Biggest Disappointment from the Vintage Kenner Line

[Wtrailer]

Just thinking lately about how disappointed some of you must have been who sent away for rocket-firing Fetts only to receive non-firing versions. I was too young at that time to experience that but I do remember being disappointed w/ a couple of ROTJ figures. Biggest disappointment for me was the Emperor. I recall receiving him as a mail away and having no idea what he would end up looking like.

Apparently I never saw the photo of him on the offer itself (my mother did all of the POP cutting). I had thought he would have come w/ a removable cloak or at least hood like Luke Jedi and was quite disappointed to see his robes were moulded onto him. I was also very disappointed in the Ewoks. For whatever reason I thought they would have had actual fur and cloth headdresses. Again the entirely plastic figures were big let downs.

 

[scarfman]

I was disappointed with every birthday & Christmas present that wasn’t a Kenner Star Wars toy.

 

[darth_sidious]

At this point, I think I'm really only disappointed in what they didn't cover, rather than what they did. As a kid, I liked the Ewoks cartoon, and would have liked more animated figures, especially some of the ones they had planned (but didn't release), specifically Morag (to battle with my animated Logray figure!). I also think they should have done some figures for the Ewok TV movies -we already had a nice selection of Kenner Ewoks from ROTJ, but it would have been amazing if they even did a single wave with characters from those features, because many of us loved them, and continue to appreciate them to this day. Who knows, maybe Hasbro will give us some Retro figures eventually!

 

[bigbarada]

I've said this in other threads, but the fact that we never got a removable helmet Darth Vader figure. Or just any update of the 1977 mold during the entire run of the Kenner line. By 1983, Vader (along with Chewbacca, the Stormtrooper, etc.) was looking pretty badly dated. This was what I was most disappointed by with how Kenner ran the Star Wars line. Back then, I saw it as lazy.

Now, of course, I think the fact that those key figure never got an update makes them seem more iconic. We've definitely seen the other end of the spectrum with Hasbro updating figures too many times so that no figure feels iconic.

 

[coachvader]

As a kid , I always wanted more pilots and different troopers. So would have loved more versions of the Endor rebel commando, rebel fleet troopers to battle stormies, and a ywing pilot. Also wanted general riekkan, and some other the other rebel commanders from Hoth and yavin

 

[DarthMickeyMoose]

The only disappointment was in 1984. The new SW figures that were being released were showing some big improvements and then Bam it's all over.

 

[toyman941]

didn't have most of them when I was a kid.

 

[Pop-Up Saber]

Probably that my X-Wing mechanism broke and the wings wouldn't stay open. Even though, I had tons of fun playing with it and all my childhood toys so maybe nothing really to complain here about with the vintage stuff...

 

[TauntaunScout]

That Micro Collection was discontinued before I could get in on it was the big one for me.

 

[CaptainYoda]

My biggest disappointment was that I was never able to acquire a Blue Snaggletooth back in the day.

 

[morrison2951]

The only disappointment was in 1984. The new SW figures that were being released were showing some big improvements and then Bam it's all over.

....and this is why the POTF Last 17 is both the best vintage line as well as the most expensive to hunt down.

But worth every penny in my opinion.

 

[gerrit]

"Action figures sold seperatly" was my biggest dissapointment. Our grandmother bought us the milennium Falcon and told us the ship was for my older brother but we would have to devide the figures between the two of us. The ESB box art showed us a bunch of figures we had never seen before so we were very exited to open the box and start picking and choosing our favorites only to find out none of them were included. Our grandmother was rather upset and wanted to return the ship to the store but we somehow convinced her not to and i still have it in my collection today. Along the same lines i am still waiting for a Y-wing pilot, i can understand not including one with the ship but there's no excuse for not selling him seperatly.

 

[DarthMickeyMoose]

"Action figures sold seperatly" was my biggest dissapointment. Our grandmother bought us the milennium Falcon and told us the ship was for my older brother but we would have to devide the figures between the two of us. The ESB box art showed us a bunch of figures we had never seen before so we were very exited to open the box and start picking and choosing our favorites only to find out none of them were included. Our grandmother was rather upset and wanted to return the ship to the store but we somehow convinced her not to and i still have it in my collection today. Along the same lines i am still waiting for a Y-wing pilot, i can understand not including one with the ship but there's no excuse for not selling him seperatly.

out of curiosity do you still have the box for the ship? Just curious if there was a price tag on the box and what the price was in your neck of the woods when it was new. Thanks and great story.

