This is all your fault.
My first foray into collecting and indeed science fiction, as with many people, was Star Wars. Star Wars, was a franchise able to capture the imagination and entertain audiences of all ages in a way that Star Trek for example couldn’t. Star Trek was about an idealist, utopian future. Star Wars was about action, uprising and explosions, whilst maintaining the same level of imagination. It introduced grunge to the worlds of sci fi, even though we have the technology, it’s all a bit knackered and falling to bits. The Millennium Falcon symbolises this best I think as it is outwardly, as Luke Skywalker himself declares, a piece of junk.
Anyway, what has made George Lucas, 20th Century Fox and now Disney, lots and lots of dollars, is the vast merchandising opportunities Star Wars introduced. Sci Fi was deeply unpopular at the time and to get the film funded, Lucas himself had to forego a paycheque himself, opting for a share of the merchandising profits instead. At the time this was a ludicrous deal that was heavily weighted in favour of the studio as essentially they were getting the ‘American Graffiti’ director for free, therefore what modest profits might come of the film, would be solely Fox’s. It was a win win. However, after completing the film, mortgaging his house in the process, Lucas decided to Merchandise the living daylights out of his brainchild. The Action Figure Revolution was born.
The publicity still shows Luke giving R2 and Chewbacca an anatomical presentation of the human body. You know, from that famous scene in ‘New Hope’.
Star Wars as we know was a major hit. So demand for toys was even greater. So great in fact that Christmas 1977, Kenner had to sell an empty box. That’s right, an empty box. That Christmas Day children all over the US tore open their wrapping paper like rabid dogs to get their hands on some glossy packaging with nothing in it. Well there was a piece of paper saying, ‘We’ll send you the first lot of figures when we’ve finished making them’.
To be fair to Kenner they delivered and months later kids were playing with a balloon headed Han Solo, a turd with fangs called Chewbacca, an R2D2 that looked more like a dustbin than the original and of course the big bad Darth Vader, complete with PVC gimp cape and bright red home enema kit that extends from his right hand. Obi Wan was wise to hide his kids from him.
They don’t look like much now but again, to be fair to Kenner, they were OK for the time, and the range was comprehensive, including several Leias, when action figure ranges even now refuse to release female characters for fear of poor sales in a perceived male dominated market. That said, if you release a glorified beeping swiss army knife with no perceivable gender, rating that higher than a woman would have been rather offensive.
Anyway, 20 years and two further movies (and a questionable holiday special) later, deciding he wanted a swimming pool, Lucas underwent the first of many alteration sessions, both to restore the original negatives, ‘complete’ the movies and also suck in the next generation of kids to buy up Kenner’s rebooted action figures.
‘Do you even Force bro?’ Luke reminds us that there isn’t much to do on Tatooine other than pump iron.
In 20 years, action figures had come a long way in terms of detail so likenesses were much improved. However for some misguided reason, the early releases were sculpted to look insanely butch. The intention as I understand it was to imitate some of the aesthetics of the ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ characters. Even the range title ‘Power of the Force’, draws some similarities. It explains why Luke Skywalker appears to have incredible pecs, very unlike the quite slender Mark Hamill himself. All the male characters seem to have this, from C-3PO to Lando, everyone appears to be dosed up on steroids. The only figures that don’t suffer from this are Princess Leia, understandably, and Chewbacca… only because he was covered in fur. Thankfully this was toned down as the years went on.
This was where I came in, my collecting days started here and I was that target market. Although due to the vastness of the range, collecting was hard, and being that age, it boiled down to, whichever figure tickled my fancy on a day, or whichever figure happened to be on the shelf whenever a Birthday or Christmas came around. This resulted in some strange choices.
The figures do retain something in common with their predecessors, and that is the level of articulation, which is limited to neck, shoulders and hips, that’s it. But this wasn’t such a big deal as the figures were to a degree, pre posed to look more dynamic. For example, the Lightsabre wielding figures were sculpted in subtle lunging poses. It did however mean if you diverted from the intended pose the figure would look ridiculous and likely refuse to stand up. As time went on, new features such as a removable helmet for Vader would be introduced. The most confusing of which perhaps was the R4D5 figure, which transformed into a cannon.
Did Kenner make this for a bet?
Deluxe figures were also introduced, many of these I ended up with somehow. They weren’t canonical by any means and some defied believability but at this point I don’t think Lucas cared. Luke from ‘A New Hope’, came with a speeder with pop out wings and a firing missile at the front. Han Solo was released wearing a costume never seen in the movies and had some heavy artillery jetpack, and Boba Fett had a similar such contraption.
Other more conceivable set ups included a diorama of the mountains of Tattooine, with a talking, desert weathered R2D2 that could be manoeuvred around the base with magnets. I remember secretly loathing this figure as the dome could not turn, the weathering was unnecessary, the middle leg couldn’t retract and generally I hate talking toys, never mind one that just beeps and whistles. On top of this, the reason the dome couldn’t turn was because of the eye piece that lit up when the figure made it’s noise. I have heard it said that R2’s eye lights up when he speaks but I have never seen this happen and definitely not bright red like he’s possessed. Having dug the set out recently, on display it does look good, especially with C3PO or Jawa included in the scene too, just don’t touch it!
