There is a misconception that Trilogo bubbles are all the same, well they aren’t! This is a brief guide on Trilogo bubbles which will show their differences and origin. In time Trilogo.info hopes to add a complete gallery of all known variant bubbles for every single Trilogo figure- however this is a huge task and will take time and input from many collectors, until then – please enjoy this guide!

Trilogo Bubble Seals

Typically when checking to see if a carded figure is authentic many collectors look to the seal and for something called the “Waffle Pattern”. In short the Waffle Pattern is a cross hatch pattern within the plastic border of the bubble seal. While it is commonly found on Kenner cards there is actually no Waffle Pattern present on any Trilogo bubble seal. The plastic should not have any type of pattern visible around the seal and the edges can often look hand cut with uneven edges, this can look odd to newer collectors but it is quite normal (Comparison picture below)

Etched (Common throughout Europe)

This is the front view of an etched bubble most commonly found on Palitoy produced Trilogos (which were also exported throughout Europe) so it is one of two “common” Trilogo bubbles – the outline of the plastic that attaches to the card has been shown in red, you can see it has right angled corners.

Etched refers to the indented sides of the bubble that extend from the cardback seal to the front of the bubble.

Variations:

There are two types of etched bubbles:

• Short Etched
• Long Etched

The short etched bubbles indentation is roughly half the length of the long etch and it gets thinner before it ends unlike the longer etch that runs the full length before it thins out. Check the pictures below!

Rounded (Common throughout Europe)

This is the front view of a rounded bubble, this bubble type is the second most commonly found on Trilogos. As you can see its hard from the front to tell an etched apart from a rounded as the sides are usually hidden, it also has right angled corners that attach to the cardback and has roughly the same dimensions/overall look as the etched.

To identify the rounded bubble you need to look at the side where it will have rounded edges instead of the indentation like the etched one.

PBP Bubbles (Hard to find outside of Spain)

PBP, the company that produced and distributed Star Wars toys in Spain used very unique bubbles which are easy to identify. The majority are oversized when compared to the earlier mentioned rounded and etched bubbles and allow the figure more room to move inside. Instead of the previously shown right angled corners the PBP bubbles are rounded. It has no etched edge.

Meccano Bubbles (Hard to find outside of France)

Early Meccano Trilogos usually all come with this small snug fitting bubble with square edges and rounded corners that attach to the card, some however do have unique shapes depending on the size of the figure.

Shown above is a small size Meccano bubble used for a lot of ROTJ and reissue characters, it has squared off edges instead of etched and the plastic that attaches to the card has rounded corners like the PBP bubble.

The plastic used to produce these bubbles is quite hard and not like the common oversize bubbles that are easily dented. There are no etched edged bubbles found on Meccano cards.

This is another style of Meccano bubble used a little later in production, it can be found on some reissue and ROTJ characters but is more often than not found on Meccano issue POTF cards, it has rounded edges that attach to the card and is larger than the previously shown Meccano bubble but quite fragile and thin.

Miscard Bubbles 

Although produced in France, the miscarded figures used a different type of bubble than the previously shown Meccano variants. This bubble type is also found on Meccano ROTJ cards (incidentally miscards as well).

While this bubble was  used mostly  for the overstock miscards they can also be found on the correct figure & card combo. They are very fragile, can yellow and are noticeably smaller in overall shape than any other bubble used.