Subject:      Re: Trouble Afoot from prototype owner and Hasbro legal
From:         salfamily@aol.com (Salfamily)
Date:         1998/03/04
Message-ID:   <19980304004301.TAA24511@ladder02.news.aol.com>
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.sf.starwars.collecting.misc

>I'll have to disagree on this point, chris.  Though I'm certain you're
>going to send in an excellent letter, I think there are issues beyond the
>technical points that folks like you and Ron will address.

Yes, this is key. As I said in another post of mine in this thread: stick to
the obvious inaccuracies of what was printed in that article and keep it civil.
I think there's plenty there that an experienced collector can attack without
getting into, as Pam calls them, "technical points."

Really, your support in this would be appreciated and would really show the
folks behind this piece the well-informed nature of the SW collecting community

Below is a copy of my very long, very overwrought letter to the editor. They
asked for it!! :^)

 ron

--------------------------------------------

Editor
Winter Haven News Chief
P.O. Box 1440
Winter Haven, FL  33882

Dear Editor:

      The recent Associated Press article by Rick Kenney, regarding the
incredible "find" of Star Wars toys made by Virginia Jarvis Brooks has been
brought to my attention by a number of people within the Star Wars collecting
community.  Though my association with Ms. Brooks has not been a long one, it
continues to reach new heights of absurdity, as she continues her apparent
efforts at boosting the value of her very common figurines by discounting rarer
figures which experienced collectors prize more.  The article appears less than
well researched, biased, and supports an apparent agenda on Ms. Brooks' part
that runs entirely contrary to a concern for Star Wars collectors, Star Wars
collecting, or the Star Wars franchise in a broad sense.  

      The article implies that Ms. Brooks' figures have a value on the order of
"hundreds of thousands of dollars," and, furthermore, that individuals such as
myself and the Earth in Cincinnati are responsible for their devaluation. 
Neither of these statements has any factual basis.  Unpainted Micro Collection
figures, which is what the article suggests she has, have, at best, a value of
between $5 and $15 each, and have been available on the collector's market for
the last 15 years without a significant shift in average selling price.  This
information is readily available to anyone who chooses to look for it, via
marketplace publications such as Toy Shop, as well as several well-known and
widely available price guides (the first edition of Tomart's Price Guide To
Worldwide Star Wars Collectibles lists such figures at $1 to $3 each).  If
anything, the price of unpainted Micro Collection figures has risen slightly
since that guide's 1994 date of publication.  To suggest that anyone has had a
hand in diminishing the value of Ms. Brooks' 328 figures is absurd and, I might
add, slanderous to the individuals at which the accusation is directed (myself
included).

      Among a great many other things, the article fails to mention the
discrepancy between unpainted versions of widely-marketed Micro Collection
figurines, and unreleased, yet prototyped figures which never made it to stores
or anything close to mass-production.  The latter category encompasses both
near-production figurines, of a quality identical to Ms. Brooks', and hand-made
conceptual figures, made both by Kenner and outside companies, which aided
Kenner in the development of certain toys.  The difference in market value
between Ms. Brooks' regular production figures, sold in painted form in
playsets throughout the United States and Canada, and an unreleased prototype
is, for obvious reasons of supply, exponential.  Whereas Ms. Brooks' figures
were produced in quantities stretching into the millions, there are probably
less than fifty of each of the various pre-mass production pieces known to
exist today.  Anyone who looks at the situation needs to keep this discrepancy
in mind if she wishes to properly understand what is going on in terms of
prices and availability.  What Ms. Brooks has are unpainted examples of figures
which could be bought at any toy store in the early 1980's, a fact which Ms.
Brooks seems to have been unwilling to accept.  In not presenting the reality
of the marketplace, the article misleads readers, as well as misreprents the
individuals it implicates.

      Ms. Brooks' most outrageous claim, however, is that the few unreleased
Micro Collection figures that are valuable and are highly sought-after by
collectors, are all the product of a counterfeiting conspiracy.  The Micro
Collection was terminated following its 1982 debut and prior to its 1983
extension, due to unsatisfactory sales.  Left in the lurch were several
playsets, most notably the Hoth Bacta Chamber and Bespin Torture Chamber, which
would have come with four and six new figures, respectively.  That these toys
reached it to a near-production stage is a widely-proven and incontestable
fact, and that they exist today in significant, if limited numbers is evidenced
not only by their place in private collections the world over, but by their
presence in Kenner photographs and literature of the time.  I could produce
photographic and physical evidence of unproduced, though prototyped, toys and
describe their production process in depth; I could, based on extensive
personal research, provide a list stating which figures were concepted, which
were prototyped, and what stage of production each of these figures reached; in
doing so, I could cite personal correspondences with Kenner designers and
engineers attesting to the creation of these toys.  But that's been done.  This
information was provided to Ms. Brooks some 4 months ago, by myself and two
other experts in this area, and Ms. Brooks chose to discount it.  To anyone
seeking the proof I am here citing, I would direct them to the Star Wars
Collectors Archive web site, at http://www.toysrgus.com, where it is all
collected and documented, as well as to issue # 60 of Action Figure News and
Toy Review, which ran a comprehensive article on nearly-produced Micro
Collection toys.  This is the evidence at hand; evidence that has been years in
the collecting.  The burden of proof lies in Ms. Brooks' hands, and she has yet
to prove anything.

      Lastly, the article implies that I have in some way been involved in the
counterfeiting of Kenner products.  I have indeed provided replicas of the ten
unreleased Bacta and Torture Chamber figures to the collecting community.  This
was done in an honest, forthright fashion, and I have neither profited from nor
misrepresented these figures as genuine at any time.  The figures are made from
a plastic-like resin, bear a number on their bases and have not exceeded a
production number over thirty pieces each.  In short, there is no way that they
could ever be mistaken for metal originals, and I have taken every precaution
to insure that they wouldn't be.  In doing this, I have allowed collectors to
own and appreciate these items at a negligible cost.  On a personal level, it
is something I have enjoyed immensely, as I derive a great deal of satisfaction
from communicating with fellow collectors and bolstering interest and
enthusiasm for the hobby I love.  Ms. Brooks' motive, on the other hand,
appears to encompass nothing more than an economic interest, and the article's
support of it is, quite frankly, disheartening.

      I do not wish to cause Ms. Brooks problems and I hope her "find"
eventually meets her expectations.  There is a truth here, however; a truth
that is well-supported, exhaustively researched, and free of any hint of
dishonesty or malice.  It is a truth that has been proven by collectors and
upheld by the collecting community, by people who are concerned for the hobby's
welfare and who have dedicated a large part of their lives involved with and
promoting it.  Ms. Brooks is not one of these people.  Given the actual facts,
how your readers wish to interpret the situation is entirely up to them.  What
I take issue with, however, is the misrepresentation, both of myself, as well
as the Earth (a long-respected Star Wars collectibles store), as not only
having had a deterimental effect on the marketplace, but in engaging in the
illegal production and sale of counterfeit Micro Collection figurines.  These
are false implications and the article does not support them in even the
slightest of ways, a quality made all the more apparent when one considers that
I was not even contacted for a comment on the article I was named in.  This is
shoddy work, and I will accept nothing less than a clarification of the
situation and a retraction of the implications.

                                                               
 Sincerely, 


Ronald Salvatore

cc:
Rick Kenney
Associated Press
Howard Roffman, Lucasfilm, Ltd.
James M. Kipling, Hasbro, Inc.