Art by: Mark F. Hudson

RETURN OF THE FORCE
A 1985-1997 Retrospective

Review by Chris Bishop

In 1995 Hasbro/Kenner made many Star Wars fans happy by reinventing and reintroducing the SW toy line. From the original line's demise in 1985 through the early 90's there was no mainstream demand for any toys based on the galaxy far, far way. Surely there were fans of the films and the original line that wanted more, but corporate America, which comprises itself completely of bottom lines and sales demographics, turned a deaf ear and stopped production. So fans and collectors had to be content going from toy show to toy show or by mail order houses obtaining a few pieces to add to their collection. Some even stockpiled mass amounts of loose or broken figures to be cannibalized for custom figures Kenner never produced. It was a slow period for the SW collector but also a time for them to make a few deals for a once hot property that now, no one seemed to want. All that was about to change.

NEW ADVENTURES
The summer of 1991 saw something the world had not seen in nearly a decade: an original Star Wars novel. Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire made people look back fondly on some old friends by giving them and us a new adventure to embark upon. It also introduced us to new Jedi, new rogues, and an evil Imperial genius. Soon Heir jumped to #1 on the National Best Seller list and was the catalyst that brought about the resurgence of interest in Star Wars. Concurrent with Zahn's efforts was Dark Empire, a six issue comic series that answered the question: "What if Luke had decided to turn to the dark side?". Dark Empire showed us that sometimes pure evil just wouldn't die, with the return of a cloned Emperor Palpatine. Also the discovery of the Jedi Holocron gave us a glimpse of the thousands of Jedi Knights that kept peace in the galaxy before the great purge.

        A cast of other novels and trilogies bombarded us with new stories and new visions, which those of us who never stopped loving SW gobbled up, like a Hutt loose in a frog pond. Just as Zahn's trilogy had rekindled the interest in SW these later novels sustained it.

TWISTY, TINY TOYS
The first new toys and figures to be produced in almost a decade came in 1992 when JusToys became a LucasFilm licensee and offered the public a line of bendable "Gumby" like figures that you could pose or twist in strange positions. Only about twenty different characters were ever actually produced, although there were plans for about twice that many. Topps even stepped in to offer a special #0 SW Galaxy trading card with a mail in offer and started packaging single cards with the figures. Gift packs of four, eight and twenty figures lingered on store shelves and it seemed that no one was bowled over by the overall design of the toys. The line produced only one accessory, a copy of the original Kenner Darth Vader collector's case, which held twenty figures.

        Possibly the most intricate and well thought out line of new SW toys came from Galoob. As an extension of their MicroMachines space collection, Galoob introduced three vehicle packs, one for each of the films in the Trilogy. Roughly the size of a quarter, these toys were incredibly detailed. Some like the AT-ST had moving parts. Collectors went gaga for Galoob and as all popular toy lines do, the MicroMachines SW line expanded. It grew to include playsets of Hoth, Endor, and the Death Star. Each had at least three figures and a vehicle.

     Later, an innovation from the MicroMachines automobile line made it's way to the SW line in the form of transforming head playsets. Now you could have bust of Darth Vader on your shelf or you could "open" his head to reveal a Cloud City playset, complete with Han in carbonite. So popular, was the MicroMachines line, with collectors and children alike, that it quickly became one of LucasFilm's favorite licensees. Today the line just keeps growing. Recently, a massive playset was introduced that included characters from the Star Wars: Special Editions. A Death Star / Tatooine "double takes" playset, which when closed, is an intricately detailed model of the Death Star, but with the flick of a switch, it opens to reveal various scenes from the planet Tatooine, including the Cantina in Mos Eisley.

