Hoth Wampa

"WAMPA!!!" was the probably the most annoying bit of dialogue ever recorded in the history of Kenner TV advertising... but just imagine for a moment the poor director of the commercial who had to listen to multiple takes...

...which brings us to the toy that was the subject of the commercial, the Hoth Wampa. Originally boxed as simply "Wampa", the toy's packaging was later branded "Hoth Wampa", I guess to put it in context... as if the dead Tauntaun, Luke in Hoth outfit, and snowy landscape didn't do that already.

While the toy's sculpt has come in for some criticism, I happen to like it. The other main issue people seem to have with the toy is its tendency to turn yellow over time. It's tough to find a nice white one, for sure.

On to the recreation of the box art! Unfortunately these less-expensive toys tend not to have amazingly intricate play tableaux, but we can only work with what we have, I guess. Here's the Wampa slappin' a Tauntaun upside the head.

Lifting Luke overhead preparatory to a power bodyslam!

And strutting his somewhat yellowish stuff. I like the Wampa a lot, but it would certainly be better if it weren't so darn yellowed. Or failing that, if it went uniformly yellow instead of having nice white legs :-(

Jabba the Hutt Action Playset

This playset was one of the first boxed items I acquired on my re-entry into the collecting hobby back in the early 1990s. As I recall, I attended a toy show of some kind in Toronto when I was in school there, and a dealer had absolutely stacks of these boxes at his stall. I can't remember what I paid but it was certainly not anymore than about $40. Should have bought all they had, I guess...

In any event, what we have here is the Sears (direct) version of the Jabba playset. This box version wasn't generally available in a true retail sense - I understand that it was what you got when you catalog-ordered the item from Sears. The box itself is pretty plain - two-colour litho, and the same image on the front and back of the box. There's nothing printed on the top and bottom nor on the end flaps.
 

Here's some images from the small "RotJ" catalogs with a nice tableau for me to re-create... which I am able to do because, back in the 1990s, I personally unsealed and opened up the packaging :-O

And here it is! The string on my production toy is obviously much shorter than on the version used for Kenner's photography, though.

A few words about the "action" feature of the playset (yes, "feature" is singular). The two "outboard" decorative "heads" along the front of the base are connected to the platform pieces on top of the base. When the heads are rotated, the two sections of the platform rotate upwards from the edges, as shown above.

"One look into his glassy eyes and kids will know - JABBA THE HUTT means business!"

And when Jabba means business you get dumped in the pit. Some sculpted detail there - bones, lizards, detritus from past victims, etc.

Copyright info on the bottom of the base. "Made in... who the %^&@ knows?"

As with many Kenner playsets, the Jabba set contains what seems to be an inordinate number of small parts... in addition to the base, there's the hookah stand, hookah bottom bowl, hookah chimney,  hookah top bowl, pipe and string, slave collar and string, and the Jabba and Salacious Crumb figures. Yikes!

Jabba's bong

Rancor Monster Figure

Inspired by the latest episode (56) of the Vintage Rebellion podcast, I got out the old Rancor monster for a photo session.

And what a monster he is! Easily the largest creature in the Kenner line, he's packed with play features as well, as you can see from the box photos above. Movable legs, wavy arms, rotating wrists... and most importantly, the snapping jaws!

On to the tableaux...

Here we see Luke running towards (!) the Rancor, who's already nabbed an unfortunate Gamorrean Guard.

Here we have the image from the box front... Rancor has switched the Gam Guard from right hand to left, in order to free up his right hand to grab Luke. I said "his"... and apparently this is correct; even though the Rancor's name is "Pateesa," it's a male rancor.

View of the back end of the Rancor. I suppose you might say "if you're seeing this, you've already been killed and eaten" :-(

The point here is a closeup shot of the control button for the Rancor's jaw action.

Press the button and the jaws open...

Release and they snap satisfyingly shut! Can't say much for the standard of dental care at Jabba's palace either.

Copyright info is hidden away on the back of the leg.

Had to include a couple of shots with the Rancor Keeper, of course.

Smile for the camera!

Apparently the backstory on Pateesa is that he was a birthday gift to Jabba from his majordomo, Bib Fortuna. "Don't say I never got you anything!" But on that point, I don't think a large, vicious animal requiring significant resources to upkeep is really an appropriate gift. I feel the same way about giving someone a puppy. "Thanks for this gift... that I now have to feed, housetrain, clean up after, pick up the droppings of, and provide medical care to... for the next 8-12 years. Yeah thanks again." Hey - dogs are great. But unless you live in the same house with the recipient, or the recipient begs for you to get them one, don't give one as a gift. At least the Rancor served a useful purpose for Jabba by disposing of unwanted slave girls.

