SW Figure Playsets Discussion Thread

Thanks to the economy being in the toilet and kids not getting as many toys as in the past, playsets are something that are rare and in between to find these days.

This place is to discuss your favorite playsets/accessories that have come out: vintage, modern, or custom.

What are your favorites? What would you love for someone to produce?

 

My favorite has to be the Death Star playset since I had it as a kid and loved playing on the different levels it presented. It had a massive gun on top level for destroying planets like Alderaan, it had a meeting area, it had control room, elevator, and of course a trash compactor complete with Diagnoga monster. Cool stuff. All the vintage sets are very meaningful, but I think one of the most popular new sets would be the Jedi Council scene from TPM. Very pricey and hard to find on Ebay and you could get a chair and base to set by buying certain packs of Jedi Council members. To this day I have like four chairs and a few base pieces, very hard to find & put them together.
I always loved seeing the large 10-20ft long diaramas of Tattooine at the Celebrations. Very cool, as they had a whole city of action going on with figures walking, little huts filled with parts for dealing or whatever, ships and landspeeders everywhere, Dewbacks/Rontos walking about, and some even had a docking bay with a certain Melennium Falcon inside.

As for customs, most of us probably had styrofoam put together for their own Hoth base set. I still do and looks really good. Endor was always where the plants were lol.

I would like someone to produce a round, large Death Star set that opens up and would have many different levels or a Star Destroyer that opens up to a playset. I have the Clone Wars Attach Shuttle and haven't browsed through it yet, but guessing it would be something of this. Do collectors enjoy these sets?

 

I always desperately wanted that Death Star Playset - I drooled and drooled over it as a kid. I still want one I really want an Endor playset and the Geonosis playset.

The Jedi council sets were cool, I don't have anywhere that I'd be able to display all of those when they were put together though.

I found this site today - I think I'm in love w/ the Endor stuff, I can just see having the ewoks hanging out on those.

 

What an awesome site, thanks. That would be one Endor set no one would want to miss! I never got a vintage Endor tree set, so I've been on the lookout for one.

 

Great thread. '80's kid here, so well remember the SW & other toyline playsets from that era. It's too bad that the modern SW line (1995-on) has never had really great playsets; IIRC, I read somewhere that they're too expensive for toy companies to produce these days.

However, in the unlikely event that OT playsets are ever made in a future SW line, here is what I would like to see - note I envision these as all being modular (i.e. connecting) playsets:

-Death Star Modular playset - they could sell the different "sections" separately, and they could combine to form one huge set; the sections could include: DV/Obi-wan lightsaber fight corridor, the Trash compactor, Leia prisoner corridor, The "swing to freedom" chasm, etc.

-ANH Cantina playset - they could base this on the floorplans of the cantina from the film; I envision possibly 3?! modules, connecting to form the entire cantina.

-Hoth playset: They could have a Wampa cave, Imperial Attack Base, and Turret/Probot set (similar to the vintage playsets). I would also like to see a fourth "Ion Cannon" playset, but that couldn't be to scale...

Cloud City: Also could have three playsets: Carbon Freezing chamber, Gantry, and Control room.

Dagobah: Could have the "cave" where Luke sees the Vader "ghost", as well as Yoda's hut, and an outdoor training area....

-Endor: These playsets could consist of: The Bunker, Ewok Village, Forest Battle...

To imagine what these could look like, those of us collectors who have been around since the original Vintage days may remember the Star Wars Kenner "Micro collection" from the '80's, w/die-cast small figures; I based many of my above playset name choices on these sets:

http://thetoybox1138.blogspot.com/2012/05/star-wars-micro-collection-kenner.html

 

Yeah I thought that site looked incredibly awesome. I just hope that they don't get slammed w/ a Mouse lawsuit. They really need to take SW out of their titles entirely and call them like "Space Modules" or something.

Blur I really like the idea of making modules for the Death Star! By doing it that way it won't cost as much to produce as one gigantic set - then you get the bonus that the more pieces you buy you can create a bigger playset.

I don't buy that it's a cost thing though, like clockwork, Barbie gets a new dreamhouse every year and new playsets. They had a few bad years when the economy was really in the dumper where Hasbro tried making playsets and they didn't sell. They need to revisit doing some playsets now that the economy is getting a little better.

I know it's a long shot, but I'd love to see more prequel playsets. I have the Mustafar playset (its in storage) but I think other sets would be fun. I'd love more Jedi Temple playsets - which I know might sound boring but they'd be great for display purposes.

