Man x-rays a mail-away Kenner figure

I thought this was a pretty cool story. A collector in England had one of those mail-away Kenner figures from the '80s which he bought for about £5. But it had never been opened. These figures were claimed by sending off the tokens from the cardbacks and were delivered in plain white cardbord boxes so it was impossible to know which figure was inside. Hoping that it may have been a rocket-firing Boba Fett (I don't think any of those were actually dispatched, but anyway...) the collector had the box x-rayed by Nottingham University which also produced a 3D scan of the figure. It turned out to be Emperor Palpatine but nevermind. Personally I just think it's cool to see an x-ray of a Kenner figure!


   

Kenner 3-31/4 " Action Figures - The Wild Cards

 

Well, I've finally done it. I've collected every figure from Kenner's Star Wars run, that is, both the '78 and the '79 line. Here's the Class of '79 above. It's a much more colorful line up than the whites, blacks and greys of the original twelve. It's mostly robots and aliens, being mainly background characters as the main dudes were all done in the previous line. In fact the only ones with 'proper names' are the final three I got hold of which are featured in this post. 

The first 'alternate costume' figure in Kenner's line, Luke in his X-wing gear was a natural choice seeing that the X-wing Fighter was released back in 1978. You had to have someone to fly it! That doesn't explain why a TIE Fighter figure wasn't released until the Empire Strikes Back line though. This figure's a pretty colorful one with his orange jumpsuit and the helmet is neat (but not removable). The red rebel insignias are pretty tricky to find un-rubbed off.

Greedo is more than just a 'cantina alien' in that he had a proper name, a speaking part and he even took a shot at Han Solo (or did he? Let's not get into that...). His lime green jumpsuit is a clashing complement to Luke's orange and doesn't really reflect his 'bodywarmer' getup in the movie. Nice detail on the head sculpt though.

What's this? The mysterious bounty hunter from the Empire Strikes Back in a 1979 toy line from the first movie? As most of you are no doubt aware, Boba Fett made his first appearance in the hilariously bad Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. Toted as a major bad guy in the upcoming sequel, Kenner joined in the hype by releasing this figure in both their 3-31/4" and 12" lines in 1979. The big whoop about the smaller version was that it was a mail-away special and was going to have a 'rocket-firing' feature. Unfortunately due to a lawsuit resulting from a tragic mishap with a similar feature on the Battlestar Galactica toys, the plan was scrapped and the Boba Fett figures were sent out with their rockets glued firmly in place.

Just for fun, here's the complete collection showing both lines. Obviously this is minus the many variations like the blue Snaggletooth and the vinyl-cape Jawa as those are far beyond my budget. But we live in hope... 

    

Kenner Toy Commercials

Well, It's been a while since my last post. Things have been busy. I'm currently going through some comics and working on a new Marvel Star Wars post, but for the meantime, I thought I'd feature some vintage commercials dredged up from Youtube. You've probably seen all these before, but personally, I can't get enough of these.

This first one was the one that started it all. The 'Early Bird Certificate Package'. I can't imagine how exciting it must have been for the young Star Wars fan to see this on the TV screen for the first time.



This one (starring Anthony Daniels himself) was aired during the 1978 Holiday Special if I'm not mistaken. Funny how commercials back in the day were aimed at parents rather than the kids themselves. 'May the Force Be With You... And Your Children!'





Me too! Eee Eee Eee!

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - Han and Chewie

Another couple of figures from the original '78 line here. These guys must have been near the top of most kids' lists back in the day. Other than the fact that having anybody else piloting the Millenium Falcon is some kind of blasphemy, these guys are just pretty cool figures on their own merits.


This is the original 'Small Head' Han Solo. With the release of the Empire Strikes Back line, Kenner repackaged the figure with a newly sculpted (and butt-ugly) head that was significantly larger than this one. The 'Large Head' Han stuck around for the duration of the line but kids who got into the figures in the late 70's would have had the much nicer one featured here.






