2025 Walrus Man (Star Wars Retro)

One thing I always look for from modern toy companies are items that are just good products.  These require a combination of the right price, the right volume and the right innovation.  Often, these toys aren't something I even collect or have any interest in.  But, you can still see the appeal and understand that something is well done, even if it's not for you.  The 3.75" Ghostbusters o-rings are an example.  Maybe not my cup of tea.  But, they are a great product.  The most recent one, though, is the 6 figure Star Wars Retro Pack that is a Target exclusive.  This release is a perfect product.  The figures average out to $10 each.  There are 5 figures in the set that everyone has always wanted in vintage Star Wars format.  And, there are lots of new parts in the set that really add to the vintage aesthetic.  It's the type of thing that really should be a big hit among collectors and casual buyers alike.  

The Star Wars Retro line has been a fun line for me to casually collect.  Originally, it was just straight homages of existing figures with a "new" figure here and there, usually released with an expensive board game.  Then, the line began to tackle characters from Star Wars TV shows and the prequels.  Some of these were great figures.  Others were just forgotten.  The TV show figures, though, proved to be a tough retail sell.  To this day, you can find massive overstock of them at Ollie's stores around the country.  So, Hasbro pivoted away from single carded figures at retail to 6 figure boxed sets that were themed.  This was the purview of the prequel figures and those from the Acolyte.  Eventually, Hasbro got back around to what made the line's name: redos of existing figures.  The Return of the Jedi pack was only available in a box and included 4 classic remakes, a highly desired American release of Yak Face and a brand new Mon Mothma.  The set sold out quickly and tripled in price on the aftermarket.  It's now getting a second production run to fill demand.  

This background lead to the latest Retro product, a 6 figure pack of "Star Wars" figures from the first movie.  The difference, though, is that this set included 5 brand new figures with just a single remake.  It is that remake, though, that drives the focus of this profile.  Walrus Man actually holds quite a few memories for me.  From the original that my Grandmother bought my brother to the anticipation of a real "Ponda Baba" in the mid 1990's, to a super articulated version only sold at Wal Mart in the aftermath of "Rogue One", Walrus Man sparks the nostalgia like few other figures.  

In the spring of 1978, my dad took me to the local Children's Palace.  My youngest brother had just been born and was in the hospital with medical issues.  Relatives came to take care of my younger brother and I.  And, I'd see my parents for maybe a couple of hours per week.  My dad was home on a Saturday, though, and wanted to get me a treat.  We wandered the toy store, looking for something I would enjoy.  Among the multitude of toys, one thing really stood out: a golden robot action figure.  My dad bought it for me and C-3PO became the first Star Wars figure to enter my life.  I hadn't see the Star Wars movie.  But, there was something magical about this toy that just spoke to me.  At some point thereafter, my dad took me to see Star Wars.  And, I was hooked.  On Christmas day of 1978, I had 11 of original 12 figures.  My grandmother decided I needed the final figure: Obi-Wan Kenobi.  We went out shopping on the day after Christmas.  But, we couldn't find a Kenobi anywhere.  Every department store in the mall stocked Star Wars figures that year.  So, we hit several stores with no luck.  My grandmother and mother, though, split from the rest of us to shop for themselves.  At one of the department stores, my grandmother found a single Kenobi, at the back of a peg.  My dad, grandfather and brothers had actually been to that same store and didn't find a Kenobi.  But, that was because my grandmother had just been there and bought the final figure I needed for my early run.

At some point in the first half of 1979, I learned there were new Star Wars figures available.  My mother took me to a small, independent toy store that was near our house.  They had just two, new figures.  They were on a spinning rack on the check out counter.  The figures were the Death Star Droid, given to my younger brother, and Hammerhead, who was the figure I chose.  Hammerhead exploded the Star Wars world even more.  With him, there was a new world of aliens to battle against Han, Luke and Chewie.  They could even fight against Darth Vader and the rest of the bad guys.  On top of that, these new figures introduced bright, new colors to the toys.  Not only were the weird creatures exciting, they used eye-popping colors to drive home their appeal.  

