 |
| 'Win the cast of Star Wars': the cover of Star Wars Weekly issue five |
"Win the cast of Star
Wars – great contest inside!"
So ran a strapline on the front of Star Wars Weekly issue 5 in the UK , on March 8 1978. Win the cast of Star Wars? That really
did sound like a hell of a competition.
In fact, the competition was about the arrival of Star Wars action figures in the UK . As discussed in this post, American
manufacturer Kenner
had not been able to get Star Wars action
figures into the shops in time for Christmas 1977. They were not quite in the
shops in the UK ,
either, but they were on the way.
A double page spread in Star
Wars Weekly 5 showed us that the action figures were part of the new range
of Star Wars toys from Palitoy. Some of the toys pictured were already in the
shops; others were promised as coming soon.
 |
| The Palitoy ad for Star Wars toys and games from Star Wars Weekly issue five |
The action figures would be "accurate in every detail –
even down to Obi Wan Kenobi's laser sword", we were told. And as well as those masks, we were promised
the Star Wars Play-Doh modelling set
after Easter.
Further back in the comic, we came to that competition to
"win the cast of Star Wars in
miniature". The prizes were 25 sets
of Palitoy's Star Wars figures, each
set worth £11.88 in the shops. Compare that against average pocket money in the
1970s (I think mine may have been 10p a week; certainly it would not have been
more than 20p) and you get an idea just how steep the prices of the action
figures were.
The average child of 1978 would have been so excited about
all these toys that it would be easy to skip over the comic strips. The film adaptation this week began with this
impressive full-page panel:
 |
| The opening page of the film adaptation in Star Wars Weekly 5 |
This frame is, of course, leading up to the
impressively-drawn destruction of Alderaan, and then to the arrival at the Death Star, which is
depicted in another striking panel taking up a full page:
 |
| The Falcon is drawn into the Death Star in some striking Howard Chaykin/Steve Leialoha art for Star Wars Weekly issue five |
The film adaptation stops as soon as our heroes were aboard
the Death Star, which is pretty frustrating.
After that, we have the by now obligatory downbeat SF reprint – part two
of 'War Toy', which, as mentioned in this post, was clearly never going
anywhere cheerful. And finally, a
departure: 'stave 1' of a sword and sorcery tale called 'The Sword and the
Star' which is so incredibly wordy that I can scarcely imagine a child ever
getting through it. I suspect just about
every reader went straight back to page eighteen and entered that competition. The missing bit of the page in my copy proves
that I did exactly that.
3 comments:
Oh - nothing can describe the excitement of seeing those action figures! Even if they did look a bit - silly. Accurate in every detail? Pah! Yes, like today, Star Wars stuff was ridiculously over-priced and of dubious quality.
But by God - I couldn't wait. but wait I did, until the following Christmas - 9 months later.
Until then, I tried to make my other actioon figures into Star wars ones. Maskatron's white shirt had Han Solo's Waistcoat permanent-black-markered onto it. The Action Man German helmet became Darth Vaders [more marker] and blonde action man who was once named Paul Newman - became a crew-cutted Luke!
The long wait also made me create a cardboard landspeeder, TIE Fighter and X-Wing which brought me innumerable hours of joy!
John
Thanks John. Like you, I was used to Action Man and other 12-inch action figures. (Remember the Lone Ranger and Tonto and their incredibly well produced and articulated horses?) So the Star Wars figures were disappointing to me and I was never especially keen to get hold of them. This shows what an eye I have for an investment.
I would love to see your home-made vehicles and modified Action Men. Do they, or any pictures of them, survive?
I'm not sure what I have. The alterations were minimal. The imagination did the rest Darren.
Oh yes, the Lone Ranger and Tonto toys looked fantastic in those catalogues.
Post a Comment