KENNER THROWS ITS HAT INTO THE RING
Although Kenner renewed its partnership with LucasFilm they were skeptical of the revival of interest in SW toy collecting. They decided to start off slow by releasing Die Cast miniatures of a handful of SW characters as part of their Action Masters line. This line also included Aliens, Predator and the popular Batman. The line was not meant to be very extensive. It was more for Kenner's benefit to test the waters of public interest in Star Wars. When news broke that Kenner was going to release new SW toys, the collectors market anxiously awaited their arrival. Photos of prototypes made their way into toy magazines and to the Internet. Everyone seemed to be hungering for new Kenner / SW merchandise. Kenner took notice of this fact. Single, four and six pack versions of these Die Cast figures appeared in 1994 and for the most part were impossible to find, due to their limited release. Soon Kenner increased production of the six-figure package in order to meet demand.

       Based on the success of the Die Cast line Kenner was now ready for a full assault on the public's craving for new SW merchandise. In August 1995 the first seven POTF2 figures arrived on store shelves. To put it mildly, demand for these figures were so high, stores could not keep them on the shelves. To put it bluntly, it was a feeding frenzy. In October, Princess Leia was release with C3PO hot on her heels in November. This time the film based backer cards were replaced with a die-cut Darth Vader helmet in the upper left corner. A photo of the character went next to the blister and a red "laser beam" ran down diagonally from right to left. Featured on the back was a bio of the character and a photo of all of the available figures in the line.

       Initial reaction to these new "muscular" figures was mixed, with most fans being pleased but original line purists almost up in arms. A concern of most fans was the appearance not only of the figures themselves but that of their weapons and accessories. For instance, the "long light sabers" that were originally produced and shipped with the first assortment of Jedis, were, if sized to full scale, almost two meters long. This would have had Ben and Vader dueling from across the room. Also, nowhere in the films does Luke use a "grappling hook blaster" (although he came close in Empire). This accessory was packaged with the original POTF2 Luke. Despite all of the criticism that Kenner received, one thing was certain, a new can of worms had been opened and the fish were biting.

       The second and third wave of figures arrived in early 1996. This new batch is commonly looked upon as the ESB release. This was since most of the new figures were characters that were either introduced in that film or were old faves sporting new outfits worn in that film.

LITTLE CHANGES MAKE BIG TROUBLE
No review of Kenner's efforts would be complete without a discussion of variations. In the midst of the massive production of these figures, modifications of accessories, figures, and packaging were made, resulting in enough variations to fill a Calamari Cruiser. Once again Kenner took a lot, and I mean a lot of flack in reference to this line and the changes that were made. Even though Kenner was highly criticized by the collectors world, collectors were evenly divided between those who hunted for and loved variations and those who could care less whether Han's hand was open or closed.

       Around this time Kenner also managed to anger dealers of the original line toys by releasing a "Classic Edition Four Pack" of Han, Luke, Chewie and Vader. These were almost identical to the originals complete down to the little end on the "telescoping" light sabers. Dealers argued that this classic edition was going to destroy their demand for these original figures. Some even actively lobbied to have Kenner recall the pack. While Kenner did not recall the pack, they did halt production and let supplies dwindle

       In August of '96 Kenner, as part of a multi media gamble, released the first batch of never before produced figures to the SW family. Shadows of the Empire, a book by Steve Perry, was the basis for a bold and far-reaching merchandising blitz by Lucasfilm which was broken into essentially three parts. It consisted of a novel, a comics adaptation, and as one of the first games for Nintendo 64, each giving the reader/player a different perspective on the overall story.

     While the fact that it was a multimedia adventure had little to do with Kenner's production, due to the scope of the project it was worth the mention. Kenner did however have a hand in ship and character design. For this release Kenner made three major packaging changes. Two of which are still influencing today's packaging. First, on all but two of the figures in this wave, the red laser beam was replaced by a purple one. Second, the words "Power of the Force" were replaced with the logo for SOTE. Third, the photos were replaced with holograms of the figures. The new figures were Chewbacca as Snoova, Leia as Boushh, Luke as Courscant Guard, Dash Rendar and Prince Xizor. Han in carbonite and Luke as Jedi Knight, were also part of this wave, but were shipped with no packaging changes in the original red.

