Star Wars Vintage Collection - Rebel Commando and Endor Forest Ranger.

Tonight's review/memory trip is the Rebel Commando 1983 and Endor Forest Ranger. 1984

The below Shots are of two varied Rebel commandos. There were many 'Variations' in the vintage line, due to the fact that figures were produced in multiple countries around the world. The two below, one on the left has no country stamp, while the right hand side has Made in China. both have slight differences in paint used and facial features. Is one worth more than the other? no definitely not in monetary means, yet the one on the right is valued in a much different sense, And to me is priceless. Going through hard times years back, when my collection was held by those un willing to give it back (long story) I was up in My wife's grand Fathers garage attic, getting things of my wife's down for her to go through and either take back to her home or to the salvation army, well her Grand father decided to do some spring cleaning him self, he gave me a bunch of old work Thermoses, That are fantastic, and going through an old lunch box he came upon a rebel commando, knowing what I was going through, instead of chucking it, he gave it to me, he asked in a wide smiled grin if I wanted it. To this day I will always remember the moment of good Cheer that simple gesture gave me in a really bad time in my life, he was one of and still is even though gone from this earth, a dear friend, and this figure will always remain in my collection.

The vehicle, the Endor Forest ranger, was always shown with these rebel commandos in them, piloting around endor, although never shown int he movie it does resemble the Droid tank used on Kashyk against the wookies in episode III Room enough for one trooper this vehicle is a must have for any Rebel Commando soldier.

Star Wars Vintage Collection - Scout Trooper and Speeder Bike.

Scout Trooper. and Speeder bike - 1983 Kenner. By J.King. photos from my own collection.

Let me begin with a story. In the early 90's I was lucky enough, while living in Boston to have a few friends in the comic business, One day a older gentleman entered into New England Comics in Cambridge were a buddy of mine worked, over a week he negotiated the sale and distribution of a few thousand carded Star Wars vehicles and figures from kenners collection, with the in I had with the company, I was able to get the majority of my carded figures from them for next to nothing. Below are shots of one of those carded figures, a tri Logo Scout trooper. Tri logo's are a fun collectible because they were done in three languages, English, French, and Spanish, The three major markets for Star Wars figures. The backs of these figures had a selection of the figures available with one or two of the figures blacked out, not sure if this was done as a mysterious thing for kids to wonder what the blacked out figure would look like or if it was just a mistake in production.

The scout trooper was one of my faves, in fact any Imperial was, I've attached the figure below, front and back, his gun was unique to the scout trooper only, and not packaged with any others in the line.

Also shots of his coin, although done with collecting the vintage line I do not have all the coins although I wouldn't mind completing just the imperials, I would not pass others I may come across in my travels.

Also I'm including shots of the Box and Blue prints and Vehicle shots of their Scouts vehicle, the Speeder Bike. The ultimate vehicle in the Star wars universe for speed through the trees. Countless battles my Speeders went through in the days of back yard play, and the one function this vehicle featured was the press of a button to make the speeder explode into a fiery mass of plastic parts, fire and sound all imaginary of course.

Star Wars Vintage Collection - Stormtrooper.

Stormtrooper - 1977 - Kenner

Continuing on the path Of Storm troopers. The Foot soldier and back bone of the Imperial War machine, I feature today the Imperial Storm trooper, He was the one I had a few of and my first army builder, although in the movies, they couldn't hit the side of a barn from a four foot distance, nor could they fight there way out of a room of unarmed men, They were ruthless and blood thirsty warriors in my battles of old. They were the front lines of my Star Wars invasions of a dresser drawer or a table top planet in the living room. Below are photos of one of the troopers I have, armed with their traditional blaster, the storm trooper featured the same articulation as any Star Wars figure, arm and legs, no helmet movement though, I was fortunate enough to be able to snag a POTF coin later in life and a carded one from the Empire Strikes Back, all featured below, when collecting any Star Wars figure, you need to look for one thing, a NON reproduction weapon, in today's market that is a very hard thing to find, because of back yard molders selling 'Reproduction pieces' for non reproduction prices, luckily I was able to find all of my collection prior to the flood of reproduction items, another Item to find if collecting loose are the coins, From POTF, many were made few are owned, and some can fetch upwards of prices over a hundred dollars. Some like the Storm trooper one below are cheap, Collecting carded figures is also an issue in the Vintage realm, many of shady sellers have shown there faces, selling resealed or re packaged figures as VINTAGE CARDED. Best place to find reliable sellers and or graders is in the forums of Rebelscum.com <http://rebelscum.com/>, many seller or buyers there will always send you to the right and reliable buyers or sellers. NEVER just buy from some on E-bay who one has horrible feedback or two is new yet dumping tons of Vintage carded figures….. A deal now a days in the collectable realm is almost always never too good to be true. The Storm trooper carded below however was, Unpunched and in pristine condition! :)

Star Wars Vintage Collection - Squid Head.

