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...