These vintage Kenner Star Wars toys captured our imaginations and let us relive “Return of the Jedi” long after the original trilogy ended.
The original Star Wars trilogy started when I was a first-grader and came to define my childhood.
I collected all the toys. I bought every book I could find—even coloring books. I wanted anything I could get my hands on to let me relive the adventures of Luke Skywalker and the rebels.
Then, The Empire Strikes Back came out and blew my nine-year-old mind. There were more thrilling stories to follow? More new worlds to dive into? More questions about my favorite characters—questions with answers I’d have to wait a grueling three years for?
A Major Life Event—to a 12-Year-Old
By the time Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) was released on May 25, 1983, it was more than just a sequel to my favorite movie series.
It was the grand finale, the end of an era spanning all of my elementary school years.
I was 12 years old and about to enter seventh grade. The third Star Wars movie marked the conclusion of an adventure I had been following for half of my life, so the thought of there being no more Star Wars adventures to follow after ROTJ made its premiere bittersweet.
So, to capture this major life event, I went out and bought every Kenner toy that I could afford on my allowance. Here are 10 toys from Return of the Jedi that my friends and I absolutely loved—and still do.
10. Sy Snootles and the Max Rebo Band
Before the 1997 Special Edition replaced it with the cartoonish and terrible Jedi Rocks, the Max Rebo Band performed a song called Lapti Nek.
The original band had just three members: vocalist Sy Snootles, Max Rebo on keys, and Droopy McCool on winds.
No Joh Yowza. No Rappertunie. No taiko-drumming skiff guards.
Just the original three, available as a set from Kenner back in 1984. The set included two microphones, an alien keyboard, and a space clarinet. I got mine at the old Best store on 183rd St. in Cerritos for $12.
9. Desert Sail Skiff Mini-Rig
How could a kid in 1983 relive the movie’s set-piece at the Sarlaac pit when there wouldn’t be a Tatooine Skiff toy made for another two years?
This Desert Sail Skiff Mini-Rig by Kenner was the only option, but it was a good one. It looked like something you’d actually see patrolling Jabba’s palace and even had a retractable plank to feed prisoners to the Sarlaac.
Other action features include swiveling cannons and fins, and a sail that can be raised or lowered to shield delicate skiff guards from the harsh twin suns of Tatooine.
8. TIE Interceptor
Bats were my favorite animal as a preschooler, probably because of Batman. This might be why I loved the look of TIE fighters and was particularly enraptured by the TIE Interceptor—with folded, angular, bat-wing-like solar panels, this ship’s profile evokes the Batman logo.
At least to me.
Kenner released this toy in 1984, using the same body from the electronic TIE Fighter toy from 1978. It has the same electronic lights and sounds, the same pull-out cockpit seat, the same hatch on top, and the same “battle damage” feature to pop off the solar panels, which are the only primary difference.
7. Rancor Monster
I got this Rancor Monster at Toys R Us in 1984. It’s still a terrific toy and my favorite version of the Rancor (Not a big fan of the soft plastic version made by Hasbro 20 years later.)
The Rancor has articulated legs and spring-loaded arms that snap back into place to crush its victims with a deadly embrace. Its claws swivel at the wrist, so you can pose it scooping up its next meal or clawing at escaping prey.
But the coolest feature might be the snapping jaws, activated by a button on its spine. I’ve pressed this button many times to make the Rancor chew its food thoroughly.
6. Ewok Village
Back in 1983, we didn’t know what new toys were coming up. We had no internet to keep us posted— just an occasional printed insert showing what other toys were available and maybe a preview or two on a cardback.
So when I walked into a Target in Lakewood, CA, and saw an Ewok Village sitting on the returns counter, I did a double-take. Really? There was, in existence, a toy to recreate the Battle of Endor?
I asked the clerk if it was for sale and it was, for $17.99 (that’s about $46 in 2020).
Packed with features
There’s an elevator, a spit on which to hang Han Solo and roast him over a fire, a boulder to slam into AT-ST walkers, a tree with an escape hatch, a litter to seat C-3PO on his throne, and a net to trap a hungry Chewbacca. There’s also a drum for Ewoks to beat for the Ewok Celebration Song.
Ah, the Ewok Celebration… Yet another song from the original release replaced by an inferior version for the Special Edition.
5. Tatooine Skiff
After feeding figures to a Sarlaac from the Desert Sail Skiff Mini-Rig for two years, I finally found a Tatooine Skiff toy on the shelf at Toys R Us in 1985. It was a cool toy that I’d wanted for years, so I bought it, not knowing that it would become the holy grail of vintage Star Wars toys.
Being a kid, I tore open the box, took the toy out, and played with it, oblivious to the fact that had I kept it in the box, I could have sold this for around $1,650 in the late 1990s.