Shortly before the end of my spring pre-school, my friend named Walker brought in a plastic bag full of his Star Wars figures.  Among them were all the newly released aliens.  He also had a Luke in X-Wing pilot gear.  (The timeline is murky, but I remember seeing the Luke X-Wing pilot at the front of a display box that was on sale at a toy store at the Glendale mall.  It might have been before or after Walker brought his loose one to school.)  And, weirdly, a giant, blue Snaggletooth figure that was different from the small, red one I had seen on the cardback of my Hammerhead.  I could not comprehend how cool all these items were.  I never saw Walker again as we went to different schools for kindergarten.  But, I still remember him due to the association with those amazing Star Wars figures.

As we moved into summer, I went to spend a couple of weeks with my grandparents.  Naturally, my grandmother spoiled me rotten.  And, we spent time every day going to various stores where she would fill out my Star Wars collection.  She bought me many figures during this time.  I don't recall which ones, specifically, she bought for me.  But, one day, she did feel that we should get something for my younger brother so he wasn't jealous when I went home with so many new toys.  The figure we chose was Walrus Man.  I don't know why I chose this figure for him.  And, I'm sure I got a new figure that day, too.  I don't remember who it was, though.  But, that Walrus Man called to me.  

The real reason I remember all of this vividly is because of what was next.  I was bugging my grandmother for the figure.  She decided that it would be OK if we just slipped the figure out of the packaging for a little bit and then put him back to give to my brother.  So, she took a butter knife and slit open the bubble so we could remove Walrus Man.  I then got to play with him for a while.  When done, we'd slide him back into his bubble: almost good as new.  This subterfuge implanted the figure into my mind.  When I went home and gave the figure to my brother, my mother was livid.  She was mad that my grandparents had bought me so much stuff.  But, was even madder that the one thing they got for my younger brother had been opened and played with.  My mother and grandmother had a weird and sometimes strained relationship.  Even as a little kid, I recognized this.  Much of it stemmed from the unequal treatment I received in relation to my younger siblings.  Now, my mother does the exact same thing with her grandchildren...favoring some in lieu of others.  

After that, Walrus Man became just another figure in our collection.  In time, we got duplicates.  You'd often find him in the bathtub after someone was playing with him in the water.  But, no other adventures stick out in my mind.  As I outgrew Star Wars figures and focused on G.I. Joe toys, I actually became more of a fan of the Star Wars movie.  One of my dad's friends had taped it off of HBO in the very early '80's.  So, we could watch it whenever we wanted.  I viewed it dozens and maybe even 100 times in the ensuing years.  I memorized the dialogue from the repeat viewings.  And, it became a comfort movie I'd watch whenever I had nothing else to do.  From these showings, I drew a deep appreciation for the characters in the film who never got action figures.  Sandtroopers, Rebel Troops, various cantina aliens and the doomed Rebel pilots all resonated with me and I wondered what it would have been like had those figures been released when I was a kid.

In 1995, Hasbro brought back the Star Wars line.  I was in college.  And, I could justify collecting toys that were really brought back to retail for nostalgic purposes.  The early figures were the same characters that had been part of the vintage line.  But, slowly, Hasbro began to fill out the missing pieces from the original films.  While any Star Wars figures were kind of tough to find until the fall of 1996, I found myself a dedicated collector who spent many summer evenings traipsing through stores in a vain attempt to find a newly stocked case or a forgotten scalper stash under the shelves.  As 1997 dawned, I spent more time looking up Star Wars information online.  Usually, it was in newsgroups.  But, you could find smatterings of info here and there.  Through this, I learned there was a new Walrus Man figure coming that year.  He was now under his "correct" name of Ponda Baba.  And, in addition to his single carded figure, he'd also be in a boxed set with the first Dr. Evazan figure ever released.