 

[gerrit]

That box is long gone by now and to be honest i can't imagine our grandmother giving us a present with a price tag still on it. From my memory Sw was an expensive toyline here in the netherlands with an average price of around 8,95 gulden for a figure, we got the majority of our figures from the bargain bins when Tri-logo cards were on clearance.

 

[mightysquib]

The fact that the only STAR WARS figure I didn't have, Yak Face, was not available in the US! There were some stories of Trilogos showing up at Kay Bee, but I never found one.

 

[DarthMickeyMoose]

Everything about the Star Wars toy line was new and unlike anything that came before it. I can't say anything negative. Looking back, it's easy to look at how things could have been different and or better in one way or another. But what Kenner did was so good nearly 43 years later this is without a doubt the most popular line of toy figures ever made. And one of the best things that Kenner ever did was take care of their SW customers. Did you ever lose your lightsabers and guns for your figures? Did mom ever vacuum them up and now they're gone. Did you lose or rip one of the capes for the figures? Did you know that a simple phone call or letter to Kenner would have got you a few bags of weapons/capes anytime you wrote them or asked for free. Parts for SW playsets, vehicles or anything they made (77-85) were always available to their customers for free. It was a great time to be a kid and this company was very kid friendly. Too bad it all ended so quickly after ROJ.

 

[Tyranusspotting]

That the Micro Collection ended so soon. DSII Emperor's Throne Room Playset looked excellent, as did some of the other prototypes. There was a mock-up of Slave 1 too, right? Or am I confusing it with the sleek 3 3/4" prototype I once saw on SWCA?

 

[TauntaunScout]

That the Micro Collection ended so soon. DSII Emperor's Throne Room Playset looked excellent, as did some of the other prototypes. There was a mock-up of Slave 1 too, right? Or am I confusing it with the sleek 3 3/4" prototype I once saw on SWCA?

Endor, Jabba’s Palace, Dagobah, Slave I plus expansions the three existing worlds all hit at least the prototype stage. Expansions to Hoth and Bespin went farther, very nearly making it to retail.

While no photographs of a prototype exist like they do for Slave I, internal paperwork on a Micro AT-AT has surfaced.

 

[jedimasterc]

There were several characters in the films that I would have loved in the Kenner line. I know they have been mentioned many times. There were a lot of figures shown in A New Hope that were delayed(Tie Fighter Pilot we didn’t get until ESB in 1982). I know that back in 1978 Kenner was caught off guard by the success of Star Wars. I also agree about the Micro Collect getting cancelled too. The Emperors throne room that was depicted in the Star Wars Connect To Screen To Collectible looked amazing.

 

[toyman941]

Biggest disappointment ?? Easy!!

The toys from our youth are now called "vintage" and we're old.

 

[Trenchrun]

As a kid my biggest disappointment was availability! I NEVER saw Luke Stormie or Amanaman in shops even though I desperately hunted for them. My other disappointment was price, star wars was freaking expensive. I nagged and nagged my parents but never got a Falcon, I believe if transferred to today's dollars they were about £90







As an adult my biggest disappointment is they never made a Mon Mothma or Wedge figure. The leader of the Rebels and the best pilot in the galaxy never got a figure but Prune Face and Rancor Keeper did lol

 

[jedimasterc]

Biggest disappointment ?? Easy!!

The toys from our youth are now called "vintage" and we're old.

But what a ride.

 

[toyman941]

But what a ride.

Yeah, I wouldn't Trade It

 

[TauntaunScout]

As a kid my biggest disappointment was availability! I NEVER saw Luke Stormie or Amanaman in shops even though I desperately hunted for them. My other disappointment was price, star wars was freaking expensive. I nagged and nagged my parents but never got a Falcon, I believe if transferred to today's dollars they were about £90







As an adult my biggest disappointment is they never made a Mon Mothma or Wedge figure. The leader of the Rebels and the best pilot in the galaxy never got a figure but Prune Face and Rancor Keeper did lol

You sound like me when I complain about Warhammer stuff in America from my teenage years. You guys really had it that hard for Star Wars over there?

