True prototypes from Kenner's vintage Star Wars action figure line are by nature, extremely rare. Few collectors ever get to own them, or see them in person.
Most would know that the first iteration of every Star Wars action figure was the fragile and in some cases easily broken wax or acetate sculpture created by a toy sculptor. But while those pieces are the first universally recognizable representation of each action figure, they existed in the majority of cases, purely to create what came next: the versatile, hand made prototypes known as 'hardcopies'.
A hardcopy is not a 'copy' per se. It's a heavy, hand-made, partially ceramic resin action figure that is painstakingly made inside a rough silicone mold that Kenner's sculptors would forge in-house (by setting them around a wax or acetate sculpt). Sculptors created a hardcopy by first mixing a batch of Carbalon or Dynacast resin; and then poured the resin it into each part of the silicone mold. This produced an action figure head, torso (sometimes two halves), and the arms and legs
The Carbalon and Dynacast mixture sat overnight, until it set to produce a durable action figure that could be sanded, filled and sometimes 'pinned'.
The process created the first durable 3D representation of each of the 93 action figures (at least, as consumers would recognize and understand it). It has not been used since the mid 1980s.
Some of these prototypes were sent to Kenner's tooling or manufacturing vendors to create final production molds. Others were decorated by hand to dictate paint application and plastic color choices. Others would emerge to the toy industry and even the public as beautiful, hand painted marketing and sales or approval samples.
These sometimes appeared in mini catalogs, commercials or even on card backs (since there was no other 3D representation of the figure available during the earliest stages of figure production).
What they all have in common, is that they are decidedly detail rich, slightly larger and enhanced versions of the final toys that we all purchased at retail. They are the action figure as the sculptor envisioned, with flawless details that were often lost to the nuances of injection molding during manufacturing.
This Leia Hoth hard copy made of carbalon (which dates it to the pre-1981 era) is no excepption. The quilting detail on her outfit is infinitely more detailed than the final toy, as is the form of her face and hair.
Since there is little shrinkage in the translation of a figure from original sculpture to high quality resin (in this case carbalon as mentioned above), she is noticeably taller than the production figure, and suffers little to no loss of original detail as a result.
Leia Hoth is unpainted, indicating that she was likely kept as a tooling backup in case of the need for future mold production in the event an original tool was damaged.
This is a true Star Wars action figure prototype. It is not an injection molded 'first shot' or unpainted production figure. She was hand-made, inside of Kenner's model shop by the same people who sculpted many of the original Star Wars action figures.
Very few hardcopies have survived from the vintage era. They are extremely rare, and among the most difficult to find of any 3D prototype outside of Kenner's original sculpts.