I don't know why the idea of a new Walrus Man appealed to me, so.  But, he did.  And, once I heard he was out, I scoured stores until I found one.  The loose figure stood in a prominent place on my desk for over a year.  The Cantina Showdown set with Dr. Evazan, though, proved harder to find.  I found it at a local Wal Mart in 1998.  With it in hand, though, I finally had the pieces of the pivotal Cantina scene in my collection.  The Evazan, though, wasn't a good figure.  And, while it was awesome to finally own all the missing pieces of my childhood, there was still something missing from the toys as the action poses really limited the figures outside of a single pose.

Ponda Baba made one final appearance in my collection.  While "Rogue One" was an amazing movie, it also lead to some pegwarming figures all over the country.  At the time, super articulated figures were sold in smaller, black boxes than the 6" figures.  They were tough to parse through.  And, many stores would stash them on shelves around the toy aisle since they took up a lot of space and, frankly, weren't selling all that well.  As I had been re-bitten by the Star Wars bug, I set out to find any original trilogy figures I could track down.  In 2017, Wal Mart got an exclusive wave of figures that included a re-release of a Ponda Baba mold.  But, my local store was knee deep in unsold figures from later films.  Fortunately, I was able to order the figure online and have him shipped to my local store.  I had to go to the back of the store to pick up the box with my figures inside.  Again, though, there was something about this new Ponda Baba figure that spoke to something inside me.  I have always had a soft spot for cantina figures.  And, once again, I thought it useful to pick up new ones when they were available.  I still have this Ponda Baba figure sitting in a case with a select few, other Star Wars figures.  I have given most of my collection to my sons.  But, this newer, more movie accurate Walrus Man remains among my small retained set of figures.

Back to the vintage figure, though, and this retro representation of him.  Why does this figure have flipper feet?  It's a wholly dumb and illogical leap to add these to the character design.  But, it was also an ingenious bit of toy design on Kenner's part.  They made Walrus Man an underwater monster.  Suddenly, you didn't need a stupid, clear plastic octopus from the Fisher Price Adventure People line to fight divers.  You had Walrus Man.  And, he was way cooler than reality based toy.  The flippers gave him that credibility and made him a good toy.  And, in the end, Star Wars figures exploded not just due to the movie's popularity, but from the fact that they were amazing playthings.  The bright colors made them appealing to kids who hadn't even seen the movie.  This made them a ubiquitous part of any childhood experience for kids of the late '70's and early '80's. 

For a hot minute, it looked like this Retro boxed set might end up as very expensive.  The Target website sold out and it seemed that the sparse allotment sent to brick and mortar stores sold out almost immediately.  Prices on the aftermarket more than doubled.  But, then, more stock appeared on the website.  And, after popping in and out of stock for about a week, the set became readily available.  It's been nearly a month, now, and the set is available to ship tomorrow.  So, that's quelled demand.  Long term?  Who knows?  Hasbro has proven that they're willing to do a second production run to meet pent up demand.  So, that bodes well should this set find good aftermarket life.  Personally, I've found that if I open them up, they'll end up a hot collectible.  And, if I keep them carded, they'll be worth less than retail.  With these figures, though, I don't really care.  The retail price was right and I've gotten my full money's worth of enjoyment out of them already.  These figures scratch a collecting itch I've been ignoring for decades.  And, while it's too late to really collect vintage Star Wars in earnest, sets like this allow me to have a few figures that I always wanted when I was a kid.  So, I hope Hasbro continues to pop a couple of these out every year.

2023 Retro Indiana Jones

In late January or early February of 1984, I was owed one figure by my parents.  It was for good grades.  Such incentives were common.  And, many of my figure acquisitions in the spring and fall of 1984 and 1985 were under similar circumstances.  This particular instance, though, I vividly remember.  We were at the Kohl's store on our side of town.  We went fairly often.  The store had only been open since the summer of 1983.  So, it was still new.  Back then, Kohl's had a toy department that rivaled that of Target or K-Mart.  (We didn't have Wal Marts, yet.)  And, in the latter half of 1983, it had been the go-to store for all the hard to find Joes.  I got my Dragonfly there.  And, the only instances of any of my friends finding Torpedo or Trip-Wire were at the store.  So, I had high hopes of getting a new figure for my collection.