The big thing that Kenner were really able to push the boat out and do this time around was play sets and vehicles. They did not disappoint. The play sets included the detention block from ‘New Hope’, a mound of snow with a gun turret on it from ‘Empire’, to even full dioramas such as Jabba’s Palace or the Mos Eisely cantina, where all of your figures you didn’t even know had names can hang out. The jewel in the crown however was the vehicles. Tie fighters, X wings, they were all there, in scale. The biggest prize of all though, the Millennium Falcon, complete with accessible rear section to put all your figures on board. It was fantastic.
So what do you do when you have released every single possible action figure and variants thereof from within the Star Wars universe that collectors have invested their hard earned cash into? Start all over again of course!
Just as the steam was running out for the range in the late 90’s, George Lucas came along with ‘The Phantom Menace’, which meant a new line was imminent. Star Wars was current again and pretty much kept the line going all through the next decade. Since then however, Hasbro, who bought out Kenner at some point decided to start from scratch. They scrapped everything that had gone before and began creating the definitive collection. Just as an added incentive/irritation, the figures were made a fraction of an inch shorter so as not to be compatible with the previous figures. With that also, soft goods were brought in, and at that scale look appalling. This has been standard practice for a while now, and in that time, standards have slipped, to the point where correct gender and hairstyle counts for a likeness, a myriad of retailer and national exclusives and the price points of some of the products are bizarre, such as the latest Millennium Falcon which was exclusive to Walmart in the US, retailed at over $200. It’s got to the point where Star Wars has become such a guaranteed seller, it doesn’t matter who a product is aimed at, somebody will buy it.
I thought I was long done with Star Wars collecting, until, something new came to the table. Deluxe, 6 inch, action figures. Now this perked my ears up, initially wondering, whether the minor height difference would mean they would be in scale with the Doctor Who 5 inch action figure range. As it turns out yes and no, some are, some aren’t. So I put them on the old Christmas list as a punt. Yes I still have a Christmas list. It’s the only way of avoiding getting an abundance of male grooming products, more-so that I already do. I got Darth Maul and Luke Skywalker out of the first wave, which also consisted of R2D2 and the Sandtrooper. Darth Maul was in no way in scale, but for a beastly looking fella, he might pass. Luke however in his X-wing gear was a perfect match.
I picked up an R2D2 later, who is tiny anyway, but also to compliment the Luke figure. I passed on the Sandtrooper, holding on for a generic Stormtrooper (a decision I now regret), but I was beginning to really appreciate these figures on their own merits. The detail, the character, the fact they are definitive and wont be released with a new hat a year later, the fact they look like the actors and are released in waves of 4, so it’s possible to keep up.
*Heavy breathing*
They command a higher price point but are well worth it. Plus they are mass market. The Doctor Who figures have been surviving on life support as Forbidden Planet exclusives for the best part of 5 years now, it’s so refreshing to see collectors items actually in shops rather than pre ordering online, being told it’s delayed, then having it delivered with its face back to front. Whilst larger figures apparently irritate the retailers by taking up too much space, I don’t care, I’m the customer, I want to buy the product I want, the fact that you put a higher quantity of other stuff in front of me doesn’t mean I want that instead. If someone said you have a choice, you can have a bar of gold, or 1 tonne out of 30 tonnes of horse crap instead, you’re going to go for the gold. Even if they offer another 10 tonnes of horse crap because you’re still only getting 1 tonne in the end, plus it’s horse crap! This is where I think retailers have lost their way. Creating a captive audience that will only buy what the retailers want to sell to them.
The Black series, which also runs a smaller, definitive 3.75 inch scale also is Star Wars collecting grown up. We will never see a scaled Millennium Falcon, but we have seen the speeder bike from ‘Return of the Jedi’ released and a ‘Tauntaun’ from ‘Empire’ is on the horizon. Neither will we see an infernal number of repeats and re-releases. It’s new and shiny, some thought has gone into it and fingers crossed it has a long life ahead of it. Not even the entirety of the main cast has been released yet. Not so much as a prototype of C3PO has been seen, but rest assured he will come at some point. The Black series gave me the R2D2 with turning head and retractable leg I craved as a child and more. It gave me my first Boba Fett figure and Stormtrooper figure for that matter and I can’t wait to see what they do with all other kinds of alien creatures.
So that is my Star Wars collecting journey so far. It is one I thought was long over, but apparently not. If you want to find out more about Star Wars figures, I highly recommend you visit the archive at RebelScum.com or traditionalists, you can buy ‘Star Wars – The Ultimate Action Figure Collection’ from the Works for £7.99, which charts action figures by character up to late 2012. Well worth a look.
Nerd World Problems 