfalls on orders, 2 examples of this cobbled together (in house) version have been found & confirmed.
Palitoy single figure mailers are IMO one of the toughest of all items to track down when it comes to baggies when it comes to ones other than Anakin. There have been a couple of decent size finds since this was written in the early 2000’s, but they are still rare compared to their Kenner counterparts.
This is indeed the correct box as 2 sealed examples have been found to confirm it’s authenticity, this is for me the ONLY mailer box I can confirm as correct for the RK, no addressed examples with the same dimension boxes have been found to date, some others are doing the rounds, but I am as yet unconvinced as to their authenticity.
Some interesting background history on the sealed examples that were eventually discovered, these were from a fairground stall, apparently many many overstock mailers had been bought in bulk directly from Palitoy by the stall holder, multiple figures not just Rancor keepers, they were used as a booby prize & handed out to folks who did not get a big win on the stall, sadly further details are not known, but what an awesome peek into the past of the toys.
Rancor Keeper in QVC shopping channel promotion mailer envelope, which would have had the Palitoy-a baggie included
I have no confirmation of which figure this came with, but as it has been with me all my life, I can only surmise & speculate it came with the Dengar as that was the only mail away figure I got as a kid, I have never seen another one of these up for sale or in any collection & can only assume it came with Dengar as this was the only mail away figure I got as a kid.
This is a hugely exciting find, the photo was kindly sent to me by a fellow member on SWFUK (theguiltyone) it is a slip included in a mailer he has, this is a huge find in terms of both baggie & Palitoy mailer collecting, it was speculated that there was a 6 figure mail in offer run by Palitoy towards the end of the toy line, presumable to get rid of remaining overstock, though not one scrap of information can (till this find) can be found about the offer, note that not just figures but also the Darth Vader’s collectors case & the display arena were available in this offer & the postage is marked Altrincham rather than Birmingham like other known ESB & SW era Palitoy mailers, this really is a huge missing piece of the mailer history & Palitoy puzzle, it is obvious this was a separate mail in campaign from the previous offers, as from what I know (see pic of the cardback sticker offers) the postage prices increased for this offer, the 4-lom was previously offered for 14 pence rather than the 15 pence stated in this later offer which would tie in perfectly with an increase in postage costs though minimal by todays standards.
Some great recently unearthed info within this simple letter pertaining to the Survival kit offer, which according to the letter had at least 50,000 applications (where did they all go??), seems they ran out of stock & made this offer of alternative figures, though no example of either the Luke nor the Madine have surfaced to date.
FULL list of order codes for the mailers (PENDING) many are shown in the above letter EXAMPLE – Boba Fett = AH
Special thanks to these contributors for their knowledge and image contributions:
Laurence Dyer, Arnaud Heyser, Andrew Neo, AJ, Snaggletooth, Kevin Bletsoe, Brett Meyer, DEL, Gary Borbidge, Edd Grant, Chris Eddleman, Vince Hely, Nathan Maunder, Jamie Woollard, Niels Pit, Andrew MacLachlan, cantina_patron, Franck Gadal, Joe, Richard Temple, Sven Schneider, Steve Savory, Shane Carter, Chris Fawcett, Andy Clarke, psybertech, Jake Neilheisel, Alex Pardi, Marc Caraway, Spookedhippy, Frank Ferro, James Body, Jonathan Freeman, Grant Criddle, Chris Arbizzani, RobbieZombbie, Narayan S. Naik, Mark Yeo, SHAWN_K, Andy Raymond, MOMIKE, theguiltyone, Sublevel Studios, Mike Silver, Mr Palitoy, Ronny Anngren, Willem-Jan Bos, Robert Heron, Darren H, REBELALLIANCE, Uncle Ron, LandoSkiff (Dan), Mike Horn, Pat O’Brien, Benjamin, Samir Krim, Pete Fizke, Final Frontier, Mike Heel, MR KENNER, Chris Fawcett, John Kellerman, Paul Naylor, Matthieu Barthelemy, Stéphane Faucourt, Andy Clarke, Yogi, Chris Simmons, Stormtrooper37, Robert Heron, Thomas Derby, Todd G, Sheldon Wagstaffe, Derek Ho, Broc Walker, Adam Marks, James Gallo, Charles Jones, Darrell Johnson & Brendi Burton, Christian Somma, Johnpaul Ragusa, Jesse Cedar Soberman, Dorothée Drouin Franck Gada, Dennis Hall.
Photos in the guide galleries below are compiled from a number of photo sources. It’s not been possible to find credits for each one, however, if you own one of the featured images and want to have your credit added, or don’t wish to have your photo included, please let me know and I’ll arrange.
Thanks, Chihuahua.
