MEXICAN/SA BOOTLEG FIGURES

The Mexican/SA (semi-articulated) bootleg figures were, for the most part, based off of the vintage Star Wars figures and in some cases the Power of the Force 2 figures. This line of cheaply painted bootlegs made its debut in the 80's and continued into the 90's, though it's possible that the series carried on to the late 90's. Some even claim production continued into the new millennium. 

Here's Klaatu in his palace outfit.

Below's a good shot of his head. Nice fangs, Klaatu!

These aren't very posable, even less so than vintage Star Wars figures. Klaatu only has posable arms at the shoulders. 

Next up is the Emperor's Royal Guard. It's a little harder to mess up on his appearance because he's almost all red. The thing is, the bootleggers didn't give the guard his cloak/ dress thing, so he definitely looks different.

Snowtrooper. You can read all about him in his own post elsewhere on Strange Star Wars Collecting.

Chewbacca. He's not articulated, so he's stuck in a roaring, intimidating pose. 

Mini Jabba with moving arms.

This toy makes me laugh!

The Mexican/SA figures were packaged in multiple ways. Some came in three packs bagged with a small Power of the Force 2 (POTF2) card with a yellow border.

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

Others were packed alone in a bubble stapled on a small POTF2 card with a yellow border.

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

A variety came in a bubble on a rectangular (nearly square) card that features the Return of the Jedi logo. On each card there's two images printed: One card shows two Ralph McQuarrie paintings, one of R2-D2 and C-3PO inside Jabba's palace with a Gamorrean guard and EV-9D9, the other an exterior view of Jabba's sail barge. 

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

The second card shows a photo of the vintage speeder bike toy and a photo of the Millennium Falcon toy with the Rebel Transport toy. 

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

The third and rarest card has a painting of an A-wing and also of a scene on Endor. These cards were also folded in half and used as hanger cards for three packs.

What's always been a personal favorite of mine are the single figures that come in a bag stapled onto a hanger card that say "LA GUERRA DE LAS GALAXIAS" (which is spanish for "The Star Wars") at the top and "CON ARTURITO" (anfaran1968 left a comment and helped translate this part for me. "Con" means "with", and "Arturito" is a Spanish name for R2-D2) at the bottom. It features fantastic knockoff art based on the Star Wars style C poster. Han Solo is in a classic spaceman suit, complete with a fishbowl helmet! There's a saucer to the right and the colors are all off; R2-D2's red, Vader and Luke are yellow, and Leia's decked in orange!

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

There's a card that uses the real style C poster artwork, along with the POTF2 logo. A baggy with three figures is attached to the card.

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

Mexican/SA bootleg figures were also sold individually in clear plastic bags without any sort of card.

Photo from Steven Weimer. Used with permission.

I won't be doing a good 'ol fashion "CONFIRMED TO EXIST" CHECKLIST, and for good reason. There are over 275 variations known to exist in the Mexican/SA line! My fingers would go numb from typing that list, not that I'd even be able to identify all of them. Below is a little list of the characters found in this line that I'll be updating as I find more, though. Check out my Mexican/SA Snowtrooper Figure post where I list a huge amount of variations of the Snowtrooper figure... y'know, the one with the funny looking eyes.

"VINTAGE"

- 2-1B

- Admiral Ackbar

- Bespin Luke

- Bib Fortuna

- Biker Scout

- Bossk

- B-wing pilot

- C-3PO

- Chewbacca

- Darth Vader

- Emperor

- Emperor's Royal Guard

- Gamorrean Guard

- Greedo

- Han Solo

- Jabba (mini scale)

- Klaatu in palace outfit

- Klaatu in skiff gear

- Lando in skiff gear

- Logray

- Luke Skywalker

- Luke Skywalker X-wing Pilot

- Princess Leia

- Prune Face

- R2-D2

- Ree-Yees

- Skiff Lando

- Snowtrooper (with protruding eyes)

- Snowtrooper (without protruding eyes)

- TIE fighter pilot

- Ugnaught

- Weequay Skiff Guard

- Yoda (arms down)

- Yoda (arm up) with snake and cane

- Yoda (arm up) without snake and cane

"POTF2"

- C-3PO

- Chewbacca

- R2-D2

- R5-D4

Steven Weimer (AKA Rebojazz) posted these additional details on the Rebelscum forums:

"A vast majority of the earliest [Mexican/SA] bootlegs produced are next to impossible to find. Some characters like Mini-Jabba, Luke X-Wing, Ree Yees, Han Solo and Prune Face very rarely show up in the market and only a small handful are known to exist in private and anonymous collections. In the early years some of these figures were even sculpted differently: Snowtrooper had a true vintage head-sculpt as opposed to the common one with protruding eyes and "mouth", early Princess Leia had a movable head and C-3PO had a peg hole in one of his feet. There are two other characters that are believed to have movable heads in the early years."

After reading this post, I'm sure you'll realize there's someone that deserves some thanks. I'd like to give special thanks to Steven Weimer for teaching me a lot of what you've just read on this page. In fact, without Steven's help I still wouldn't know what "SA" stood for! Steven also gave me permission to use his photos, and I didn't even have to ask. I don't usually use other people's photos, but I felt this post had that "a picture speaks a thousand words" situation. I blabber on about a million variations and all the information starts to get jumbled without images.