TIE Fighter (Kenner Canada)

One of the original wave of vehicles produced in the Star Wars range was the humble TIE Fighter. This example, however, is in a box that's a bit unusual. Even on the front side, a knowledgeable collector will have a clue that this one is a bit different. Here's a hint - it has to do with the area around the Kenner logo at bottom right...

If you spotted the "Long-Playing Toy" logo on the box front and thought "WTF?" then kudos to you - Kenner USA had discontinued the use of the LP logo in 1979, before the ESB wave came out. But this isn't a Kenner USA box - it's Canadian! With French! Obviously - look at the stylish child flying the TIE Fighter in his cool black turtleneck.

Here's the French box front. Note absence of LP logo - presumably there was no French-language equivalent available for use.

Even though this is an ESB box and the TIE Fighter Pilot figure was an ESB figure, this TIE Fighter still gets piloted by a Stormtrooper - presumably the same one who stole Chewbacca's bowcaster and appeared on the Landspeeder box. This dude really gets around - now he's in the Death Star hangar for the duel between Darth and Obi-Wan!

"It's a man's life in the Stormtrooper Corps! One minute boiling your a$$ off on a desert planet - the next minute flying a TIE Fighter and witnessing a lightsaber duel between the two last surviving Jedi! Wow!!"

Copyright info appears on the underside of the battery compartment.

Action feature alert! Pulling up on the tab raises the pilot's seat. I have to say that as action features go, this one is pretty lame. But it obviously stood the toy in good stead because this same tooling was used over again for the blue "battle-damaged" TIE Fighter as well as for the POTF2 re-issue version in the 1990s!

An icon.

We're Famous! Kinda!

 A couple months ago the bog was linked on reddit where "carkoon" wrote:

"When it hit theaters, you couldn't sell toys and other products fast enough to keep up, which led to things like the famous 'Action Display Stand' that you could buy in order to hold a future place for figurines when they came out."

Of course, carkoon was referring not to the Action Display Stand, but to the "Early Bird Certificate Package" that has been comprehensively documented by collectors and others over the years. So the link was sort of a mistake, but I have to thank carkoon for the "link juice" as that post of mine got over 7,000 hits as  a result ;-)
  

More importantly, we got a shout-out from Skye and Steve in their Star Wars Vintage Pod 'Chive Cast #38. We're mentioned around the 32:40 minute mark of the show. Noted collector Duncan Jenkins (of Gus and Duncan fame) said:

"It looks really nice... really enjoyable."

Skye said:

"I get the sense that most of what he does is play with his toys and take pictures" but added "[that's] pretty admirable" so I'll take it ;-)

Anyway, thanks for the shout-outs, Internet!

Vintage Figure Collection Completed!

Today the last of the figures arrived to complete my run of loose figures from 1978-85 (only 35 years in the making ;-) so I'm celebrating with a quick post and photo rundown. Above - the first twelve - all of which I've owned since new.

Here - the next 9 (to make 21 from the Star Wars series, along with the elusive Blue Snaggletooth) plus all of the characters released for "The Empire Strikes Back". You'll notice a few extras in there - some custom figures that have snuck their way in ;-) Can you identify them?

The "Return of the Jedi" assortment.

The "Power of the Force" release. Looks like I've cut off an Ewok there - sorry! Latest acquisition to complete the run was the R2-D2 with pop-up lightsaber.

Lastly, some other oddball variants. Left to right: Death Squad Commander with only one rank bar, Boba Fett with Taiwan COO, matte-grey IG-88, modern bootleg Stormtroopers, Lando with white teeth and eyes, large head Han Solo, Jawa with cloth cape (since it came later than the vinyl cape, I consider the cloth cape version to be the "variant" ;-)

In the background, my only two MOCs - Canadian Toy Fair display Princess Leia Organa and a garden-variety Leia Endor.

Well, there you have it - 35 years of loose figure collecting! Whew!

"La French Touch" Collectors' Reference Book

Well, "Celebration Europe II" takes place this weekend in Essen, Germany, with tons of celebrity guests and cool stuff to see... and I won't be there :-(

HOWEVER! Even though I won't be in attendance, I wanted to bring a bit of European flavour to the blog, so I'm posting about Stephane Faucourt's new book, "La French Touch - History of French Star Wars Merchandising & Marketing 1977-1986".