When we arrived at the toy aisle, though, there was nothing but sheer retail devastation.  In the Christmas run up and then the post holiday clearance sales, the toy aisles were nearly bare.  One entire aisle that had been full of Star Wars and G.I. Joe was nothing buy empty pegs.  Sure, in 2023, this is a common sight.  But, 40 years prior, it was unfathomable for a store to sell out of such staple toy lines.  There were, though, just two figures hanging on the pegs.  One was a new 1984 Duke.  Normally, this should have been a source of excitement.  But, I had gotten the mail away Duke just a few weeks prior.  The other figure was a carded Indiana Jones figure.

Indiana Jones was iconic at the time.  Every kid knew about the whip and wit that defined the character.  I had passed on his toys, though, because they had articulation that wasn't really Star Wars but then, later, inferior to G.I. Joe.  I had a weird aesthetic where I needed my figure styles to match.  (This is why I could never get into He-Man or the super hero lines of the day.  I didn't see them as compatible to the figures I already had in my collection.)  I held the figure in my hands for a bit.  But, I was unsure if I wanted to waste my gift on him.  It was still a few months from lawn mowing season when I could start buying all the toys I wanted with my own money.  And, I had a weird hesitation about asking my mom to buy him.  I don't know if was just a fear of her going on about buying another all new toy line.  But, I put the Indiana Jones down and left the store.  A week or two later, I found the 1984 Firefly at a local Zayre store and bought him as my gift.  

So, the original Indiana Jones never entered my collection.  I did, though, get the Indiana Jones in Nazi uniform.  It's weird to think that was a thing in the '80's.  But, it was a cool figure.  The leg articulation was a bit weird, though.  And, it made him difficult to use in vehicles.  But, I used him as a generic good guy (the original green shirt!) until I dropped his bazooka in the grass under our jungle gym and couldn't find it.  Once that happened, the figure went into a box with my forgotten Star Wars collection and was, eventually, sold to the kid next door for a quarter per figure.

There is a new Indiana Jones movie coming out later this year. My kids were too young for the Star Wars revival in theatres. But, I'll be able to take them to see the final Indiana Jones movie. That will be fun.  Of course, there's lots of internet drama about the movie.  The usual forces are, of course, up in arms for a variety of reasons.  One thing I learned when watching the sequel trilogy with my boys, though, is that those were entertaining movies.  Maybe they weren't Order 66 level.  But, I had been waiting for that moment since 1983.  So, we'll go.  We'll enjoy the movie.  And, I'll move on with my life from there.

There is no 3 3/4 Indiana Jones line coming for this new movie aside from this retro line, though. That's probably OK since the 2008 line ended up on massive clearance. And, really, there's not much that could be done to the core characters that were made in 2008 that would update them enough to warrant the inevitable $17 price tag in 2023. You can buy MOC figures from 2008 for less than that.  There are, though, new 6" figures that look great.  So, they are the collectible to come from this final revival.

Sadly, though, the quality on this figure is...lacking.  Like the Haslab figures from earlier this year, Hasbro seems to have only intended these toys for MOC collectors.  From that perspective, the figure is great and checks all the boxes.  Once opened, though, the cut corners become apparent.  The pistol doesn't fit into the side holster very well.  And, the figure can't really hold either the gun or the whip.  The whip's always been a weird design.  But, the small hands struggle mightily to hold onto the whip for any period of time.  While the paint is good, the head is definitely different and looks more like a Kenner Han Solo and the vintage Jones figure.  And, finally, there's huge copyright information written on the figure's back.  It's no only offputting, but just seems unnecessary when the Retro Star Wars figures feature unobtrusive COO markings just like the vintage Kenner product.  But, at best, this figure is going to stand in a display case for decades, never seeing any use.  For that, it suffices.  But, I still find it disheartening that Hasbro now makes retail products that they don't even pretend to be anything other than MOC collectibles for adults.

