How many of the original Kenner Star Wars figures have been released in the 6-inch Star Wars Black Series?

Following recent trips to the May the Toys Be With You exhibition and the wonderful Vintage Toy Shop in Leicester, I have found myself thinking a lot about the original Kenner Star Wars toys of my youth. With that comes a level of regret that I have retained only a couple of my original toys from the 80s alongside a small collection of other vintage figures. While the temptation has therefore been to expand that collection, I actually moved my thoughts away from that temptation and to thinking about how the current Star Wars Black Series is replacing the toys of my childhood and therefore how many of the original Kenner run of figures have been made in this modern 6-inch format.

That has therefore led to the creation of our Kenner Black Series Checklist where we have mapped the original run of Kenner characters against the Star Wars Black Series releases to date. This is not about cardbacks as that comparison would be even smaller, but about character releases that match the original Kenner figures. Within this there is a bit of licence in a couple of areas which I will call out upfront. The first is the Imperial Officer which based on the Kenner card is General Veers - who was also then released as the AT-AT Commander. So in this instance I have considered that Imperial Officer and AT-AT Commander slots filled, but have put Admiral Piett into the Imperial Officer slot. I also decided that of the three R2 releases from Kenner, the original and sensorscope versions had been met - but as we hadn't had a Black Series figure with a pop up lightsaber then this final version would be left as a gap. The final decision was around Han in Carbonite who does exist as a Carbonite block but not with a Jabba's Palace figure to go with it - for now I've filled the slot but with the Carbonite Block only.

Each of our Kenners slots in the collection has been created and is inspired by the card back colour of the original releases (excluding regional variances). The images we've shared here are examples of the checklist and not the full checklist itself which can be found at this link.

If we start with the figures from A New Hope then we have 20 slots in total and 17 of these are filled with just 3 gaps remaining for Snaggletooth, the Power Droid, and the Death Star Droid. This is of course driven predominently by the 40th Anniversary releases and a desire back in 2017 to replicate the 'First 12' and of course the Early Bird Stand to display them.

As we move to The Empire Strikes Back we find 29 figures from the original Kenner series, of which the Black Series has filled 21 of them. Out of the 8 gaps, there are notable absences like Lobot, Bespin Gown Leia, 2-1B, and the Ugnaught.

As we progress to Return of the Jedi, this is the biggest collection of Kenner figures with 48 figures releases for the final film of the trilogy. It is also the lowest represented so far with Black Series equivalents with only 18 figures made and 30 gaps including big hitters like Chief Chirpa, Nien Nunb, AT-ST Driver, and a whole raft of Jabba's Court Denizons.

With ROTJ also being Kenner's deepest cut on character choices, it also provides a stark realization that we may never complete this list through the Black Series with figures like the Imperial Dignitary probably too obscure for the current market, and figures like the Sebastian Shaw Anakin Skywalker now overwritten in canon once he was replaced in the final scenes by Hayden Christensen - although by that logic some may consider that slot filled by the Jedi Spirit Anakin released.

While vehicles were not considered in this list for obvious reasons of scale, I did consider the various 'beasts' releases by Kenner, and in this comparison the Black Series is doing really well having released four of the original five produced by Kenner. Hasbro of course did also try and get us the fifth through the Rancor HasLab but that of course did not fund, so that gap remains.

I will endeavor to keep our Kenner Checklist page up to date as and when any new releases are announced. I suspect we may never reach the full 98 of the original Kenner line, but I have hope that some characters will eventually translate to the Black Series.

Considering the popularity of Jabba's Palace figures like Yak Face, Squid Head, Ree-Yees, and the various guards are strong possibilities. The same goes for droids like the Power Droid and Death Star Droid, the latter a potential tweak from the existing Protocol Droid base. We can also consider Chief Chirpa and Leia Bespin in that same camp as being tweaks across from existing figures using the Ewok base for Chirpa, and the Bespin Leia with soft goods to create the Bespin Gown release.

Lobot and Nien Nunb's popularity in polls and online discussion makes that pairing strong contenders for the Black Series. And our final potential pick is the Imperial Gunner which is a trooper gap that not only fills a gap for the Original Trilogy, but one that can be tweaked to create a version from The Bad Batch as seen recently in Season 3.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the future, and I hope you have enjoyed this slightly obscure way of reminiscing about my youth and the Kenner Star Wars figures I grew up with. All shares, likes and comments are as always appreciated - and apologies if I have made any errors with the listing, my overall knowledge of the Kenner line is very much entrenched in the UK Palitoy camp and gaps filled from various internet sources.

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About Me : As a child of the '70s and '80s I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force), and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licenses - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who, and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK-focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...

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