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Star Wars Action Figures
An anonymous reader writes "Star Wars nostalgia buffs: X-E just added a fairly long feature detailing some of the many mail-away offers made by the Kenner company to keep kids interested in SW action figures in the 80s."
This letter reads so much like the start of the spam that I get in my inbox. It was funny to read...
...if only it read...
Dear Young Jedi Knight:
Greetings! I hope this letter reaches you -- I am sending it over great distances and many millennia.
I am sending it over 10000ly (TEN THOUSAND LIGHT YEARS) and 10000y (TEN THOUSAND YEARS)....
If only I didn't freeze Han Solo so many times and kept the figure in the original plastic it would be worth a lot now ;)
(DivX, 770 KiB, 13 secs)
I remember waiting weeks for the Boba Fett with the firing missile, and how pissed I was that it wouldn't shoot. I kept trying to make it shoot, looking for a button, moving the arms to trigger it. :(
I also remember playing with a land-speeder for weeks before I could get any figures to go in it (parents should've gone for that early-bird thing), and also how upset it was when I lost Chewbacca's gun in the dark 70s shag carpet, never to be seen again!
...to include Jar Jar and Queen Amidala, are they going to be considered "classic" action figures, too?
Okay, maybe it was a lame giveaway, but I remember sending in for a whole of emperors because I had the proof of purchase seals anyhow. I think I had more emperors than storm troopers. Maybe that's why the empire failed, too much management.
Raise your hand if, like me, you cried when you saw the current selling price of the original action figures you proceded to tie to a fence, shoot with BB guns and explode with fire crackers. Twenty minutes of sheer joy, a lifetime of regret.
----- "Blame the guy who doesn't speak English." -- Homer J. Simpson
It's kind of sad how many of those figures I had. And also the ghost Obi-Wan (translucent plastic), the Nein Numb, and the Emperor. But isn't this better suited for Fark than /. ?
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
This was how I got my Anakin Skywalker figure as a kid. It was the Anakin from the end of ROTJ, it was so cool and I was so jazzed.
Now you won't believe this one, but after getting that when I was about 7 or 8, I write to Hasbro telling them how much of a fan I was and how much I loved Star Wars and that I was enclosing $3 (the going rate back then for StarWars toys, that I earned raking leaves) for a Darth Vader action Figure w/removable helmet and Anakin Skywalkers head/face. Lo' and behold a few weeks later I get a package in the mail with a Darth Vader action figure, non-removable helmet. I was so excited, I didn't care.
I would like to see you try that now a days.
That was one fond memory. Thanks.
Star Wars nostalgia buffs: X-E just added a fairly long feature detailing some of the many mail-away offers made by the Kenner company to keep kids interested in SW action figures in the 80s.
Thank God! I'm tired of all those disbelieving stares I get from the neighborhood kids when I regail them with tales of my treasured Walrus Man action figure I had as a wee tyke! Kids today have no respect for the classics!
GMD
watch this
You need to put a *not work safe* link on anything Natalie Portman related. Especially *live video* !!!
Colossians 2:8
--Chag
Your definition and my definition of well used are completely different.
-5 obvious lie.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
Star Wars Action Figures!!! more like celda
The BEST part of this article is the link WAY down at the bottom to this.
The thing I find funny is the consistent use of the term "action figure" (or even just "figure") to describe these things, even by people who are way too old and media-literate to be fooled any longer. Clearly, they're dolls, and hey, I played with them too (I probably still have R2-D2 - and if that one doesn't give the lie to the term "action" I don't know what does). Even as a ten year old boy I was apparently secure enough in my masculinity that I didn't have a problem with this - if we assume the same applied to the other members of the target demographic, who was the concocted "action figure" term actually meant to placate? The marketroids who coined it? The male parents, already distressed that their scifi-obsessed heir prefers fiddling with this weird crap to playing football like a good little oaf? I'm genuinely curious.
For that matter I'd love to know the history of the weird marketing term itself; were the Star Wars dollies the first use of "action figure", or was it ever used before that, say for certain toys with certain Kung-Fu grips? I'm pretty sure my disastrously-easy-to-disassemble Steve Austin doll wasn't called a "figure", whether or not he was a "doll". Though he would have been proud to be either, damn it.
Shoulda kept the Darda cars. Stupid kid.
can touch Hammerhead.. he rules too much to believe.
My buddy had an AT-AT ( link 1,
link 2,
link 3,
link 4 )and we massacred that thing.. took the head apart so we could get at the electronics and mess with 'em.. we were about 8.. it always kind of walked funny after that..
Here's some posts as to why AT-AT's are 'retarded'.
