As a child of the '70s and '80s, I grew up with Star Wars and particularly the Star Wars 3.75-inch figure line from Kenner. Having acquired a fairly complete set once, I sold them all off in the pursuit of other toys - to then collect nearly all of them again. Eventually, as I grew out of toys the collection was sold again with a couple of survivors by luck rather than judgment.
Roll forward to the 90s and I started a POTF2 collection through to the Phantom Menace releases, but got a bit bored of that and side-stepped slightly with a plan of picking up a set of the original Kenner releases. That focus fell by the wayside and the handful of figures I had picked up were boxed away and partly forgotten.
Nowadays I am a collector of the Star Wars Black Series, but have found myself recently drawn back into Vintage collecting - but with the knowledge that is pretty unlikely, I have the resources to pull together a full set. At an Antiques Centre this year I then realized that while there are very expensive and sought-after Kenner figures, there are also many of these 40-year-old figures still in the wild, particularly the 'beaters' and more common characters.
And so I kicked off my Star Wars Vintage Rescue challenge, a way to expand my limited collection with figures that I find on my trips around the UK - allowing each purchase to also represent a memory of an event I have attended or a store I've visited.
September 2024
September 2024 was the first month of my Star Wars Vintage Rescue, starting at the end of the school holidays and finishing at the NEC Toy Fair.
I went to the NEC in Birmingham with a couple of figures in mind to purchase, namely 8D8 as one of my favourite Star Wars Droids and with Hammerhead front and centre of my thoughts after receiving the Black Series release the day before the event.
I ended up picking up both of these at what worked out more or less £10 each from a dealer - both have a few dings and Hammerhead has a loose neck, but they look great on display.
On the way out of the NEC I spotted a Chief Chirpa complete with hood on a table and marked at £3. I do already have Chirpa but he is hoodless, so this one was picked up to put a more complete Chirpa into my collection. The dealer offered to do two figures for a fiver, so I added Zuckuss (4-LOM) to the purchase and he goes nicely with the recent acquisition of 4-LOM (Zuckuss)
The week prior to the NEC it was the Bolton Toy Fair, which is quite often themed more around Trains and Cars than action figures. The September event was a pleasant surprise with a wider representation of toys - although Vintage Star Wars were a bit limited. I ended up adding some Jabba's goons to the collection with a Gamorrean and a Weequay for £3 each.
On the evening of the event I broke my own rules as I was trawling Vinted and saw a very nice example of 4-LOM (Zuckuss) complete with coat and harness but with a stain on the reverse. Having watched it, the seller offered me a reduced price - rescuing a 4-LOM (Zuckuss) at just £6 plus postage.
The first of my Vintage Rescues came at Bygone Times in Chorley when I found a lonely Ree Yees on a stall for just £3. The seller had him labeled just as 'figure' and everything else on the stall was very much McDonalds Toys and more modern 90s stuff. The day after my son and I went to York Unleashed Comic Con and with this idea of 'rescuing' old Kenner figures in mind I had plenty to choose from - finally settling on bringing home a cape-less Prune face for just £3.
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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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