Nerd Rant: Gentle Giant's Jumbo Star Wars Action Figures Jumbo-Size Kenner's Toy Gaffes



Last April, I posted a rant about Gentle Giant's line of Jumbo Vintage Star Wars Action Figures, wondering how this line could keep going when all it is is a series of expensive enlarged action figures--no extra details, no extra points of articulation, nothing.

Then again, what do I know? The line is still running strong, with recent releases including jumbo versions of the Lando Calrissian and Yoda figures from Kenner's Empire Strikes Back line and a jumbo Gamorrean Guard figure from Kenner's Return of the Jedi line. I kept thinking that there has to be something more to what Gentle Giant is doing other than just making small things bigger, and I think I finally figured out what it is. Gentle Giant is not only re-releasing Kenner's original figures on a larger scale, they are also re-releasing every variation that's possible for those figures as well. Read on....

Anyone who grew up with Kenner's line of Star Wars toys like I did knows that there are plenty of goofs and inconsistencies hidden within the products. I still remember being baffled over how some of the Star Wars toys pictured in Kenner's mini-catalogs would look different than what was actually released on the toy store shelves, completely unaware at the time that Kenner was putting pictures of the toys' prototypes in their promotional materials instead of pictures of the finished products. (I still have no idea why they did this--time constraints, perhaps?) Thus, Gentle Giant is taking advantage of Kenner's quirks by reproducing them in a larger, more expensive scale. Here are some examples of which quirks Gentle Giant has jumbo-sized so far:

* Vinyl caped and cloth caped Jawa figures:




* Large-headed and small-headed Han Solo figures:




* Large blue and small red Snaggletooth figures:




Along those lines, Gentle Giant has recently reproduced one of Kenner's most notorious goofs: a Boba Fett action figure with a rocket-launching jet pack. Boba Fett was the first mail order figure that Kenner sold as part of its Star Wars line, and kids everywhere were disappointed to get a figure that didn't have the rocket launching feature that Kenner promised in its mail order ad. Kenner pulled the feature due to safety concerns, but that isn't stopping Gentle Giant--it even includes Kenner's original ad as part of their jumbo figure's card back.




It should also be noted that if nostalgia is enough to get Star Wars toy collectors to pay for over-sized, over-priced replicas of Kenner's goofs, then Gentle Giant is also applying the nostalgia effect to over-sized, over-priced replicas of what was originally very cheap Star Wars merchandise. Case in point: the Cantina Adventure Set, a flimsy, cardboard-only playset that was a Sears exclusive back in the late 70s. The difference is that even though both sets are made out of cardboard, the original Sears set cost $8.77 and came with four action figures while the Gentle Giant version of the set doesn't come with any figures but costs $89.00.




Obviously, there's a market for these kinds of Star Wars collectibles. The only question is: How much is nostalgia worth to you?





Comments

  1. TimFebruary 18, 2014 at 4:36 PM

    The way I see it, anyone who submits negative comments anonymously on a blog he doesn't even have to read sounds like a very butthurt guy to me. In your case, a butthurt guy who doesn't know how to use capital letters or commas, which probably explains much of your butthurtness.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Tron: Uprising (Part 1 of 4): Characters

Image
This month marks the one year anniversary of the cancellation of Tron: Uprising , which aired on Disney XD for 19 episodes. Set between the events of Tron and Tron: Legacy , Uprising chronicled the events shortly after Clu’s rise to power within the stand-alone Grid created by Kevin Flynn. Personally, I think that Tron: Uprising got a raw deal from Disney. It’s a fantastic addition to the Tron saga that went on to win both Emmy and Annie Awards , yet Disney clearly had other priorities and was willing to toss Uprising aside without so much as an official cancellation notice. Even to this day, Uprising has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray and I’m wondering if it ever will. In honor of this amazing animated series that was cut down in its prime, I have decided to do something that Disney won’t. Since there will never be an official Tron: Uprising art book, I have searched across the Internet to find a selection of art from Uprising that I can share here on my blog with
Read more

FOUND: Mechanical Shark from Universal Jaws Theme Park Ride

Image
When the Universal Studios Theme Park in Florida shut down its Jaws ride back in January 2012, Jaws fans everywhere were devastated. Yet even though this part of the Jaws franchise is no longer operational, some of its sharks are swimming around out there … including places such as Frederick, Maryland. A few days ago, I was contacted by a fellow Jaws fan named John Ryan, asking me if I knew anything specific regarding the sharks from the Universal Jaws ride. He was asking because he thought he found one and is trying to verify its authenticity. We spoke on the phone and exchanged a few emails, and here’s what he told me about his find: “I've been collecting Jaws memorabilia for decades and when I found this incredibly rare gem sitting in a backyard in Frederick, Maryland, I wondered about its connection to the state. The current homeowners said the shark was already there when they purchased the property. They also told me it had been the subject of neighborhood rumor for y
Read more

Machine Robo's Magnificent Robot Combiners

Image
I don't collect Transformers merchandise, but I see articles and advertisements about it when I browse through Japanese robot toy sites. From what I can gather, one of the latest product lines for Transformers is called "Combiner Wars" , a line that consists of five or six transforming robot toys that combine into one bigger robot. Combiner robot toys have been around for a long time, and Transformers had quite a few of them even back in the '80s. Yet of the many combiner robot toys I've seen over the years, the ones that have consistently impressed me were the ones released by Bandai under the Machine Robo line. Whereas other robot toy lines are stuck in the novelty of combining smaller toys into a bigger toy, Machine Robo has used the concept of combination to promote creative play. Read on for a review of how Machine Robo has built upon its combiner toys throughout the years.
Read more