Hi Everyone; YES you read the title correctly: MECCANO French vintage AT-ATs with a 's' !!
How and when the AT-AT vehicle was originally released in France back in the 80s has always been quite a mystery. During many years, it was simply believed not to have been marketed.
With the surface of only Bilogo boxes (front side in English, back side in French) and listing in 1984 retailer catalog, it was believed to have been marketed late 1984; and unlike most ESB vehicles, there was no evidence so far about imported Kenner/Palitoy boxes with French notification stickers...
Well, more light can be made thanks to TWO incredible unreferenced variants made by myself and my pal French Collector Yann Leroux in the recent weeks: a Palitoy ESB box with Meccano sticker, and a Bilogo box with Meccano sticker and French Miro-Meccano ROTJ instructions.
That makes TWO significant discoveries on a same vehicle within a few weeks, which we are now sharing with the community o-o.
This new information allow to determine that the AT-AT was first sold in France late 1983, from a Palitoy imported box, then quickly replaced by the Bilogo box on which a sticker was still applied, to finally end-up with the Bilogo box without any additions.
Of course, Meccano used to import ESB Palitoy boxes during the ESB marketing era and sold them with a French notification sticker and French ESB instructions (eg. Twin-Pod Cloud Car, Snowspeeder, and Millenium Falcon); however importing an ESB Palitoy box to retail during the ROTJ era is quite unusual.
The evidence of this AT-AT not being retailed during the ESB era is the ROTJ logo printed on the large notification sticker and the ROTJ French printed instructions.
In overall, the AT-AT was retailed in France throughout three variants:
1: Palitoy ESB 'Bounty hunter' box with French sticker + ROTJ Miro-Meccano French & ESB Palitoy instructions
2: regular Bilogo ROTJ box with French sticker + ROTJ Miro-Meccano French & ESB Palitoy instructions
3: regular Bilogo ROTJ box -without sticker- + ESB Kenner Canada & ESB Palitoy instructions
Now, enjoy the rest of the pictures
Stéphane and Yann.
How and when the AT-AT vehicle was originally released in France back in the 80s has always been quite a mystery. During many years, it was simply believed not to have been marketed.
With the surface of only Bilogo boxes (front side in English, back side in French) and listing in 1984 retailer catalog, it was believed to have been marketed late 1984; and unlike most ESB vehicles, there was no evidence so far about imported Kenner/Palitoy boxes with French notification stickers...
Well, more light can be made thanks to TWO incredible unreferenced variants made by myself and my pal French Collector Yann Leroux in the recent weeks: a Palitoy ESB box with Meccano sticker, and a Bilogo box with Meccano sticker and French Miro-Meccano ROTJ instructions.
That makes TWO significant discoveries on a same vehicle within a few weeks, which we are now sharing with the community o-o.
This new information allow to determine that the AT-AT was first sold in France late 1983, from a Palitoy imported box, then quickly replaced by the Bilogo box on which a sticker was still applied, to finally end-up with the Bilogo box without any additions.
Of course, Meccano used to import ESB Palitoy boxes during the ESB marketing era and sold them with a French notification sticker and French ESB instructions (eg. Twin-Pod Cloud Car, Snowspeeder, and Millenium Falcon); however importing an ESB Palitoy box to retail during the ROTJ era is quite unusual.
The evidence of this AT-AT not being retailed during the ESB era is the ROTJ logo printed on the large notification sticker and the ROTJ French printed instructions.
In overall, the AT-AT was retailed in France throughout three variants:
1: Palitoy ESB 'Bounty hunter' box with French sticker + ROTJ Miro-Meccano French & ESB Palitoy instructions
2: regular Bilogo ROTJ box with French sticker + ROTJ Miro-Meccano French & ESB Palitoy instructions
3: regular Bilogo ROTJ box -without sticker- + ESB Kenner Canada & ESB Palitoy instructions
Now, enjoy the rest of the pictures
Stéphane and Yann.
Last edited:
