I was six when a Star Destroyer opened Star Wars and changed cinema history.
I’d only seen about two movies at theaters before: One was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The other was Jaws. (I don’t know what my dad was thinking when he took a four-year-old kid to see that. I was terrified of our swimming pool for years.)
So when I sat down to Star Wars and watched the iconic opening, I had no idea that the shot of the Star Destroyer passing overhead was such a groundbreaking achievement in film.
I just assumed that all movies were this awesome.
The Star Destroyer quickly earned a place among my favorite ships. I desperately wanted to recreate that opening chase and daydreamed that Kenner would one day release a toy to go along with the Landspeeder, X-Wing Fighter, and TIE Fighter vehicles they produced.
At this scale, my best friend Robert and I imagined that a Kenner Star Destroyer would be as big as the pool table in my basement. How would we bring one home from K-mart?
Thankfully, Kenner released the Star Destroyer in a scale that could easily be carried home in a bag.
Released in 1979, this die-cast metal Star Destroyer by Kenner was the only toy available of this iconic vehicle—at least, one that represents the entire vehicle. (I loved the Star Destroyer playset released the following year, but it hardly resembled the ship. At. All.)
I can’t remember where I got mine, but I’m guessing it was at Sears. Sears was the place to go back then—remember the Wish Book? And K-mart. This was before the two retail titans merged and died a slow, agonizing death.
Perhaps the coolest feature of this toy is the Tantive IV Blockade Runner, tucked into a docking bay with a plastic sliding door to trap it inside. Hard to believe, but I still have this tiny plastic piece intact after 41 years!
This toy originally came packaged in a boxed blister pack and was named the “Imperial Cruiser.” According to the Sears Wishbook, this cost $5.77 in 1979 money, or about $20 today.
All in all, a pretty cool toy. It’s nowhere as detailed as the model kit by MPC that was available a year later, but this was a sturdy toy with tremendous play value.
Even four decades later, you can still play with it and recreate the opening scene of A New Hope—or, as my kids know it, the closing scene of Rogue One.
The plastic might have faded, but it shows no sign of brittleness.
Did you collect the die-cast vehicles from Kenner? Which ones did you have? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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