A nice example of the variation of the belt colors found on the Tusken raider, or the Sandpeople- whatever your preference is. Light brown to near dark brown black shown . I have more detailed information and who is exclusive to particular COO marks in my guide on Vintage Kenner variations, including the head styles. and comparative COO matches.
One of the greatest premiums from the vintage Star wars era was the Burger King glass premiums. They had great graphics and were reasonably priced. – heck about the gallon go Gas back then. !
Sets currently are getting harder to find in nice shape. With washing the graphics begin to fade. Never Dish wash these. !
current values in Excellent shape with shiny bright graphics: take at lest 50% off for faded g or vitrified glass.
Barada The Power of the Force 1985 Kenner Star Wars.
Did you Know Barada is one of the Few Figures that can be found with two dates. 1984 and 1985. The 1984 is much harder to find, thought to be a possible Euro baggie version.
Not all Jabba The Hutt’s are alike- here is an example of some Jabba coo variations From the Vintage Star Wars Kenner release of figures. Some of the Jabba’s have a more yellowish paint spray over the belly, some do not.
Jabba was one of the ROTJ toys made in Mexico, (MIM) so the US
L to R coo 1,2,3,
Jabba was one of the ROTJ toys made in Mexico, (MIM) so the US Kenner versions and Lili Ledy versions are very similar, shown in the middle here with the more yellowish belly.
I thought I would share the awesomeness of those Halloween’s past- STAR WARS STYLE .
Here is a collection from the Star Wars Ben Cooper Vinyl Halloween costumes. The masks themselves have become a hot collectible of their own in recent years. Most collectors prefer the entire outfit, with the box, mask’s alone are rather desirable. Because of the fragility of the mask, finding a great sample is getting harder. Consequently, finding a costume itself that is not torn on a seam can be difficult.
There are several scarce variations of masks and costumes. One of the rarest is the Silver Boba Fett mask resembling early concept artwork.
For those unfortunate few whose parents got late to the store they may have settled for the simple rain poncho costume.
There are several versions of the boxes. the earliest version you could find Star wars costumes was the generic Ben Cooper box. By 1979 Star Wars boxes filled the shelves.
The masks themselves also have many iterations. Here is an example of Darth Vader mask variations.
Here is a great selection of mask images of star wars costumes
and some images from the plastic costumes —
Happy Halloween and happy collecting
For more information on Ben cooper check out this wiki page.
Metal tin or pewter figures were the some of the earliest action figure play toys. Army figures from Britians Llido, Marx and other manufactures have littered sandbox’s yards and living room floors for over 100 years. With the release of matchbox, and later Hot wheels, die cast metal toys became a main stay of playthings for children, as well as collectors.
The Kenner toys of the 80’s continued that tradition with both figures. and vehicles and spaceships.
Originally Kenner released a collection of vehicles that were metal and plastic. This line included a Tie fighter, X wing, Lansdspeeder, Millennium Falcon Y wing and Star Destroyer. With the release of ESB the Snowspeeder, Cloud car, and the Tie bomber were added.
The 80’s also saw the inclusion of the Micro collection which were a collection of pewter painted figures with plastic molded play sets.
In the Early 90’s Action Masters became on of the first new era toys to sit on the shelf after the vintage line of Droids and Ewoks Items. The Action Masters set, although not real exciting, was a breath of fresh air for hungry collectors after a long drought of Merchandise on the retail shelves. . The line included a box set, carded sets of four figures, carded individual figures and one Mail in premium. Each figure came with a trading card.
In 1997 Gallob busted the world of metal star wars ships open with the release of a line of small die cast ships. This line originally was only 6 vehicles. The line went thru a few pack variations, and was short lived, and not real successful. The first release was in odd packed round bubbles.Then repacked in more traditional packages.
A second release and change of packing included 4 more ships.
In 1999 with the release of Episode 1, The Phantom Menace 8 more ships were released. having the same stands as the previous ships, except black. Also released in 1999 was a collection of die cast Pod racers.
In 2004 the Titanium line was released, a test by Walmart the first year. then by 2009 having over 120 ships and repaint versions. The series has many rare ships and includes ships from the entire Star Wars Saga invcludint the EU, expanded universe and Clone Wars series. There were a few packing designs thru the series and 4 5 packs with an exclusive silver vehicle. Rarest in the series was a promotion of a Gold Tie fighter in a baggie that was exclusive to Star Wars Celebration .
A larger version ships and figures were also released thru this era. Called the Ultra Collection
2012 saw a short revival of previously released vehicles. shown right
2014 saw Disney Step in to the larger version of die cast ships with a great assortment of ships similar to the Titanium Ultra Collection Hot Wheels also stepped with a series of Die cast vehicles.
2015 saw new new ships in the Titanium scale, Renamed The Black series was similar to both the previous Titanium and Ultra series. These have fantastic detail and surely will increase in value over the years. I look forward to seeing what the future will bring to the world of die cast Star Wars ships !
Disney Store Ultra series ships-
This is just an overview of the Metal Die Cast – Star Wars Toys. Look for a more elaborate guide on the entire Metal die cast Star Wars toys in the future. There are many exclusives, mail ins and rare premiums throughout the series. I will elaborate on this isn the future.
Happy collecting If you would like to contribute to a guide on Die Cast Star Wars toys please contact me. !
Considering the value of these two Holy Grails no doubt bootlegs are out there. Here are a very nice version of Yak face and the Blue Snagglettoth. They look great when you see them in a pile of figures, on a small picture online or on your phone, but beware.
The key on these two are the feet, which have NO holes in them. No doubt in the future more detailed boots or customs will come out of the woods. If your looking for reasonably priced fillers for your collection these will of and purchased them on eBay.
Did you know Hammerhead has an unusual neck paint color variation. Here are 2 Kenner US Hong Kong Figures. Here is comparison of neck colors- notice one a darker brown.
The other variations of Hammerhead include the Off Vein and ON vein type versions.
There is Euro PBP Variant, and an assortment of variants in the directions his eyes are looking.
He can also be found unusually faded out- greenish, not really a variant, but unique.