Disney Star Wars - 1994

Okay back in 1994 the family and I took a trip to Disney World, where, we had to ride the Star Tours ride. Now as most of you know any Disney rides exits into a themed gift shop, we happened to land on Endor and were greeted with all sorts of Star Wars goodness! Back in the early nineties the Star Wars franchise was also getting ready to gear up again with the "He-Man" versions of everyone's favorite Star Warriors, but that was still a few months away. I did find though, and happily purchase, this set (or at least what I believe is a full set) of assorted Star Wars characters form what seems like a sampling of the Star Wars Universe.

These were in separate bins so you could pick out who you wanted, I grabbed one of each (not a hoarder at the time) and selected a few other tokens and made my way to the cashier with the mouse ears to pay. Over time each of these versions of the now over produced characters grew on me for one reason or the other. Mainly it's that charm of a low quality, "knock off" of a toy, but these really are licensed, and it's my understanding that they were not only sold at Disney World, but made their way to the Japanese live show, or vise versa.

So sit back and lets take a look at Star Wars toys from a simpler time, a time of Jedi, Wookies, and Droids! Oh my!



First up is a group shot, and what a more lovely site to see after the Star Wars toy drought. My favorite to this day is the Stormtrooper. He looks like he was ripped straight from a mold of an action figure. Why his head is painted gray is beyond me, but the way they colorize clones now a days, hey why not!



These are obviously based on C3-P0 and R2-D2 as they appeared in Droids. Besides Wicket, these are the only Cartoon based figures in the set. My guess is that whoever produced these was given access to the animated style guides for these characters.



Another one of my favorites, just because of the lack of paint detail and the fact that he is cast in a weird orange - brown color. Very not Chewbacca like, but it could be another Wookie! Hah, well old Chewie is one of the tallest of the group at least, next to Darth Vader. Someone was paying attention.



Next up is the Muppet and the Teddy Bear. Like I said, Wicket is based on the Cartoon version of the character, this time being that classic EWOKS. That show used to give me nightmares, maybe it was telling the future, the future being the prequels. Yoda sort of reminds me of his Vintage Kenner counterpart, a little bigger and chubbier, but the similarities are there. Looks like instead of using a figure to cast him they just used it as a model.



Last, but not least is the only two villains in the assortment, Darth Vader and his loyal Stormtrooper! Doesn't Vader look sort of sad? Maybe not sad, but just introspective. Like he's thinking "How did I get here?" Bet he wishes it wasn't like it turned out in that last jewel called Revenge of the Sith. Vader (or maybe this is Vadar) is again an original sculpt, but I could never figure out why no lightsaber.

The Stormtrooper, what can I say? This one is still my favorite, it feel like the figure, except he doesn't move at all and his paint is awful. I say that in a good way. If he would have came with a sculpted blaster it would have been in the same pose that 99.9% percent of all the vintage Stormtroopers ended up in. The one where they aren't really shooting at anything, but aren't really standing at attention. Still it's a fun figure, for that matter they all are pretty fun, goofy figs to have in a collection. They occupied a self space for many years between my vintage and the "Hulk Galaxy" figures.

Vintage Record Art

I had these kicking around for some time, from my parents record collection, I grabbed these from their garage sale bin because I liked the illustrations. I always thought I would get a couple framed, I think the illustrators among my readership will find these just as awesome as I do.

enjoy!






one of my favs!






A shot of the back cover, I kind of dig the design elements.


two stories for the price of one!


The only one from United Artists, huh?

SOTW: Don Post Stormtrooper Helmet

First, no I'm not a part of the 501st. I often thought it would be cool to have Stormtrooper Armor, but I'm not about to take that dive off the deep end. This is a full Stormtrooper helmet though, from the Don Post Company. Now I could not tell you the exact year this one was produced because it has what looks like the sloppiest copyright statement I have ever seen, you can barley make out "20th Century Fox ©".

Also, you may look at the condition of this bad boy and wonder what war has this thing been through, many my friend, many. This was purchased back in 1994 at Disney World MGM Theme Park, at the Star Tours Ride. We were on a family vacation and I noticed there was a Sci-Fi store in Florida that was selling these helmets, and I had planned to go and pick one up there. See, I remember seeing these advertised in the back of all the Sci-Fi and Horror magazines when I was a kid, and I've always wanted one. At the time this was the best that there was, as in 1994. Well needless to say we didn't make it to the store that was carrying these, but the souvenir shop at the end of the Star Tours ride had them and at a better price. So not only did I make away with the Stormtrooper, but Lord Vader as well. But we couldn't stop there, I told my son to pick out a couple and he grabbed an Ewok and Yoda Mask. So we had quite a collection.



This mask brings back memories of this particular road trip as we were heading home by way of Tennessee and we really had no room for the masks in the trunk, so we all decided (except for the driver) to wear them through most of trip in Tennessee. Cars were honking and laughing, I think a pretty good time was had by all. The mask has been through several other minor battles and light saber duels in the House of Howell along with age, which leads to it's character.

I love the fact that since it is made of vinyl, they couldn't put lenses in the eye holes so it is drilled out in a sort of screen and painted black, that and the communication areas on the ears are just foam. When I bought this the stickers had started to peal then, so Disney was nice enough to give me an extra set of decals (which I still have), when I think back how much trouble it must have been for them to stock extra decals and hand them out when asked without so much as a groan, it is really amazing customer service on their part. I will never get rid of this mask, but I do have my eye on a newer version with lenses, and then there is this ultimate version which I will probably never own because of price, but man it's cool to imagine the possibilities, like looking at all those old magazine ads.