Millennium Falcon (Kenner ESB version)

Well I've blogged about the Millennium Falcon before, and regular readers (both of you?) will know that it's a toy I never had as a kid, but always wanted. Although somewhat underscale for the 3 3/4" mini-action figures, until the AT-AT came along it was the biggest and most expensive Star Wars vehicle. It's awesome. 

This example was very kindly given to me recently by my late wife's cousin Austin, it was part of his and his brother's childhood collection. Kudos to you guys for keeping the box, Austin, and well done on keeping this thing in one piece. So many Star Wars vehicles got smashed to pieces, blown up with fireworks, etc. and it's great to see that one like this survived.

While the box front carried a new image specific to The Empire Strikes Back, the rest of the package art remained the same as on Star Wars-branded examples.

Gotta set up the tableau right!! The box image is so great, but the eagle-eyed will note I added some "diversity" to the Bespin Guard group. I only had two white Guards in my own collection...

The character mix here is kind of interesting too. Dengar is literally 10 feet away from the people he's supposed to capture, but he's just stood there having a chat with Lobot. 

Meanwhile Lando, Han and Leia are visiting but all have guns in their hands (!) while the Bespin Guards seem unconcerned that these two strangers are packing heat while talking to their boss.

These three discussing the Cloud City Cafeteria's amazing pulled-pork sandwiches maybe...?

Chewbacca working as usual.

Droids hiding in the ship interior. Would've been a good idea for Threepio at least, considering what happened to him in Cloud City.

If you look at the tableau on the box, it's strange... the camera vantage looks low, but you can still clearly see the droids inside the ship. Maybe they tilted the Falcon for the shot, I can't quite figure it out.

Some beauty shots, this ship cleaned up so nicely and looks so good.

Of course, as with most childhood vehicles, some small accessories went missing over the years. The training arm and ball and the hatch struts are 3D printed replacements, unobtrusively marked as such. They look quite good, the struts are kind of translucent but that's OK, makes them less likely to be mistaken for originals. 

Fortunately the old ones were just lost, and not broken off in the hatch holes as often happened.

The space chess table was missing too but I sourced an original one to replace it - they're not hard to find.

Cockpit is all original equipment and looks great! Austin, thank you again for this ship, it's a wonderful piece.

I guess I also should offer an apology for it being over a year since the last post here, but it's been busy. Anyway I will have another post coming up shortly featuring a neat item that's on the way from 4th Moon Toys... 

Plush Chewbacca and R2-D2

And now for something completely different... how about these vintage Kenner stuffies? First appearing in the Kenner retailer catalog in 1978, these plush toys were a cuddly way for young fans to express their enthusiasm for Star Wars. 

First up, R2D2... unfortunately, while it was unquestionably hard-wearing, the white cloth used to make R2 tended to stain and over 40 years, well... even after a good wash and spot-cleaning, it's gonna look like a 40-year old stuffie. The toy did have another cool feature though - a "squeaker" that made a noise when you press the red spot on his dome. This one still works!

R2's legs are on plastic swivels, and can turn around.

 

There's also a small velcro patch to keep each leg in place. Unfortunately the Kenner fabric tags are no longer with this piece. R2 is about 10" tall.

 

Isn't Chewbacca cute?? While there have been plenty of plush Chewbaccas over the years, few have come close to the charm of the original. He stands about 20" tall.

Kenner fabric tag is still present on this example...

... as well as the often-missing bandoleer and cartridges. I wanted to show some close-up details here - these three plastic pins hold the bandoleer in place on Chewie's shoulder.

The bandoleer itself is fastened together with a snap.

The bandoleer holds four plastic cartridges. It's not unusual to see tape (or tape residue) on the cartridges, as seen on this example.

"Wookies (sic) need love too!"

 

Thanks to Lantern Lad of the OG13 Forums for the image

Here's the page from the 1978 Kenner retailer catalog featuring the plush toys. They really are super-cute aren't they?

I love these two plush toys as a throwback to the earliest times of Kenner's Star Wars involvement. And the best part about them is that you can still pick them up for relatively little money, if you don't need to have an example with sale tags. Around $50USD should secure a decent complete Chewbacca or a really nice R2. But be sure your Chewie is complete, as the bandoleer was NOT meant to be removable, and they never seem to come up for sale separately!  

X-Wing Fighter

"Iconic"! Along with the TIE Fighter, The X-Wing has to be the most recognizable vehicle ever created for the Star Wars universe. Like many young Star Wars fans, I had one as a kid. Not surprising since the X-Wing was one of the three vehicles released in the first wave of 1978 (the others were the TIE Fighter and Landspeeder).