       Also produced, were two 2-packs, one that pitted Xizor against Vader and the other with Boba Fett against IG-88. Each came with a Dark Horse comic and were retooled to be different (albeit slightly) from their single carded cousins. Yet again variations appeared and were scarfed up by the hunters.

       The most sought after variation of the line is reported to be the "Tan Vested Luke Jedi" which came with a light brown vest. Kenner quickly corrected this paint color error and most stores got shipments of the "Black Vested Luke Jedi". Those lucky enough to grab a "Tan Vested Luke" (and you know who you are) are holding on to it as not many genuine ones are showing up on the secondary market.

       As if all the previous variations weren't enough, Kenner made a major packaging change in late 1996. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Star Wars' original theatrical release, Kenner decided for aesthetic and marketing reasons, to change the red beam to a green beam on the front of the package. This packaging change did not make it in time before some 5th wave figures were already produced and shipping. Kenner decided to use up the remaining supply of red beam cards and at the same time, in the same cases, shipped the same figures with different colored backer cards.

     Another change that was made also affected this wave of figures. Kenner opted to do away with the photos and go with holograms on all of their SW figures. Yet again, some of the figures were produced and shipped with the green card but with photos in place of the holograms. The figures that were affected by this belong to the 5th wave. They include Momaw Nadon, Luke Skywalker as Stormtrooper, Tusken Raider, Jawas, Death Star Gunner, Greedo, R5-D4 and Tatooine Stormtrooper / Sandtrooper.

       At this time Kenner also devised and implemented their collection system, which has been the biggest cause of variations to date. 3 collections were set up. Collection 1 was designated for the Rebel Alliance, collection 2 for creatures and droids and collection 3 for the Empire. Problems that arose from the collection system were Imperials ending up with droid and Rebel collection numbers. Droids, creatures and Rebels also shipped with incorrect collection numbers. All the variations that exist are too many to list in this column but follow this link: VARIATIONS for a complete listing of all variations to date.

       Let's recap. In one case you could have a Tusken Raider on a red card, one on a green card with a photo or one on a green card with a hologram. Those are just the packaging variations. The Tusken Raider in particular originally came with a closed hand, which prevented him from holding his Gaderfii stick. This was later corrected and the new version replaced the wrong one. Luckily, the Tusken Raider never had a problem with his collection number although; his wave mates had many.

       Kenner describes this period of collector chaos as "getting the bugs worked out" but many collectors (not the variation hunters, of course) became extremely angry with Kenner, myself included. Once the green beam packaging had moved out the red beam supply, and a few months of production went by, you would assume things at the Kenner camp would start running smoothly. Well, you would be wrong. Collection number mistakes still infect the line to this day in figures such as the reissued, green carded Boba Fett.

HERE WE GO AGAIN
At press time, Kenner has begun shipment of yet another packaging change. Gone is the hologram that fueled many a variation nightmare for collectors and in its place is the "Freeze Frame Action Slide". This slide is a bit of film that has been packaged to the left of the figure in place of a photo or hologram. It depicts a movie scene from the Trilogy that involves the character that it is being packaged with. A neat idea, a cool concept, but I can just see the variations now. For instance, there might one day be a Chewbacca figure packaged with a slide of Yoda.

       All future figures and reissues will use this packaging and a listing of all the current and planned figures in the POTF2 standard collection follows this column.

That's all for now. Variation hunters be ever vigilant in your search and you will find that "half circle handed Boba Fett" or red carded Luke Stormtrooper with the collection #2. For the rest of us, just be glad that they finally made a Grand Moff Tarkin figure.

POTF2 Master List

( Chris Bishop is a SW fanatic (lunatic is actually a better word) who's collection of SW memorabilia is so large he can claim it as a dependent on his taxes since it occupies an entire room of his apartment. )