The retro figures are cool because I can now get a facsimile Indiana Jones figure for $12.  Original figures from the '80's are expensive. And, Indy's pistol was one of the very earliest accessories to be bootlegged. So, ungraded ones will often include reproduction gear.  Mint and complete Indiana Jones figures will run up to $300-$400 these days.  I'm not sure if that's hype before the movie or residuals from the COVID hobby spike.  But, it's a pretty big disparity.  And, for my purposes, this figure is good enough.  I don't need an original as I never had one.  Getting a reasonable facsimile for cheap is the perfect compromise.  

2023 Star Wars Retro Biker Scout

It's that time to once again look at a retro Star Wars figure.  Back in 2020, I looked at an Empire Strikes Back figure.  Three years later, it's time to look at a Return of the Jedi figure.  Or, in other words, it took the same amount of time between the original Luke Bespin in 1980 and the original Biker Scout in 1983 as it did to get the two Retro figures.  Honestly, I had no idea it had been that long.  But, there were a couple Mandalorian waves, Obi Wan Kenobi figures and some Amazon exclusive bounty hunters in there.  But, finally, we have the Return of the Jedi figures.  And, for nostalgic reasons, most of the figures in the 6 figure set are interesting to me.  Naturally, the most interesting in the Luke Jedi.  But, I talked about why that was back in 2016.  So, instead, I'm going to look at this Biker Scout as he was my entry figure into the Return of the Jedi world.

In the spring of 1983, the kid around the block from us invited us over.  And, he promptly showed us his new Biker Scout figure.  It was from the new Star Wars movie and was simply overwhelming.  He looked like an amazingly updated Stormtrooper.  He had the black and white trappings of the empire.  But, he was way more detailed than standard troopers.  And, his pistol was a marvel of design.  It was, at the time, the coolest Star Wars gun that I thought Kenner had ever produced.  Our friend informed us that he found the figures at the local Toys R Us.  So, the following Saturday, I convinced my mom to take us to the store.  There we were greeted by the standard wall of Star Wars figures that now had a few Return of the Jedi figures interspersed among the leftover figures from prior movies.  

I quickly grabbed a Biker Scout for my purchase.  And, my younger brother bought an Emperor's Royal Guard.  I have no idea what other figures they had that day.  But, the pickings had to be slim since I'd have bought a Luke with a new lightsaber if they had it in stock.  I can remember the excitement of find the figure I wanted on the shelf.  Even if I don't really recall looking at the cardback to see what other figures could, possibly, be available on the shelves.  Regardless, for our two first figures from Jedi, the Biker Scout and Royal Guard were pretty good choices.  

I got the figure home and wanted to find a use for him.  The Speeder Bike and this figure are now inseparable.  But, in early 1983, we had not yet seen the bikes that this figure would ride.  I just knew that I had to find him a vehicle.  It turns out that I had removed the seats from the original Tie Fighter and Darth Vader's Tie Fighter.  I had done it in a vain search for lost weapons hidden underneath them.  But, I ended up liking the little pods as vehicles.  So, I put the Biker Scout in Darth Vader's seat and found my Tie Fighter Pilot for the Tie Fighter Seat and the two figures combed the grass underneath our swingset in the yard.  I imagined guns on the front.  And, they, eventually, stunned a Fisher Price motorcycle rider.  That figure was orange and was a close enough approximation for an unnamed Rebel.  This became a recurring theme and the motorcycle rider eventually found himself encased in mud and baked on the hot metal slide as punishment for joining the rebels.

The impression left on me from that day still hangs around, 40 years later.  I can't recall any other Biker Scout adventures.  I'm not even sure if he went with me to my grandparents' house that summer.  But, as the Speeder Bikes came out, we ended up with multiple speeders and multiple Biker Scouts.  But, by the time all of that entered our collection, I had discovered swivel arm battle grip and G.I. Joe was forever relegating Star Wars to forgotten status.

When I first returned to collecting in the mid 1990's, I picked up a complete Biker Scout from somewhere.  Back then, no one who wasn't into the toy scene really cared about old Star Wars figures.  And, I'd get little boxes with a few figures and weapons from various people.  One friend even found another Royal Guard in the engineering lab where some prior student had used the figure for scale on a model machine.  The only person I couldn't crack was one of my room mates.  His father actually worked for Kenner, though not on the Star Wars division.  But, every day, his father would spend his lunch change at the Kenner store.  And, my friend had over 100 of each Imperial trooper at least through Empire.  And, he understood the potential value in his collection.  Knowing what we do now, in 2023, I wonder what treasures he had hidden in there.  But, I'll never know.

While looking over this figure, it isn't a great toy for 1983.  The sculpting and proportions are light years ahead of Star Wars figures from 1977.  But, when you compare this figure to the Joe line of 1983, it is night and day.  Joe had added articulation of swivel arm battle grip.  And, the accessory complement for Joe was ratcheted up from the original offerings in 1982.  Sans the hype of the "final" Star Wars movie, it's doubtful these figures would have been enough to pry me away from Joe as my primary play choice.  But, that hype was real.  And, it was powerful.  And, after tiring of my 1982 Joes, I was full into the Return of the Jedi line.  That interest lasted until July of 1983.  By then, the movie had been released and the story told by my figures was over.  Plus, G.I. Joe figures were blowing the Star Wars offerings away.  So, I pivoted back to G.I. Joe and retain the summer of 1983 as my final time playing with Star Wars figures.

The Return of the Jedi wave is somewhat odd as it is being shipped in solid cases.  There's an upside to this as online dealers can load up on popular figures without being saddled with poor sellers.  At retail, though, it's hit and miss.  My local Target store got a full case of Biker Scouts and Luke Jedis.  These will sell out.  If it was a case of Emperors and Landos, though, a single case of each could block any future cases from coming to your local store.  But, let's face it.  Star Wars collectors are an online, pre-order creature.  The people finding them at retail either already have pre-orders that they may either keep or cancel.  Or, they are casual collectors who don't really follow the line, but will buy something neat if they find it at the store.

The Star Wars Retro figures sold pretty well until the Obi Wan series hit.  Those are still sitting on shelves all over the country despite having the best 5 POA Darth Vader ever made.  Hasbro seems to have gotten their production numbers more accurate since the early waves.  Though, they did overproduce the Mandalorian wave and many of its figures can be had for sale or closeout prices at various online retailers.  But, there's plenty of these figures available from various pre-orders and retail stores.  They run $12.  It's possible that we'll see some clearance sales if these as overproduced as the previous waves.  But, we'll see.  It's doubtful these will take off in value, though.  The Empire Boba Fett had a pretty decent after market for a bit.  But, after an Amazon re-release, they can now be had for around original retail price.  But, really, these figures aren't meant to be valuable collectibles.  They are meant to represent valuable memories from childhood.  They do succeed in that.

2020 Bespin Luke Skywalker - Retro Collection

In 2019, Hasbro shocked the Star Wars community with the announcement of 6 Kenner styled figure releases.  These figures looked like the vintage Kenner designs and had matching cardbacks.  They were a Target exclusive for retail sales that were marketed around Father's Day.  But, were also available to online dealers later in the year.  Initially, collectors were skeptical about them.  All of the tired arguments about having them "devaluing" vintage figures were thrown around.  But, when they were actually released, the retail stores sold out of them quickly and collectors generally loved them.  (Sure, there were gripes about the Retro sticker and the "weathering" of the cardbacks.)  Hasbro decided to follow up that success with 6 additional "Empire Strikes Back" themed figures for 2020.  This time, they are a Wal Mart exclusive.  With a bit of luck, I found the end cap containing the figures.  And, for the first time in 40 years, I acquired a Bespin Luke Skywalker figure.

