Tales of SW Figures, part deux

[darth chuck]

When I was a kid, I had my GI Joe Cobra Army ( 12 troopers, 4 officers plus all the other Cobra baddies & vehicles) invade the star wars universe and fight wars against my imperial army (16 stormies, 6 Snowtroopers, 2 DS troopers, 2 Imp officers, etc ) GI joes and the rebel alliance never stood a chance against my Cobra/Stormtrooper armies.

When I turned 18, I sold over 100 GI Joes and 20 vehicles to my buddies little brothers for $20. Still feel stupid for that.

Fortunately, I packed away my star wars collection in fairly good condition and today have everything except the B-Wing, skiff and Imp shuttle.

[Eternal Padawan]

if only darth chuck knew e-bay was right around the corner...

[badtaste]

My first memory, I think I was 5 ears old, was my mother gave me and my brother a stormtrooper and c3-po.
I can't explain the experience I had that moment. Holy canalony... I wonder a lot of times, what makes someone collecting. What is the mechanism?

I don't know, a lot of times I tried to escape, especialy when we felt to mature about in my teen years,like someone said before.

[El Chuxter]

I posted this on the old boards, but I think it's still amusing. Before I got ROTJ Jabba, I used a 4" tall ET as Jabba. And since there was no chance of Kenner making a Slave Leia, Hoth Leia took her place.

Once, after I started playing with GI Joes, I (for reasons still unknown) acted out Star Wars with GI Joe figures. I don't remember who was who except that Blowtorch was Luke and Snake Eyes was Vader. Most of the time, though, when I played Star Wars it was with the right figures, though the more armored looking Cobras (Crimson Guard, Eels, etc) were Elite Stormtroopers. And a red figure of some sort from Tron that I got from a cousin was the Stormtrooper Commander.

[bigbarada]

This event happened prior to the mentally scarring Tusken Raider incident I related in the old forums. Back around 1980 when I was in second grade, my brother and I had all of the original twelve figures except for Han. My favorite figure this particular week was the Death Squad Commander. I carried him with me everywhere I went, I even made up a whole life story for him and gave him a name (Don't ask, I don't remember). Well while I was taking out the trash I didn't want to put my new favorite figure down so I carried him with me in the sane hand I carried the trash in. You guessed it, he end up in the dumpster with the garbage. Being seven years old, this was a major crisis, and my dad was uncharacteristically sympathetic. So my dad went dumpster diving for a little plastic action figure. Sadly he never found my Death Squad Commander but he did find some cool toy trains.

I've since bought a replacement, but I keep him in a safe place and NEVER take him out with the garbage.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

I have an interesting little story about a couple of my vintage figures that happened just the other day. But please, before I start don't think I'm weird or have some kind of funky fetish or anything. (Crap, MC it's too late. They're already calling the men in white...)

I have the Emperor, Admiral Ackbar, and the rebel Hoth soldier on my desk at home. I was typing something on the computer when the Emperor and AA fell down. I couldn't help but laugh because the Emperor fell on top of AA from behind and it looked like they were having some interspecies monkey love. What made it even funnier was that the Hoth soldier happened to be facing them with a pistol in his hand like he was forcing them at gunpoint.

Emperor: Admiral Ackbar, I'll turn you over to the dark side.
Ackbar: It's a trap.
Soldier: Your 'tauntaun' will freeze before you reach the first marker.

Truly, an idle mind is the devil's playground.

[JediCole]

I think a lot of these stories underscore a chief complaint I had about Hasbro up until recently when they woke up and realized how big an adult collector market they have in Star Wars. I promise you that they would not have had a toy tour of the convention circuit when POTF2 was launched and the prevailing attitude was that Star Wars toys are just toys and toys are for kids (5 to 12).
That was most of the complaint, because Hasbro used that deterimation to exclude many characters from production. Though they slowly admitted to the presence of an adult market, they still viewed it as an isignificant minority. This we know. But there is more. This perception meant that core characters were king because it was reasoned that kids only wanted the characters they recognize. Granted I was 12 when the Early Bird Set was released, but I collected right up to the bitter end and even my younger brother (four years younger) recognized every single character produced in the original lines. The practical offshoot of Hasbro's perception is that they assume that Star Wars figures are just that, figureines of Star Wars characters and kids only play Star Wars scenes and adventures with them. Quite the contrary. In my experience back in the day, most kids played Star Wars for about a week, then used the figures to represent their own characters.
My brother and I used to develop elaborate scenarios with our (vintage) figures, using Luke and Leia as the rulers of a lush jungle world full of strange fish, reptile, and beat people, some allies, some enemies. And as I grew older, the figures became the templates for a huge pantheon of super hero characters my best friend and I created. In college I actually began to script serious comic stories featuring many of the characters we created in those days. I am hopeful a whole new generation can be thusly inspired by their figures, as both Star Wars characters and as the physical representations of thier own creations.

[Rollo Tomassi]

My Death Star Commander was one of the few SW figures who got beheaded during the course of playtime. Bespin Luke was another. Bossk lost an arm, as did Ig-88. I think their were about 12 in total who fell to 'rough play" syndrome. When we moved, they were in a separate box from my other vintage figures along with my broken X-wing. That box and the damaged figures and X-wing were never seen again...

[evenflow]

Although I never really destroyed my toys, I did have battles with different things. It was always Star Wars vs. He-man vs. Thundercats.

[El Chuxter]

Remember how a lot of the ESB figures had removable heads? I used to interchange the heads and come up with some weird "disguises" for characters: Bossk in AT-AT Commander disguise, Luke Skywalker in Han Solo Hoth Disguise, etc.