I love Kenner's Chewbacca figure. Sure, he features the same limited articulation as the Stormtrooper (i.e. rigid head and shoulders), but he's a great looking guy with nice detail on the eyes and teeth. His big-ass gun is pretty cool too, even though it's not exactly his trademark bowcaster as featured in the movie.

Kenner Action Figure Case

This 'Mini-Action Figure Collector's Case' was put out by Kenner in 1979 and was a much more effective carrying case than the infamous Darth Vader version released later. It remained a fixture of the line right up until 1983, with the artwork and logo changing to reflect the later films. Back when the Kenner line consisted of only 20 figures (plus Boba Fett who was put out the same year), the first carrying case had enough space for both the '78 and '79 line of figures plus a few extra stormtroopers or tusken raiders.

I picked this one up for quite a nice price on Ebay, although it's not in the best condition. As most of these things have spent the last two decades in people's basements and garages, the paper illustration behind the clear plastic has a tendency to warp and crease over time. Also a few of the characters' stickers are missing from the trays, but these things are pretty hard to pick up in mint condition.

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - The Imperials

Ahh! The Kenner action figures! Pretty much every kid who liked Star Wars back in the day had a bunch of these. Retailing at about $2.00 each, these were small and cheap in comparison to other action figures of the day (Big Jim, GI-Joe, Mego etc). This meant that kids really could 'Collect 'em all' and Kenner could produce a line of vehicles and playsets that were actually in scale to the figures (kind of).Being born in '83, I really missed the boat with all things Star Wars. I would be about 10 when I got to see my first Star wars movie, but my relationship with the franchise goes back much further. When I was about 5 or 6, my neighbor (who had a kid a few years older than me) was clearing out her attic. She handed me a plastic carrier bag filled with funny little aliens and robots who had very limited articulation and tiny, tiny guns that were very fiddly to fit into their hands. I took them home and my dad (who had seen the movie several years previously) told me that they were Star Wars figures.

'?' my face must have said because he then gave me a very brief run-down on the plot; Darth Vader wants to take over the universe with his army of stormtroopers and the good guy, Luke Skywalker, tries to stop him. This was all my imagination needed and the figures became a regular fixture in my own play-scenarios, sharing the stage with He-Man and Thundercats figures and probably the occasional Ninja Turtle.

A few years later I finally got around to renting a Star Wars movie from our local library - Return of the Jedi. Yeah, I know, completely the wrong one to start with. I can't remember why I chose that one - either the other two weren't in stock, or it simply just had the coolest cover. Nevertheless I fell in love with it and can remember being thrilled to see my action figures personified as living, breathing characters on the TV screen.

Not much later I sold all my Kenner figures at a yard sale for peanuts (D'oh!). But in my teenage years I rediscovered Star Wars and began collecting, picking up a few of the lil' ol guys from comic book stores where they were kept in glass cases.

Darth Vader here is sporting a vinyl cape that was pretty much a staple throughout the Kenner line. Kenner did issue a few of their figures with cloth capes later on, but in the late '70's vinyl was the rage. The great thing that amused me as a kid was the 'slide-out' lightsaber that can be seen emerging from his right arm. You'll notice that it has a little tip on the end. Originally the lightsabers were supposed to be telescoping, but for some reason Kenner quickly changed the design to the 'solid' lightsaber seen here.



The trusty Stormtrooper is quite possibly the most common Star Wars figure. Everybody had a couple of these or more it seems. This guy is even less articulated than the others as his head and torso are one solid part. The pristine white armor can be tricky to find in nice un-yellowed condition these days.






The Death Squad Commander was later named 'Star Destroyer Commander' presumably to avoid any Nazi connotations. Nevertheless, these guys are pretty much the SS in the Star Wars galaxy. In the films this is more prominent due to their all-black uniforms. I have no idea why the action figure was moulded in grey.