I've told stories of my grandparents and their spoiling me before.  Of course, my memories of this figure also begin with them in the summer of 1980.  I spent a week or two at their home that year.  And, like always, my grandmother spoiled me rotten with daily trips to the various retail stores in Dayton, Ohio.  During these trips, I found many figures.  Lando stands out to me as I remember opening him beside the bed in my grandparent's room.  I found the Snow Trooper at a Best Store, too.  I'm not sure, though, when I found the Bespin Luke Skywalker.  It may have been with my grandparents.  Or, it may not have been.  My first remaining memory of the figure, though, pertains to another piece of my youth, the next door neighbors who lived by us at the time.

Growing up, our next door neighbors and my family were close.  They had two girls who were both older than I was.  One was three or four years my senior while the other was about 18 months older.  Growing up, we were inseparable.  Each morning, we'd meet up outside and play in one of our yards.  By the time G.I. Joe came out, though, the age difference was starting to show and I have no association of Joe to them other than the day they were playing their new "Purple Rain" album in the front yard when I was stuck inside, sick, with my new Zartan figure.  But, I have two, specific, memories of them with Star Wars figures, and the Luke Bespin figure is involved in both.

The first was in the summer of 1980, when I first owned this figure.  As he was my favorite, I tended to take him everywhere.  I was playing outside with him when the girls came out to ride bikes.  I decided to ride one of their bikes down the sidewalk.  The bike had a basket on the front.  So, I put my complete Luke into it, thinking it safe while I rode.  But, somehow, Luke's saber managed to slide under one of the weaves in the basket.  When I stopped riding, it was gone!  We all walked up and down the sidewalk until we found it.  Relieved that it was once again in my possession, I checked the basket to see how it managed to fit under one of the tight weaves.  There were just a few places where it did.  So, it was an incredible stroke of bad luck for the saber to fall out.  Fortunately, being rather young, I was only allowed to ride my bike a short distance.  So, there wasn't too much sidewalk to search to find the missing weapon.

The second memory occurred at least one year later.  By then, my Luke's lightsaber was long lost.  But, one afternoon, the girls came back from an outing with their parents.  They had each purchased one new Star Wars figure.  This was odd as they had never bought a figure before.  But, they had each chosen one for a present.  One of the figures was the Luke Bespin.  We went out to the sandbox in their backyard and built a huge tunnel system to use with the figures.  I was insanely jealous of their lightsaber as it was my most wanted accessory.  Within a couple of days, though, their interest in the figures faded away.  I asked if I could have their lightsaber.  But, they had lost theirs, too.  They said it might be in the sandbox.  I went out and dug through it a bit, but with no luck.  Over the next few days, I'd hop our back fence and sneak into their yard to dig in the sandbox a bit more.  I never found the saber and the yellow weapon with this 2020 figure is the first lightsaber of that color I've owned in almost 40 years.

I skipped over the first wave of Retro figures.  I thought they were neat.  But, none of the original figures really sparked that nostalgic flow.  While I had all of them growing up, I didn't feel the need to track the figures down.  I figured I might buy them if I saw them.  But, I never saw them.  With this second wave, though, more nostalgia did hit.  Originally, I wanted Boba Fett because...well...Boba Fett and Lando as I associated him with my grandmother.  Seeing this Bespin Luke, though, brought back the memories of my old neighbors.  We were inseparable for years.  But, as we got older, the age difference began to drift us apart.  Before that really asserted itself, though, they moved away in the summer of 1985.  Their parents would show up at our house from time to time when they were in town on business.  But, I only saw my friends once more in the summer of 1989.  There's a picture of that meeting somewhere in my mother's house.  The story doesn't have a happy ending as both girls ultimately found drugs, poverty, homelessness and even prison.  But, the memories of playing as kids is something I haven't often revisited.  This figure has brought back a rush of childhood events that I hadn't had occasion to remember in quite a while.

