Star Wars Action Favorites!

[EmergencyIan]

^ Gotcha. And that is the other thing I remember, which is thinking that I’ve got no other figures to play with this guy. It was great but extremely limited play value due to no other figures in the line, if it qualifies as one.

- Ian

[Hedji]

I don’t know why Kenner didn’t just go with a rubber or soft plastic fedora. It would have looked much better, in my opinion. Were there hat variations with this figure?

No, not that I've ever seen. If the line were more successful, maybe they'd have made a running change, but I think there were a lot of 12" Indy figures on clearance.

[Myoldtoys]

I've probably said it a million times, (and we've taken this thread way off topic, sorry), but those 12 inch face sculpts are some of my favorites. They capture likeness, but in a soft and friendly toy way. To me, they're just perfect in their look as a kids' toy likeness. The 1997 ones were so harsh and unappealing to me.

I agree. the later head sculpts are harsh, and the muscle bodies are a bit much. I bought those because the outfits and accessories were awesome. Not many others share that opinion which may explain why you can't give them away. I tried to sell them to a local store. For what they offered me, I would rather just open them all up and play with them. I've only seen the Indiana Jones doll in pictures. A felt hat does sound funny. You would think Kenner had some kind of cowboy hat mold from another line...maybe not.

[EmergencyIan]

^ Regarding your last two posts: agreed!

I don’t know why Kenner didn’t just go with a rubber or soft plastic fedora. It would have looked much better, in my opinion. Were there hat variations with this figure?

You know, you’re right about the sculpts. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s true. They looked like the actors while retaining a “soft” toy aesthetic.

As little kids, we didn’t need our toys to look like Enterbay Bruce Lee figures, which are unbelievable by the way.

- Ian

[Hedji]

I've probably said it a million times, (and we've taken this thread way off topic, sorry), but those 12 inch face sculpts are some of my favorites. They capture likeness, but in a soft and friendly toy way. To me, they're just perfect in their look as a kids' toy likeness. The 1997 ones were so harsh and unappealing to me.

[Hedji]

I did end up with the 12 inch Kenner Indiana Jones figure in 1981. That’s a pretty neat figure.

Now that's a terrific figure! They got so many things right with it, from the accessories, leather jacket, whip, box art. It really is great... until you see the elephant in the room: Indy's hat! Don't know what Kenner was thinking, but they used the softest, floppiest, oversized felt they could source, and he looks unintentionally funny.

Still, a great re-use of the Han sculpt.

[EmergencyIan]

A decent looking Han sold for $53 two days ago. Without the medal of course

Touché

- Ian

[Myoldtoys]

I haven’t visited those auctions in over a decade. Maybe they’re with a revisit. Han was very cool!

I did end up with the 12 inch Kenner Indiana Jones figure in 1981. That’s a pretty neat figure.

- Ian

A decent looking Han sold for $53 two days ago. Without the medal of course

[EmergencyIan]

I couldn't convince my Mom to give me an advance on my allowance to buy the 12" figures. I did manage to get her to put Han on lay-away at Hills. He was the only one they had. After a month, he was mine. Medal and all. He got to hang out with the old GI Joes and the Six Million Dollar Man. I bought 13 of the 12" figures they made in 1996/97. They are more detailed but something still cool about the originals. You can still get decent deals, relatively speaking, on some of the 12".

I haven’t visited those auctions in over a decade. Maybe they’re with a revisit. Han was very cool!

I did end up with the 12 inch Kenner Indiana Jones figure in 1981. That’s a pretty neat figure.

- Ian

[Myoldtoys]

I couldn't convince my Mom to give me an advance on my allowance to buy the 12" figures. I did manage to get her to put Han on lay-away at Hills. He was the only one they had. After a month, he was mine. Medal and all. He got to hang out with the old GI Joes and the Six Million Dollar Man. I bought 13 of the 12" figures they made in 1996/97. They are more detailed but something still cool about the originals. You can still get decent deals, relatively speaking, on some of the 12".

[EmergencyIan]

Huh, that's funny your Han was missing his medal, Ian; my Darth Vader had no lightsaber when I got him. I wonder if there was a lot of pilfering in the store, or factory errors?

May be so. In hindsight, I could have lived with Han without his medal. If I’d have known he’s was going to be impossible to find, relatively later, I would have kept him. As we know hindsight really is 20/20. On the other hand, Darth Vader without a light saber is not quite as palatable.

It’s neat that you’d recollected all of the 12 inch figures. They’re great!

- Ian

[Hedji]

Huh, that's funny your Han was missing his medal, Ian; my Darth Vader had no lightsaber when I got him. I wonder if there was a lot of pilfering in the store, or factory errors?



Confession: Boba Fett was my reward for stopping sucking my fingers. I won't tell you what grade that was.

Completing my set of loose 12" wasn't cheap, but compared to carded vintage, it was very doable and more fun.

[EmergencyIan]

^Looking back, I miss those the most. 12" Boba Fett was fantastic!! I had Leia ("borrowed" from my sister), Luke, Chewbacca, C3PO, Jawa, Darth Vader, and Fett.

I had Luke, Chewbacca and Ben Kenobi. I got them for Christmas, from Santa, one year along with a lot of other Stat Wars toys. I wanted more of them, but it didn’t work out. The first of the 12 inch figures that I had was actually Han, but when we got out to the car, I realized that his medal was missing. So, we returned him to the store. He was the only Han Solo they had. This was during the summer prior. Anyhow, I still really wanted that Han Solo and apparently my grandmother searched for him all over including calling toy stores in St Louis, Indianapolis and Chicago, where we had someone who could pick him up for her. Alas, he must have been very popular as she wasn’t able to find one for me for that Christmas.

- Ian

[Myoldtoys]

Collecting loose Star Wars is frustrating, because reproduction accessories are highly frowned upon, yet there are tons of them out there. Fortunately, I had most of the accessories from my youth, but I still could use a Han blaster or two.

Carded collecting is just completely out of the question. TONS of fakes and bootlegs out there being passed off as the real thing. They even fool AFA.

It actually is more fun to collect a secondary tier of Star Wars, like the 12 inch figures, or oddball, non-toy items.

You are right about collecting loose figures. I had 90% of the weapons for my original figures. I found a few sources on eBay and locally that I could trust to not sell me figures with repro weapons. That and the imperial gunnery site helped to not get ripped off. Then everything changed in late 2016. The repro weapons are now much harder to identify. Good news for me was that I reached my goal of having the first 77 figures.

[PNGwynne]

^Looking back, I miss those the most. 12" Boba Fett was fantastic!! I had Leia ("borrowed" from my sister), Luke, Chewbacca, C3PO, Jawa, Darth Vader, and Fett.