For The Love Of The Hildebrandt Logo

In many ways being a TVC or 3.75” fan these days is torture. In the words of my friend Agustin (@AGI1977) “We want more, we always want MORE.” We want more figures, more background characters, more core characters, more rebels characters, and yes, more old guys. But there have been simple asks that should be much easier to fulfill, well at least that’s what we think. We’ve begged for thicker card stock and it only took 4ish years. We begged for unpunched, we get them for certain exclusives. We begged for the bubble to stay and we even got that.


Those of us who love the card backs have been very vocal about the obstruction of the Hildebrandt Luke & Leia graphic on the double race track Star Wars card. Above we have a 1978 12 Back Luke, 2011's VC38 - Death Star Escape Luke, and 2020's VC167 - Power Droid. Why is the VC38 Hildebrandt logo obstructed with a warning label and not on VC167? It’s because VC38 comes with accessories that could be choked on by the 4 and up children who never play with these. The Power Droid doesn’t have small accessories.


Editor's note: Drake meme inspiration? AHEM!

The Hildebrandt logo and this card back are so iconic to both Star Wars and toy history. I’d say the double race track card back is probably the most recognizable and significant toy packaging in history. That means when this card back expression is used today then it should have all elements that made it so significant and as close to their original presentation as possible. It’s a sad state of affairs when collectors go buck wild over error/variant card backs where Hasbro initially failed to put the warning label on the Star Wars card. Such variants of VC129 Doctor Aphra and VC141 Chewbacca are highly sought after for this reason.

In our Q&A at Celebration we (the Star Wars The Vintage Collection Facebook group) asked them if they could stop this obstruction and Agustin pointed to The Black Series card backs that don’t have this issue. Hasbro noted they have more space on the bigger card backs. Check out the Q&A here.


Agustin also mentioned VC199 - Tusken Raider that had the warning moved to the double race track since Hasbro had to shift the 4+ signage so they could add the LFL50 logo.

During this Q&A we also asked about the 4 mains of A New Hope and it was reassuring that they are aware of the passion for them, the make the mains campaign, and how well they did in the @SWTVC March Madness. They will continue to pepper in Original Trilogy Figures into the line over the years to come. So with that I took Luke’s 12 back card and recreated it in TVC form. Let’s go over our options.


Option 1:

NO! Please stop doing this. This is not acceptable in the future for any Star Wars cards.


Option 2:

We tried moving it over. Nah, it’s just awkwardly sitting above the logo.


Option 3:

This follows VC199 Tusken Raider and obstructs the double race track. Please don’t do this.


Option 4:

If the warning label can be made a little bit smaller in size and sit on the left side of the card and move the 4+ signage over to the left of the Hildebrandt logo then this would be ideal. Shout out to Johnny Mustache (@theVintageConcepts) for working with me on this one.


Option 5:

Cue the Weezer song Only In Dreams. If we could just do away with the warning and either put it on the back of the card or just let the warning/disclaimer paperwork under the figure be enough then this is the ideal card back. A boy can dream.


In conclusion. TLDR. Please stop blocking the Hildebrandt logo of Luke and Leia with the Warning Label. If it can be made a tad bit smaller and moved to the left side of the card that would be greeeeaaaaaaaaat (Lumbergh voice).

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