I mostly just really, really, REALLY want the Geonosis playset

 

I wouldn't mind having that playset! My Geonosian set up is expanding lately (just picked up one of the Geonosian Star fighters, Hailfire droid and Tri Fighter). I didn't see a Geonosian playset on Ebay, just a Lego one. Time to get out the Mustafar set and check it out...depending on weather where you live. Storage can be a cold place this time of year. This is a pic on internet, not mine.

 

Hee hee - I'm in Arizona, it's in the low 80's here

Here's an ancient pic of my Mustafar set - humm the slurpee cup and other things around it are in storage too.



This is probably my favorite modern playset - I didn't even know this came out until I saw it in a book and got it at my local action figure store.



Here's the Geonosis Playset.

 

Thanks for all of the pics. - I never had any of the Prequel Trilogy playsets, but now I regret not getting at least the Geonosis one - great set, and I should have grabbed it when I got the chance - especially since, even back in 2002/2003 when this came out, playsets were very rarely being made for SW toys.

I also remember seeing the "Disturbance at the Lars Homestead" playset somtime in the 200X's. Another good set, that I didn't get for whatever reason - IIRC, it was on sale at my local TRU & I just passed it by.

Yes, I think modular sets would be the way to go - especially with the Death Star. IMHO A Death Star environment would be way too large & expensive if it were sold as one set (not counting the Vintage toy - to a little kid like me in the late '70's, this was a great toy - however, in the 21st century this just looks cheap & chintzy).

I don't see why something like this hasn't happened already - as I mentioned in my last post, they could just use the 1980's "Micro collection" as an example of what to do here; it's a no-brainer. If a collector like me can figure out that this is the best way to market something, then you would think a company like Hasbro would be even more equipped to determine something like this...unless Hasbro just doesn't think they can make $ from something like this...

Unfortunately, I don't see OT or PT playsets happening anytime soon, if at all. Hasbro's focus from now on will be the ST & the spin-off films, and if any playsets come out I'm fairly certain they'll be based on those.

That being said, stranger things have happened...

 

You definitely don't see many playsets these days, however my 6 year old Nephew is into Ninja Turtles and while I was out doing my Christmas shopping this past year I came across a MASSIVE Ninja Turtles sewer playset. It stands "42 tall and retails for around $100. That's obviously outrageously high, but as I said it was huge and it warmed my hear to see it.

Blur pretty much covered what I'd like to see in a fantasy scenario (because I just don't see Hasbro ever doing playsets again, save for perhaps one or two for Ep. VII).

Looking back at the vintage Kenner line, it's hard to believe we never got a carbon freezing chamber playset for the 3 3/4" line. That certainly had more potential play value than, say, Yoda's hut you would think .

 

Blur I think that Geonosis playset was the last big playset Hasbro ever made. I've got all of the monsters in storage and tons of figures to go w/ that for display which is why I'd love to get my mitts on one.

I'd be OK if they wanted to do some TFA playsets - that could open the door to them making more other playsets if they sell well. I personally don't plan on buying much from TFA but I'd be excited if they decided to go gung ho and really try to reach out and entice a whole new generation of kids to want to play w/ action figures in a big way. Hasbro would be smart to go all in - there's going to be a huge nostalgia thing w/ parents wanting to give their kids new Star Wars toys. We've now got kids who grew up w/ the prequels having kids and their grandparents had the original toys.

Juke Skywalker who makes Ninja Turtles? Is that Mattel? Mattel is still really good about making playsets of all sorts for their figures, I'm always seeing big Batman and Superman playsets at thrift stores (too big for me to pack and resell so I ignore them.)

 

PadmeLeiaJaina, couldn't recall off the top of my head, but looking it up TMNT is by Playmates.

The way that line has been selling--at least in my neck of the woods--I'm not surprised they're pumping out playsets and the like for it.

 

Agreed. However, we did get an IMHO cheap POTJ Carbon Freeze playset in the early 200X's; I never had or wanted this - IIRC it was an exclusive. Here's a link:

http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/content/modules.php?name=JReviews&rop=showcontent&id=1804

Going along with this - I was, overall, quite dissapointed with the overall sub-par POTF2 OT playsets - they seemed quite chintzy/cheap/small to me, and far inferior to the '80's OT playsets, i.e. Imperial Attack Base, Dagobah, Turret/Probot playset, Ewok Village, etc.

