Kenner's packaging of Star Wars action figures during the late 1970s and early 80s followed a real imperative to get products to market as quickly as possible.
The process sometimes threw up oddities such as this Han Solo Original that was packaged with a Bespin blaster instead of his more familiar weapon.
It's believed that figures such as this one exist because workers paired whatever weapon Kenner or its vendors had on hand with characters at times. Many such examples turn up with weapon pairings that match photography from card backs.
It is also believed that all Star Wars figures pictured on card backs with weapons other than the ones that they first shipped with, have shown up carded with the same weapon at some point in time.
Finding examples can be difficult however, given it's estimated that less than 2 percent of the 250 million action figures produced have survived in packages.