Checklist – Star Wars – Vintage

Along with the blockbuster movie Star Wars in 1977, the then small toy company KENNER acquired the rights to launch a line of action figures.

This collection of figures would end up becoming the most successful line of figures in history and turning KENNER into a great toy company, up to a total of 96 different figures were released to the market, as well as several vehicles and playsets.

This line stood out for being the first to use a scale of 3.75 inches (9.5cm), until then it was normal for toys to use a much larger scale. KENNER knew that not only could they sell figures, but also that the ships and Playsets would be a fundamental part of the collection, and with this new scale they could make ships that would fit the figures.

The toy line quickly became a best-seller and marked a turning point in toy collections. The children of the time, today turned collectors, continue to acquire these pieces and the prices they are willing to pay would surprise more than one.

1977:

The first year KENNER released 12 figures to the market, on the back of the cardboard of these figures you can see a picture of these 12 figures, today we know these first editions as 12-back, and they are the most sought after and valued by collectors.

During the following years several reprints of these same figures were made, but the back of the cardboard had a different illustration.

1978:

After the great success of the first wave of figures, the toymaker KENNER decided to launch a new wave of figures with 9 new pieces and the reissue of all of the first wave, the back of the cardboard of these figures showed both these 9 pieces and the 12 of the first wave, and are known as the 21-back.

1980:

In 1980, the second film of the Star Wars saga, “The Empire Strikes Back”, was released in theaters. Obviously, the toy company KENNER took the opportunity to launch a new wave of figures with the characters of this second installment. That year 11 new figures were released and many of the previous ones were reissued.

1981:

The success of the saga and the figure collection continued, which at this point had already become the most successful action figure collection to date, making the small toymaker KENNER one of the most successful toymakers in the world. This year 9 new figures based on characters from “The Empire Strikes Back” were released, and many previous figures were reissued.

1982:

As fans anxiously awaited the release of the final film in the Star Wars trilogy, KENNER continued to offer new figures based on the characters from “The Empire Strikes Back”, a total of 9 new figures and several reissues were released that year.

1983:

In 1983 the third film of the Star Wars saga, “Return of the Jedi” was released, as it could not be otherwise KENNER launched a new wave of figures based on the characters of the film, in this case launched a total of 17 new figures, also reissued many of the previous years, making this year the year with more figures released to the market.

1984:

For yet another year, KENNER decided to release 14 new figures based on the characters from the third film of the “Return of the Jedi” franchise.

1985:

In 1985 the last wave of figures based on the first trilogy of Star Wars movies was released, this time, instead of under the name of one of the movies as in previous waves, they decided to call it “Power of the Force”, and released 15 new figures and several reissues of previous figures. These 15 figures are among the most difficult to obtain of the entire collection.

Vehicles and playsets

Along with the 96 figures released during the 8 years of the collection, KENNER also created various ships, vehicles and Playsets to complete the ultimate gaming experience.

• Star Wars Vintage (Vehicles and Playsets)
• Kenner – (1978-1984)

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