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Discussion: What was (Or still is) your single favourite Star Wars toy?

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What was (Or still is) your single favourite Star Wars toy?

What was it? What did it look like? Do you still have it? Why did you like it? When did you get it? etc

For me it was the ROTJ Speeder Bike…

I think it hit Europe in '85 (I may be wrong) so I probably got it for that Christmas, as I recall, all my presents that year were ROTJ figures.

The reason I liked it so much is of course because if you pressed the button on the back it violently exploded! (At least it seemed violent in my imagination). Then you had to pickup all the pieces clip them all back together and blow it up all over again. The detailing was really good too with the moveable flaps and laser-cannon underneath. I must have liked it because unlike most of my toys, I didn’t lose any of the parts for years. The figures always looked rubbish because it never fitted the seat properly but you can’t have everything.

Look over there, a vintage commercial…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCUZfPzovbY

It’s pretty sweet that they are remaking it for the Black Series…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1n1OVPe2sI

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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I loved the Speeder Bike as well, but because of its explosive abilities it was missing a piece and was held together with a rubber band by the time it got to me.

I don't have a single favourite Star Wars toy, but I really liked the Kenner AT-AT, Jawa Sandcrawler, and Dewback.

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The Millenium Falcon action playset.

I knew I wasn't going to get it for Hanukah because my mother couldn't afford it. What I didn't know was that she knew how much I wanted it, and saved like the dickens for it, so that I was be genuinely surprised when I peeled off the wrapping paper and there it was.

That was, and remains, the best present I ever received.

“That’s impossible, even for a computer!”

“You don't do ‘Star Wars’ in Dobly.”

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I've never once seen that before. Interesting.

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For some reason this thread made me think of Erica, then I got sad at not having seen her in a while.

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It was made by Palitoy, which was a British toy company.  Many of its play sets and figures varied slightly from the US line of toys.

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unamochilla2 said:

It was made by Palitoy, which was a British toy company.  Many of its play sets and figures varied slightly from the US line of toys.

The thread?

EDIT: Frink got there first...

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Mielr said:

Electronic Laser Battle Game. Still works---just tested it out with my nephew a few months ago.

http://youtu.be/HJWCN7c9ZJ4

 We were so easily entertained back then. ;)

I spent many hours playing this one.

http://youtu.be/ByCAYrq4YXk

And I still have it. There was a second one I found in a thrift store I used as prop in a couple of my video projects back in college.

One of the Rebel Assault games apparently used a sound sample from this.

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Where were you in '77?

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unamochilla2 said:

Oh yeah...

 In some ways, this is almost cooler than the Kenner playset, and I loved that one.

My Kenner figures did occasionally visit a similarly constructed Moonbase Alpha once in a while, in spite of not being quite to scale for them. ;)

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2013/01/collectible-of-week-space-1999.html

It's a shame Hasbro doesn't do playsets today. The last few Kenner did in the 90's were tiny and lame, which seems to justify Hasbro's stance that playsets don't sell.

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unamochilla2 said:

Oh yeah...

 Same here. I still have it in almost mint condition in the plastic bag. The box is okay apart from the end flaps which are battered to hell.

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unamochilla2 said:

Toys baring little-or-no resemblance to anything in the actual movie is something I kinda miss. I guess back in the day we only had that one slightly hazy memory of seeing it in the cinema, so toy makers didn't have to worry about it exactly matching in detail or scale. Today kids can probably look up blueprints for the DS on the internet and check the accuracy.

This ROTJ R2 that fired Luke's lightsaber out of the top of his head was a favourite too...

...but looking back on it, it couldn't have been less accurate if they tried. It's like they got Picasso to make the face on those figures...

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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Oh wow did anybody ever have one of these...?

(The landspeeder not the MILF LOL)

I hadn't seen it before today but I feel sure my life would have been complete if only I'd owned one.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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I think getting the figures out at a price point that an fit an average kid's allowance back then probably dictated how detailed they ended up being.

To this day, I don't get why the Jawa got a cloth cape and everybody else got that goofy vinyl thing.

I did see a vinyl cape Jawa on the pegs once, but passed on it as the cloth one looked "right". If I only knew!

You usually had to wait for a birthday or Christmas to get one of the ships or a playset, but you could get a couple figures a month. Maybe more if there was a sale.

The sculpts did get a lot more detailed after Empire.

One the other end of the scale, the large size figures were incredibly detailed and hold up very well today. But they were more expensive, and the line faded away around the time Empire came out. Kenner probably only did a 12 inch Indiana Jones because they could reuse the Han Solo mold. Nevermind Indy's haircut looks nothing like Han's.  ;)

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I believe the reason Kenner switched to cloth-caped Jawas was because vinyl was more expensive, and thus didn't sell as well. It cost about the same as a regular-sized figure, if I recall correctly--from my source, not my preexistence--so people didn't feel they were getting their money's worth.  They changed it to cloth so they could make and sell it cheaper, so that more people would buy it.

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SilverWook said:

One the other end of the scale, the large size figures were incredibly detailed and hold up very well today. But they were more expensive, and the line faded away around the time Empire came out. Kenner probably only did a 12 inch Indiana Jones because they could reuse the Han Solo mold. Nevermind Indy's haircut looks nothing like Han's.  ;)

http://theswca.com/images-unproduced.html

Kenner was going to release a line of large size actions figures for ESB and even created some prototypes, but the line was eventually cancelled in favor of the smaller figures.  Only IG-88 was produced and released.

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Ryan McAvoy said:

unamochilla2 said:

Toys baring little-or-no resemblance to anything in the actual movie is something I kinda miss. I guess back in the day we only had that one slightly hazy memory of seeing it in the cinema, so toy makers didn't have to worry about it exactly matching in detail or scale. Today kids can probably look up blueprints for the DS on the internet and check the accuracy.

This ROTJ R2 that fired Luke's lightsaber out of the top of his head was a favourite too...

...but looking back on it, it couldn't have been less accurate if they tried. It's like they got Picasso to make the face on those figures...

The "Power of the Force" line in 1995 wasn't very accurate, either... at least initially.

Do I see a six pack on Leia? ;-)

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Some toy collecting magazine hung the name "monkey leia" on that hideous thing. I can only imagine what Carrie must have thought! Leia looks rather mannish.

Maybe Kenner used a reference photo of Princess Vespa's stunt double by mistake?

The whole POTF line was popping steroids, except for the droids. Although a buffed out Threepio and Artoo would have been hilarious.

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SilverWook said:

Maybe Kenner used a reference photo of Princess Vespa's stunt double by mistake?

 ^ 'Pop-culture comedy-reference of the week award' is on it's way :-)

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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SilverWook said:

Some toy collecting magazine hung the name "monkey leia" on that hideous thing. I can only imagine what Carrie must have thought! Leia looks rather mannish.

Maybe Kenner used a reference photo of Princess Vespa's stunt double by mistake?

The whole POTF line was popping steroids, except for the droids. Although a buffed out Threepio and Artoo would have been hilarious.

 Let me reopen the wound for you:

The horror

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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SilverWook said:

Some toy collecting magazine hung the name "monkey leia" on that hideous thing. I can only imagine what Carrie must have thought! Leia looks rather mannish.

She looks like a Hispanic man in drag, to be brutally honest. 

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Ryan McAvoy said:

Hey, isn't that Haley Joel osment in the speeder?

My current favorite Star Wars toy is

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison