Strange Star Wars Collecting: April 2011

Apr 28, 2011

OUTER SPACE LASER GUN

Here's the Deluxe Edition Outer Space Laser Gun, a gun toy that features a few familiar images on the box.

When my family and I were traveling on vacation, we came across a shop that was selling mostly wilderness/ native American themed stuff. Luckily I found this gem there.

On the front we see a Jango Fett picture that continues onto the bottom of the box. I recognize this picture from the Star Wars Bounty Hunter video game box art.

Also on the bottom, there's this: three boxes with one of them checked. This is the blue laser gun, but there's also a red one and a green one.

On the inside of the box, where the gun is aimed, there's a Stormtrooper and above him is an X-Wing. The Stormie is taken from the Star Wars Battlefront video game box art, but the picture's been reversed.

There's another X-Wing on the left side of the box, as you can see in the image below.

On the other side, the right side, there's a Clone Trooper, the Revenge of the Sith era kind. This one can be found on the Star Wars Battlefront II video game box.

Above the clone is a random spaceship that I don't recognize as being from Star Wars. Maybe it's from the Expanded Universe or Star Trek or something.

There's some more graphics on the back, so let's check that out.

There's two more random spaceships here, too.

In the top right corner of the box's back is a logo of some sort. Perhaps for the manufacturers, or maybe it was put there just to make the toy look all fancy. It says "FEIZUAN TOYS" or "FEI ZUAN TOYS", it's difficult to tell. I did some research (that usually means a bunch of Google searches) and I found a Fei Zuan Toys Industrial Co., but I'm not sure if they're the makers of this toy or not.

This is a battery operated toy that uses three AA batteries. As the photo of the toy on the back of the box shows, the lights in the clear plastic sphere light up and spin while the tip of the gun flashes. There's also laser sounds, of course. All this happens with the pull of a trigger, and if your aim is any better than Greedo's, maybe you'll take out a spice smuggler or two. The gun is the same toy (although with a new color scheme and a slightly different handle) as the Space Gun.

I've seen this toy in an all black color scheme called something like the "Special FX Laser". I didn't see any Star Wars relation to it, though.

Apr 27, 2011

LIGHT SWORD

I got this light up sword toy at a Dollar Tree dollar store in April 2011.

The words "LIGHT SWORD" and "LIGHT & SOUND" are written in the Star Wars font. That, to me, makes it so much more interesting than just a plain 'ol plastic sword that lights up. What would make it gold would be Star Wars images, real or knock-off ones. But this is all that Dollar Tree had, so too bad.

Below is a picture of the card's back. The skull appears to have "lightsaber" silhouettes beneath it.

The Light Sword was distributed by Greenbrier International, Inc. and was made in China.

The toy's suppose to make sounds, but I'd rather not remove the pull tab, so I won't be able to say what those sounds are. Tell ya what, though, if the tab ever falls out accidently and the batteries still work, I'll report back!

DARTH VADER GROTESQUE (GARGOYLE)

I went to the Washington National Cathedral while sight seeing in Washing, D.C., and in the gift shop I found this pack of postcards.

Is that Gargoyle Darth Vader or is it just wearing his helmet? It's Vader, alright.

The back of the Vader postcard from the pack (below) explains partly what happened.

Christopher Vader, er, I mean Rader (boy, I bet he got that a lot) came up with the idea of the Vader gargoyle for a children's design competition that was held in the 1980's. It was sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter and then carved by Patrick J. Plunkett, and I'd say they did a mighty fine job. Here's a picture of the normal sized Darth Vader postcard. The photo on the postcard was taken by Hal Conroy and has the copyright date 1999. There's also a mini card attached to it, though that may be just so the buyer can keep a photo of it even after sending the postcard away.

