SNOWTROOPER AND COMIC

YPS is a German comic which often included special "gimmicks" with each issue. Issue #510 featured an ESB Snowtrooper figure. All "gimmick" issues came polybagged to keep the toy with the comic. Sealed polybagged examples of this issue are extremely rare. This issue also included a special punchout playset of sorts totally unrelated to Star Wars. This playset is shown unused in the top right picture. The snowtrooper story is very non-Star Wars and comprises only one page of the issue.

The Snowtrooper included with the YPS comic features identical characteristics to the Snowtrooper which is sometimes, but not always, found on Trilogo, Palitoy, Meccano, and PBP cards. The figure is molded in a much different shade of plastic that becomes very apparent upon comparison. I refer to it as the "YPS" version in this entry, however it could just as easily be referred to as a trilogo variant, etc. The figure has a much more off-white appearance and is not as glossy as the US figure. The shade difference gives it a much more detailed look in my opinion. I own three of these German figures and all exhibit this plastic difference.

There are a few more noteworthy oddities of the snowtrooper packaged with this issue. The first and most well known involves a different gun on occassion. An Action Force gun, molded in black plastic was issued with some figure. I can confirm that regular blue Star Wars guns were packaged with the figure at times as well.

The second variation involves the cape. While the US figure's cape has a narrow two-holed slit on each side, the YPS version exhibits one round hole on each side of the cape for attachment to the figure. I've seen a few come out of Germany with the regular US capes, so it is possible that the US cape was packaged with snowtrooper as well. The YPS cape is shown here on the left with the US cape version on the right:

The third variation on this figure involves the copyright date. I have found two variations from the US figure so far. The first exhibits a negative impressioned copyright which is etched into the figure's back left thigh:

The second variation is also etched into the thigh, however a portion of the copyright looks to have been removed from the mold by adding material over it, causing a cavity in the figure's leg:

Here is a photo of the US raised copyright located on the upper left boot for comparison:

I think the above differences add a great deal of uniqueness to this foreign figure variation. I'd like to thank Stephan for all his help with tracking these pieces down for me in their home country of Germany. His dilligence has shed much light onto the interesting nature of this piece and Stephan has made it possible for me to greatly expand my snowtrooper collection.