Although I still have my own childhood X-Wing (seen in the photos below) the Canadian Kenner box it came in is long gone (drat!), since replaced with a Kenner US box obtained from an eBay seller.

The box is rather beaten up but I still like it - the "LP" (Long-Play) logo on the box front denotes a "first-wave" (1978) release - as with other Kenner US releases, the later box versions dispensed with the logo. Of course, once the "Luke Skywalker X-Wing Pilot" was released in the second wave of 21 mini-action figures, the box photo was updated to show that figure in the cockpit rather than the Luke "farmboy".

Naturally, then, I've set up my photo shoot with both versions :-)

Here's my original from 1978. Yellowed canopy (this is common) and dead electronics, but otherwise in good shape and fully functioning. The wing-opening mechanism even works and holds the wings open, which is another item that's prone to fatigue and failure with age and use.

Close-up of the "controls" - from top to bottom: press on Artoo's head to open the wings; slide the switch to close the wings; press the button to activate light and sound feature.

"Kenner Products" copyright info on bottom of fuselage. The ship has been re-released in both PotF2 and  "OTC" (Original Trilogy Collection) versions, with some different paint deco and deletion of the light and sound features. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, "original is best!"

Kenner Alien 18" Action Figure Spotlight and Restoration

By 1978, 20th-Century Fox knew that their Star Wars property was a money-spinner like no other movie before. Science fiction was HOT and studio execs were anxious to get their hands on any kind of project they could find to leverage this trend.

So it was a natural for Fox to greenlight Alien. Directed by journeyman Ridley Scott, the film became an instant classic and a cinematic icon, spawning several spinoffs and sequels and generating millions for the studio.

But while Star Wars generated cubic money through merchandising tie-ins, Alien didn't. The film really wasn't "toyetic" in the way that Star Wars was, but nevertheless Kenner obtained a licence for the property and produced one toy - a large-size (18") action figure. While not popular in its day, the toy itself has become iconic among Alien collectors and toy fans for its audacity - a figure for kids, based on an R-rated movie that kids weren't allowed to see, in a scale that no other toy used, absolutely faithful to the hideous visions of a weird Swiss artist, of a character that exuded a sheer otherworldly horror. A natural fit for the toy aisle!

Having said this, the story that the toy was "recalled" for being inappropriate isn't true either... in fact the figure was a poor seller, and was finally blown out in remainder bins. Only later did collectors discover it, and demand has caused prices to rise to the level seen today - a nice loose example can run $200-300 with figures in boxes fetching up to $1,000.

Although I'm a relatively recent convert to Alien fandom, I've been aware of this toy as a collector for some time. As I'm a Giger fan as well, this is a must-have. The figures are available on eBay from time to time and that's where I found mine - fortunately complete with the clear cranial dome and all of his back spines intact.

The figure is remarkably faithful to Giger's vision. I'm still shocked that Kenner execs actually cleared the toy for production and thought it might sell. What parent would buy this for their 8-year old?!?!

Rear view showing the rubbery back spines and the plastic central dorsal spine - this is often broken.

The tail is a separate piece that locks into the body with a serrated washer on the inside of the figure.

Detail of head. The paint application on the head glows in the dark - as if the figure wasn't creepy enough already.

With clear dome removed.

Here's the action feature - press up on the trigger (shown in photo below) - the spring-loaded jaw opens up and the inner jaws extend.

Here's the trigger that works the action feature. Copyright info is on this piece also but is not entirely visible!

The often-missing clear dome piece. Apparently it comes in a "smoked" variation as well. As one might imagine, the piece was easily lost by kids and is comparatively rarely seen today.

Unfortunately the figure I obtained did have some (undisclosed) issues - as commonly happens with these figures, the rubber loops that hold the arms had been lost and the arms were held together inside the body with a limp bungee elastic. Not acceptable!

So I devised a repair that somewhat replicates the original fastening, while being pretty easy to install and reversible in the (admittedly unlikely) event that the original rubber fasteners are ever reproduced.

I went to a local big box store and picked up some plumbing o-rings. I had some strong plastic tubing around the house already. I cut a short length of tubing - wider than the internal arm hole but not too wide. Cut a slit lengthwise in the tubing and insert the o-ring as shown.

Insert the tubing end into the arm hole...

Work it around so that the tubing lays crosswise across the hole and is held in place by the tension of the o-ring. Place the arm inside the body of the disassembled toy and loop the o-ring around the central post as with the original. Screw the body back together and you're done.

An alternate repair method with some great photos is here.

The Alien now occupies a shelf in my office along with a copy of the awesome "Giger's Alien" book. The cabinet above will hold the new set of Alien 3 3/4" figures from Super7 when they arrive; for now I'm keeping my Super7 "Early Bird Envelope" up there.