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 3-3/4" Action Figures - Cantina Crew

Yes, I know Greedo is missing from this collection of scum and villainy Kenner put out in 1979, but I'll get to him in another post. While far from spot on with their depictions of the background characters (Kenner was often working from one or two production shots of costumes), this is a fun and colorful trio of weirdos perfect for blaster fodder for your Luke and Han figures.

Hammerhead. You've gotta love how Kenner made up names for nameless characters based simply on their physical traits regardless of the fact that there was probably a whole species wandering the galaxy.

This guy is so bizarre, I love it. From his tree-like feet to his humpback and shifty eyes, he is a figurehead for the Star Wars weirdness that captured people's imaginations back in the late 70s. Despite the fact that all he does in the movie is sit around enjoying a drink, Kenner gave him a Stormtrooper rifle in an effort to make him more of an 'action figure'.

Snaggletooth here has an odd history. The figure was already released previously as part of a Sears exclusive cantina playset. Only that version was tall, dressed in blue and had funky silver moon boots. As I stated earlier, Kenner was working from a handful of production photos and only ever saw 'Snaggletooth' from the waist

up. His size and footwear (not sure if it was any more accurate the second time around) were corrected when the figure was released as part of the second wave of figures. Of course the rarity of the early 'blue Snaggletooth' figure makes it a hot collectors item. And no, I don't have one...

This amphibious-looking fella was named 'Walrus Man' (another all night brainstorming meeting at Kenner, I'm sure). This is the poor sap that loses an arm by Kenobi's blade in the movie. Not much to say about him except that it is very hard to find him without any paint loss on his bulbous 'lips' as they tend to scratch very easily.

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - The Droids 2

Kicking off Kenner's second wave of action figures from 1979 here with three droids. Pretty much the whole second wave consisted of background characters (other than Luke in his X-wing gear and Greedo) which gave Kenner the excuse to make a whole bunch of weird aliens and robots much to the delight of young fans who were hungry for more Star Wars figures.

Probably one of the cuter Star Wars action figures, the Power Droid (or 'Gonk' droid as he came to be known) can be seen wandering around in the background of the movie supplying power to ships like some kind of walking battery.

He's quite a simple action figure with the feet being the only movable parts. Like R2, his stickers have a tendency to wear off over time and there are a couple of patches of orange paint that can also get worn.

The Death Star droid is often assumed to be wrongly named as this droid can clearly be seen in the Jawa's sandcrawler. In fact there is one on the Death Star (just when Luke, Han and Chewie head into the elevators) so he's something of a generic droid seen throughout the Star Wars galaxy.

Very similar to the C-3PO figure, the stiff joints quickly become extremely loose and his silver paint job is tricky to find in good condition. In fact he's pretty much a silver version of the 3PO figure with some different details on the head and torso.

Poor old R5-D4. If his motivator hadn't blown at a critical moment, Star Wars would have been a very different film. Denied his moment of fame, R5 was relegated to being little more than a background character.

Essentially this is R2-D2 with red markings and a different head. Still, quite a nice addition to a growing collection and the Jawas are hardly complete without some droids to sell.

The Gang's All Here...

Well, the first twelve of them at least.

Recently I completed a small collecting dream of mine - to bring together a complete set of the original twelve Kenner figures. Not a particularly impressive feat in this age of Ebay, but I've been wanting to get my hands on the first line of Star Wars figures since I started collecting way back in my teens. It's taken me so long because I've often been distracted by the temptation of other collectibles and haven't always had a steady job to afford to indulge my little pleasures.

They're not in mint condition, but pretty good shape nonetheless. All are complete with original accessories. Now to make a start on the '79 wave!

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - Luke and Leia

The hero and heroine of Star Wars! Oddly enough these two were the last of the original 12 I picked up mainly due to their being a bit more pricey than their plastic companions. Don't know why the major players from the movie should be the hardest to come by in action figure form, but there it is.

I have never found an explanation as to why Luke came with a yellow lightsaber. It's not like Kenner didn't have that colour plastic as Obi-wan came with the correct blue variety. Just one of those little oddities that make the Kenner Star Wars figures so charming.

In comparison to the weird and wonderful figures Kenner put out in this and subsequent lines, the Luke figure is a pretty bland affair, most notably the face. Now I know in this age of 'laser-imaging' to get good character likenesses on action figures, it's easy to be overly critical of efforts in bygone eras, but even for the 70s, this is pretty bad. I don't know if its the bright yellow hair or the generic 'plastic-man' face that bears no resemblance to Mark Hamil whatsoever, but this figure has all the identity of a Lego man.

Princess Leia, for some reason has been the most difficult (and expensive) figure for me to track down from the original 12. I would have thought that the slightly rare figures like the Jawa would cost me a few bits but not one of the major characters. I'm guessing that Leia figures are quite rare today because it was mostly boys buying these things back in their hey-day and not too many boys are willing to tread that thin line between action figures and 'dolls'.

This is quite a nice figure with good attention to detail on the hair. She comes with a fairly unique blaster of the small slim 'ladylike' variety. As with other white figures, Leia has a tendency to discolour over time.

