Ewok Village Action Playset (Kenner Canada)

OK, so back to this blogging thing after some time away from it. As I'm sure many of you also feel, 2020 has been the worst year I can remember so far, and it still has four months to go... Oh well, I guess the thing to do is just keep putting one foot in front of the other and making the best of it. And that includes some Star Wars toy blogging. So here goes.

Honestly the Ewok Village playset had been pretty low down on my list of stuff to get. Although I do have vivid recollections of seeing Return of the Jedi in the theatre (our family traveled down to Minot, ND to see the movie at the Dakota Square Cinema 9 or whatever it was called) and later ransacking the local Target for mini-action figures (my mother got Chief Chirpa, and I got a Biker Scout), I have never been a big Ewok fan.  I still have both figures though. But we digress... 

"Contents: One playset with elevator, throne, prisoner poles [?], escape chute, simulated boulder, net trap." 

So I never found the Ewok Village playset to be particularly compelling... although the Endor scenes with the speeder bike chase were SO COOL, the encounters with the Ewoks never really excited me. But in the spirit of completism I picked up a Canadian boxed example of the toy, and maybe it's started to grow on me just a tiny bit.

The box is bilingual of course, with French as well as English text. There aren't so many tableau-worthy play images on the Village box as there are on some other earlier Kenner toys, but that's OK. The Village actually has some pretty neat aspects to it.

Of course the net trap our heroes get swept up by is a main feature of the playset. Later on in the post I've photographed detail of the intricate way in which the strings are set up under the base of the playset. This did cause me some consternation as I was restoring the playset in pieces to its former glory. The elevator feature is also shown above.

The coolest thing is probably the "spit" that Han gets (nearly) roasted on over the firepit. The "escape chute" is merely a hollow trunk with openings at top and bottom.

The reverse side of the box is a line drawing of the same image as appears on the front, again with bilingual text.

The box ends alternate English with French text.

The opposite long edge has some interesting line art and bilingual text.

On to the photos! I've set up the playset outside as it was a nice summer day yesterday and the greenery adds something to the background. Also this playset is quite large!
Threepio's throne/litter/sedan chair is one of the cooler inclusions in the playset. It's pretty awesome. But one of the strange things about the box art is the homogeneity of the Ewoks... only Chief Chirpa and Logray were featured on the box. However I only have three Chirpas so I had to substitute Lumat... can you spot him?

The net nestles underneath the playset base and easily scoops up Luke, Chewie and Artoo as seen on the box front.

I find this hilarious... roasting Han on a spit. You'd expect that even our friendly peace-loving Rebels would have shot their way out of this mess before it came to this, but no. Faith in the power of negotiation (and Threepio the Golden God of course).

The "spit" itself is made of a kind of flexible rubbery plastic that holds the figures well. Note that I'm missing the "fire" sticker in the firepit... aaargh.

One from the box art here.

And another one.

Elevator with a Chirpa.

Threepio's litter. I like how the chair part separates to be used as a throne.
Overhead view of the toy. When you get one, be sure that it includes all of the railing pieces (there are three) and the brown wooden platform support pieces (example shown at lower right under the platform)... plus the boulder, stool, firepit, elevator car, spit and supports, net...

Detail shot of the underside of the platform with strings from the net.

Here's the copyright information.
And HERE is a piece that's often missing. It's the piece for the end of the strings from the net.

It's actually a really important part for the function of the playset, as the pegs on the bottom of the playset deck (seen in the "string thread this direction" photo above) fit snugly into the round hole on this part, holding the strings securely in place.

Well, that's the Ewok Village for you. Takes up lots of space, is only marginally cool, but no production toy collection is complete without one :-)

Stay safe everyone...

Die Cast Series III

The diecast line wound down to its conclusion with Series III, comprised entirely of vehicles from The Empire Strikes Back.

First up we have the Twin-Pod Cloud Car. Not sure exactly why this was chosen to be immortalized in the diecast range, as it barely appeared in the movie... but of course this was a mini-action-figure scale vehicle as well, so who knows...

