In the Box: Wicket the Ewok and Princess Leia (Kenner's Return of the Jedi)

Princess Leia & Wicket the Ewok

A sort post today, but something I still wanted to share.  As it turns out, those die-cast vehicles were not the only still-carded Star Wars toys that my mother somehow managed to find.  She also gave me this pair of figures from  Return of the Jedi: Princess Leia and Wicket (or as the boxes say, "Princess Leia Organa in Combat Poncho" and "Wicket W. Warrick").

As with the vehicles, these still have their original clearance prices ($2.00, reduced from $3.88, which was reduced from $4.69).  Adding to the vintage fun, they're also from a now-closed chain, although it's K-mart this time (K-Mart still exists in the US, but they went out of business in Canada 20 years ago).

The back of the box.

Wicket up-close and personal

As with the vehicles, I'm going to try to find a way to keep these protected but also on display - maybe in a shadow box?  I'm still working on that part...

Random Toy of the Day: Grumpy Bear (Kenner's Posable Care Bears)

Grumpy Bear.

It's raining, so what better day to introduce Grumpy Bear, the Care Bear with the thundercloud  belly?

As with all of these figures he has five points of articulation and a forelock of rooted hair.  I tend to class them as action figures, but suppose they could just as easily be called anthro dolls.

Even though this blue bear here has joined me for all of my relocation adventures, I don't have any particular nostalgia for the Care Bears line as a whole, I'm just a general fan for the negative characters in the perky lines, I suppose.

While I might not have been a huge fan of the line as a child, my sister was, and I found evidence that my mother went a little overboard at a few neighbourhood yard sales and the Samco sale (a warehouse toy sale that was held in Toronto every November - it closed down in the mid-1990s, I believe), because I just discovered a bin of Care Bears and playsets in my mother's basement.  I haven't had the opportunity to go through them yet, but I'm hoping to go identify and photograph them soon.

Out of the Box: Star Wars - The Power of the Force Luke & Coin

In the box.

One of the fun things about moving frequently is that unpacking is a little like opening presents while one of the less than fun things is that it's easy for things to get misplaced.  Clearing out my guest room closet this past weekend (which had become a bit of a dumping ground for things that should have gone into storage), I found an example of both of these things.

I have no memory of buying this "The Power of the Force" Luke Skywalker in Endor Gear with Display Coin, and yet here he is. In fact, he's apparently an old enough release that it's entirely possible that he's made every move with me since leaving my mother's house (I suspect that was a gift from some of my old school friends, since they had a habit of buying me Star Wars toys).

The coin.

Luke Skywalker.

In any case, I decided to keep and unbox him.  He's a standard Kenner figure, but the base and coin give him enough presence that it feels like he'd be easier to display than most figures of this size.  I have a decent number of figures in this size range that I've never found a satisfying way to display, but the stand really does make this one feel substantial enough to sit on a shelf on its own.

Return of the Jedi-style Luke on the stand, with a coin