"Battle Damaged" X-Wing Fighter

Continuing the last post's "battle damaged" theme, here is the Battle Damaged X-Wing Fighter. Unfortunately the box is pretty trashed (battle damaged?), but as you'll see, the toy itself is very nice, and the set even includes the cardboard insert. It's a good thing too, as without the insert the box would barely hold itself together without collapsing!

The box side has another nice tableau featuring some of the Hoth rebels, and a picture demonstrating the retractable landing gear.

Another side panel has a cool pic with Bespin Luke, Chewie and the droids.

Demonstration of S-foil deployment and retraction.

As noted above, this toy came with the cardboard insert. I'm always impressed with how cleverly designed these die-cut cardboard pieces were.

Here's how the X-Wing fits into the insert.

Tableau time! Bespin Luke waves a greeting to Chewbacca and the droids. Note the distinct lack of "battle damage" on the ship... I guess the original owner couldn't bring him- or herself to apply those stickers.

Luke popping up the canopy as in the tableau photo. Interesting that all of the tableaux show the X-Wing with S-foils deployed, even though the ship is sitting on the ground.

Here's the "Hoth" tableau, replicated. Nice usage of the Hoth-themed figures that by the Jedi era, had been in general release for awhile.

Close-up of Luke having a wave...

And of the rest seeing him off.

The box front tableau - Luke arrives on Dagobah, greeted by Yoda and the (ghost of?) Ben Kenobi. 

Interesting that while Yoda seems to have a plethora of variations (not only snake colour, but also eye colour, eye shape, etc. etc.), Ben only has three - grey hair, white hair, and double-telescoping saber. I have two out of the three variations in my collection, you can probably guess the one I'm missing :-)

A good look here at the main differences between the Battle Damaged X-Wing and the original - the BD version is cast in grey plastic (as opposed to the white of the original) and its canopy had a noticeable smoke tint, quite different from the clear (or more likely nowadays, yellowed) canopy of the original release ship.

I really enjoyed setting up the tableaux on this one, it seems like some boxed toys featured more "play images" than others and the BD X-Wing certainly does that. I've had this in my collection for awhile but have only just gotten around to featuring it, but despite not owning this toy myself as a child, I think I prefer it to the original, just for the more realistic grey colour and the cool smoked canopy. The battle-damage stickers would just be icing on the cake. An awesome toy all around!

"Battle-Damaged" Imperial TIE Fighter Vehicle

I'm excited to post this vehicle as it just arrived on "Star Wars Day" (4 May) and it's one of the last items needed to complete my run of vintage vehicles and playsets. Also, I love TIE Fighters!

Strange combination of characters here... Vader piloting the TIE Fighter while Lando and Ackbar look on??? Perhaps Vader has defected to the Rebel Alliance along with his ship to collect a reward, like Munir Redfa did in Operation Diamond. We may never know the truth.

Demonstrating the pop-off wings and laser light.

Battle sounds and how to place a figure in the cockpit.

Opening up the box, we remove the cardboard insert housing the three parts of the toy. Note the "slots" on top of the hatch - apart from the blue colour of the ship, this is the only material difference between the battle-damaged TIE Fighter and the first molded-in-white version released in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back packaging. The trademark information molded into the cockpit section is a bit different: "(c) LUCASFILM LTD. 1978 / MADE BY KENNER PROD. / CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202 / CAT. NO. 70990 OR 71392 / PAT. NO. D254,081".

It's really quite clever how this one piece of cardboard securely holds the wings and cockpit section securely in place, as well as keeps the box from collapsing!

The assembled TIE Fighter.

From another angle.

Here are the used sheets from the wing decals. I love that the original owner of the toy hung onto all this stuff!

Original sheet of "battle-damage" stickers. The instruction booklet notes that these are "not removable" once stuck onto the wings so evidently the original owner considered discretion the better part of valour and left them on the sticker sheet.

 

Original instruction booklet and catalog included with the toy.

The best part of the post - recreating the box art. Unfortunately unlike so many other Kenner toys there's only one tableau image on the box of the "Battle-Damaged" TIE Fighter, and it's a bit of a weird one...

The toy was first released in mid-1983 and only in "Return of the Jedi"-branded boxes. It stuck around for about a year before being replaced in the lineup by "Collectors Series" versions of the Darth Vader TIE Fighter and TIE Interceptor.

I really like this toy and not just because it's a cool TIE Fighter - it's also one of the most complete examples of vintage Kenner toys in my collection. Everything that came in the box is still here - not just the ship itself, but also the cardboard insert, the used sticker sheets, the instructions, and the unapplied battle damage stickers. A real time capsule!