In many ways, vintage action figure collectors have toy giants Kenner to thank for first nurturing the collecting bug in kids when they launched the hugely popular 3 ¾ inch Star Wars action figures and thus set-off a chain reaction of film tie-in merchandising which is thriving even to this day. They also threw in a enough variations in paint work and molds on certain figures, that over thirty years later adult collectors are still kept extremely busy tracking them all down.
Back in 1977, head sculpts were pretty crude compared to today’s standards, but Luke Skywalker does look vaguely like Mark Hamill I suppose, although in the first wave of figures (those that were issued on cards detailing 12 other action figures on the back and known nowadays as “12 back figures”) farm boy Luke looks like he’s taken a bottle of peroxide to his head and sports bright canary yellow hair! At some point along the line, however, a light brown haired, as well as a dark brown haired version appeared, both of which are far more like Mark Hamill’s movie coiffure, although it’s probably the yellow haired Luke that is the most instantly recognisable figure from those years.
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