When Kenner originally released the Jawa action figure as part of its first wave of Star Wars figures it came with a plastic cape.* Collectors more commonly refer to this as the Vinyl Cape Jawa. The production run for this figure was short lived but we know it was released in the United States and Canada (Kenner), France (Mecanno), the United Kingdom (Palitoy) and then later in Australia and New Zealand under the Toltoys logo.
As a general rule, anything which was short lived, and especially early in the run, is not only desirable to collectors but also expensive. And where there is money to be made, there will be fakes to be found.
The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the tell-tale signs of many of the fake vinyl cape Jawas that we see on the Internet today. For an in-depth review I would recommend Scott Bradley’s website which goes into great detail on how to spot both faked carded and loose vinyl caped Jawas.
However, this article will look at the loose figures in the main. The monetary value associated with the VCJ is in the cape only. Although it is correct to say that the VCJ figure had larger eyes than most of the cloth caped Jawas (some cloth caped Jawas also have large eyes) do not let this solely put you off buying a loose one. As kids we often swapped our accessories around and caused mayhem for future collectors when trying to document and preserve.
Here are examples of large eyes and small eyes Jawas
Secondly, the weapon. Although of lot of collectors believe that the non-side bump weapon is correct, there is evidence to show that both weapons were paired with VCJs and that both are now accepted for grading purposes. It is likely that the weapon changed between production runs and that the non-bump weapon is the earlier of the two.
Finally, the cape. Most capes can be spotted with just a cursory glance, and some are truly dreadful.
The most common faked Jawas are those found with cut-down Ben Kenobi capes. This in itself is a travesty as there are only a limited number of good quality Ben Kenobi action figures and the more that are destroyed will lead to fewer in the future. The Ben Kenobi cape is more reddish-brown than the colour of the true VCJ cape.
However, be aware that the Toltoys cape is much darker than the others released. This one here is legitimate. It is unlikely that you will find a Toltoys Jawa in the wild and be wary of sellers claiming that they have one.
There are some tell-tale signs in the cape itself. The length of the cape can often be spotted from the photographs, true capes should leave approximately a ¼” gap from the base of the figure. Asking for photographs of the arm holes is also important, these should be a snug fit around the Jawa. It is common to see these split on genuine capes.
Nothing beats having the item in hand however. The cape itself does not have the same texture on both sides and you may have heard of the zip test . Running a fingernail over one side of the cape should produce a scratchy noise which sort of sounds like a zip. The other side should be smooth.
If you’re trying to track down a VCJ ask for as many photographs as possible, and learn about the history of the piece. Some genuine capes do turn up on eBay in bulk lots, several over the last 6 months have been found. However, be prepared to spend a serious amount of money (heading over 4 figures) for a genuine, good condition cape from a dealer as a lot of collectors are after them.
Photos © The Imperial Gunnery, Richard Hutchinson, star wars forum UK user LOM
* when conducting research for this article I found a resource on theswca which explained that Kenner did not initially intended for the Jawa to have any cape at all. Check it out!
https://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=81485