Hi. Here's a quite amazing discovery I've made on a recent acquisition, it is the same kind of discovery I've encountered before as the "Meccano 1982 Imperial Troop Transport with snowtroopers in baggies" and the "Trilogo boxed Y-Wing" o-o
Just as a quick background, MECCANO Star Wars "Guerre des Etoiles" toys kept their SW/GDE packaging during the whole SW-ESB era until late 1982, thus the TIE Fighter only existed in GDE packaging.
Back in 2005, I made a discovery seeing a Miro-Meccano 1981 sticker onto a KENNER Star Wars LP TIE Fighter, the nameplate of the toy had been covered with a same blue color sticker to "Chasseur TIE Standard".
This particular never-seen-before TIE Fighter was shown in my Meccano to Trilogo book page 22.
A few weeks ago, I could acquire a perfect one with mint content including instructions, and that's the best part about its origin.
As you can see on the second picture below, it has TWO instructions sheet. Meccano would usually leave the original sheet inside and add its own instructions sheet.
- The first instructions sheet included, the original one, looks like a KENNER SW, but you'll notice the "TIE JAGER" name, which happens to be a GERMAN instructions sheet.
It makes sense, since Kenner products were distributed in Germany, but it also makes sense since Meccano was also dealing with French - German borders areas, as with their "Krieg der Sterne" Minicinex viewer...
- The second instructions sheet is a MECCANO version.
But those who've already seen a Meccano TIE Fighter instructions sheet will instantly notice that this particular one bears a MIRO-MECCANO 1981 logo, instead of the regular "MECCANO" logo.
This instructions sheet has never been referenced but totally matches the "1982 Imperial Troop Transport" in which Meccano had also reprinted the instructions sheet with updated logo.
In the end, that makes a KENNER American toy, imported to be sold in Germany, then finally imported and sold in France - that's a quite long way for a toy in the 1980s :wtf:
Here a comparison of both MECCANO TIE Fighters to enjoy.
Be prepared to discover even more amazing stuff in my upcoming book
stephane
Just as a quick background, MECCANO Star Wars "Guerre des Etoiles" toys kept their SW/GDE packaging during the whole SW-ESB era until late 1982, thus the TIE Fighter only existed in GDE packaging.
Back in 2005, I made a discovery seeing a Miro-Meccano 1981 sticker onto a KENNER Star Wars LP TIE Fighter, the nameplate of the toy had been covered with a same blue color sticker to "Chasseur TIE Standard".
This particular never-seen-before TIE Fighter was shown in my Meccano to Trilogo book page 22.
A few weeks ago, I could acquire a perfect one with mint content including instructions, and that's the best part about its origin.
As you can see on the second picture below, it has TWO instructions sheet. Meccano would usually leave the original sheet inside and add its own instructions sheet.
It makes sense, since Kenner products were distributed in Germany, but it also makes sense since Meccano was also dealing with French - German borders areas, as with their "Krieg der Sterne" Minicinex viewer...
- The second instructions sheet is a MECCANO version.
But those who've already seen a Meccano TIE Fighter instructions sheet will instantly notice that this particular one bears a MIRO-MECCANO 1981 logo, instead of the regular "MECCANO" logo.
This instructions sheet has never been referenced but totally matches the "1982 Imperial Troop Transport" in which Meccano had also reprinted the instructions sheet with updated logo.
In the end, that makes a KENNER American toy, imported to be sold in Germany, then finally imported and sold in France - that's a quite long way for a toy in the 1980s :wtf:
Here a comparison of both MECCANO TIE Fighters to enjoy.
Be prepared to discover even more amazing stuff in my upcoming book
stephane
