Over the years, I have heard much speculation regarding the higher number of available of test shot prototypes that flooded the market between the POTJ & SAGA era. This surge created a theory of "coffee break" prototypes, suggesting that factory employees were using existing steel molds, to reproduce test shots created after-the-fact and in the efforts to sell them on platforms like eBay, where they can turn a quick profit.
While first shots (and test shots) are legitimately produced in an unknown quantity for a number of approval processes and are sent to a number of different departments for the purpose of engineering, safety, toy development, licensor approval, etc., they were never intended to be released for the general public and were often destroyed. In earlier days, it wasn't uncommon for local Kenner/Employees to take them home. In fact many examples of POTF2 prototypes have turned up over the years as a result. I have seen dozens of the same figures for sale at some of the early conventions.
So I am wondering if anyone has any knowledge regarding roughly how many first shots (or test shots) are produced for each character in the pre-production process? I am also wondering if there is any evidence to support the "coffee break" prototype theory or if factory workers became more wise and creative on how to smuggle these from the factory, based on the visibility of value and ease of sales through platforms like eBay? What's your thoughts?
Another thing to note is that the term "coffee break" prototypes was commonly used by an eBay seller who purchased a large collection of legitimate prototype figures from a Hasbro ex-employee and now deceased "Rick Arther".
IMO, the seller made this reference to differentiate his items from the larger volume of POTF/SAGA prototype figures that were hitting eBay. While I understand the motive, there isn't really any evidence to support that this was happening. In fact, it is widely known that China employees work under a much strict environment compared to workers in the United States.
Additionally, the era of flooded prototypes (POTJ/SAGA) happened after eBay became a widely used platform. Again, IMO Chinese employees now had visibility to see the value of these items and made greater attempt to salvage them from being destroyed as they are supposed to. It has been reported by many that they were smuggling them out of the factories and even out of the dumpsters.
This is why post SAGA era, prototype figures became more difficult to find. Lucasfilm caught wind and cracked down on this activity. By 2004, it became increasingly difficult to find various figures.
Back around that time I worked for an Industrial Design Agency aiding the product development for several brands, including Hasbro. The growth and investment in China's capability to manufacture back then was unquenchable and the consumption of steel for tool making pretty much priced every other country out. However, a really big problem was the amount of subcontracting of quotas, ie you award a factory the job based on what you had seen, but your job would be farmed out (often without your knowledge) and not necessarily made at the factory you thought. This had several huge implications from human rights to intellectual property theft. Although manufactured in their thousands, toys are usually bidding for the lowest cost manufacture slots as they do not have high margins of kitchenware or the demand of mobile phones to pay premiums and get bumped up the slots.
It was virtually impossible to track where exactly your assets were or what they were doing, so it would not surprise me that there was significant run off, or rejected batches due to QC, however setting up a line is a bit more complex than fitting a mould and hitting the start button, so I don't think they were set up in breaks, it's more likely the runs were far in excess of what was required and they were assembled from overproduction of parts assembled.
There were also agents that could get you whatever you wanted, as long as the tooling existed. At one point I was told I could have whatever Star Wars figure I wanted, as long as the Minimum Order Quantity was 10,000 units.
Credit to Rob Amantea for the above two images. He took those two images for me and gave me the pictures from C2, and I put them on Behind The Toys. If you notice there's an empty spot where several Fett's were until someone I know purchased them if I recall correctly. It's been so long I'd have to go back and check.
Regarding the supposed after hours activity. The first time I really saw the mention of this alleged activity was from Transformers collectors. The major increase in the same multiple examples of engineering pilots appearing for sale regularly occurred during the EP2 figure releases. I'd have to contact old friends who would be able to better answer how many engineering pilots were being run.
I've read about the alleged activity. Anything is possible. Security protocols were/are always looking to be improved. Changes usually happen after a breach. If after hours activity was being done, it's part of the hobby history.
Robert
These photos (by Rob Amantea) were taken at the "Room Sales" of one of the Star Wars conventions. They feature a number of authentic first shot prototypes ranging from POTF2 to POTJ.
As you can see, there are multiples of many characters. Now keep in mind that this only shows you a small sample of what is produced as many more were discarded in the developmental process.