Yes - TFA will be aimed towards a whole new generation. I don't plan on collecting much of this product, if at all. I'm already struggling with the room I need for the SW collectibles I do have I definitely think OT/PT toys will still be coming out in the coming years, but the question I'm sure everyone has is to what extent?! I'm guessing we may see a handful of OT/PT figures scattered within the ST line(s).

If TFA toys are succesfful, I also hope it will possibly lead to OT playsets. Though, if this happens, they will probably be few & far between...

 

Well we'll have to see what happens. If Hasbro really starts focusing mostly on just the new films, there's no saying that some other company can't come along and decide to take over doing the original films merchandise and have them be specifically aimed at adults. Stranger things have happened.

 

Yeah, I remember there being some buzz about that POTJ Carbon Freezing Chamber playset and then I saw it in a Brian's Toys catalog and I was thoroughly unimpressed.

I do have a certain nostalgia for the POTJ line, as that was really my first foray back into Star Wars collecting (new stuff) since I was a kid.

 

From an interview w/ the head of Global marketing at Hasbro this weekend at Toy Fair -

So it looks like I might be right that we'll be having huge toy releases w/ TFA.

 

Good to know. However, I don't think I'll have the emotional connection to TFA that I did with the OT & even the PT....that being said, it will be interesting to see what these new toys look like...I'm sure we'll see pics. online at some point this Spring/Summer...hopefully sooner rather than later...

There were some 6" TFA prototypes leaked online at the beginning of this calendar year - but these pics. were promptly taken down...

 

For the OT we had Cloud City playset, but I'm still not sure how it is a playset with no pieces of plastic for base. I may look into the POTJ Carbon Freezing playset.

 

Yeah, whostheBossk, that Kenner Cloud City "playset" was more like a diorama. Neat, and I'd love to have it, but not really a playset-playset.

 

Good memory, Juke Skywalker. Never had this Cloud City set, but remember thinking it was cool at the time. It's basically a cardboard diorama, however.

Here's a link:

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=39649

 

Don't know if you saw issue #155 of Insider, but Mattel are going to be producing some SW Hot Wheels ships and playsets. There's a video from SDCC here on Youtube.

 

I love that artwork.

Even though it's just cardboard it came w/4 figures and retailed for $6.99. That's a heck of a deal! I believe Star Wars figures at the time retailed for $1.99-$2.25. So you basically get 4 for the price of 3 w/the diorama/playset as a bonus.

That's cool. That Hot Wheels line seems to have really caught on.

 

I don't recall ever seeing the Cloud City "playset" as a kid and until this thread, this is the first I've heard of it. The fact that is was so cheap and came with four figures is pretty neat.

My favourite playsets were
-The Ewok Village. I loved all of the workings to it, the net, the swinging boulder, the fire pit, etc. After watching the Retroblasting video, I wish I would have known about the Robin Hood Sherwood Forest set, which is just a better version of the Endor playset. See photo link if you are unfamiliar http://theswca.com/images-speci/recycle/village.jpg and Retroblasting video where I learned of this playset

-The Turret Probot mostly because it came with the awesome Imperial Probe Droid and what I assume was a giant outhouse for the rebel soldiers, haha.

-Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, this seems more like a playset than a ship, to me anyway. It had the awesome thing that Vader sat in when you first got a glimpse of him with his helmet off.

-The Cantina playset, though this wasn't too elaborate, it had the cantina band on the diorama, which I always wanted as action figures. Also the cantina scene is probably my favourite scene in the movie.

-The Droid Factory was really neat too. This allowed you to give R2 his third leg.

I basically liked all the Kenner playsets, but those are probably my favourites. There are a few I never owned, the Death Star being the major one. How I missed out on that one is a mystery. It looks like it would have produced many happy hours of playtime.

 

Picked up the Cloud City Playset this weekend. It was a little frazled with some tears, but I'm happy overall as it gives any Bespin set a nice background. I saw the Geonosian playset for $40 but passed. Now thinking that was a good deal. Still thinking about the Bespin POTJ Carbon Chamber playset.

 

http://twelfthparsec.miiduu.com/drum-and-horn-accessory-set

Well, this is oddly specific and corresponds to a total of 1 saga character. Since the drum doesn't exist as an accessory (yet the drumstick do?!), I am kinda tempted.

Wondering what this is...
http://twelfthparsec.miiduu.com/bone-armor

Thanks for the link, PadmeLeiaJaina