There is a rash of FAKE vinyl cape Jawas on the secondary market right now. There are reports that these are being sold by a "collector" from Long Island, New York, who has an attrocious reputation for manufacturing and selling fake collectibles over the past several years.

Anyone shopping around for such a piece should take extra care in examining the make sure you are getting the real thing. Some seasoned collectors have been fooled by these well-made fakes. Fortunately, there is a way to tell the fakes from originals.

In the image below, there are three shots of bubbles that were used for the Jawa on Star Wars cards, but not all these bubbles were used for vinyl cape Jawas. The perpetrator is using bubbles from 12/20-back cloth cape Jawas to seal a vinyl cape Jawa on a 12-back card.

The bubble on the left is the correct bubble for the vinyl cape Jawa. It is thin and flat and is the only bubble that was ever used for the vinyl cape Jawa. If you see any other bubble on a carded vinyl Jawa bubble, it is fake.

The bubble on the right is the one used on many 12-back cloth cape Jawas, but not on any vinyl cape Jawas.

The one in the middle is the third bubble that was used on 12-backs Jawas, but was only used on cards with cloth cape Jawas. This bubble is being used on these fakes that have been turning up. They look real, because they are real bubbles, even though such bubbles were never used on original carded vinyl cape Jawas. If you see a carded vinyl cape Jawa with this slanted bubble shown in the illustration in the middle, then you have a fake in front of you. I don't care what dealers say about different bubbles being used on vinyl cape Jawas, it is simply not true. If you spot any of these fakes, please contact immediately.

Please feel free to spread this information and copy the image and text. Only by getting the word out, will the perpetrator get stuck with these fakes instead of innocent victims.

Thanks go to Chris Fawcett for the illustrations and a whole host of people for tracking down info on these fakes.

Gus Lopez
lopez@halcyon.com