Cavalcade of Awesome

Well, Toy Fair in New York was this past weekend. There were tons of toy reveals going on for all types of toys and games, but one piece of news actually has me giddy as a schoolgirl at a Jonas Brothers concert.

Hasbro announced that for The Empire Strikes Back’s 30th anniversary this year, they are bringing the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection back.  Hasbro started the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection (OTC) back in 2004 (see pics here).  It consisted of mostly movie based figures in “vintage style” packaging reminiscent of the Kenner figures in the early 1980s.  The vintage packaging for these new figures looks fantastic but the best news about this vintage set is that if you buy five figures, you can send away for a rocket firing Boba Fett!!

Why is this fantastic news? Well, for those that don’t know, back in the day, right before Empire Strikes Back came out (pre-1980), Star Wars figures had a mail away offer for an exclusive Boba Fett with a rocket firing backpack. It was a way for Kenner to promote the new movie before it was released.  Here’s an advertisement showcasing this mail away toy offer (via my Flickr buddy Jason Liebig):

Since Empire hadn’t been released, no one knew who the hell this Boba Fett was. And look at him. HE IS BAD ASS. Well, the Boba Fett in the above pic looks slightly different than the actual Boba Fett figure because it was a kit bashed promotional prototype used for packaging ads.  Regardless, the figure left kids wondering.  Is he a robot?  Is he a Sith Lord?  WTF?!  So, kids absolutely lost their minds and sent away for this figure.  Here’s where the controversy begins.  Shortly before Kenner mailed out the figures, Mattel was hit with a lawsuit involving a kid who died when he swallowed missiles from a Battlestar Galactica toy.  In the wake of these lawsuits, Kenner got cold feet and decided to seal the missile permanently to Boba’s back.  Result:  No rocket firing Boba Fett for America’s youth.  Yes, several prototypes still exist for the rocket firing Boba Fett, but none of them ever made it out into the wild (despite people swearing they received it).  Rocket Firing Boba Fett has attained mythic status amongst the Star Wars collecting community.  It is a Holy Grail every collector would like to own, but few would be able to afford (assuming they could find someone else willing to sell it).

So now, thirty years later, we are finally getting our rocket firing Boba Fett (click pics to make bigger).

Above is the new one that will be the current mail away. I love how closely it resembles the vintage Boba Fett.  This promotion will actually have me buying Star Wars figures for the first time in over 5 years.  I WANT THAT FETT.

Let’s look at some other cool Star Wars toys that were announced at Toy Fair (via Official Star Wars Blog’s Flickr stream).

Funko will be releasing a monster mashup version of 4 Star Wars characters this year that look AWESOME!  I love the zombie/stormtrooper.  It could almost double as a Death Trooper.   And the Chewie/wolf man is fantastic.  Funko’s figures are pretty awesome, they made killer Kirk, Spock and Orion Slave Girl figures last year.

Here is the Super Deluxe AT-AT. It’s f’n GI-NORMOUS! Nicknamed BAT-AT (Big AT-AT), this continues in the tradition of “Super Deluxe” vehicles that started with the Big Millennium Falcon (BMF).  And it’ll be under $100 (!).  I may have to get it.

Hasbro is finally going to release a Twin Pod Cloud Car. This is one of the few items created in the original vintage Kenner line (see vintage Cloud Car here) that has not been re-issued in the modern era.  I’m not sure if the vehicle itself will come with a pilot figure, but Hasbro will be releasing a Cloud Car Pilot figure on vintage OTC packaging, so you’ll definitely have one regardless (like if they only package one pilot in the box despite the fact it’s a TWIN Pod).

That’s just some of the awesome Star Wars stuff that’ll be coming out this past year.  I’m not currently buying Star Wars stuff, but there is enough interesting things coming out this year that I may have to come out of collecting retirement.  I mean, I’ll most definitely be buying at least 5 vintage collection figures to send away for the Rocket Firing Boba Fett.  That is a GIVEN.

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This entry was posted on February 18, 2010 at 11:45 am and is filed under Boba Fett, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Star Wars with tags Boba Fett, movies, pop culture, Star Wars, toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.