Squid head Kenner – 1983.

Might as well do a quick one on this figure as well, seeing the carded version is above. He was a great alien, you saw him for three seconds in the film and in my Star Wars wars back in the early eighties he was one of the first aliens to bight it from a GI Joe attack. Packaged with the only Gray version of the Bespin blaster, this figure also came with two cloth capes and a Plastic under garment shield. They just don't make figures as simple and as cool as this anymore.

Star Wars Vintage Collection - Snow Trooper.

Imperial Storm Trooper (Hoth Battle Gear) Kenner – 1980.

One of my favorite Imperial troops to date, The Imperial Storm Trooper (hoth battle gear) better known to the collecting world as The Snow trooper, was it. From the time they stormed the halls of Echo base killing rebels and surrounding the millennium falcon, to the period were sadly they are blown to hell by Han's ships cannon, I wanted to be one of those guys.
Today my focus is on the 1980 produced figure. I picked him to do because 1 he is one of my all time faves, and two I have a couple carded versions of him I would like to share photos of.

The first picture is of the Snow Trooper loose and front and back. He came with a rifle, (note to collectors – there are two variants of this rifle produced and both could be found packaged with the Snow trooper or Dengar) he also came with a cape or waist cape. I never knew what this was for as it looked more like a dress and all but the one I own from my child hood and the umpteenth million Snow troopers I have are gone. Torn or thrown away.

The carded one I have here front and back is in fact from 1980's Empire Strikes back released line, Notice the cool send away figure add.

The third is a cared two pack with Squid Head – Squid head was produced in 1983 as part of the return of the Jedi collection, so you may be asking, why the heck is a snow trooper packaged with a desert alien? Well sadly toward the end of Kenner's Star Wars collection in the early eighties, Kenner had but loads of figures not packaged, so their idea was to package them all in two packs and distribute them to Kay-Bee toy stores and sell them for a meager 2.00 the great thing is, these babies are now worth in upwards of 200 dollars or more depending on the rarity of the figure. As you can see on the back side of these cards there is nothing printed at all. Showing the cheapness of the packaging, yet a great conversation piece and two figures untouched by mans hands : )

Star Wars Vintage collection - Jawa and Sandcrawler.

Vintage Jawa's and the Sandcrawler. - 1977

Kicking off what will be a LONG collection of threads, as I own every Vintage Figure made from the Star Wars Line, I see no reason not to start with one of my most favored Aliens ever, The Jawa from 1977.

The Jawa was my favorite alien as a kid, I loved them, and they were awesome and believable, not like the freaks known to us all as Ewoks. Jawa' were a technological scavenging race of shrouded beings that had and still do have an air of mystery to them. Scene through out Star Wars a new Hope slumming around Mos Eisley, or pimping it through the desert in a massive armored Sand crawler, the Jawa' were the race to go to if hunting for droid parts or stolen droids in the case of a New Hope.

My earliest memory of the word Jawa (which weirdly was a Motorcycle line back in the late 60's and early 70's – look up on e-bay and find anything to do with JAWA cycles) was standing in line in 77 with my dad. In Boston we had a lot of Portarican's, and being in the Irish neighborhood, close to the Portaricins, there were like four theaters. Well we went to the Portarican's one thinking their would be more seats to an already three block line at the Dorchester theater.

