My Vintage Star Wars Toys

A look at the awesome Star Wars toys I had in my childhood.
On
September 07, 2007
One of my first childhood memories was seeing the movie Return of the Jedi on HBO in the mid 80s. The movie had a profound impact and made me a geek for life from that point onward. I didn’t see the original Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back till around 1990 due to lack of access, but one thing I did have access to was my awesome toy collection. Now mind you, I wasn’t born until a mere 10 days before Jedi was released theatrically and my parents didn’t start buying me the toys till ‘85 or ‘86, so I didn’t have all the best ones. I never had a X-Wing, TIE Fighter or even the Millennium Falcon, but I did have some pretty cool ones and a great imagination nonetheless.



Scout Walker (a.k.a. AT-ST)

This was definitely a cool one. It had a button on the back that would make the legs walk and rotating side guns. I had a knack for imitating the laser sounds it made in the movie (Peee-Tooo, Peee-Tooo!). Unfortunately over time the legs got broken off of mine but not to worry, from that point on it became a flying ship of some kind in my eyes.



Desert Sail Skiff (Mini Rig)

Another cool one, this had a retractable plank just like in the movie and I’m pretty sure the sails on the back moved, Sure it wasn’t a full size one but I sure didn’t care.



Y-Wing Fighter

This one actually had an electronic feature that made the guns on the top of the cockpit rotate and make firing sounds, and there was a button located behind the droid compartment that made a small bomb drop from under the ship. I remember pretending this was the X-Wing when I would have Luke fly in it.



Endor Forest Ranger (Mini Rig)

This one was kinda lame, mostly cause it’s not a vehicle from the movie, but I still enjoyed playing with it. There was a knob on the back that made the cockpit rotate.



Tri-Pod Laser Cannon

Probably the simplest of my Star Wars action figure accessories, had no special feature to it but I remember the energizer box was hollow and opened up and sometimes I would put Yoda inside, not sure why exactly though.



The Ewok Village

Ah, the coolest playset I ever had, this thing had an elevator, swinging boulder, capture net, throne for C3-PO, spit over fire pit to attach figures to as well as the Ewok huts, I cannot stress enough how cool this thing was. Sadly my Ewok Village got left behind during a move from Connecticut to South Carolina. I had to choose between it and my He-Man Castle Greyskull, well Castle Greyskull worked well as substitute for Jabba’s Palace so I made my choice. I would’ve chosen differently if given the option again though.

And where would the accessories be without the corresponding action figures? My parents found most of the following for around a dollar each (doesn’t that make you ill). Sometimes I wonder if only they had grabbed extras and kept em sealed in the packages... Oh well, the point was they were fun to play with and God knows I played the hell out of these things:



2-1B Medic Droid, 8D8, Admiral Ackbar and AT-AT Commander.

AT-ST Driver, Bib Fortuna, Biker Scout and Bossk.



B-Wing Pilot (The only one I got from the rare Power of the Force[/i] line from 1985), C-3PO with Removable Limbs (imagine how fun it was trying to keep track of all the limbs), Chewbacca (my first action figure ever) and Darth Vader. On a side note I gotta say those vinyl capes sucked and would rip so easily.



Dengar, The Emperor, Gammorean Guard and Greedo



Han Solo, Han Solo (Hoth), Han Solo (Endor) and IG-88



Jawa, Klaatu, Klaatu (Skiff Guard) and Lando (Skiff Guard)



Leia (Boussh), Leia (Endor), Logray and Luke Skywalker. As I child I wondered why Luke was wearing white clothes cause I had only seen him in all black from Jedi, but yet again my imagination fixed that flaw.



Luke (X-Wing Pilot), General Madine, Nikto and Obi-Wan Kenobi. I should mention the coolest aspect of all the lightsaber wielding action figures was the lightsaber was built into their arms and it would telescope in and out, talk about ingenious, I can’t believe modern Star Wars figures didn’t follow suit.



Prune Face (where the hell exactly was this guy in the trilogy?), R2-D2 with Sensor Scope, R5-D4 and Rancor Keeper. Since I didn’t have the Rancor toy I remember using a Godzilla-esque toy which was about the right size as a substitute.



Rebel Commander, Ree-Yees, Squid Head (ah those politically incorrect names, those were the days) and Teebo.



Weequay, Wicket and Yoda (one of my favorites).



And what action figure collection would be complete without the cheap C-3PO and Darth Vader collector cases to store them in? I had the C-3PO one first then later traded it for the Darth Vader one instead cause let’s face it, there’s no contest there.

But there you have it, my treasured Star Wars toy collection from my childhood. Unfortunately I don’t have a single piece left in my possession, but I have a lot of memories having a blast with all of em. Out of all the different kinds of action figures I had including the He-Mans, Transformers, Silver Hawks, Captain Powers, etc., these were the best and got the most attention any day.

Special thanks to The Star Wars Collectors Archive (http://theswca.com/collectors.html) and The Kenner Archive (http://www.kennerarchive.com/index2.html) for all the pictures.
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