Like many 'boys' now in their mid-Fifties I grew up with Thunderbirds and the 1969 landing on the Moon. It was our Star Wars.
When Star Wars actually came along in 1977 I was a teenager aged 16 and my old toys were already locked away and the electric guitar ruled the roost.
I imagine being 8 or 9 in 77 was the best age to see Star Wars maybe?
So basically I was too old to have got any Star Wars toys in the Seventies. My own childhood space operas, Thunderbirds and the Moonlanding, although long gone had provided me with all the toys a lad would ever when I needed them as a kid.
It would be decades later in the 1990's before I held any of the Star Wars Kenner action figures. They were loose Darths and Lukes, by now cast-offs at West Yorkshire's Car Boot Sales, nuzzling up against Thundercats' Lion-O and Ghostbusters' Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
How about you readers, when did you first get any Star Wars toys?
My early Star Boot sale haul.
I bought a few figures brand-new in the early eighties, Woodsy. At a charity shop I'd found a necktie in orange with purple blotches, and thought it would make a nice alien-coloured camo cover. So I built a small diorama with trenches in orange soil amidst pebbles painted with purple glass paint (iirc) and got the figures and I think a small walker to populate it. I also recall making a city street scene with some other figures and robots at the time.
ReplyDeleteBest -- Paul
I have approx the same time-line as you Woodsy and missed out on Star Wars culture. Nonetheless, at 21 I took my first uncertain dip into the world of toy collecting, when it was still very very uncool. I purchased a Palitoy Millennium Falcon, Han Solo and Chewie with the understanding that they were for my one year old son... hmm, yeh right ! Ironically, I recently rediscovered the Falcon in the loft, minus the box. I had great pleasure in finally presenting it to my son who is now 30 and a keen toy collector himself.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1978 I found the Denys Fisher Star Wars kits purely by accident when out shopping with my Mum in Boots the Chemist. Strange shop to get them from but they had loads. I can still see them there if I close my eyes. In the UK Denys Fisher reboxed the MPC kits under their own brand. I got the X-Wing and Darth Vader TIE fighter. For toys the first I bought were the Kenner diecast Y-Wing, TIE Fighter and Star Destroyer from the local toy shop . Never been into figures so I just got the ships if I could find them. Wish I still had them.
ReplyDeleteI was eight when Star wars came out and there was no toys available for Christmas that year(instead I got Micronauts,no complaints here)The next Christmas I got several figures and a Landspeeder.I promptly combined them with my aforementioned Micronauts and made a little play- universe all my own!
ReplyDeletehi Woodsy,i was 11 in 1977,but my first star wars toy arrived last year!!!! with star wars command soldiers =) .. it'snever late to mend ...EW
ReplyDeleteIts never too late to mend...wise words EW. Its never too late to get some Star Wars toys, your'e right. I like the idea of Brian's crossover universe. I wonder what a Major Matt Mason / Star Wars mash-up would look like? Would Matt's gizmos and vehicles look out-dated to those of Star Wars? I'll never know because I don't have any toys from either line now, so I will dream! Come to think of it. Project SWORD is a bit Star Warsy!
ReplyDeleteHey Paul, I'm going to let you into a little secret ... I've never seen Star Wars !! Can you believe that ?
ReplyDeleteMister Mystic, that's just ....well, unforgivable and something which must be rectified postehaste. Should you ever cross the airlock of Moonbase you will be inducted into the world of the original trilogy and so your life will begin anew.
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