General McQuarrie

 Not much to say on this, other than it's a figure based on Star Wars concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie, putting him in an Empire Strikes Back rebel general's outfit. This is an unopened carded original action figure, which was released in 2007 as part of the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars.  The package includes a special collectors coin.

Carded Vintage Figures

 I didn't have many carded original trilogy figures, but enough to say I had a collection. 

Weequay (ROTJ)

The Emperor (ROTJ Trilogo)

Leia in Combat Poncho (ROTJ Kenner)

Bike Scout (ROTJ Trilogo)

Bib Fortuna (ROTJ)

Kaatu (ROTJ)

Kaatu (ROTJ Kenner)

IG-88 (ROTJ Kenner)

Teebo (ROTJ Kenner)

Ree Yees (ROT Kenner)

Nikto (ROTJ trilogo)

Yes, I could've put Klaatu and Nikto closer together, but without Barada the film reference doesn't make any sense (if you don't know, search for or watch The Day The Earth Stood Still) 

I also have a couple of carded figures from the Droids and Ewoks cartoon spinoffs. 

.

Custom Episode One Figures On Vintage Star Wars Cards

I've always preferred vintage Star Wars stuff to collect. I guess it's because Episodes 4,5,6 were such a feature of my childhood, and, let's face it, the films were the best too.

However, a fair portion of my collection is from the prequels, and these particular carded figures appealed to my vintage side. I found them on Ebay not long after The Phantom Menace's toy line had hit the shelves. I think it's fair to say the Episode 1 packaging didn't match up to the original Kenner/Palitoy designs. So, it was inevitable that someone would make these.

To be honest, I can't remember what I paid for them. They are quite well made, with punch holes on (2 with and 2 without the punched holes) - not bad for what were probably early custom cards.

So, you can see above the figures were a Battle Droid, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul.

There were 3 different designs on the back of the cards (2 figures had the same back-of-card design). I've also included in the picture below (sorry, blurry pic!) a Protech Star Case too as I've kept all of these figures in the protective case since I got them.

 

Finally, here they are in their Protech Star Cases.

C-3PO Epic Force Display Figure

To quote old golden rod, "I'm standing here in pieces,and you're having delusions of grandeur!"

This Kenner figure released in 1997 is taken from a scene towards the end of The Empire Strikes Back, where, having partially been put back together by Chewbacca on Cloud City ("Wait. Wait! Oh, my! what have you done? I'm backwards, you stupid furball....") before they escape with Lando's help (big shout to Lobot too!) In this scene C-3PO is berating R2-D2 for not completin his repairs and instead is about to fix the hyperdrive so Luke, Leia, Lando, Chewie and the droids can escape the clutches of Vader and the Empire.

Not sure it needed the rotating 360 base but there you go, it has one. This has never been out of the box and has been in a display cabinet for a few years as I think it's quite neat.

Random Tie-Fighter Pilot

Erm, yeah. I picked up this Tie-Fighter Pilot at a car-boot sale a few years ago. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what set it's from and I don't really have time to research it. If I do or if someone can let me know then I'll update this post.

Vintage Star Wars cardboard Death Star Play Centre

Quite probably the coolest Star Wars toy ever, the Death Star Play Centre was released by Palitoy in 1977 and enabled little kids to wield the power of the ultimate force in the galaxy.

Although my childhood space station was sold when I was young I managed to retain the original plans (Princess Leia would be jealous!). I acquired a near complete Death Star from ebay in the early 1990s.

Unfortunately it is missing the canopy, which is really annoying because I was sure my original one had survived the sales, but it would seem along with a few action figure weapons it went missing.

Escape the Stormtroopers!

"The plans are not in the main computer"

Where to park your Millennium Falcon

"Into the garbage shoot, flyboy!"

"what an incredible smell you've discovered!"

Star Wars - Ewok and Droid cartoon spinoffs

The Ewoks
Them lovable fluffy teddy bears from Return of the Jedi got their own cartoon series in 1985. Following the adventures of Wicket W Warrick (the cute little one who befriended Princess Leia in ROTJ) and his pals as they outwit the Duloks.

A few years after these cartoons were on the TV I bought a video containing several episodes. My kids enjoy watching these even now, despite the look and feel of the cartoons being very different to modern cartoons.

On a trip to Florida in 1994 I also managed to pick up an Ewoks action figure.I was surprised to see such as thing as they were never on sale in the UK.Same applies to the Droids figure purchased in the USA at the same time.

The action figure above is Urgah Lady Gorneesh. There were only 6 figures ever released from the Ewoks series - 2 Ewoks ( Logray and Wicket W. Warrick) and 4 Duloks (King Gorneesh, Urgah Lady Gorneesh, Dulok Scout and Dulok Shaman).


Droids - The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3P0 
The storytellers from Star Wars returned in their own animated cartoon adventures. Antony Daniels reprised his part as Threepio. As it was a cartoon Kenny Baker wasn't really needed for Artoo!

At the time (early 1990s) I couldn't get hold of a pristine copy of this cartoon series, however, a friend happened to find an ex-rental copy for me.

As mentioned above, the Droids action figure was picked up in Florida. Only 12 figures were released plus some vehicles, including an A-Wing. The figure below is Jord Dusat.
I would've really loved to have picked up R2-D2, C-3PO from this series. The figures for these droids look a bit different to the vintage Star Wars figures from the movies. Boba Fett and the A-Wing Pilot also made in to Droids carded packaging.

Here's an advert from the US for the toys.


A few years ago Ewoks and Droids cartoons were released in DVD, however, for some bizarre reason they have been mashed together in to feature films instead of individual episodes. If you're interested you might be able to obtain these on the links below.