I still have this toy and it’s intact. There’s a lever to retract the plank and drop Luke into the Sarlaac pit, another lever to operate the landing gears/stands, a rack to store skiff guard pikes and rifles, and rear fins that turn.
The toy was re-released by Hasbro in 2000, using almost identical tooling. The main difference is that the footpegs were resized from the larger vintage figure size to the smaller size fitting Power of the Force figures.
4. B-Wing Fighter
Pictures alone don’t do this toy justice because it’s loaded with action features.
A gyroscopic cockpit that stays upright no matter how you turn the ship. Electronic sounds. Wings that open into attack formation when you turn one of the jet exhausts on the back. A switch to deploy the landing gear.
This was the perfect ship to chase down TIE Interceptors with.
3. Jabba the Hutt
Remember Jabba’s introduction in 1983? No one had ever seen him before—Jabba was just a name uttered by Han Solo whenever he talked about having a bounty on his head.
The name Jabba evoked mystery and danger. So when they finally showed his face on the big screen in Episode VI, it was quite the reveal: a giant slug filling the frame, his mouth a violent gash across his mountainous head, smoking a pipe and eating a live frog. (This big reveal was ruined by introducing Jabba in the Special Edition of Episode IV.)
Jabba the Hutt Playset
This toy captured Jabba the Hutt in all his corpulent glory. Turn his head and his tail sways back and forth. Articulated arms allowed Jabba to hold his pipe to his mouth or smack C-3PO off his dais, which is covered with a grate that opens up to lock prisoners up in the most disgusting spot in the universe—directly beneath Jabba.
The pipe bowl cover was removable, so you could fill the bowl with whatever you wanted. I took an old frog-shaped fishing lure, cut off the hook, and placed it in there with some slime.
This playset also included Salacious Crumb and a collar on a string “chain” that Leia could use to strangle the Hutt.
One cool detail is that Jabba’s eyes are covered with clear plastic to create a glossy sheen, and the pupils are set far enough back from his eyelids to create the effect of Jabba’s eyes following you no matter which angle you viewed them from.
Not creepy at all.
2. Imperial Shuttle
Along with the TIE Interceptor and the B-Wing fighter, the elegant Imperial Shuttle gave the space scenes in ROTJ a distinct visual flavor.
I really wanted this iconic vehicle, but at $40 in 1984—that’s roughly $100 in 2020 dollars—it was way beyond my price range.
You Won’t Believe How Much I Paid for This
By 1985, I had gotten into GI Joe and started spending my money on that line instead of Star Wars, but on a toy run to hunt for the ’85 wave of Joes at Toys R Us, I saw the Imperial Shuttle in its huge box, sitting on a shelf, with a clearance price sticker on it. It was going for $14.97!
I couldn’t believe my luck. Took the Imperial Shuttle home that day and still have it, intact, with no missing or broken pieces.
The cockpit opens to seat two figures. There’s an interior cabin for passengers and an extendable ramp for them to board or exit the vehicle. A trigger on the forward landing gear releases the wings from their upright position.
This is an awesome toy with tremendous play value. As Ferris Bueller once said, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”
1. Speeder Bike
Return of the Jedi had so many great set pieces to reenact with toys, but the blistering speeder bike chase on Endor was the signature scene of Episode VI for me. (For Episode IV, it was the Cantina encounter, and for Episode V, it was the Battle of Hoth.)
The Biker Scout was my favorite from the first wave of ROTJ figures and I couldn’t wait to get the Speeder Bike toy by Kenner.
One day, in 1983, I was walking past a Kay-Bee Toys store at the Los Cerritos Center when I finally saw one in the window. It cost $10.99 then, or about $28 in 2020 dollars—kind of steep for a 12-year-old on an allowance, but I really really wanted one and happened to have enough in my wallet. So I bought one, and the cashier seemed almost happy for me.
Great Toy, Except for One Thing
The toy had a swiveling cannon, a battle-damage feature where you could blow the speeder into pieces at the push of a button, and rear flaps that opened and closed, based on the position of the landing gears, which doubled as the foot pedals.
The foot pedals are the only sore spot with this toy. Because Star Wars figures only had five points of articulation, they couldn’t bend their knees. Therefore, the Biker Scout sat on the Speeder Bike with legs splayed out in front, like a toddler playing with blocks on the floor.
This bugged me for a while when I was a kid, but it’s now part of the charm of this toy from my childhood. In 2016, Hasbro released a larger, 1/6th scale version of the Kenner Biker Scout on Speeder Bike. It’s almost an exact replica, minus action features.
And get this—the large version cost $10.99 in 2016, which would have been around $4.50 in 1983.
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