Kenner | Vintage Action Figures

Luke Skywalker - brown and yellow haired versions

Luke Skywalker: Legally Blonde!

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.

Kenner Super Powers: Green Lantern!

Recent years have seen a huge escalation in the release of superhero movies and 2011 will be no exception with yet more additions to both the X-Men and Transformers franchises, not to mention Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. The movie I’m most curious about, however, is Green Lantern, directed by Martin Campbell of Casino Royale fame. Ryan Reynolds will star as the DC Comics hero in the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern and whilst the release of this blockbuster is slated for June 2011, the actor has already started appearing on the covers of film magazines – is 2011 going to be Green Lantern’s year?

Boba Fett - 1979 vinatge action figure by Kenner

Legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett!

I say the legendary Boba Fett, for there can be no doubt that some vintage action figures acquire a kind of cult status and become must-haves in a collection. Boba Fett – everybody’s favourite bounty hunter and man of few words – has always seemed to fit that role perfectly! He is hardly a rare figure and was available from his first appearance as a The Empire Strikes Back movie tie-in, right up to, and including, the Droids animation line, but he is just so perfect in his detailed moulding and paintwork, with four different extra colours added to the grey body, that he stands out on a shelf and ends up being the star attraction!

Terminator 2 - Hidden Power Terminator by Kenner

Hasta la vista, baby! Hidden Power Terminator

Way before he became the 38th Governor of California and acquired the scary power to actually terminate people in real life, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a humble body-builder turned Hollywood actor, who made some great action movies like Terminator and had the kind of jaw-line, body sculpt and dramatic delivery that made him already seem like a 1:1 scale talking action figure!

In recent years, NECA has issued some awesome T2 action figures for the adult collectibles market, but the 5½-inch vintage line produced by Kenner in 1992 to tie in with the original release of James Cameron’s sequel to the Terminator – Terminator 2: Judgment Day – were also extremely good.

The Real Ghostbusters Fright Features: Peter Venkman

The countdown to Halloween continues! I simply couldn’t let October go by without including one of the Real Ghostbusters team and another action figure from one of my favourite Kenner lines from the late 1980s.

This 5-inch Peter Venkman action figure is from what was probably the most successful and popular sub-series from their Real Ghostbusters toy line – Fright Features. Far simpler than the Super Fright Features that followed, these figures were their first foray into innovative interactive expressions – each figure in the series is featured with one arm held slightly wide from their body and, if squeezed, the facial expression changes into one of alarm. Our Doctor Venkman here, for example, has clearly had a hair raising encounter with a ghost, his eyes pop out of their sockets and his jaw drops.

The Real Ghostbusters Super Fright Features: Egon Spengler

It’s been an another exciting week for Ghostbusters action figure collectors, and in particular, fans of the character Egon Spengler, with a new 6 inch Mattel figure closely resembling actor (and co-writer of the original movie) Harold Ramis hitting the company’s online store and selling like the proverbial hot cakes. I thought it might be fun, therefore, to take a look back at a vintage Egon Spengler from Kenner’s phenomenally popular line of spin-off action figures from the cartoon TV series The Real Ghostbusters.

At 5 inches tall and with only 5 points of articulation, The Real Ghostbusters action figures saw Kenner at the top of their game with line after line of clever, interactive toys produced between 1986 to 1991.

Two-Face from Batman: The Animated Series

After our look at the Super Powers Robin last week, let’s stick with the Batman theme, but this time take a look at one of his greatest enemies – the crime boss and terrifyingly insane Two-Face. As fans of DC Comics will know, once upon a time Two-Face was Harvey Dent, the District Attorney of Gotham City, and fought crime alongside Batman. The horrible disfigurement he suffered during a trial when acid was thrown over the left side of his face, however, pushed him over the edge, his schizophrenic personality further empathized by his constant flipping of a coin – heads or tails to Two-Face meant life or death, good or evil!

Kenner Super Powers: Robin!

Scrolling back through recent posts I realised that this website is a little light on Batman, so let’s fix that right away with a look at his erstwhile sidekick Robin as he appeared in the first series of Kenner‘s wonderful Super Powers action figures from 1984. This 4-inch figure was a superb version of The Boy Wonder – given his more mature nickname The Teen Wonder on the packaging – and like the other figures in the line had his very own Super Power. Wait, I hear you cry, Dick Grayson may have have a whole lot of circus acrobatic stunts in his bag of tricks, but saying that as Robin he was possessed of super powers is stretching things a little!