10 Best Star Wars Vintage Figures Ranked
10 Best Star Wars Vintage Figures, Ranked
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Are you a fan of vintage ‘Star Wars’ merchandise or just vintage merch in general? If so, check out the 10 best Star Wars vintage figures, ranked!
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If merchandising was just a thing that some films did here and there in the 60s and 70s, but after 1977 and the blockbuster success of George Lucas’ space opera epic, it was everything. And for an entire generation of collectors, Kenner’s Star Wars action figure line was the world and more.
With nearly a hundred (or just over, depending on how you count) action figures produced from 1978 to 1985, the vintage Kenner Star Wars line is one of the greatest runs in toys. But which are the best of the best? Here are the 10 best vintage Star Wars action figures, ranked. Credit for all pictures goes to the incredible photo archive at Rebelscum!
10 4-LOM
4-LOM is one of those weird background aliens that separate Star Wars toys from just about every other line before or since. Who is that guy? What’s his deal? Mostly, kids made up their own stories in the backyard. But with 4-LOM, his story changed later in the 80s. He was actually meant to be Zuckuss, but his name was swapped with the bug-headed droid by mistake. Still, he’s one of the best efforts in the Kenner line, wit a plushy coat and design that was very close to the actual film.
9 Han Solo (Bespin)
There were a lot of Han Solo figures in the vintage Kenner line. Han Solo from (most of) The Empire Strikes Back is the best. The original was great, but had an iffy portrait that led to his entire head being changed from a smaller one to a different, bigger, maybe not better one. Later versions from Return of the Jedi were great but featured thick necks, the result of manufacturing limitations of the time. This Han Solo escaped all that and came out just right in 1981.
8 FX-7
Another amazing figure from 1981 is FX-7, a medical droid who helped Luke Skywalker heal after a Wampa tried to make a snack out of him. FX-7 is unique in the early Kenner line for his ambitious engineering. The figure features multiple arms and a rotating head that made a fun little clicking sound. He may look like a bingo dauber, but this guy saves lives. No kid could have Luke Skywalker fight the Wampa or get frostbite from being out in the snow without FX-7 to save him.
7 Jawa
The Jawas are vile, disgusting little creatures, but they’re great toys. As one of the first 12 action figures Kenner produced for Star Wars, the Jawa provided an early version of a key Kenner feature: soft goods. With his brown cloth robe, the Jawa was a lot more realistic than even the vinyl-caped counterparts in his own line.
A vinyl-caped Jawa actually preceded the cloth one early in the production run but was swiftly replaced. The vinyl-caped Jawa (pictured above on the left) is one of the rarest Star Wars figures in existence.
6 C-3PO
These days, collectors tend to value accuracy and detail over anything else in their toys. The Kenner figures were amazing, but due to a variety of factors including a lack of source material, there were some inaccuracies. C-3PO is one of the earliest figures, and one of the strongest examples of the detail Kenner managed to include. Cast in vacuum-metalized gold paint, C-3PO looks like he walked right out of the movie. Modern versions would feature more details, but the first is one of the best.
5 Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight)
No Star Wars collection is complete without Luke Skywalker, and this is by far the best version of the young hero. The rest are all pretty good, but this one embodies the mythic stature that fans had invested in him and Return of the Jedi finally realized when it premiered in 1983. With improved detailing, a great cloth cape, and that amazing green lightsaber – there was a blue one, too, for a moment – the Jedi Knight version of Luke stands among the best figures Kenner ever made.
4 Emperor’s Royal Guard
He just looks cool. But more than that, the Emperor’s Royal Guard was an improvement on the Imperial forces that preceded him in the Kenner line. Entrusted with protecting the master of the Sith, they failed hard, but the figure didn’t. Until then, all the Empire’s troops had heads sculpted into their torsos. The guard’s head couldn’t move, but it was a separate piece that allowed for more accuracy. It remains near perfect today. Paired with the cloth red robe, he continues to stare silently and look cool doing it.
3 Boba Fett
Is there any character cooler than Boba Fett? There are at least two figures arguably better than him, but the mysterious bounty hunter remains the zeitgeist of Star Wars action figures. Not only was he born to be a toy – and probably designed to be one – he’s part of toy mythology.
Boba Fett originally was available through a mail-away offer on the backs of Kenner packages. He promised to come with a rocket-firing backpack, but an unfortunate accident involving another toy prompted Kenner to change this. Less than two dozen prototypes of the rocket-firing version still exist and command astronomical sums of money on the collector’s market.
2 Amanaman
Here is one of the last, rarest, and best Star Wars figures ever made. Amanaman features intricate sculpting that few other figures in the line ever received, and suggested an even more detailed future if the Star Wars line continued. Unfortunately, it ended in 1985. Amanaman was one of the last action figures offered, though he was also available in a special gift set exclusive to Sears in 1984. His huge size, alien weirdness, and extraordinary for the era detailing makes him one of the best.
1 Yoda
Perhaps no character better exemplifies Star Wars than Yoda. He’s a tiny little alien green guy who talks weird and dispenses wisdom. And there’s no better action figure that represents what the vintage Kenner line was all about. A perfect mix of accuracy, toyetic play value (that orange – or brown sometimes – snake!), and soft goods, Yoda was a tiny but awesome figure. And he’s still a huge part of Star Wars toys today. Some figures were bigger than him (well, all of them were), but none were better. He was the absolute best of the best toy line ever.
Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-best-vintage-figures-ranked/
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