Face The Crowd New Media. Now with CARP-free music, Freeware OS X Apps, and wicked Wallpapers!
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. it's the only thing that ever has.
I was collecting them, but then I got tired of it, oppened them all up, and made a cheesy movie. But none of them were worth anything anyhow.
When do you think God will come back with the barbeque sauce?
You'd think someone who would make a page with more than 1Mb of images (according to Opera) could include height and width information in the IMG tags so it would render faster...
:-)
All these toys were before my time anyway.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Unfortunately, due to the lack of comments in this thread, I think the overwhelming opinion is "Who cares?" (/troll)
Seriously, though, the summation of the article wasn't exactly thrilling. Mailing list incentives to convince kids to buy Star Wars action figures?! Shouldn't you be linking to CES previews or something more interesting?
Ah, I just figured out the secret.
If you think you have a really good submission but it keeps getting rejected, just add change it to "STAR WARS [rest of original title]."
I had a complete set of the original figures (mail away Anakin, et al.). Paid for my first year of private college here in NY, thanks to eBay. I have no regrets about selling them.
This is one of those Slashdot gems. It has evoked so many great memories I don't know where to begin. Actually, you guys are pretty much summing up my experience too. :)
GiJoe figures were a fun toy of the same quality too. Transformers? Only the rich niche kids had those although the cartoon was awesome. Gobots? They were like Transformers that sucked ass.
I still can vividly recall my Darth Vader action figure and his cheap light saber (the little plastic stick was always bent). It added a certain irony to the menacing dark mask.
-jc
Everything you never had, always wanted, were jealous of... And hundreds of things that you never had the chance to get. Great site.
www.toysrgus.com
My inlaws just found the Darth Vader (head) carrying case up in thier attic full of figures in perfect condition. Excpet for the capes. Those cheap thin plastic capes that tore off after a few battles. They want to give them to me. I said SURE!!!! Wait till their son finds out eh!
Oh, wait...
That guys AIM is on there, poor dude...
Banaaaana!
did you used to wotk for gobosh?
When do we get to see the action figures for Yoghurt and Lonestar? I've waited years for them to come in to sale. I mean, I checked at toys R Us and they wouldn't even order them for me.
-------
Support Indy Music. Buy
Kids these days want dragonball Z figures!
--------
Free your mind.
I misread the title in your message as "How can they overclock the emperor?"
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
When I was a kid I had the original Bossk. Untouched, well maintained. I had no idea who he was. I thought he was that alien dude in that one Dennis Quaid sci-fi flick. Well anyhooo, one terrible night while my baby brother was having a jolly time, he ... gasp ... snapped his head right off. Bossk! 2 peices. I saw it happen. Snap, crackle, pop like a some bad commercial. I could only watch for the words would not come out. It was a cold dark childhood ...
But hey! Now I had something to put in the droid spot on my Y-wing fighter. Bombs away!
If you ignore most of this guy's text, it's a very interesting study in marketing (some of the stuff he's showing are prototypes!). I guess Mr. Bitter-trousers is being humorous, but from most of the posts here so far, many people participated in this marketing campaign, or knew someone that did. I don't see the posters here wading in grumpy anti-toy-maker sentiments.
No matter what the attitude of the article writer, Kenner's marketing campaign sure worked. I have some of those limited edition things (the backpacks, guns, some of the secret action figures). Of course none of them are in original packaging (but in good condition).
Nevertheless, it's a nice collection of promotional material!
TTFN
Where do you get that from the article? I've read X-E for a long time. The guy loves Star Wars. He's actually said many times that he tries to write these geeky articles in such a way so that non-geeks would read em too. I liked it.
I remember finally getting Bossk, and all the other neighborhood kids just bowed before me.
And the Action Figure Survival Kit with the umpteen guns, especially the ones with the straps? I was the frickin ARSENAL!
I, too, was hopping pissed that my Boba Fett missle didn't actually shoot... as pissed as I was that my Battlestar Gallactica Cylon fighters and Vipers didn't actually shoot.
I was 10 and and wanted the Boba Fett mail in, but you needed prood of purchases from 4 other figures to mail in to Kenner. So I went into the local department store with a pocket knife and sliced the bar codes off of 4 carded figures and took them home and mailed them in. No reciepts were needed back in those days! *sigh* It just makes me glow inside!
When my bro and I were a kid, we played a game...
:)
Take a stormtrooper, or Luke. Put kid on exercise bike with large rubber wheel. Get wheel going very fast. Put head of figurine on wheel. Watch plastic head slowly burn off.
That was great fun. I'd rather have done that than gain a few measly bucks off of another stormtrooper, anyhow...