So there we are, I'm four and I all of a sudden start singing a song I just made up on the spot about how Portarican's and Jawa' are friends. This stemmed from my uncle coming to our house for their game night and telling my dad in front of us that they have Portarican's in the movie played by Jawa'. I know it sounds racist, but the Portarican's were like Jawa', though now they no longer scavenge through our trash, they were pushed out by the Vietnamese. And it wasn't a bad thing, they were just resilient, much like the Jawa', they found crap we tossed away and fixed it and sold it for a profit. The point is, I was four and in line surrounded by Portarican's in their neighborhood, sinning a song about Portarican's and Jawa'. My dad truly thought we would die that night. I look back and wonder how we didn't. When the Jawa' came on the screen I almost shit my pants, two glowing beady eyes holding a rifle that shot electricity. Wow, but that fear turned to admiration even for a four year old as they rescued the droids R2D2 and C3P0.

I received my first Jawa for a Birth Day present, and remember once finding one packaged at a drug store for 3.00. Since then my collection of Jawa' has grown to Eleven Loose, and one Packaged MOC with the Power of the Force coin. Below are Photos of the front and Back of the carded one. And then shots of a Jawa with and with out his poncho, both front and back.

Also a Empire Strikes back carded one I got from a friend for dirt cheap, The card was really bowed but with help of a Acrylic case the figure is prestine now.

Also a shot of My Jawa Clan in Kenner's 1977 Jawa Sand crawler. This vehicle was more than a find for me. I ran across it in Mass. at a Yard sale. Some Mom sold it to me for 4.00. It was missing the droid elevator (wich I since had replaced) but for 4.00 any one that knows Star Wars collectibles knows this is a steal. These things go for well over 150.00 on eBay or any where else in just its condition. With a box or complete they easily fetch well over 400 dollars.

Also included in the Jawa Clan shot below is a a Power droid, I'll cover these guys later, but that's what he is if any one is wondering. A Point of interest on the Jawa – he was originally released with a Vinyl cape much like that of Ben Kenobi's. These can easily fetch carded over a thousand dollars, BUT BEWARE – these are RARE in all that it implies, there are many people who reproduce and sell off copies that can never be questioned due to their original look, and will scalp people on a 4 cent item… I do not nor never will own one unless by chance I meet some old guy from Kenner that has one and gives it to me. I don't think I will ever spend a thousand dollars for an action figure.

Enjoy.

Star Wars Lego Sets Part 7. Naboo Fighter. Set #7141

Naboo Fighter. Set #7141

Well it's been a while since my last review and witht he AC down and my Room in shambles, That has been the reason and focus as of late. But I'll nail this one out for the fun of it. A set I had got just for the droids, The naboo fighter. I have every set and every Droid made to date for lego. this being the last set needed until the Giant Droid carrier just came out with a total of 20 of the buggers. I present to you a fun, small and enjoyable set, It comes with a R2, Anakin in Pilot helmet, the original Naboo Fighter, and two droids and a cart. All are perfect for a 30 minute build, and adds more troops to an already massive army. I will be taking a shot soon enough of the entire Droid forces. It will be neet, before hand I will be featuring all the sets they are featured in. This being one of them.

Star Wars Lego Sets Part 6. The Millennium Falcon Set #7190

The Millennium Falcon Set #7190 – 2000.

A find for me and a half, this is one set I was able to get from a Buddy, and I'm glad I did. It was the first release of the famous smugglers ship, and at the time I snagged it, the leia figure alone, the only version of her like this made, went easily for seventy dollars on E-bay. I know, who and the hell would pay that for a tiny Lego figure, but people did. Not me, I am lucky enough to have a good buddy who runs across awesome deals and passes em on to me, Druss is his log in on Yojoe.com <http://yojoe.com/> and he has his very own website for sales. So any how, advertisement done, he hooked me up with the falcon and I've loved it ever sense, as my wife has stated, it is one of the coolest ships ever made in any Sci Fi, it is all mostly engine and the crew is just as unique, The set featured the Leia figure above mentioned, Han, Luke, Chewie, 3P0 and R2. It features a tool chest, escape pod, a Chess table, gear, and tons of play features. I do truly enjoy this set, The landing gear is less than desirable, but I think they fixed that with the second release. So below enjoy the action shots of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxie. The finale two photos are figures exclusive to the second millennium falcon set released. of course the Snow trooper is added with an extra snow trooper and my Custom laser E Web blaster with generator. then there are the Han and Leia hoth Lego figures. I got these because i didn't want to fork out the money for a whole different millennium falcon but I did how ever want the three exclusive figures with the set, so these are the extras I have from a set I do not own, Enjoy.