Imperial Archives Archives

At the Imperial Archives, one of our favorite categories is unproduced toys. This includes toys that were designed and never released, as well as toys that changed substantially during the design process. Let’s take a look at two Kenner Star Wars action figures that fall into the latter category. Each figure is represented in our collection in the form of both a preproduction drawing and an unpainted hardcopy prototype.

First up is an early “uncloaked” version of The Emperor from the vintage Return of the Jedi action figure line:

Take a look at Two Kenner Star Wars Action Figures That Changed During the Design Process!

Two Kenner Star Wars Action Figures That Changed During the Design Process

Star Wars fans who had the original Emperor action figure that was sold in stores will likely recall that the cloak was molded onto the body as part of the figure, but that wasn’t the initial plan. The hardcopy here has no cloak, and the drawing shows that it was going to be a separate molded plastic piece, similar to the cowl on the Chief Chirpa figure released in the previous wave of figures. (Contrary to what some think, this version of The Emperor was not going to have a “soft goods” cloak—the Deco Design Drawing specifies the color as “Dr. Gray” (dark grey), the same as the figure’s body. If the intent had been to offer a cloth cloak, the callout for it would instead read “Dr. Gray Fabric.” The cloak also would be drawn on the figure, not separately. See today’s second item for how soft goods are treated on these drawings.)

We don’t know for sure why the separate cloak was dropped, but it’s easy to speculate that it might have been a cost-saving move, especially given that The Emperor was initially offered free with five proofs-of-purchase from other Kenner Star Wars figures.

Today’s second figure is even more interesting. This early version of Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) from Return of the Jedi first became known to collectors more than 25 years ago when it surfaced in hardcopy prototype form. The pieces that turned up were either painted in grey primer or were completely unpainted, so nobody knew what color the figure was supposed to be. Further complicating things, a Kenner source at the time misremembered that this figure was made in the Power of the Force era at the end of the vintage toy line, leading to speculation that “Luke in Robes” wasn’t related to Jedi at all, but might have instead depicted Luke in his medical robes from the end of The Empire Strikes Back, or perhaps was even a non-movie concept.

A couple of years later, though, the Deco Design Drawing showed up; it clearly lists the figure as “Jedi Luke ROJ,” and is dated June 21,1982, the very same month that Deco Design Drawings were being made for the first wave of Return of the Jedi figures. (Note the drawing above for The Emperor, in the second wave, is dated November 16, 1982.) The real surprise here, though, is in the list of colors specified for the figure: instead of the black outfit Luke wears in the film, this figure is dressed in rust-colored robes with a rust-colored fabric cloak. Below, I’ve digitally colored the photo of the hardcopy with the colors specified in the drawing; fans of vintage action figures will note a strong resemblance to Kenner’s Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi figure from the original Star Wars.

However, not everyone was convinced that the drawing and the hardcopy were necessarily connected. But a little while later, collector Chris Fawcett noticed that a photograph in a 1983 catalog from Meccano—the company who sold Kenner’s action figure line in France—included several prototype Return of the Jedi figures, including a Luke in rust-colored robes that matches the hardcopy!

So this solved one mystery—the mysterious “Luke in Robes” hardcopy is definitely the same rust-colored version of Luke that was briefly in the works for the launch of the Return of the Jedi action figure line. But there’s still one mystery to answer: Why, in June 1982—a full month after principal photography had wrapped on Return of the Jedi—did Kenner appear to believe that Luke’s new Jedi outfit looked like Obi-Wan’s robes from A New Hope?

This month’s item from the Imperial Archives features the story of a vintage Star Wars Kenner toy that never was, but this prototype of an unproduced rifle shows it was apparently considered for release in 1980.

This toy is a hardcopy, meaning it was hand-cast from a silicone mold using a two-part urethane (unlike production toys which are made from steel molds using injected plastic). It’s hand-painted, with a hand-applied photographic logo sticker, and it includes bespoke electronic components. Pulling the rear trigger activates a motor, creating a whining sound effect and lighting up a kaleidoscope contained in the gun’s sight. Squeezing the front trigger mechanically alters the kaleidoscopic view and decreases the motor’s speed, changing the pitch of the sound effect.

Before this item turned up, about two decades after it was made, Star Wars toy collectors didn’t know it existed. Kenner had never solicited the toy for sale, so it never appeared in a catalog or on a product list; there were no known photos of it, and no Kenner employee had been known to mention it. It doesn’t look much like any weapon in Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back; the only indication that it has anything at all to do with Star Wars is the paper Empire label hand-glued to the toy.

When we bought it, the primary reason we had to believe that it was really an unproduced Star Wars toy prototype was the excellent reputation of the seller, The Earth Collectible Toy Mall in Cincinnati. As that city was the longtime home of Kenner, a stunning number of prototype toys had come to The Earth from Kenner employees over the years, so we believed that this probably was a real Star Wars toy, but we nevertheless wished we had some hard evidence.

A couple years later, Lisa was looking through an auction lot of items being sold by someone whose father had worked on the Star Wars line at Kenner. The lot consisted largely of paperwork, though Lisa was drawn to a set of photographs that wouldn’t have attracted the attention of virtually anyone else:

These photographs show the wood pattern for our mysterious gun. A wood pattern is essentially the original sculpt of a toy—a one-of-a-kind piece of original art that would then be duplicated to create the finished toy. In this case, the wood pattern would have been used to create the silicone molds that were then used to create our hardcopy. Sadly, the person who sold us the photos didn’t have the pattern, but at least we now had independent evidence connecting this rifle to Kenner’s Star Wars line.

But the best was yet to come. A while after that, we had the opportunity to purchase some artwork from former Kenner designer Steve Hodges, and among the pieces he had were these drawings from August 1978:

While none of the drawings that Steve had saved precisely match our rifle, their design style unmistakably matches that of our gun, so we asked Steve about it. He recalled that Kenner was contemplating a follow-up to their Laser Pistol (based on Han Solo’s blaster) and Laser Rifle (based on the standard-issue Stormtrooper weapon), but lacking solid reference for any other movie guns, they asked Steve to come up with a handful of original designs. And it appears that a year or two later, one such design made it all the way to hardcopy stage before being cancelled. Perhaps Lucasfilm balked at the non-movie design, or perhaps cost analysis or some other internal factor killed the project—we likely will never know, unless some bit of paperwork happens to turn up someday—but at least we have this evidence of a vintage Kenner Star Wars toy that never was.

Tag: Imperial Archives

Take a look at Two Kenner Star Wars Action Figures That Changed During the Design Process!

A Vintage Star Wars Kenner Toy That Never Was…