Cloud City Playset (Sears Exclusive)

The last in my series of posts on the "Sears Exclusive" cardboard playsets is this one - the Cloud City Playset. 

Of course, it was just another cheap vehicle for Sears to sell its exclusive action figures - in this case, Han Bespin, Dengar, Ugnaught, and Lobot - but upon examination the playset reveals itself as a pretty clever piece of papercraft.

 

Box sides - as typical with the Sears cardboard playsets, while the box front had amazing art direction, the sides were ho-hum with no further play scenarios illustrated.

Now we get to the goodies. The cardboard playset comes in two pieces, the larger of which is actually die-cut in places to allow the 3D setup.

Multiple dates on the copyright notice is... unusual. Also the callout to 20th Century Fox is seldom seen in Kenner notices, as they usually reference General Mills Fun Group, Kenner, or other affiliated entities. Interesting.

The reverse sides of the pieces are undecorated.

And here it is set up, probably for the first and final time. It does look rather amazing, but the cardboard tabs are super fragile and I don't want to find out how much assembly and disassembly 40-year old cardboard can take before disintegrating. So I'll have to make the most of it!

Detail shot with the carbon freeze chamber (centre), Cloud City dining room (left), and torture chamber (right). The litho on these pieces is really good.

Stormtroopers about to torture Han Solo.

Dining room awaits the appearance of Vader.

Here's the box art tableau. Fortunately my set came with the full complement of pegs as well (seven - six for the base and one spare).

Some closeups of figures in the environment.

 

What on Earth is Dengar doing in Cloud City?

Now some more imaginative play scenarios. "We would be honored if you would join us."

"I love you." "I know."

"What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me." "The Empire will compensate you if he dies. Put him in!"

 

The playset is fairly complete, missing only the instructions (and insert?). Above you can see the box that contained the included four mini-action figures, and the small bag of pegs.

The three Sears playsets (this one, the original Cantina Adventure set, and the Rebel Command Center) command ridiculous prices for what they are - essentially a few flimsy bits of cardboard and a few plastic pegs in a cardboard box. Remarkably, the Cloud City set was the most expensive (for me) of the three. However, I would put this set and the Cantina set far above the Rebel Command Centre in terms of coolness. I just love the creativity involved in the papercraft of this set, and the litho is really well done. For such a compact playset, this one includes a good variety of Cloud City environments, missing only the gantry location of the Vader/Skywalker lightsaber duel, and maybe the landing pad. Too bad, but there's a limit here I guess. It's just too bad there weren't any other Cloud City playsets produced for action figures in the vintage era. This one is pretty cool though and the box looks epic, so colourful and well done.

Rebel Command Center Adventure Set (Sears Exclusive)

Another of the Sears exclusive playsets here... basically a vehicle to offer new (and exclusive to Sears) action figures - in this case, Luke Skywalker (Hoth Battle Gear), AT-AT Commander, and R2-D2 (with Sensorscope). 

A little bit of show-off of the new figures on the box sides.

Boy, does this look familiar... the plastic playset base is of course recycled from the Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Playset, and from the Land of the Jawas Action Playset before that. As you'll see from the pics below, though, the cardboard backdrop design took advantage of the "cave" to include a neat new feature.

 

Here's the cardboard bits - the folding backdrop itself and two supports. Note the "cave floor" at lower left of the backdrop piece - this fits under the cave opening on the plastic base.

Copyright notice on the backdrop.

Here's the assembled playset. The backdrop looks pretty cool as a trompe-l'oeil image of the interior of Echo Base on Hoth.

On to the box art! Luke covers the AT-AT Commander as Artoo looks on, sensorscope erect. Strangely, Luke and the Imperial commander seem to have exchanged weapons here.

Artoo looks good with Echo Base interior in the background.

Another one from the box - AT-AT Commander menaces the lovable droid.

Supplies cleverly cached in a small cave outside the base entrance. I like that the designers used the backdrop in a novel way.

Cardboard insert included with the playset.

Here's the box for the exclusive pack-in figures.

Instruction sheet included in the set.

Same copyright notice on the bottom of the base as appeared in the Land of the Jawas and Hoth Ice Planet playset incarnations, with the exception of the added "No. 38770" text at lower right. Not sure of the significance of this, as that wasn't the Kenner number assigned to this playset. 

Definitely one for the completist here. I can't say much for the playability or aesthetic appeal of this playset, and even the box is kind of boring. If this cost $12 at retail I would feel a bit ripped off, notwithstanding the inclusion of three new figures... the superior playability of something like the Imperial Attack Base playset just beats this one all hollow. Hard to find nice examples nowadays though and they tend to sell for a real premium, considering what they are.  

Cantina Adventure Set (Sears Exclusive)

One of the first playsets produced in the Star Wars era was this "Cantina Adventure Set", exclusive to US retailer Sears. The playset itself is pretty basic, but what's of interest to collectors today is the set of four new action figures included with it - Greedo, Walrus Man, Hammerhead, and Snaggle Tooth (sic).