 

[darth_sidious]

Availability was an issue for me as a kid as well, because I only had access to the stores my parents brought me to, lol - there was no interweb where I could browse stores in the vicinity that carried action figures. I was often limited to the grocery store my parents shopped at (that was also a department store), which likely didn't restock anywhere as fast as a regular toy store. That being said, we did make trips to toy stores as well, but I remember not seeing all the characters from the reverse of the cardbacks, on the actual pegs. I still had a decent variety of characters, and have no complaints about toys, as I owned a diversity selection in the 80s/90s.

The real missed opportunity, when it came to creatures, would have to be a Blurrg form the Ewok TV movie, Battle for Endor. It looked like a dinosaur, and could have come with a hinged jaw, to "eat" figures, similar to the rancor. I would have really enjoyed that as a toy, and it would have fit in with the countless other toy lines that explored dinosaurs during the 80s.

 

[TauntaunScout]

That being said, we did make trips to toy stores as well, but I remember not seeing all the characters from the reverse of the cardbacks, on the actual pegs.

There were a LOT of figures I never saw on pegs. But I was pretty late to the game being born around Empire. I had a deep sense of regret and betrayal when then line ended.

 

[Snowtroopers]

The only thing I can think of that slightly disappointed me was the Slave I. The "hollowness" of Frozen Han & the poorly-functioning sliding entry ramp door weren't my favourite. The main decal was also a bugger to get on straight. Ship looked great when parked though & was fun to fly around the house.

 

[Caas_Sandhri]

The biggest disappointments were in the things we didn't get...

The last 2 Ewoks weren't available here (and actually blacked out on the backside of the cards), and I never got them. (Only to find out recently (!!!) that my brother somehow has them, and he claims he bought them regularly back in 1986 or so. Can't fathom how I have missed them. That's probably my most recent disappointment.)

I never got the vintage Cloud Car. I saw it in a shop but I preferred (for good reason, but still...) the Falcon. Only to find the Falcon must cheaper later in a supermarket, easy to get, while the Cloud Car was never ever seen again. Also, I couldn't get an Imperial Shuttle, which somehow wasn't offered in my neck of the woods (but at least that wasn't my fault). But I was swamped with MiniRigs. Duh.

No Droids or Ewoks figures for me (I didn't even know these existed until decades later), no A-wing or Skiff (by the time these came out, the shops had long since given up on Star Wars).

But that's only what I didn't get or wasn't available. Kenner omitted many characters from the very start. There wasn't a Mon Mothma, Wedge, Rebel Trooper, Tarkin; there were only two astromechs; a lot of interesting aliens were missing. (I didn't miss Owen and Beru very much though.) No variety of pilots (I ended up beheading a lot of them and giving them Fimo-modeled alien heads) until late in the game.

As for the most disappointing things that I actually owned: Number one was the "Star Destroyer" bridge set with the "hologram". "Ugly wedge shaped playset with little room, no resemblance to a real SD, and an orange something dangling from the ceiling" would have been a more accurate description.

Not being able to remove/insert an R2 into the X-Wing was also a bummer.

 

[TauntaunScout]

The only thing I can think of that slightly disappointed me was the Slave I. The "hollowness" of Frozen Han & the poorly-functioning sliding entry ramp door weren't my favourite. The main decal was also a bugger to get on straight. Ship looked great when parked though & was fun to fly around the house.

I found it downright mysterious. I thought the seat was supposed to be some kind of carbon freeze machinery or be the wall in Jabba’s Palace that Han Solo decorated. I also didn’t understand why our Bespin Han Solo action figure didn’t go inside the carbon block. Finally my dad used a rubberband (and the ramp as a “back” to the carbonite) to secure Han inside the carbonite for me. I must have been about two at the time.

 

[Snowtroopers]

The last 2 Ewoks weren't available here (and actually blacked out on the backside of the cards), and I never got them. (Only to find out recently (!!!) that my brother somehow has them, and he claims he bought them regularly back in 1986 or so. Can't fathom how I have missed them. That's probably my most recent disappointment.)

My recollection of the "blacked out" Ewok figures was the first 2 - Chief Chirpa & Logray. We (in Canada) were able to get the first few Return of the Jedi figures very early - maybe even before the movie came out. I specifically remember my friend getting the Endor Rebel Commando & nearly losing my mind. The Ewoks were blacked out on the back of the package as some sort of primitive "spoiler protection".

I actually think I read somewhere that they were worried about how people were going to receive the Ewoks leading up to the movie's release and they didn't want to do anything to dampen the hype.

