Collecting Star Wars toys
A long time ago in a place far far away George Lucas had a vision of producing a fantastic science fiction film about space wars. He worked on the first drafts through 1973-74 and was going to call his first film ‘Star Wars. The Adventures of Luke Starkiller.’ Several drafts later it was changed to ‘Star Wars. A New Hope,’ although this first film (episode 4) is generally just refered to as ‘Star Wars’. This film, released in 1977, was followed two years later by ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (ESB) and then two years later by ‘Return of the Jedi’ (ROTJ). The final three films of the series, ‘The Phantom Menace’ (episode 1), ‘Attack of the Clones’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’ were released from 1999.
By the time the Star Wars film was released there was very little merchandise and no toys available. The american toymaker Kenner had originally agreed to make three space vehicles and six action figures but the film was such a phenomenal success that Kenner were asked to increase it to 30 toys. Eventually there were many hundreds of different Star Wars toys produced and over 250 million were sold for the first three films alone.
The most popular Star Wars collectables are the 3¾” action figures and the space vehicles. The toys from the first three films are usually refered to as ‘vintage’ or ‘original’ and have nearly 100 basic action figures. In addition to these there are variations to some of the figures like Luke Skywalker with brown hair or yellow hair, Han Solo with pin head (because it was made too small at first) or large head, Jawa with cloth cape or vinyl cape and Yoda with brown snake or orange snake. There are also many variations of cards for those who collect the figures on the cards. A word of warning for anyone buying a vinyl cape Jawa, these are very expensive and there are some around with reproduction capes cut from Ben Kenobi’s vinyl cape.
For episodes one, two and three there was a greater range of toys produced and in such great quantities that it exceeded the demand and the shops were left with much unsold stock that had to be sold off very cheaply. These toys are still so low priced that you can make a large collection of them relatively cheaply. Some of the more popular action figures from these series are Jar Jar Binks the Gungan outcast with the long floppy ears, Darth Maul the Sith Lord with the double bladed light sabre, Queen Amidala who was the mother of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, and the army of Battle Droids.
The condition of action figures is important for them to retain their value. They should have all their correct weapons and accessories (a few don’t have any), their limbs should not be loose on the joints and they should have little or no paint wear.
There are numerous Star Wars vehicles with most of them being very detailed and some having lights and sounds. Everybody has heard of the Millennium Falcon which is a very large space ship but the largest Star Wars toy is the At-At which is two feet long and nearly as tall with lights and sound, looking like a great monster with its four legs and swinging head. The At-At has chin guns that move and flash as they fire and there is a hatch in the side so that it can be filled with stormtroopers. Another popular vehicle is the Scout Walker (At-St) which is a fighting machine on two legs. The toy has a lever to work the legs in a clumsy walking movement and the head has room for a couple of figures. The X-wing fighter comes in a battle damaged version as well as an undamaged version. The american issue of the Landspeeder has an opening bonnet whilst the british version is fixed. In the film E.S.B. Luke Skywalker gets lost in a blizzard while riding a Tauntaun (snow lizard) on the snowswept plains of Hoth and when the Tauntaun died of cold Luke cut its belly open to crawl inside for warmth. The toy Tauntaun was released first with a closed belly then later releases had a split membrane over an open belly so that the Luke action figure could be put inside. A few other popular Star Wars toys are Jabba the Hutt who looks like a giant slug sitting on his throne and the Rancor monster (the largest toy creature) that lives in a cave under Jabba’s throne room. There is a large Ewok village playset and lots of other Ewok toys like a working Ewok catapult, an Ewok glider that drops boulders and an Ewok battle wagon.
To display Star Wars action figures they will stand on their own on shelves or small clear plastic display boxes can be bought. The larger toys are usually displayed on shelves. They need to be kept out of sunlight otherwise the white plastic yellows as do the clear blisters on carded toys.
The bit on the end. In making the film The Empire Strikes Back the Tauntauns shown on the planet Hoth were animated for the distant shots and for the close ups a full sized articulated model was used. The location for this part of the film was Finse in Norway. When the crew tried to shoot scenes with the Tauntaun model it froze up so that most of the movements would not work.
Copyright Richard Farrow 2008. This article may be copied in part or in full if acknowledgement or a link back is given to our online store www.kollectomania.co.uk the online vintage collectables shop.