Regal Toy Plush Chewbacca Redux

I've had this item in my collection for a few months now but wanted to post it up just for the sake of completeness. It is of course another Regal Toy plush Chewbacca - but unlike the other one in my collection, this one is complete with all of its tags!

Isn't this a beauty, the original hang tag. Regal Toy was one of the first global manufacturers to bring out Star Wars toys - it produced a plush Chewbacca, R2D2 and Jawa. As noted in a previous post, the Regal Chewbacca differs a bit from the Kenner one as it's a bit bigger, and has its materials/care tag in a different place.

Bilingual hang tag of course!

Here's the Regal Toy materials/care tag at the waist. Kenner version had the tag at the neck.

The other side has French.

The toy was missing two of the cartridges from the bandolier but fortunately I had two 3D-printed cartridges left from the last project. These are a slightly different colour than the originals and marked "Reproduction" of course.

I love the Regal Toy plush characters, they're among the first Star Wars toys ever produced and have their own real charm. Of course now that I've got a couple Chewbaccas I am on the lookout for an R2D2 and a Jawa. The Regal Toy Jawa is a unique and rare piece, coming up for sale infrequently, and is certain to command a price well in excess of the $75CAD I paid for this Chewie at a local shop. I reckon I got an amazing deal on this one (with tags intact!) and it's not going anywhere.

Micro Collection X-Wing and TIE Fighter

The two classic Star Wars ships... X-Wing and TIE Fighter. They've appeared in several iterations in the Kenner line - 3 3/4" scale (in two variations each), diecast, and now, Micro Collection! 

Looks great doesn't it? The great thing about the Micro Collection ships is that they seem less... compromised, and more accurate, than the full-size 3 3/4" scale versions.

I think this is due to practical reasons... the larger scale ships have to be a bit undersized when compared to the figures, just for cost. A larger ship requires more material, a bigger box, and a larger footprint on store shelves. All of those things cost money.

But the smaller scale ships require less of all those things, so there's a bit more flexibility to reflect screen accuracy.

Unfortunately the "action feature" of this ship does require a compromise - that large handle sticking out of the ship's behind.

"Lock S-Foils in attack position!"

And here's that pilot outside his cockpit.

Manipulating that handle at the back releases the elastic cord and activates battle damage. And speaking of battle damage... the ship of course includes battle damage stickers with clear backing. They look good.

Instruction sheet.

Here's the copyright information. Made in Macau, interesting eh?

Now the nemesis of the X-Wing - the TIE Fighter. Another really well-done toy, so accurate to the screen version. Battle damage stickers here too. You often find these ships missing the wing stickers as the glue loosens after 40 years... fortunately this example required little work. I was able to make good photocopies of the detached stickers and stick them back on with white glue.

The battle-damage lever is much better integrated here than it is on the X-Wing. It's the button on the back of the cockpit pod. 

Hatch opens at the top, just like on the 3 3/4" version.

Copyright info on the inside of the hatch.

TIE pilot is a bit harder to find. My ship didn't come with one when I bought it years ago so I had to find a loose one, which can be tough. This one came in a lot with a bunch of other Micro Collection figures. I've seen sellers ask up to $45 for a TIE pilot but I got this one for less than that, and it came with a dozen other random figures to boot.

Pressing the button simulates the battle damage.

Instruction sheet is great to have!

Nice detail on the cockpit right?

Here's the two pilots. They look really good.

Not super-visible in the pic but trust me, the figure bases have copyright info, as well as a unique code that identifies the figure and what set it came with. There's a handy list of the figures and their codes on the Star Wars Collectors Archive, here.

Till next time! 

Micro Collection Death Star Escape Action Playset

I've been bitten by a new collecting bug, and it's the Micro Collection. I can't say that the small stuff hasn't ever been on my radar (a couple years ago I was able to complete my loose run of diecast ships) but it's never been a focus, until now. I've had a mint loose Death Star Escape set in a storage box for over a decade - or two? - I don't remember where I got it, I always thought it was neat, but it never was a focus. But recently for whatever reason I got the bug to develop that part of my collection, so here we go! 

Let's start with the tableau, replicating the box photo. But first let's get into a bit of Micro history. The Micro Collection was released by Kenner in 1982. These were plastic playsets in approximately 1:60 scale - instead of action figures, you got prepainted diecast metal figures included, in a variety of poses. There were several sets available: Hoth Wampa Cave, Hoth Ion Cannon, Hoth Generator Attack (also collected into the Hoth World mega-set), Hoth Turret Defense, Bespin Control Room, Bespin Gantry, Bespin Freeze Chamber (collected into Bespin World), and Death Star Compactor and Death Star Escape (collected into Death Star World). There were ships as well - the X-Wing Fighter, TIE Fighter, Snowspeeder (J.C. Penney exclusive and also sold in Australia) and Millennium Falcon (Sears exclusive and ditto). But we'll get to most of those in future posts.

Like I said earlier, I've had my loose Death Star Escape for donkey's years. But I decided to pick up a box for it recently, as I want to have all of the playsets in boxes. This box is a real beauty too, and it came with all the goodies, as we'll see in a minute. Here are some tableaux from the box photos:

The Micro Collection boxes are just great, very colourful and distinctive with plenty of pictures and a great mailaway offer. It's kinda too bad there aren't more play photos for my tableaux. 

The box came with all the goodies - instructions, ESB catalog, sticker sheet, and even the original bags for the figures - nice! The instructions are particularly good:

Hey I almost forgot - the box even came with the cardboard insert. Really the complete package.

One last thing - here's the copyright info from the bottom of the set.

So we're off on the Micro Collection and it's gonna be a trip. I've got lots to get to and stuff to talk about (I've just ordered Gus and Duncan's Micro Collection book so look out for a review and some tidbits from that) and I can't wait to get at it!

Boba Fett Star Wars Holiday Special Animation Script & Character Model Sheets Package

My friend Mike F, proprietor of 4th Moon Toys in Toronto, runs an annual special "Life Week" sale full of cool goodies both vintage and modern. Being a fan of Star Wars books, especially the oddball ones, I was particularly interested in this book by John Celestri, formerly an animator at Nelvana Studios here in Canada, and an industry artist and creator for over 50 years. The book was offered in a limited edition signed by the author with a bonus autographed print. SOLD!

The book arrived quickly and was all that I'd hoped. It's a pretty slim paperback, magazine sized and perfect bound, with colour covers and a B&W interior, all on high-quality slick paper with heavy card covers. 

It has some awesome character reference pictures done by John for the holiday special animation. They're so good!

The book also includes the full shooting script of the Fett cartoon from the Holiday Special...

...and of course many many renderings of the sinister bounty hunter himself!

As if the book wasn't cool enough, the package included this signed Fett print by Celestri. I put it in a frame and it's hanging upstairs in my house. 

Highly recommended to Fett fans and enthusiasts of the Holiday Special. The tv show was awful for the most part but the Fett cartoon was AWESOME and this book is a great memento of that time in Star Wars history.