One of the reasons I wanted to talk about these Star Wars Retro Collection figures was because we've all seen the Wal Mart listings for a "Retro" series of G.I. Joe figures coming later this year.  We don't know if they will be full on reproductions of vintage Joes.  Or, if they'll be anniversary style figures in retro like packaging.  Either way, a large segment of the Joe world will be disappointed.  We know the price point on those is $13...which is more in line with a more modern figure style in vintage packaging like the Star Wars Vintage Collection.  However, vintage Joes would require 18 individual pieces as well as metal rivets and an o-ring to produce a figure.  The labor to construct it would be higher than a 5 points of articulation vintage Star Wars figure.  So, the price point really doesn't give us any clues.  At some level, I'm hopeful for vintage Joes.  But, Hasbro slammed the door shut pretty hard on classic Joe figures in the early 2010's.  Sure, things change.  But, I'd also like the figures to be anniversary style so I don't have to bother with them.  Regardless of which figure style they are, though, I hope that things like the Retro sticker and faux shelf wear are avoided since they are detrimental to the overall visual experience of the product.

As a kid, vintage Star Wars figures were amazing.  Kenner improved their sculpting as the years went on.  And, at the time of his release, this Luke Bespin was about the most amazing action figure you could get.  Gone were the crappy telescoping lightsabers.  This Luke had a saber that could be shared with others and it did not render his right hand unable to hold a blaster.  But, looking back at this figure now, it's a pretty sorry toy.  Star Wars figures were fun because we had nothing better.  G.I. Joe came along and it was better.  In 1983, it was a LOT better.  And, with the advent of Joe, I had no need for Star Wars toys.  One of the great legacies of the Joe line is the trove of knockoffs it inspired.  But, the overall quality of the G.I. Joe line in terms of construction, posability, accessories and vehicles simply overwhelmed all comers...Star Wars included.  One of the reasons that I've never really gone back to the vintage Star Wars line is because they were rendered obsolete by G.I. Joe.  What nostalgia I had for them was appeased in the 1995 and later Star Wars line that offered far better sculpting and, ultimately, super articulation.  This Bespin Luke is antiquated at best.  Seeing him now, I associate this figure with the crappy toys from the 1950's that my Dad would show me from time to time.  I couldn't understand how kids found those appealing.  Action figures have moved so far ahead of original figures that they are now that dated.  I guess that's good.  But, it was a stark revelation to me when I brought this guy home.

These Retro figures will be an interesting collectible as time goes on.  If Hasbro were to continue releasing 6 figures per year, they could milk a decade and a half just remaking the classic Kenner line.  But, I doubt that will happen.  At some point, the line will suffer from a lack of major characters and the vintage nostalgia train will run out.  We don't really know how many of these were made.  Wal Mart's initial stocking was a pre-packaged end cap with 4 to 6 sets of figures included.  There are over 5,000 Wal Mart stores in the US.  So, that's 20,000 - 30,000 of each figure just assuming every Wal Mart gets one end cap.  (They won't, though.)  Target never restocked their 2019 offerings after Father's Day of that year.  But, online vendors did get stock and additional figures showed up in Europe in 2020.  Wal Mart's online orders haven't shipped yet, either.  So, it's likely we'll see these again in some form...whether additional Wal Mart stockings on standard retail shelves, online or as part of some other release in the future.

In the pandemic where few people are shopping, my local Wal Mart sold out of these in less than 2 days.  (And, it's a Wal Mart where collectibles often hang around for a while.)  So, there's huge demand for these figures. For me, key releases will be must buys...provided I don't have to jump through hoops to get them.  I'd love a Luke Jedi or even an Amanaman.  But, I'm past my days of having great in interest in vintage Star Wars figures.  Figures like this Luke Bespin that have associated memories are great.  (I'd probably have tracked down an Obi Wan Kenobi had it been part of Wave 1 for this reason.)  But, vintage Star Wars figures are still easy to find.  Even carded figures collect dust at every collectible shop in town.  But, few mint and complete figures can be had with a cardback for $10.  So, the Retro figures maintain that appeal.  For me, this is a fun product that hearkens back to childhood and the time of the original releases.  So, it's worth it.  Within a few weeks, we'll know more about the retro G.I. Joes and will see if they spark the fire.