RUSSIAN BOOTLEG FIGURES

These figures are Russian bootlegs, most of which are based off of Kenner's Power of the Force 2 (POTF2) figure line.

Here's the three that I own. This is dark-red Chewbacca...

Next we have brown Chewbacca...

And last but not least we have Yoda...

There's at least six figures from this line of bootlegs. Of course there's dark-red Chewie, brown Chewie, and Yoda, but there's also Bossk in pink suit, Bossk in dark-green suit, Darth Vader, and a comment was left on this post saying that there's also an orange Bossk. I'll explore more variations in my checklist near the end of this post.

The two Chewbaccas are very similar to the basic POTF2 figure (although a bit shorter), but I'm not too sure about Yoda. He doesn't look like the basic line's Yoda. He also doesn't look like the Flashback Yoda, Jedi Spirits Cinema Scenes Yoda, nor the POTF2 Complete Galaxy version. Not even good 'ol vintage Yoda matches! It could be that we have a completely original sculpt on our hands.

The backs of dark-red Chewie's and Yoda's cards are blank cardboard with what looks like a date stamped on the back. Here's a close up of Yoda's stamp. Perhaps it's March or May 2003? Anyone know Russian or whatever this is?

And below is dark-red Chewbacca's stamp. It looks like April 20th, 2004 to me.

On his otherwise blank back, Brown Chewbacca has a logo (PCT or CPT, perhaps) stamped with AR-43 (with the "R" backwards) below it.

It's the same logo as one of the logos seen on the card's front, towards the lower right.

I've seen another version of the card's back that's white with a stamped logo and two stickers on it.

Below is a close up of the bottom of Yoda's card. I'd love to translate it for you, but I can't read Russian, although I can tell you that the card's header logo (the one that kinda looks like "3BE3AHblE BONHbl" or "3BE3DHblE BONHbl") translates to "Star Wars".

At the bottom of dark-red Chewbacca's card front, we see what looks like a few dates, 2001 through 2005, I guess. I don't know if there's any significance to this or not.

On the bottom left of the card is a logo that kinda looks like a T in a circle. I've seen this on the vintage Russian bootlegs, too.

Here's a good close up of the art found on the card's front.

"CONFIRMED TO EXIST" CHECKLIST (I'll update this if I come across any more variations)

- Bossk (Dark-green suit) (Rectangle bubble)

- Bossk (Pink suit) (Rectangle bubble)

- Chewbacca (Dark-red) (date stamped on back of card) (Octagon bubble)

- Chewbacca (Brown) (Octagon bubble)

- Chewbacca (Brown) (PCT or CPT logo and AR-43 stamped on back of card) (Rectangle bubble)

- Darth Vader (Rectangle bubble)

- Yoda (Cane) (date stamped on back of card) (Oval bubble)

- Yoda (Without cane, although this could be an error or the cane could've been removed) (PCT or CPT logo and AR-43 stamped on back of card) (Two white stickers on back of card, one with barcode and the other blank) (Oval bubble)

To wrap things up, here's a little story for ya: I bought the bootleg Yoda figure from Duncan Jenkins, a super Star Wars collector and theswca.com contributer who also co-wrote Gus and Duncan's Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles with Gus Lopez, another super collector. When I found Yoda, I asked if he'd go lower on the price, but he held his ground. I said I'd buy Yoda at his price if he threw in his Pepsi Boss Nass bottle top, and he did. Boss Nass is probably my favorite new trilogy character, so I was very happy with my purchase! Then, about one year later, I was looking at brown Chewie (and a few other items) from a different dealer and I said if they'd toss in a metal Boss Nass bottle cap then I'd buy the lot. He did! Time passed, and I crossed paths with the Falcon knock-off at a toy show and managed to get a different Pepsi top featuring Nass' familiar face thrown in as a bonus. There's just something satisfying about getting a bootleg or knock-off with a free Nass bottle top.