Via Thegizmolife.com:
On May 25th, the Star Wars franchise turns 40 years old. In 1977, ”A New Hope” ushered into the cinemas. With the popularity of the movies, Star Wars action figure toys became a big hit among fans. With “The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One” breaking records at the box-office, we now have new generation of fans and toy collectors.
Older action figures have become highly desirable and the secondary market is exploding with demand. For a new collector, where does one start? Which toy line should you be looking at? This brief will try to answer some of those questions and focus on the Kenner and Hasbro Star Wars Action Figure Toys lines of the past 40 years.
The major eras of action figures consist of: Original Vintage Kenner, Power of the Force (POTF), Saga, Legacy/Vintage Collection(TVC), and Modern era. There will be some overlaps of eras with repacks. Repack is the term referring to a toy’s re-issue without any significant change.
This article will not cover all the sub lines as there are too many to list. The major eras represented here should help you discover and hopefully provide a starting point for reference.
Original Vintage (1977-1985)
The original action figures originated in 1977 and ran until 1985. This is where it all began and where all the high dollar valuation comes in. With Star Wars’ merchandising in it’s infancy, nobody could have imagined the collecting craze 40 years later.
After the discontinuation in 1985, there was a long period where Star Wars action figures were absent off the store shelves. Due to the long 10 year absence, demand for figures skyrocketed in price. This is the most collectible line with some figures fetching thousands of dollars for mint MOC (Mint on Card) status. The desirability of these figures are two fold – scarcity and the nostalgia factor.
Most of the collectors for these figures are in the older demographics. The 40 to 60 year olds collectors tend to have higher income to splurge and many long for their 1977 childhood. There isn’t much to say about this era. The figures are very distinct in their sculpt with 5POA (points of articulation). They have stiff poses and not very screen accurate.
Vintage Appeal
Despite the flaws, the figures have their appeal. Many of the vehicles are cool. In 1979, Kenner designed a series of mini, smaller vehicles called mini-rigs. Mini-rigs did not have on-screen equivalents and were made up entirely by Kenner to combat the rising inflationary cost of plastics. Despite their non-canon status, Mini-rigs were priced lower and extremely fun to play with.
In an interesting note, after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, many of the past toys and expanded universe story lines were deemed non-canon. In 2013, David Filoni, LucasFilm’s animation head, re-canonized the Imperial Troop Transport. The new Star Wars mobile game, Force Unleashed, re-introduced some mini-rigs as canon.
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