When Kenner started out on its 3 ¾ inch Star Wars action figure adventure in 1977 the popularity of the movie caught the toy company by surprise. It would be unthinkable today, where a marketing frenzy surrounds every film released with a potential toy franchise, but back then Kenner were so unprepared that they were unable to deliver any Star Wars action figures to toy stores in time for Christmas! The solution they came up with would become the stuff of collector legend – Kenner pre-sold empty boxes with an “early bird” order card, which could then be mailed away and redeemed for figures (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2 or Chewbacca) when they became available. Kenner not only got away with this stunt, but seeing its success would repeat the idea later down the line with several “mail-away” or “mail-in” special offers.
Decades: 1980s
Princess Leia in combat poncho on Endor
This blog has been running a little low on girl power recently, so let’s fix that right away with a truly wonderful vintage figure from Kenner’s legendary 3 ¾ Star Wars line – Princess Leia Organa sporting her Endor combat poncho. It’s a staggering thought today, but of the entire list of 93 characters immortalised in the original Kenner line, Princess Leia is the solitary female. As if to make up for this, besides her iconic white robed figure as she appeared in Star Wars, Princess Leia was issued in several different guises, which charted her progress through the three original trilogy movies: from beautiful princess in need of rescue, to this tough rebel in combat gear.
Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race – by Dapol
I am back in Rome after a relaxing summer break visiting family and friends in the UK, so thought I’d kick off a new season of blog posts with a distinctly British vintage figure. My August trip happened to coincide with some major geek news from Blighty: the BBC finally revealed that Scottish actor Peter Capaldi will take on the coveted role of The Doctor in its legendary sci-fi TV series Doctor Who, when current Doctor Matt Smith hangs up his bow tie later this year. It’s a big year for the show, with a 50th anniversary special set for global transmission on 23 November 2013, which will feature, amongst other characters, a return of the Doctor’s archnemeses, the Daleks.
The Palace Guard formally known as Klaatu!
I seem to have added quite a few aliens from the original Star Wars trilogy to my vintage action figure collection this year, particularly henchmen of Jabba the Hutt seen fleetingly in the palace scene and the various guards riding the desert skiffs in the Sarlacc Pit Battle scene in Return of the Jedi. Whilst these figures may have enjoyed only split seconds of screen time, they were still important players in the imaginary Star Wars universe created by kids back in the day. Bewilderingly, they’ve since acquired gloriously complicated personal histories and new names in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Weequay aka Queequeg – Skiff Guard from ‘Return of the Jedi’
One of the most well-loved of the minor characters in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is surely that of the cannibal Queequeg, the archetypal “noble savage”, and dab hand with a harpoon. It’s no surprise, therefore, that during pre-production of Return of the Jedi the crew nicknamed this Weequay skiff guard “Queequeg”. After all, he brandishes a harpoon-like pike weapon, swaggers up the deck of a Desert Skiff like a pirate on a sloop upon the high seas, and even forces Luke Skywalker to walk the plank during the Sarlacc Pit Battle scene!
Logray, the Ewok Medicine Man
Few characters in the original Star Wars trilogy have divided fans more than the Ewoks, with those that love ’em on one side, and the rest of us, who would happily throttle the flea-bitten teddy bears, on the other! Unfortunately, they’re rather hard to avoid in Return of the Jedi. I do confess, however, to actually rather liking this vintage Kenner figure of Logray, the Ewok Medicine Man – and not just because he looks like a sinister version of Garfield the cat!
Logray is impressive as one of the best movie-likenesses in the entire Kenner 3 ¾ inch original Star Wars figure series – check out his beady black eyes and sharp teeth.
Let’s twist again… with Kenner Super Powers Red Tornado!
It’s been a while since I featured any of the figures from one of my all time favourite 1980s toy lines – Kenner’s Super Powers. Hands down one of the best crafted action figure series ever, these sturdy 4 inch superheroes, with their accurate paint work, near perfect comic book likenesses, and their built in “super power” action gimmicks, continue to be loved by collectors today. I plan to collect them all!
Kenner’s Super Powers had a short, but sweet shelf life and ran for only two series from 1984 to 1986, with our Red Tornado here first appearing in the second series in 1985,
Find and fulfill your destiny: Harry Hamlin as Perseus in Clash of the Titans!
Ahh, who can resist a 1980s blockbuster?! The 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, based very loosely on the Greek myth of Perseus, certainly had it all: epic special effects, Styrofoam sets, stop-motion monsters, and a cast boasting not only the cream of British theatre such as Laurence Olivier as Zeus and Maggie Smith as Thetis, but also a then relatively unknown young actor called Harry Hamlin in the starring role. A box office smash back in the day, it’s a cult classic amongst fantasy film fans nowadays. Watching the CGI effects in the 2010 3D remake, in fact, only made one nostalgic for stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen’s Kraken in the original movie.