Make sure that your loose Cloud Car has glass in the canopies!

It's relatively easy to find Cloud Cars in nice condition, as many were barely played with! The movable feature on the vehicle, of course, is the landing gear that manually extends and retracts from the fuselage.

Copyright info is on the underside of the central spar.

Slave I was also part of Series III. Unusually, there's no graphics or colour on the hull - just plain metal. You can just see Boba Fett in the cockpit in this shot.

There he is!

Action features on Slave I are the rotating wings and cannons.

Copyright info (as well as kind of an ugly scar) on hull bottom.

Lastly, here's the Snowspeeder, showing a bit of play wear. This seems typical for this ship and I think it demonstrates the love that kids showed them back in the day.

Like the X-Wing, the Snowspeeder features (two!) non-removable pilots, molded in orange plastic.

Harpoon launcher is present on the rear of the fuselage, but no harpoon or string, of course.

Cannons have gotten a bit warped over the years but the ship still looks good.

Copyright info on the wing bottom. Landing skid retracts into the fuselage.

So that's the diecast range - all three Series.A very fun and mostly economical run to collect (except for the TIE Bomber of course) and they look good on display too. If you're not into boxed or carded stuff they're even more appealing.

Anyway, I hope this tour through the world of vintage diecast has been amusing and informative!

Die Cast Series II

Four vehicles appeared in Series II of the diecast range: the Millennium Falcon, TIE Bomber, Imperial Cruiser/Star Destroyer, and Y-Wing. Let's get at 'em!

First up is the Falcon, another item from my childhood collection. A really cool little vehicle, although owning it didn't lessen my pain over never having the full-size Kenner version...

Super-detailed hull is made of diecast metal, with plastic parts (including lower hull) visible in this shot. Nice paintwork on the upper hull as well.

The radar dish and quad laser cannon are plastic and rotate freely.

Landing gear is retractable and even 40 years later, still stiffly sprung.

Copyright info on the bottom with a 1978 date.

Here's the rarest of the bunch - the TIE Bomber. I won't go into a ton of detail on this one as you can read all about it here.

Just some slight yellowing on this example, but not nearly as bad as on others I've seen.

The "snowtrooper" pilot is somewhat visible in this shot. Unfortunately, unlike the other diecast TIE variants, the pilot is not removable. Not so bad I guess as it's one less thing for a child to lose.

Copyright info on the wings; both are identical.

Here's another from my childhood toy bin - the Imperial Cruiser. Obviously this was the "smallest scale" vehicle in a range where vehicles were rarely made in scale to one another.

Later renamed the "Star Destroyer" on its packaging, the toy was a combination of diecast metal and plastic - the upper hull being diecast.

The ship only starts to get really cool when you turn it over...

There we go. Sliding hatch showing 1979 copyright date opens to reveal the ventral docking bay...

...and a small but perfectly formed representation of Princess Leia's "consular ship", the Tantive IV or Blockade Runner.

Gotta be top 5 of all time in easily-lost ship parts!? Here's the Blockade Runner, only about the size of your fingernail and clinging to the docking bay by its dorsal fin. I'm sure that 3D printers the world over are cranking these out nowadays, but amazingly this one is original to my childhood toy.

Lastly in this review of Series II, we have the Y-Wing. Lots of plastic parts on this one, with diecast being limited to the main fuselage.

The detachable engine nacelles are plastic.

Underside view shows the retractable nose landing strut and pylons on the nacelles, as well as the red bomb.

Here's the ship in its component parts, showing the rotating guns and shiny droid dome. The latter is the bomb release - just push it down. Nacelles are a friction fit into the fuselage.

Copyright info. The bomb slips into the slot and is friction-gripped.

The little bomb! Also frequently lost, and now seen in the repro market, no diecast Y-Wing is complete without the little red bomb. Note also that the diecast bomb is one piece, unlike the two-piece bomb that comes with the full-size Kenner Y-Wing. 

Stay tuned for Series III...