What about the Natalie Portman / Amidala RealDoll (grown up and early teen versions available). Bet she loves that one.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
6 to 8 weeks ago ... it seemed like forever :)
...one of the new X-wing fighter pilot action figures named "Jorge Sacul"....limited edition, I promise...still in the blister pack, with neatly trimmed goatee....? Serious offers only.
Skinner: Gasp! Star Wars action figures, still in their original wrapping. Look, it's Luke, and Obi-Wan, and my favourite the Wookie Chewbacca.
Ralph: What's a Wookie?
Skinner: What do you think?
Miss Hoover: I think it's lunchtime
Skinner: We have a winner!!!
The reference site has pop-ups. My killer was paused and when I visit the reference site, I get a pop-up ad for a Pop-Up Killer. Great, buy the Pop-Up Killer from the pop-up Pop-Up ad... I hope for their sake they don't sell software other than pop-up killers with Pop-Up ads.
"It is essential that justice be done
The original Cylon fighter and Viper DID actually shoot, and they were damn powerful for the day. Unfortunately, the missles were very small and presented a choking hazard for infants, so the manufacturer changed the toy. Thankfully I still have my original, firing, models :)
Oh yeah, article correction:
"Revenge" of the Jedi was changed because at the time the new Trek movie was titled "The Revenge of Khan". Well known geek folklore, I'm surprised this supposed Star Wars freak didn't know it.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I was young enough to only really get into the Kenner stuff just after Empire. The first offer like this I remember was for the yet-to-be-seen Emperor action figure. Am I mistaken, or was that also an offer they made? I seem to remember getting mine, but then it could just be all the booze talkin'.
In Soviet Russia, they collected *your* UPC's...
Madness takes its toll. Exact change please.
I purchased a number of arcade games a few years ago, including some Star Wars arcade games, for $250 apiece. Inside the twoo of the three Star Wars games I purchased were Star Wars arcade posters. I benefited from being one of the first people to put them on eBay during the Star Wars Episode I craze. It sold for $120. In fact, I was quite shocked that it sold for so much. But I was more than happy to give the buyer the better of the two posters I had.
Hrm... the version I always heard was that right after the first batch of "Revenge" movie posters went out, someone in the production crew asked "Isn't it out of character for the Jedi to seek revenge?" (or some such comment), and lo and behold, it was changed.
Come to think of it, though, the Star Trek thing makes a lot more sense...
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
what's wrong with this guy's brain, that he embeds an obnoxious looping sound file into his HTML?
Is there a way to disable sound in mozilla?
I know it has a name but I'm not that much of a Star Wars freak. When my friends got the trash compactor set and it came with it it was the first time I was ever able to get a good look at it. You only see its eye and a few tentacles in the movie but it was actually pretty big and even scarier when viewed out of the water.
Did anyone else get to the bit about Nike's transforming robot... it turns from a robot into, you guessed it, a shoe!!!
You fool! You've given cheese to a lactose intolerant volcano god! Do you know what that means?
Anyone rememebr the product recall on the Cylon Rader spaceship. I had one with the missles that shot out. A friend had one where they "Locked" them down. Damn product safety. Wish I still had it...in the box.
Posted about this in another thread, but I can attest to this as well.
Had a Viper with the missles. (and now that you mention it, they were pretty powerful. very cool.) After some idiot shot his eye out or let his 2 year old brother eat the missles, they launched the recall. Mattel would send you a HotWheels in exchange for the missles, which my mom thought was a great idea. So I get a cheesy 70s swinger van and Mattel gets my missles. grrr.
here
Oh, mostly because of the snyde comments like "Luke's signature means he's impotent" and the general snottiness about the letter. The other stuff wasn't so bad, but really, when you're a kid, that letter works (or at least parts of it). Kids that are a bit older will be more cynical. Kids as old as we are... well...
Target audience is important in this sort of campaign. We can all adopt an air of superiority and say we're too smart for this to work on us, but does it help? I guess I was looking for more of a documentary on this stuff.
bravo. a truly moving account of an individual brave enough to question his own sexuality. i wept.
The article didn't have much to say, but it didn't take me on a nice walk down memory lane.
I remember that early bird special. I had totally forgotten about the weird cardboard display stand. I think I threw it away pretty quickly as it had no play value whatsoever. I remember waiting for the package and being ecstatic when it finally arrived. I believe they came packed in a styrofoam box (ahh, the 70's). As somebody mentioned earlier, I already had the landspeeder and that was the only vehicle available at the time. Anyway, I also remember the Boba Fett and Bossk mailaways, but decided to pass on those. If I had known how much that original package would be worth I wouldn't have subjected my R2D2 to hours of sitting in the bathtub. I think Luke's lightsaber was toast after the first few weeks. Sigh.