| Star Wars 12-Back Luke Skywalker Double Telescoping Lightsaber | |
| As most serious vintage collectors know, the earliest issues of the Luke Skywalker action figure came with a two-piece lightsaber, which telescoped two times out of the arm socket. While most of these rare figures came packaged in Kenner's Early Bird set of figures, a fair number of them have surfaced on 12-back blister cards. This one of these rare carded figures.
A view from the side of the bubble reveals the relatively short tip on this saber. But the tip is, in fact, much longer than usual; it's just retracted into the larger tubular housing.
Troy was fortunate enough to find this item at a toy show, identify it as the rare DT variation, and make an extremely smart purchase. But upon getting it home, he performed a simple test on it in order to assure himself that it was indeed the rare figure. The method he used is known as the paper clip test. To perform it, one must straighten out a metal paper clip, so that it is several inches in length. Then, sliding it into the small divide that exists between the bottom of the figure's bubble and the cardboard of the blister card, he carefully works it up until the metal rod touches the tip of the saber. A light push or series of wiggles and the test should yield its results. If the tip slides up further into its plastic housing, it's a DT figure. If it does not yeild, it's just a regular old lightsaber. At any rate, you can see the results of Troy's test above. The photo on the left shows the saber before it was poked by the straightened out clip; the one on the right shows it after it was pushed up a bit. |
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| Description by: | Ron Salvatore |
| Photo: | Troy Lindsay |
| From the collection of: | Troy Lindsay |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | A New Hope |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 2004 |
| Category: | Toys / Action Figure Related / Small Action Figures (Licensed) |