While I was there, I searched for the gargoyle, or "grotesque" as I hear them called. I never found it, but I enjoyed all the cool ones I did see. The inside of the Washington National Cathedral is really amazing looking, too. I gotta admit, though, seeing Vader's face in stone would've been cool, too, but I hear he's pretty difficult to see, even if you find his location. At nationalcathedral.org, they give you directions to find the Sith Lord: "First, bring binoculars! Darth Vader is very difficult to see by the naked eye. Leave the building through the ramp entrance at the northwest corner of the nave, through the double wooden doors of Lincoln Bay. Go down the ramp, and step into the parking lot. Then, turn around and look back up at the tower closest to you. Near the top of the tower is a gablet, or small peaked roof, located between the two huge louvered arches. At the bottom of each slope of this gablet is a carved grotesque. Darth Vader is on the north, or right-hand, side. There is a carved skull situated on a gablet much closer to the ground that many people often mistake for Darth Vader. From this skull, Darth Vader is up and to the left." I wish I had these directions when I went!

KFYK ROBOTS BOOK WITH YODA

Here's an innocent looking book written by Clive Gifford and first published in 2003 by Kingfisher Publications. It's called Robots, and it's about robots.

I was flipping through it when I found this creepy looking robot-troll-thing. apparently it's Yoda from Return of the Jedi...?!? That must've been him after he died!

The text to the right of him (as you can see in the photo above) says, "This animatronic model of Yoda is from the movie Return of the Jedi from the Star Wars series. Its many electric motors allow it to make realistic movements." And all this time I thought it was Frank Oz! Seriously, though, that five fingered, long armed freak is not Yoda, don't be fooled. Yoda's a short 'n' stubby puppet, not a robot.

In all the legal text at the very beginning of the book it says that they've tried their hardest to get permission and all of that for the photos, and they supply a list of the sources, sort of. This includes "Return of the Jedi Lucasfilm". Well, that'd be great for this book... if Yoda was a robot!

After seeing the Yoda impostor, it makes me skeptical about any of the other facts in the book. What else did they mess up on...? Really, though, I'm sure these kinds of mistakes are made all the time. Oh, by the way, here's a great photo of Darth Vader from Revenge of the Sith!

MAGIC: THE GATHERING CARD

I found this card from the Magic: the Gathering card game. The card's labeled "Ana Disciple". The name Ana kinda reminds me of Anakin. That wouldn't be enough to make me post this on the site, though, it's the picture, too...

The guy on the card has the Jedi braid with the short, sticking out hair cut. Not only that, but they're using Sith lightning attack, too!

I'm not familiar with the Magic card series, so I don't know if the cards commonly have Star Wars homages (or rip offs) or if this card is unique in that aspect. The card was illustrated by Darrell Riche.

I've read that Riche has been involved in at least one Star Wars project, so he's got an official SW connection, too.

Apr 23, 2011

MEXICAN/SA BOOTLEG FIGURES

The Mexican/SA (semi-articulated) bootleg figures were, for the most part, based off of the vintage Star Wars figures and in some cases the Power of the Force 2 figures. This line of cheaply painted bootlegs made its debut in the 80's and continued into the 90's, though it's possible that the series carried on to the late 90's. Some even claim production continued into the new millennium.

Here's Klaatu in his palace outfit.

Below's a good shot of his head. Nice fangs, Klaatu!

These aren't very posable, even less so than vintage Star Wars figures. Klaatu only has posable arms at the shoulders.

Next up is the Emperor's Royal Guard. It's a little harder to mess up on his appearance because he's almost all red. The thing is, the bootleggers didn't give the guard his cloak/ dress thing, so he definitely looks different.

Snowtrooper. You can read all about him in his own post elsewhere on Strange Star Wars Collecting.

Chewbacca. He's not articulated, so he's stuck in a roaring, intimidating pose.

Mini Jabba with moving arms.

This toy makes me laugh!

The Mexican/SA figures were packaged in multiple ways. Some came in three packs bagged with a small Power of the Force 2 (POTF2) card with a yellow border.