Toy Maniac: Star Wars, Nothing But Star Wars

 

They populated comic books for years. Advertisements stuck in there that would drive us to beg our parents to buy us the latest figures. Finding them now, outside of opening our sealed comics, is something one can only do on the Internet. They are a little harder to come by than one would think but they are a great window into the past. More importantly they give us an early look into what would later become know as a series or wave of figures. Here are two classic Star Wars advertisements.

 

Just as rare are the tiny instruction sheets or new figure announcements that came rammed into the tiny box you received with a mail away Star Wars item. Figures such as Admiral Ackbar, Boba Fett, Bossk, the Emperor and 4-LOM were often announced as stickers on action figure packages. Some of them were even announced with tiny flyers accompanying another figure (see gallery). The unique artwork and blatantly obvious instructions on the tiny instruction sheets will make any older fan feel five years old again.

 

There came a time when I had to have every Star Wars figure. In 1995 this was totally obtainable. I worked at a store that sold them and when that first wave hit my boss set aside the entire line for me. I thought I had collecting this new era of Star Wars figures under control. I would even journey to the 24 hour Wal-Mart and raid the pallets for all the new figures before they even hit the shelves. Then Hasbro released Commander Jorg Scul (the George Lucas rebel pilot figure), a Star Wars Celebration exclusive that you could only buy at the Star Wars Celebration 2. He was unobtainable, unless I wanted to shell out big bucks on eBay. Now I love Star Wars but when an action figure costs more than twenty dollars that is where I drew the line, especially for one that is so small. My attitude has changed since then especially with figures being a bit more expensive but their details have improved so that twenty dollar ban has been lifted (still a case by case situation though). It was the first time, and certainly not the last, that I found myself identifying with Harvey Pekar. His story “How I Quit Collecting Records and Put Out A Comic Book With the Money I Saved” resonated with me like a great sermon. You can’t get them all. It’s impossible and life is too short to waste it trying to collect such things that really don’t matter. Amen, Mr. Pekar.

 

In the same vein as Shadows of the Empire, The Force Unleashed has their collection of action figures. After reading some of the novel and the comic book Juno Eclipse and Rahm Kota are two characters that will probably gain a lot of attention in the Star Wars Universe. A fallen Jedi and Vader’s apprentice’s pilot both fit into the story perfectly and their figures are worthy of joining the collection. One of the nice re-issue figures that came out because of The Force Unleashed is the repainted Rancor (see gallery). If you failed to pick one up from the Power of the Force collection here is your chance to get one of the biggest Star Wars action figures. Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, as of today, does not come in a solo pack. He is featured in Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice Evolution set (which already has two different color boxes, variant collectors beware). It is a great evolution of the character and a bit of spoiler for the book, the comic and for the game.

 

Less than a week to go until Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comes out. Will it live up to the hype? Will the Wii battle mode be worth losing the high resolution images that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 deliver so effortlessly? We’ll find out soon enough.