I was privileged to assist Stephane with translation and copyediting the English version of his book. La French Touch covers everything you can imagine about Star Wars in France, from action figures and toys (of course) to newspaper and magazine coverage, product premiums, record albums and videos, costumes... you name it. All copiously illustrated in glorious full colour, naturally :-) 

Here, Yak Face points out his entry in the "Trilogo" section. The book covers all card style variations from the early square Meccano cardbacks all the way to the last Trilogo cards.

Lots of cool material and pictures of model kits...

Packaging variations for ships, beasts and playsets too.

Plenty of weird stuff to hold your interest - like these very strange ice-cream tie-in story ads.

Luke Stormtrooper found his cardback too! :-)

Stephane very kindly sent along inscribed English and French editions of his book, along with some other cool stuff for which I am very appreciative. The book has received some very good reviews on Rebelscum and other forums (from some prominent collectors too) and I join with them in applauding Stephane for his creative and thorough job in presenting the subject. I had a copy of the book sitting on the coffee table and even one of my non-collecting friends thought it was so cool he couldn't put it down!

If you're lucky enough to be in Essen for CE II this weekend, the book is available at Gus and Duncan's Completist Publications stand (#804). If not, you should order a copy direct from Stephane through his website at http://www.meccano2trilogo.com/

Large Size R2-D2

Part of collecting is knowing what not to collect, and for the most part, for me, "what not to collect" has included the large-size action figures. Unfortunately for this plan, I really love bounty hunters (who doesn't?) and so I couldn't resist picking up Boba Fett and IG-88 in 12" form. I also already had Darth Vader, C-3PO and the Stormtrooper (the last of these, since I was a kid in 1980), so how could I limit the damage and stop myself from having to collect all 12 of the large figures?

What I decided to do was limit the 12" focus to bad guys and droids. That meant I only needed to get one more - the large size R2-D2.

Easier said than done really - while the radio-controlled R2 seems to be quite common, his 12" counterpart is a bit more difficult to come by, especially in complete form including the "Death Star plans".

Death Star plans, you ask?

Well, on the front of the droid is a small panel. Press on this...

...and hey presto! a door pops open on the back of the droid, revealing a secret compartment. If you're very fortunate, this compartment holds two plastic parts with decals on them, labelled "Death Star Plans."

Original decal on left, repro on right

Of course, even if the plans are there, the decals are subject to some wear and tear over 30 years of play. My R2 unit came with only one set of plans, and the decals were in poor shape. So I obtained another set on eBay along with some repro decals.

These are both repro decals

There are also decals in the secret compartment where the plans are stored.

The 12" figure is a remarkably accurate likeness of the full-size droid, wouldn't you say?

Landspeeder

Didn't everybody have a Landspeeder? I had two as a kid, got them both for the same birthday. That was a bit of a drag, since there was only ever one Landspeeder in the movie and to me, the play possibilities within the confines of the movie context were somewhat limited. But it is nevertheless an iconic toy from the original range and the box art direction is fantastic as usual.

Box top shows "simulated suspension".

Did anybody else used to store vintage weapons up front in the trunk?

Demonstration of suspension feature and remnants of TRU sticker ;-)

POP has unfortunately been removed, but what a great photo of the heroes riding in the vehicle.

The usual recreation of the box art. The 'speeder in the photos is one I owned as a kid. What's up with the Stormtrooper using Chewbacca's rifle?

Luke checks out the thermal reactor under the hood. Careful with that lightsaber!

Copyright information.

Spring-loaded suspension...

"Wheels down" with the lever in the forward position, simulated floating.

"Wheels up" with the lever locked back, vehicle sits on the ground. As with many Kenner vehicles the cleverness of the play features in the toy is often overlooked, but that floating suspension setup is pretty cool.

Move Update

I know this is a pretty pitiful update, but I wanted to post something to indicate that I am still alive and somewhat engaged in the vintage hobby... so here is something.

It's the beginning of my "vintage corner" of the basement in our new house. IKEA "Besta" units; open shelving with solid doors at the bottoms for random storage. I'm thinking I might get some glass doors for the top part, but the adjustable shelving looks pretty good I think. Only problem is that the unit isn't deep enough to house the Imperial Shuttle and there's no room for the Death Star playset either :-(

Loose figures will go in a tall glass cabinet just in front, once the figure stands arrive from The Earth's online store.