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

C-3Po came with no accessories and other than his dazzling gold finish, the figure might seem a bit of a poor effort. But really, what else does old Goldenrod need to do other than stand around looking pretty?

This is probably the figure that ages the worst starting right from the point of being taken out of his plastic bubble. He is made of a much more rigid plastic than the other figures and his stiff joints loosen up at an alarming rate so much so that most of the figures these days are floppy and limp as wet lettuce. The other point is his gold paint which flakes off very easily. This example looks Ok from a distance but up close he is as patchy and mottled as he is in the film. An that is unintentional of course.

R2-D2 on the other hand rarely has problems with his joints in that he only has two of them and to be honest, they rarely get used much whatever pose you put him in. His shiny golden dome suffers much the same problem as his counterpart's golden finish and is often found faded by sunlight. The only other thing that can really age the figure is the sticker on his midsection which, after spending many years in toy boxes clattering around with other figures, is often faded, scratched and worn.

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - Tatooine Dwellers

That blisteringly hot desert planet with the twin suns would lend several more characters to Kenner's action figure range when they released their second line in 1979, but amongst the original 12 there was just three (not counting Luke). Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kenobi, Jawa and Sandpeople.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (who went under the name 'Ben' back in the early days) was one of only three figures with lightsabers from the first movie. Blue is the correct colour (unlike the inexplicable yellow of Luke's saber). He sports a brown vinyl cloak and the only major variation that I'm aware of is his hair colour which came in white and grey (shown here).







'Sandpeople' was an odd title for the Tusken Raider figure, not least because it uses the plural when only one figure was released per card. The name was changed in later lines to 'Tusken Raider'. Like Ben (and Darth and Leia), this guy came with a vinyl cloak. The one shown here is of the stiffer variation with a short 'cropped' collar. I've seen examples of the figure with the other softer cloak and higher collar too. Another variation is the 'hollow cheek tubes' one which is much rarer than the 'solid tubes' variation shown here.

The cool thing about this figure is the position he holds his 'gaffi' stick. If you raise his arms, he mimics the pose struck by one of his number in the movie before attacking Luke. It's difficult to find this guy without at least some paint loss on the various silver 'knobs' on his head and face. This one has seen better days and I may consider replacing him some day, but he'll do for now.

Few figures have caused such excitement among collectors as the Jawa. Notoriously hard to find even back in '78 (the Jawa was one of the last figures of the original 12 to be released), the figure then underwent a major change. The original version came with the Kenner stalwart vinyl cape. Allegedly, to make the diminutive figure give more bang for your buck, Kenner replaced this with a more expensive looking cloth cape (shown here). I don't have to tell even the most casual collector how valuable a vinyl-cape Jawa is today.

I really like this figure. Sure, he's tiny and I can imagine many kids didn't feel that he was worth the $2 price tag (Kenner really should have released 2 figures per card). But he's got some great detail for his size like the tiny yellow eyes. The cloth cape kind of obscures everything about the figure though, and you have to take it off (Jawa striptease!) to see what's underneath, as it were. Anyway, the whole deal is quite a contrast to the other figures in the line and that's probably why I find it so striking.

Landspeeder Toy

Check out this little beauty! Luke's landspeeder was one of the first wave of vehicles released alongside the original 12 figures in 1978 (the other two being the X-wing and TIE-fighter). Despite being slightly more brownish in colour than shown in the movie (I guess Kenner didn't think a pink toy would be much of a hot seller to young boys), this vehicle is surprisingly faithful and pretty much to scale. With all the cool Tatooine figures released at that time I can imagine that Kenner's landspeeder went trundling across many a shag carpet, knocking down Jawas, Stormtroopers and cantina scum with Luke and Ben behind the controls.

It's got some neat features too, like the pop-open hood which shows the engine and has room for some weapons to be stored. Also, the gear stick makes some spring loaded wheels pop down which causes the landspeeder to wobble about as if floating. It was often advertised showing R2-D2 and C-3PO sitting on the back as shown in the movie, but they would just slide off as soon as the landspeeder was given a playful shove unless their feet were fixed into the small pegs on the rear of the seats.

These aren't hard to pick up in decent, complete condition for low prices, but there are a few bits and pieces that can go missing over the years such as the dashboard stickers, hood, seats and windshield which has a tendency to yellow over time.

I don't have the box for mine, but here's what it looked like below. As far as I know the landspeeder was only released as part of the Star Wars line (and not repackaged for The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi). It was however re-released in 1984 along with a few other older vehicles as part of Kenner's 'Collector Series'.

Promotional Flyers

Bit of a half-assed post today, but I've had these things lying around for ages and thought it was time I stuck them up. Promotional flyers such as the top one from 1979 were inserted into boxed Star Wars toys (like vehicles and playsets) and were like mini catalogues showing off all the Star Wars goodies that were available.

The second one from 1978 released in conjunction with now defunct fast food outlet; Burger Chef, styled itself as an 'activity booklet' and included a 'connect the dots to discover the hidden character' (it's a stormtrooper), a wordsearch and a 'space maze' on the rear cover. Don't know what a Tusken Raider is doing aboard the Death Star, but what the hey. Sandwiched in between was the usual array of Star Wars figures, toys and games.

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.