This weekend was the annual Toy Fair show in New York and there was quite the surprise. Hasbro announced that the mail away later this year would be a remake of the vintage Boba Fett figure. The thing that makes this special though is the fact that it is going to have a rocket firing jet pack.

Now for the history lesson. In the late 70’s Boba Fett was offered as a mail away figure and one of the features he was supposed to have was the rocket firing pack. Before the figure was released, a 4 year old boy, choked and died because of a simular missile on the Battlestar Galactica vehicles. Because of this event, toy laws were changed. Kenner at the time tried a few different style launchers, but it was still deemed unsafe. In the end they removed the rocket firing feature, glued the missile, and when kids received their figure it included an apology letter. They even offered kids a replacement figure if they weren’t happy with the situation.

Several prototypes with the firing launcher did survive and made it to the collector market. They are considered Holy Grail collectors items as they come with roughly a $15k+ price tag and in limited numbers.

The new figure comes with a longer rocket in order to still comply with safety laws, but it is a great nod for the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes back.

Here are pictures of my original mail away version with the apology letter, the slide shown at the Hasbro Presentation, and some official photography for the figure.

Or in this case the Star Wars figures. This has been on my want list for a very long time and I finally got one and a steal of a deal. Here is the story behind this piece. Kenner Toys got the Star Wars license to make the toys roughly a month before the movie was released in theaters. There was no way to get the toys out in time, so they did a few things like puzzles and repackaged a few of their earlier toys and slapped the Star Wars name on them to hold people over. By the Christmas season of 1977 they still did not have any toys ready, so the President of Kenner Toys, Bernie Loomis, decided to sell this “empty box” known as the Early Bird Certificate Package. It was a way to remind people that the toys were coming and it also provided a way for kids to still have something Star Wars under the Christmas tree that year.

For roughly $12 you got a cardboard stage, some detachable cards, and a sheet of stickers. Pretty exciting huh? Now comes the best part though. Also included in the package was a form to mail away for the first 4 Star Wars figures as soon as they were ready and receive them before they were in stores. The kits were sealed up very tight, so it is really hard to find an open one without any damage to the opening flap. This was done to prevent people from being able to steal the form out of the kits in the stores.

According to the Steve Sansweet Book, Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible, 600,000 of the envelopes were sent out to stores and about half of them sold. The rest would have been sent back to Kenner after December. Even though only half of the enevelopes sold, it was still considered to be a successful promotion as it kept the idea of Star Wars toys in the public mind and when the figures were finally released, retailers couldn’t keep them in stock.

Okay so here is where the good deal I got comes into effect. This one showed up on ebay a few days ago with a buy it now of $65.00. An envelope and stand in this condition will normally sell for $160-$200, so without even thinking about it, I clicked the buy it now button. The nice thing is that it also included another playset cardboard display. I should get roughly $30-$50 by flipping it, so when you take that into account, I basically got a vintage early bird envelope for the original 1977, $13 retail price in 2010. The other nice thing is that it came with the mail away form for the mail away display stand in unused form and the original toy booklet. Collectors pay a pretty penny just for these pieces of paperwork. The booklet features pictures of the actors rather than the toys like later booklets. These two pieces of paper weren’t included in the envelope, but with the set of figures when they arrived in the mail. I hope to add the followup figure set sometime in the future.

Below are some pictures of the Kit I bought, the followup figure mailer from another collection, and the original 1977 commercial. Also, here is a link to a video of Steve Sansweet talking about the Early Bird Kit and showing the one in his personal collection.

Here are a few good online resources about this.
Bernie Loomis Remembered on starwars.com
Early Bird Certificate Package on theswca.com
Mail Away Offers: Early Bird Package on theswca.com

Looks like the rumors might be true about two mailaway figures this year. In my email this morning I had a message from Hasbro about this exclusive figure from the Clone Wars cartoon. I’ve already found a seller on ebay that has the forms and UPCs for about $6 which is a lot cheaper than buying 5 figures.

The rumored mailaway offer that will be available this summer is supposed to be Boba Fett. This would go well with the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back and also nods back to the original 1979 mail away Boba Fett promotion. It will be interesting to see if it turns out to be true.

Exclusive STAR WARS Nahdar Vebb Figure.

Yes it is true. Soon you will be able to buy Star Wars shoes from Adidas. I heard about these a month or so ago and pictures have been shown. Now they have a commercial for them too. I have heard they will start at around $80 a pair, so I will pass on them for now unless they get greatly reduced. I think my favorite are the Stormtrooper set shown in the picture. Pictures of all the designs can be viewed here on starwars.com

I had a great Christmas this year and thought I would share some of the great presents I received. To the left is a group shot of most everything. I got a few modern Star Wars figures, a Canon Camera bag to hold my new DSLR camera with plenty of room for flashes and lenses, a Lili Ledy (Mexico) Luke Jedi vintage cardback, Transformers Encore 17 Cassettes, and a Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens for the camera.

Here are some pictures taken from the Takara website that show the cassettes for Soundwave and Blaster. They recently released the 3rd set in Japan and I hope to add those sometime soon to complete the set. One nice little touch is the fact that the marking on the sides were stickers on the originals and on these they are actually painted on. Now there is no chance of them falling off and getting lost.

I also had a very nice surprise this year. Some friends that I have met online grouped together and got me a Secret Santa gift this year. I’ve helped a few international collectors this year by having some items come through me and then mailing them on to them. There are quite a few sellers that will not deal outside of the U.S., so it is a way to help collectors still get what they want. Three collectors went in on this with two being from Australia and the 3rd in Romania. It is a Cardback with the bubble still attached for Luke Jedi from Mexico. The company that brought the figures out in Mexico was called Lili Ledy and all of those items are highly sought after by collectors. I hope to add the actual figure to go with the card some time this year.

The same Romanian friend mentioned above also got me a piece of original artwork. The artist is also a collector and has been doing these character pieces under the name “Attack of the Cute” I’m really impressed with all of the pieces I’ve seen him do and think it makes for a great one of a kind collectible. I can’t wait to get mine framed and up on the wall. You can see more of his art on rebelscum at http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Fanart&Number=2545921 and his official website is http://www.jpc-art.co.cc/

Finally, here are a few pictures that I have taken with the new lens. I’m still learning a few things with it, but am taking the pictures in full manual mode on my camera. It was an excellent Christmas and thanks to everyone for the great gifts.