CT What was your favourite toy / figure when you where a kid?

I remember going through old photos a few years ago, and I came upon Christmas morning pics, probably 1981, or 1982. I was very, very young. And it was before ROTJ. The floor was littered with wrapping paper and fresh STAR WARS/Empire Strikes Back boxes. Man! I even had a Luke figure or something in my hand. It's funny, I was obviously already playing with the toys, but I think this was before I had even seen ANH for the first time (Although admittedly, a lot of the boxes were for my older brother--except the cloud city car. That was definitely MINE!) *shrug* But anyway, I sooo wish I could've reached into that picture and grabbed all the toys! I'd love to have them back!

 

You can! It's called Ebay.

 

Bahahaha, I'm sure that can't be cheap though!

It funny, for all of the clones and droids I had, digging through all my old toys, I didn't find a single Stormtrooper. I corrected that and bought a 3.75 black series trooper today! So excited to have him!

 

You'd be surprised - vintage SW toys aren't anywhere near as expensive as many think, apart from the 1980s POTF line and a handful of rare variations. If you're after 100% mint condition carded figues, that's one thing (a MOC ESB FX-7 went for an idiotic record-setting sum a couple of months ago), but a couple of years back I had short eBay binge buying a few ROTJ carded figures and most were between $20 & $40.

Then I pulled them off the cards.

What I'm always after is complete, mint-as-possible loose figures for my collection - a figure on an unopened card in poor condition is the most reliable and cheapest way to do it. There's also that small selection you can get in bags that were packaged for mail-away offers.
A lot of dealers will often sell loose toys with the separate packaging as well if it's available.

Some might think that the cards and boxes are a silly indulgence, but it's the packaging that sends the nostalgia factor through the roof. That's what we were first greeted with on Xmas morning or a sixth birthday in 1980. The toys inside were played with and saved for years, but for most, the packaging got thrown away that day. Seeing it again provides a real trip back in time.

 

Ah true! If ya just want to open them, that's a different story!

I'm so torn on being a collector. On one hand, I love the look of my un opened collection. On the other... I want to open them!

The funny thing is, it's only my Star Wars figures I get that way with. Everything else is sealed. Walking Dead, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, My Little pony, Godzilla... All that stuff is sealed.

 

So true, Nub. Those boxes! Despite my name here, my SW collection contains very little in the 'MOC' category, but I do have many (opened) boxes and cards. Also bang on that you can pick up some really good vintage toys at a reasonable price, unless you're going for pristine boxed gear or the really rare variations like vinyl cape Jawa.

 

I also loved my Jedi Robe (custom made).

 

My first favorite was Greedo, hands down. Later, when I got the Jabba set, that took over as the fave. I thought the green color and TRAP DOOR IN THE THRONE ITSELF were ridiculous, but hey, it was Jabba!
The Max Rebo Band were right up there, too.

I also sent away proof-of-purchases for the Emperor figure. That was cool; no one else I knew had him.

 

Oh my god, that's so true. The Emperor was like the holy grail. I don't know anyone who had him. I only heard whispers of kids who supposedly had him. No joke.

 

edit; i never did get an emperor fig.

check is out.

Rebelscum.com: eBay Today 1417: Rare. Oh So Very Rare Classic Kenner Must-Have

 

I got the mail away Emperor. It seemed pretty straight forward as a kid, but maybe I got lucky getting mine.

 

Incredibly straightforward, but it was the actual process of mailing it/getting parents to mail away for it that was the hard part!

 

I never really had a favorite figure. I only had a small number of figures...

Luke Skywalker in Hoth gear.
Luke Skywalker in Jedi gear.
Luke Skywalker in Bespin gear.
Han Solo (TESB)
Lando Calrissian (TESB)
Darth Vader (ROTJ edition with sliding sleeve Lightsaber)
Two Imperial Stormtroopers
Scout Trooper
Bib Fortuna
Greedo
A Gammorean Guard
Gonk
Momow Nadon

But I never placed any as a favorite. I just played with them.

Consider yourself lucky that you aren't into trying to get Generation 1 "Transformers" figures. Those suckers can be expensive.



Artfire, a Japanese exclusive Targetmaster, was a short term release in late 87/early 88. Making him a bit rare. I found on E-Bay a loose version of the figure, missing his hands and his partner, went for over $500 USD. It's part of the reason I haven't ever gone back to recreate my collection.

 

Yeah, you can get loose Kenner figures for a few paltry bucks, though accessories like guns and cloaks might be harder to find. Fortunately there are repro manufactures who make such items and sell them pretty cheap. You could probably build an entire Kenner of all three films' toys for a few hundred dollars.

 

I was looking around, and it's certainly true, the loose figures are very cheap! I may have to order a few of them.

 

Watching "Toy Hunter" I can see that. Those always seem to sell well regardless of being loose. My ROTJ Luke and TESB Lando were both loose when I got them in 85, but I was still able to make do in spite of that.

 

Any Star Wars LEGOs. I still have, among others, that massive Death Star diorama!

 

Hard to rank most favorite, but Dash Rendar and the Outrider are up there, for certain. Dash is one of my favorite characters, due to my experience with Shadows of the Empire, and as such I had tried to create him from another random bearded Hoth character (whom I never knew the name of; someone with a brown beard, whitish clothing akin to Han Solo's on Hoth, a hat and goggles placed upward on his head). When I finally lucked out and got a Dash toy... 'twas pretty sweet. The outrider was the cherry on top.

 

I love seeing this thread pick up again! It's really fun to see all these old memories.

 

Here's another fun memory! In '80-'81, before I acquired my Falcon, I had to make do with a neat-o toy spaceship called the Starbird (see https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...Nl8x?_adv_prop=image&fr=moz35&va=starbird+toy for some awesome images) as my hero figures' go-to vehicle. The thing made some really sweet engine noises, ascending or descending in pitch based on which way you aimed the head, and it had a killer blaster-fire noise too. I also had the Command Center you see in the images, which I used for my Rebel base. Pretty cool, huh?

Only problem was, that ship is scaled way up; the figures that came with the Command Ctr were tiny little miniatures, and the Kenner figures could not possibly fit into the cockpit, or anywhere else in the Starbird.

So... I improvised! I had seen an episode of Dr. Who with Tom Baker, in which he explained to his sidekick, using baloney physics, how the interior of the Tardis was much larger than the exterior. I happened to have this huge old 1950s wooden TV shell, probably two feet deep, devoid of any electronics, which I turned around and made the interior of the Starbird! The glass TV screen became the Star Trek-like monitor-screen, which looked out into "space" -- IE my bedroom playscape. I cannibalized pieces of the Command Center and other sci-fi-looking gizmos and gadgets to fill up the starship/TV shell interior. And I justified it all with Dr. Who's very convincing explanation about the Tardis.

I used to fly my heroes -- Luke and Mark Skywalker (the ESB and original Kenner Luke figures: they were brothers!), Han, Chewie and Leia -- around in that thing, while the Empire chased them in a single white TIE Fighter and Fett's Slave 1. Days of high adventure, indeed.

 

Was and still is - my 1979 Millenium Falcon, gonna pay for my retirement when I sell it

 

never seen that starbird toy. was it in the u.s.?

that reminds me, my bespin han solo doubled as my indiana jones figure because they looked very similar. i had a van (a-team maybe) and a crate truck with the back that opened and i used those to recreate the raiders truck chase.

 

My vintage Millennium Falcon. When I was little we got a new stove, and the box served as my Rebel hanger for weeks.

 

My Han Solo blaster or my Luke's green Lightsaber.