Ah, the summer of 1997. Star Wars collecting was in full swing and these were definitely made for collectors. Not much to play with, but great to look at! Like many of my foolish brothers and sisters in collecting, I was buying action figures to be seen, displayed, and fawned over -- but NEVER to be opened.It would seem that someone at Lucasfilm was paying attention to all us fans who are constantly peering through the sides of plastic cases to get a better view of that one-of-a-kind weapon or to try to make out the detail on the backpack of our favorite heroes or scoundrels. These figures were built to a much larger scale, put on a pedestal (as they should be!), and mounted on platform with a wheel we could all use to turn the figure around and around to our hearts content -- all without opening the package! Genius!
Never sure if I completed the set, I did manage to put together a nice collection of 6 of these figures (Luke, Leia, Vader, Fett, C-3PO, and a Stormtrooper) plus a "Series" 3-pack from 1998 which included Han, Chewbacca, and Obi-Wan from A New Hope. The 3-pack was an exclusive from FAO Schwartz.One of the things that I really like about these figures is that they have a scene done in cardboard across the back. It adds so much life to them, I just know they won't be the same if I do open them and put them on my desk or a shelf. Of all the sculpts, I think the villains turned out the best. It seems the Kenner/Hasbro folks have a lot of trouble with Luke and Leia's faces. Darth Vader looks positively menacing (red eyes and all) but Boba Fett takes the cake - always the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy!
I have taken several detailed pictures and posted them here in a fairly brief form. If you click on any of the photos, you can see some close ups and hopefully appreciate the detail. The top photo (Boba Fett) is actually a series of close-up photographs of each figure.May the Epic Force be with you!
1 comment:
My Brothers just got some of these from a car boot sale/Flea market or whatever you want to call it, first thing they did was take all of them out of there packaging throw it away, and within 5 minutes break them. When i had woke up i was devastated, and after explaining to them about their physical, sentimental and historical value also mentioning that they were older than them. They started to cry, not because they had defaced the figures, but because they knew they had upset me so much. I had slightly forgiven then due to them not understanding their values, then later on i found out that the seller had mentioned they were collectables and to take care of them... What can i say.
Post a Comment