Of course, the first three were all the standard Cantina creatures available on blister cards, but the Snaggle Tooth figure was... different. The story is familiar to most collectors but goes something like this: Kenner received a partial black-and-white photo of the Snaggletooth Cantina alien from Lucasfilm as a reference for the action figure sculpt. However what the photo DIDN'T reveal was the alien's diminutive stature and hairy pawed feet, and the colour of his attire. Kenner guessed that the alien was normal human height and would be wearing boots in the film, and that his costume would be blue... wrong. The blue Snaggle Tooth was produced and included in the first run of this Cantina Adventure Set (exclusive to Sears) and in two-packs of bagged figures, also exclusive to Sears. Some time after the movie came out and Kenner realized that the figure was not at all accurate, the figure was somewhat corrected in its appearance, and the blue Snaggle Tooth never again appeared.

The Cantina Adventure Set box is pretty large, but shallow. 

Original price tag is still on the box - $8.99. Pretty decent deal, as it included four figures that would retail for $2 each more or less... so the consumer pays about a buck extra for the playset itself. Not far off what the production value would have been.

Instruction sheet included, featuring blue Snag in a starring role.

Here's the assembled playset. The cardboard is one piece of cardboard, details are shown in photos below.

Tableau from the box art. I guess the Cantina's "no blasters!" rule didn't apply on the streets of Mos Eisley, as everybody's fully strapped notwithstanding the Stormtrooper in the background.

Copyright notice on the playset cardboard. Interesting to note the "1977" copyright date - as the first twelve action figures weren't even available at retail until 1978! Must've been some legal beagle backdating the image.

Here's the playset card laid out flat. Plastic pegs are slotted into the "floor".

Here's the tab and slot that stand the background upright.

Reverse side of the playset.

I'm glad I was able to add this playset to my collection, but honestly the primary appeal of the item isn't the playset itself, but rather the packaging. The box art is classic Kenner and is just great - while Ron Salvatore (for I'm sure it was he) pronounced the kid on the box front to be the goofiest ever to appear on a Kenner package, at least he's not wearing a turtleneck. I just wish there were more play scenarios illustrated on the box, because I'd love to recreate a few more tableaux with this one.

Aw Hell, here's one more just for fun:

Image courtesy theswca.com

Have fun and stay safe!

"Vintage" Custom Rebel Fleet Trooper

I've got a bit of a soft spot for "custom" vintage figures - you know, those figures that Kenner never made but you would've loved to play with, instead of being stuck with dreck like Prune Face or FX-7. One of the prime examples of this is the iconic Rebel Fleet Trooper (as I call him; he's also known as the Rebel Trooper or Alderaan Consular Guard/Security).

The recipe for this figure is simplicity itself: a vintage Han Trenchcoat body and a POTF2 Rebel Trooper head. That's it! I'll take you through the conversion next, but I have to give props to Trash Compactor Custom Figures who posted this great video.

Anyway, you start with a Han Trenchcoat (left) and Rebel Fleet Trooper (right), Don't worry about the condition of the Han Trench - the beatier the better, as he'll just have his head cut off and be repainted anyway. 

The first thing to do is get a cup of boiling water and immerse the figures. This will soften the plastic and allow you to remove the parts you need to swap.

First of all, gently pull off Han Trench's head, and remove the Rebel Fleet Trooper's helmet. It's held on with glue that softens in the boiling water.

Next, take a sharp X-Acto blade and cut off the Trooper's head. You'll be able to stretch his neck a bit when the plastic is soft. Make sure the bottom of the neck is level by just trimming where necessary. 

The next step is to drill a hole in the bottom of the Trooper's neck to allow it to fit on the peg on the Han Trench body. A pin vice or Dremel will do the trick here.

Once the hole is opened in the Trooper head, just push it onto the peg in the Han Trench body. It might take a bit of tweaking to make sure the hole is the right size - but keep test-fitting, and make sure not to make the hole too big. You should be able to turn the head on the peg. 

At this point, all that's left to do is paint the figure! I use acrylic paints for availability, water-solubility, and ease of cleanup. For the Trooper I mixed a custom blue colour for the shirt, used Games Workshop Mournfang Brown for the belts and Rakarth Flesh for the pants, and painted the buckles with Mithril Silver. The boots and vest were left in their original colour, just touched up where necessary with craft black. Leave the helmet till the painting is done, then push-fit it back on the head.

I bought a reproduction Bespin Blaster for the Trooper, but drilled a hole in the grip just so it won't be mistaken for an original.

Here's my custom lineup - from left to right - Corellian pilot BoShek, Grand Moff Tarkin, Rebel Fleet Trooper, Garindan/Long Snoot, and the easiest of all, Biggs Darklighter. I took the opportunity to get some weapons for the rest of the group too -once again, impossible to mistake for originals as they're the wrong colour :-)

Anyway, that's a bit of fun for an afternoon... I especially have to thank my friend KM who supplied the POTF2 Rebel Fleet Trooper for the swap. Thanks man!