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| The Star Wars: Escape From Death Star board game, from Kenner in the US and Palitoy in the UK |
Collecting original Star Wars merchandising is the ideal pastime for the wealthy or the crazy. The rest of us may struggle to keep up.
You might imagine that, since I have the effrontery to blog about Star Wars in the 1970s, I would have some kind of merchandising collection worth telling my home insurance company about. But that's not the case.
The thing about Star Wars merchandising is that it became extremely valuable as long as you hadn’t removed it from its packaging and used it for its intended purpose. My records were played endlessly, my books and comics read several times, my posters Blu-Tacked to walls. How were any of us to know that you weren’t supposed to actually enjoy these things?
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| The Story of Star Wars LP |
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| The very cool Han Solo pencil case |
* What was your favourite piece of Star Wars merchandising? Was there something that you coveted but never managed to own? And was there a piece of merchandising that you wore out through constant use, but which you now wish you'd kept in pristine condition? I'd love to read about it. Please leave a comment below.
4 comments:
I played with and played the hell out of my figures and soundtrack album. I removed covers from the comics and tacked them to the wall for their pin-ups [most of the walls were covered in SW]. Now many of the covers are lost.
Over 30 years later I dug out the figures and let my son play with them. My only precaution was to hold back the packaging and the guns. it's been worth more to me to play with them as a kid, and then see my son play with them, than to hope for some great day when I'd retire on the proceeds of their sale.
I would have LOVED the Death Star play centre. And right now? I'd like to have good copies of all of the early comics. UK versions and US, and perhaps the trading cards. Look what I did with mine! A geek's nightmare!
http://starwarsage9.com/index.php/part-i/droids-escape-17
I was extremely lucky that I had a friend whose mother worked in the packing department of Palitoy and landed us free Death Start Playsets, minus the packaging and plastic parts. I already had a shop bought playset so this was essentially an extension to the one I already had. Seeing the Story of Star Wars LP and Escape fro Death Star game brought back many good memories, but I also had an electronic Star Wars dogfight game. I cannot remember the name and the only electronic game I can find online is a Battleship style game, but that wasn't it. The game I had was more like a board game format, with transparent red and green plastic discs representing the X-Wings and TIE fighters. From what I remember, the aim of the game was to make the space under the ship icon light up. It must've been over the Death Star as well. I'm very vague as I am just now remembering this game, but if you can be of any help in rediscovering the name of this game for me, I'd be very grateful!
Many thanks for commenting, Richard. You must have been the envy of your classmates after that Death Star windfall.
That dogfight game: I don't suppose it was either of these?
http://www.finalfrontiertoys.com/starwars/star-wars-boxed-items/star-wars/star-wars-destroy-the-death-star-game-misc-games-misb-afa-90.html
http://www.finalfrontiertoys.com/starwars/star-wars-foreign-toys/sw-palitoy-destroy-the-death-star-game-rarities-mib-c-7-5.html
Let me know if you find it!
Hello all.I too had the Destroy the Death Star game,but I never had the patience to learn the rules.I vividly remember having a poster of the main cast(it was a promo from the same photoshoot they used for the Rolling Stone magazine cover).I seem to recall it having a black background though.I've never been able to find it on ebay or even a photo of it.
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