Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Fifth Brother (The Retro Collection). It's a good one - I like the double-bladed lightsaber, I like the lack of a vinyl cape, I like how he stands and sits and fits in my vehicles. He's fun to fuss with and arguably one of the best figures to get thanks to his cool hat. (Sure he's not doing much on the show but at least you get a decent action figure.) Read on!
Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Darth Vader (Dark Times, The Retro Collection). White what-if figure offers a cloth cape and a non-telescoping lightsaber, giving us a functionally very different Dark Lord of the Sith toy. Unfortunately the sculpting is the flattest of the wave, with some areas having less sculpted detail than the 1978 original. (But it's still really neat.) Read on!
Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Chewbacca (Prototype Edition - Orange Head, The Retro Collection). Let's keep looking at 1970s- and 1980s-style action figures this week with a Crayola-infused Wookiee - Hasbro's fourth "prototype" release so far. He doesn't exactly deviate from the no-paint, many-colors pattern we've enjoyed but it's still fun to check out things like a bright yellow bowcaster and a Grinch-colored Wookiee-limb. Read on!
Galactic Hunter has posted a Adam's Star Wars Newsletter #10! Rogue One returns to theaters. Andor was delayed! We saw new toys and reissues of old toys at San Diego Comic-Con! Disney's Halloween items are starting to hit theme parks, as is a Kenobi-specific droid set that looks pretty sharp. There's also a big list of new announcements and recent releases. Read it here!
Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Yoda (The Retro Collection). It's very close to the 1980 original, . Read on!
Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Death Trooper (The Retro Collection). It's a Kenner-style figure borrows a lot from the original Stormtrooper figure from way back in 1978 - the non-articulated helmet and the incorporation of the original blaster come to mind. It's a glossy figure with bright green lenses, so it pops nicely Read on!
Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Ahsoka Tano (The Retro Collection). It's a Kenner-style with bright colors and is one of very few new aliens in The Retro Collection line. She has two lightsabers that look a lot like the 1980s Luke Skywalker models, except with curved hilts. Read on!
From Amazon, this ad: Star Wars Retro Collection Special Bounty Hunters 2-Pack Boba Fett & Bossk Toys 3.75-Inch-Scale The Empire Strikes Back Figures (Amazon Exclusive). It looks like Boba Fett will be nearly the same as his 2020 The Empire Strikes Back reissue from Walmart, while Bossk hasn't been reissued at all yet. Given the current secondary market prices of the Boba Fett reissue, this set is a cheaper alternative at $27.99. It shows Bossk's gun in blue, but I wouldn't be shocked if it shipped in black like we saw with Lando Calrissian.
Bossk and Boba Fett are expected in January. IG-88 and Dengar are set for December.
More fun from the 1980s... by way of 2022! Bo-Katan Kryze (The Retro Collection). It's a Kenner-style figure that is a lot of fun to fuss with. She has brighter colors than her other figures, but the Kenner-esque deco is a mixed bag - the helmet probably has too much fine detail while the breastplate armor is completely unpainted. I still dig it - she fits in great with your old 1970s and 1980s Kenner vehicles and playsets, which tends to be one of the very best reasons to buy these new releases.Obviously, I recommend them all.
Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: The Armorer (The Retro Collection). It's a Kenner-style figure with a sculpt that looks like it came out of 1983 and a furry cape that's clever, yet unlike anything I can point to from the original toy line. I really like these guys, but they're not for everybody - if you have a big actual vintage Kenner toy stash in your toy box, these are some of the best things I've bought in ages. Plus she has a giant hammer for smashing Stormtrooper heads. Read on!
This is an affiliate link for the Star Wars The Mandalorian The Retro Collection Action Figures Wave 1 Case of 8 for 78.00, but really, this post is about me trying to convince you to try out Kenner figures.
I want to live in a world with more of them. Back in the 1970s fans of Star Wars had no TV series, no computer games, or even VCRs in most cases. You could see comics or novels, or maybe some Super 8 reels, but most likely your platform of choice for living Star Wars at home were Kenner's $2 3 3/4-inch action figures. (I remember seeing them as high as $4.99 at Long's Drug Stores - which I paid, to get my Wicket - back around 1984. Highway robbery.)
For fans over 40, it's a pretty safe bet those action figures are a big part of why they're Star Wars fans today - either they held on to theirs with an iron grip, or their parents forced them to sell them, and they've been chasing them down ever since. I was the former - and I bought figures from the latter at garage sales.
Ad: Get new Hasbro Star Wars from Entertainment Earth! Pre-orders are open for a new Star Wars Darth Vader action figure, that looks vaguely like the one from the 1970s, but not. Use the code "SUNFREE22" at check-out to get free shipping on your pre-orders, assuming you hit $39 or more on items like this Star Wars The Retro Collection Action Figures Wave 3 Case of 8.
Star Wars Celebration is ending, so it's time to go through the list of new stuff I've jotted down in Adam's Star Wars Newsletter #9! All the announcements you missed because who wants to watch 1 hour of video for 3 minutes of names? New games, new toys, new streaming series, and a whole lot of other information has been stuffed in a text document so you can know just about everything worth knowing, and look up more if you want. Read it here!
Ad: Get new Hasbro Transformers from Entertainment Earth! Pre-orders are open for new Star Wars Reva figures. Use the code "SPRINGFREE22" at check-out to get free shipping on your pre-orders, assuming you hit $39 or more on items like Star Wars The Retro Collection Reva (Third Sister) 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure.
How prototypical! Target's exclusive Stormtrooper (Prototype Edition - Yellow Head, The Retro Collection) is another neat one. It's a multicolor release of a remake of a figure from 1978 - and it's neat! There are six flavors to track down if you dare. Read on!