 

[41johnson]

Trading Bossk for a Snowtrooper at school and within days my Dad coming home with a Snowtrooper figure.

When asked what I wanted from an out of town trip, I said Slave 1and got Turret and Probot. Still cool but I never got that Slave 1.

 

[TauntaunScout]

My recollection of the "blacked out" Ewok figures was the first 2 - Chief Chirpa & Logray. We (in Canada) were able to get the first few Return of the Jedi figures very early - maybe even before the movie came out. I specifically remember my friend getting the Endor Rebel Commando & nearly losing my mind. The Ewoks were blacked out on the back of the package as some sort of primitive "spoiler protection".

I actually think I read somewhere that they were worried about how people were going to receive the Ewoks leading up to the movie's release and they didn't want to do anything to dampen the hype.

Ewoks are barely visible in the original trailers. And they were blacked out on US 65 back cardbacks too.

 

[x98lbwuss]

Ewoks are barely visible in the original trailers. And they were blacked out on US 65 back cardbacks too.

Yes, remember getting 2 figures, skiff lando and leia in disguise, on the same day (the one and only time that ever happened before I was in my 20’s) and logray and chirpa were blacked out.

 

[Snowtroopers]

Trading Bossk for a Snowtrooper at school and within days my Dad coming home with a Snowtrooper figure.

When asked what I wanted from an out of town trip, I said Slave 1and got Turret and Probot. Still cool but I never got that Slave 1.

Bit of a bummer at the time but hey - more Snowtroopers!

 

[sith_rising]

Like others have said, the Micro Collection ending abruptly rubbed me raw. I had everything from the Death Star, Cloud City & Hoth sets and absolutely loved them.

 

[Adam_L]

No Moff Tarkin figure, no Slave Leia figure , and POTF coins seemed cheesy ... fake metal of some kind ( not so "Special") !!!

A few let downs, but the positives out weighed any negatives... by far

 

[Lobotscomb]

The lack of Han and Luke stormtroopers in the Star Wars era of the line. Also the fact that certain figures like Ig-88 and Fx-7 were super hard to find here and only in the expensive stores that charged $4.

 

[DarthBeek]

Overall, I'm happy with the Kenner line. Getting to experience that in real time as a youth is obviously something that "stuck" with me to current days... the impact was immense. Disappointed only in the fact it all ended with POTF. There could have been countless waves filling in holes of missed characters.

Thankfully, as an adult in 2023, plenty of options exist to do just that. Hasbro seems to be missing the boat with the Retro Collection.

 

[TauntaunScout]

@DarthBeek not getting to experience the whole line in real-time is basically my big regret for Kenner. Born just a couple years too late. It’s one of the biggest aspects of my personality probably. I seriously think I’m a history guy because in my early years I was researching the dead or dying Star Wars fad. In 1985 when the line ended I was in preschool and I felt really abandoned and betrayed by society writ large. It did mean that I got a lot of clearanced out toys for the holidays, the following year in Kindergarten. But by first grade the toys were effectively gone from stores, forever. I only specifically asked for two things Christmas of 1st grade: a Death Star Commander figure and the LEGO castle set Black Falcon’s Fortress. My mom stopped me right there and was like “I’m not going to be able to find Star Wars toys anymore”.

However due to my age, I am also about the only collector I ever met who actually has fond childhood memories of the last 17 and wasn’t moving off to sports and dating when they were in stores.

 

[akcuda]

@DarthBeek not getting to experience the whole line in real-time is basically my big regret for Kenner. Born just a couple years too late. It’s one of the biggest aspects of my personality probably. I seriously think I’m a history guy because in my early years I was researching the dead or dying Star Wars fad. In 1985 when the line ended I was in preschool and I felt really abandoned and betrayed by society writ large. It did mean that I got a lot of clearanced out toys for the holidays, the following year in Kindergarten. But by first grade the toys were effectively gone from stores, forever. I only specifically asked for two things Christmas of 1st grade: a Death Star Commander figure and the LEGO castle set Black Falcon’s Fortress. My mom stopped me right there and was like “I’m not going to be able to find Star Wars toys anymore”.

However due to my age, I am also about the only collector I ever met who actually has fond childhood memories of the last 17 and wasn’t moving off to sports and dating when they were in stores.

I too was the perfect age for the original run of SW and the toys starting with the 12 backs.
Being you started in 1985-1986 were you able to get most of the reissued POTF figures such as Luke X-Wing Pilot etc…?