Anyway... I never had a Rancor monster in my childhood collection and honestly, until I got this one out for pictures, I never fully realized how cool a toy it is. The snapping jaws are just great and the toy is really huge! I think the original pricetag on my box was $16.99 though which is plenty for even a very large figure. But the sculpting detail is outstanding and the play value has to be there in this one.

Till next time! (which will be soon, I promise :-) 

Tauntaun (Kenner Canada) and Tauntaun with Open Belly Rescue Feature

The second "riding animal" to be released in the vintage line (after the Patrol Dewback) was the Tauntaun, released in "Empire Strikes Back" packaging. The example in my collection happens to be a Kenner Canada item. Let's have a closer look!

"Contents: One marsupial mammal." Oddly specific, isn't it? I quite like this line, probably the Marketing Department's idea of a clever little joke. "One creature" or "one riding animal" just doesn't have the same ring, does it? Interestingly, this directly contradicts (!) the ESB script which reads:

EXT. PLAIN OF HOTH - DAY

A small figure gallops across the windswept ice slope.  The bundled 
rider is mounted on a large gray snow lizard, a Tauntaun.

Being a Kenner Canada item, French and English coexist in easy harmony on the box. Unfortunately some English infiltrated the French side as the "Action figures sold separately" appears in both languages on both box ends.

Back of the box demonstrates play features. Those reins... I have three Tauntauns in my collection and I think every set of brown rubbery plastic reins is broken and repaired, right at the top of the "loop". One of them is from my childhood collection and I remember that the reins broke soon after I got it. Superglue effects a repair but any flexibility in the repaired area is gone.

Typical Kenner escalation in this photo... two Rebel Soldiers, OK... but what kid is gonna have THREE TAUNTAUNS??

This is quite a nice picture of the Rebel Soldier grooming and saddling his smelly disgusting Tauntaun.

That's the box, now on to everyone's favourite part... playing with the toys setting up tableaux of the box photos. Must've been early in the ESB toy cycle as here we have Princess Leia Organa (as opposed to Hoth Outfit) and a non-Sensorscope R2. However as I've noted before, availability of certain figures often didn't seem to "figure" into the Kenner box art choices. Stormtrooper flying a TIE Interceptor anyone??

A fine profile shot of the Tauntaun with Han Hoth aboard.

Rebel Soldier lovingly grooming his mount. Perhaps trying to leverage the "horse-mad preteen girl" market? In any event, I like this softer side of the Rebel Soldier.

Setting off in search of Luke. Not quite the scene from the movie with Han storming off with his "I'll see you in Hell!!" line, but this is definitely more kid-friendly.

Now, the main thing people remember about Han's rescue of Luke on Hoth is stuffing him into the carcass of Han's dead Tauntaun. It was gross in the movie, and it's equally disturbing as a toy. However, by '82 the Tauntaun toy may have been getting a bit stale, and adding another play feature was a great way to invigorate sales.

No longer a "marsupial mammal", now just a mammal. Perhaps "marsupial" was removed so as not to create the impression that the open belly feature was some sort of joey pouch? Because reference to a natural birth process would be disgusting and inappropriate, not at all like a reference to cutting open a dead animal and stuffing your friend inside the carcass...

Ugh... nice close-up. We get the idea.

Recycled top picture from the Tauntaun box, with a re-imagining of the Hoth Rescue, this time with Rebel Commander and two Rebel Soldiers as witnesses to the horror. What is seen cannot be unseen!

Further recycling from the Tauntaun box.

It's surprisingly difficult to stuff Luke all the way into the Tauntaun abdominal cavity. I actually had to open the back hatch and stuff Luke's legs through there.

Close-up picture of the horrifying scene.

Maybe this is actually a reenactment of the rescue back at Echo Base, for the benefit of the Rebels who didn't get to see it the first time?? "Then I totally had this awesome idea, I took Luke's lightsword thingy and cut open the smelly old Tauntaun, and stuffed Luke inside it! He was totally unconscious so he didn't even realize until he woke up covered in Tauntaun guts, bile and feces! Try making time with the Princess now, farmboy! You're disgusting!" Makes drawing a dick on someone's head at a party look absolutely pedestrian in terms of pranks.

Well, enough with the Tauntaun stuffery... An interesting tidbit is that the COO information on both Tauntaun versions is exactly the same, on the bottoms of the feet - except for letter designations (A and D for regular and B and C for open-belly). Luckily for Kenner, they didn't print the COO on the belly of the beast like they did with the Dewback - if they'd done so they'd have needed to move it for the open-belly version. Just luck? Or did the designers anticipate a later "open belly" version when designing the first toy?

Another difference between the toys is that the saddle on the open-belly version (top) has a much thicker strap than the standard version (bottom). Presumably this is the result of real-world feedback on the flimsiness of the plastic strap. Kenner really does care!

Anyway, there you have the comprehensive survey of the Tauntaun in both versions. For me, I'll take the original recipe. The open belly just freaks me out.