Empire Strikes Bossk

Brian of It's Trash Culture gifted me this sweet Bossk that he scored as part of an even bigger Kenner Star Wars score he, well, scored.

SCORE!

Bossk was one of my favorite Star Wars action figures when I was a kid. I also had a Y-Wing that I received for my birthday or Christmas around the same time I got Bossk, and I always used it as his go-to spaceship. The Y-Wing was one sweet vehicle, it even dropped a bomb, which is ridiculously impractical because, you know, they are in space!!

I got rid of all my original Star Wars action figures sometime in the mid eighties (stupid stupid stupid!) and although I've picked many up since then via garage sales, flea markets, trades etc etc, Bossk has for some reason always eluded me. Getting him again brought back a flood of joy and memories! I love him all over again - reunited and it feels so good!

And what's a Bounty Hunter without a Bounty? Bryan also sent along this super articulated Chewbacca who is apparently playing air-bass. Bring da funk, Wookie-o!

Thanks again Brian! You rock!

FX-7 Medical Droid

Can we say 'scraping the bottom of the barrel'?

Listen, I loved Star Wars as a kid. LOVED it. I had tons of action figures, vehicles and playsets.

I still love Star Wars. Even after the knee-capping the prequels gave us, I admit I am as giddy as a school-girl for the upcoming Episode 7. Luke Skywalker with a beard? SQUEE!

But what the hell is this? Seriously? Please, if you were a kid during the OT and you got this RX-7 Medical Droid for a present, or (impossible to believe) pulled this nugget off the shelves and told your mom you wanted it...please comment and enlighten me. Because...WTF?!?!

Trust me, this is an action figure you will never find with 'play wear.' Because how the hell did you play with this thing?

Seriously. I'm no Star Wars wannabe. I know my stuff. I know my OT Star Wars. I know toys. But I had to look up the name of this guy for this post.

I did not know it.

Not only that, but I could not tell you where tyhis end table shows up in the films.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Bacta Tank scene, but that's just a guess based on the fact that he is called a Medical Droid (a fact I needed the internet to enlighten me of). If I didn't know his name, I might think he showed up in the Jawa scenes. Because those scenes were full of junky cobbled together nobody droids.

Regardless: who cares? He's a lamp with a shit-ton of arms. LAME!

Oh damn, his head pops up. I take back everything I said.

4-LoveOfMoney

Legend has it that 4-LOM stands for 'For love of money.' Makes sense, as this droid was one of the bounty hunters sent after Luke Skywalker, Han Solo et al by Darth Vader in one of the most famous scenes in The Empire Strikes Back.

When this action figure was originally released, this former protocol droid was labeled as 'Zuckuss' on the card, and the insectoid alien character we now know as Zuckuss was labeled as 4-LOM. I imagine there are some old-schoolers out there who still refer to these guys by their mislabeled names, much like I still cling to the names Walrus Man and Hammerhead like a grumpy old man with an audio cassette collection.

I did not have 4-LOM as a kid, but always loved the concept of a protocol droid gone wrong. I also always loved the insect-alien head on this guy. Just another level of cool that comes from the designers and builders on the original trilogy, and the forced creativity of not having an unlimited budget and CGI effects back in the good old days of Star Wars movie making.

I found this one at the flea market recently for fifty cents! He's in near perfect condition, and I am pretty excited to finally have him in my collection.

When the Power of the Force line of the 90s/2000s came out with 4-LOM I did grab him at retail. Ironically, this is not that one. I went through a Star Wars purge a few years back and got rid of a ton of SW stuff, including my POTF 4-LOM, but always regretted it. So a couple years ago I found him again mint on card for two bucks at (where else?) the flea market.

Hard to believe I paid four times as much for the newer 4-LOM than for the original! But at least the new guy has his weapons.

The modern version is of course much more detailed, but still has the same 5 POA...wait, I think his waist turns, so the new guy has 6. But the original has so much more charm. Maybe that's just nostalgia talking.

I believe there has been at least one more updated 4-LOM released by Hasbro, with probably eighteen thousand points of articulation or so. Maybe someday I will track that one down too.

Either way it's fun to have these two. Because two 4-LOMs are better than one!

Action Fleet Slave 1

I don't pick up a lot of Star Wars stuff these days, but couldn't pass up this 1996 Action Fleet Slave 1 when I discovered it for sale for fifty cents at a garage sale yesterday. It's going to look great on my desk at work!

Boba Fett was in the cockpit when I spotted it and I would have assumed it complete at that; however I dug a little deeper in the box it was resting in and found a tiny Han in Carbonite - with an actual tiny Han inside! I then discovered the Slave 1 storage hatch could pop open to hold the precious cargo. How cool is that?

The figures are super tiny; I imagine these are easily separated forever from the ship. So getting them all together at once makes this an even better purchase!

Research reveals that this Slave 1 did come with a stand, which I did not get. I'm ok with that. Since Slave 1 landed just like this in the movie, there's no real need for a stand of any kind in my opinion.

I would have been a little peeved had I missed out on Han though!

Boba First

First Boba Fett, meet first Boba Fett.

This is the original Boba Fett (marked 1979) action figure and the concept Boba Fett (marked 2006) action figure. Together again for the first time.

Concept Boba Fett is all white, like the original costume test shots, pre Empire Strikes Back.

Concept Boba Fett came with a flame projectile that attaches to his left wrist as well as a gun that fits into a holster on his right hip.

concept Boba Fett also comes with an extra head that represents one of the early helmet concept drawings, before they settled on the Boba Fett helmet we all know and love today. In addition, Boba Fett is sporting a hidden gun in a panel that flips down from his stomach, which I did not take a picture of because it is a pain to get it to flip down when you don't have long fingernails. My weekly mani-pedi once again gets in the way of my toy shots, but that's the price you pay for Metrosexual beauty. (That was all a joke, by the way.)

And what can be said about the original Boba Fett action figure that hasn't been said a million times? Everyone wanted him, his rocket didn't launch, he was awesome and mysterious yadda yadda.

"Daddy?"