| Leia Hoth Unpainted & Paint Master 4-up Hardcopies (692-007) | |
| Here we have an impressive assembly of Micro Collection prototypes focusing on the Leia in Hoth outfit figure from the Hoth Ion Cannon playset. The larger pieces on the left and right of the photo are known as 4-up hardcopies; they represent the scale at which the figure was originally sculpted and are cast in a hard urethane material. The figure at right is called a "paint master," a title that refers to its function as a model, intended to illustrate how the finished production figures would eventually be decorated. The piece on the left, however, demonstrates what the hardcopy looks like unpainted; such figures would be used as masters for tooling (creating production molds), or simply to test pose, detail, etc.
The two figures in the center are production figures; they illustrate well the massive diminishment in scale these things underwent prior to mass production. As you've probably figured out by now, one is an unpainted figure, while the other is painted in the color scheme laid out by the 4-up paint master.
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| Description by: | Ron Salvatore |
| Photo: | Garry Pedersen |
| From the collection of: | Ron Salvatore |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Empire Strikes Back |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 1980 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Micro Collection |