T is for Tiger . . . Electronics.

Having mentioned the conversion I did on a Tiger Electronics Star Wars vehicle earlier today, I thought I'd better show it, and in doing so we might as well look at the small sample in the collection.

These three came in first, all from the 2^nd/5^th movie in a franchise I've lost track of; are we up to No-9 or waiting for No-9? How many altogether, how many are back-story spin-offs, do I care now that it's all new characters?

The two cars/Speeders from the opening scene's 'car chase' came together in a sale - at Woolworths I thing? It was a long time ago now - while Jango Fett's spaceship was a separate purchase, I seem to recall.

The electronics were a simple set of sounds from a slightly raspy speaker, triggered by pressing a button.

This came out a year or two later, and had a handle attached so you could 'fly' it about while making noises, the removal of which I refereed to earlier. It'll need to be filled-in one day, but as you can only see it if you turn it upside down it's not an issue and it looks far better than it did with a handle attached!

Also Tiger and roughly scaled with the other one-man fighters from Galoob's Action Fleet line, it's a nice addition as I don't think we ever got 2/5-movie stuff for Action Fleet after everyone got their fingers burnt with the 1^st/4^th.

A comparison between the Action Fleet Bobba version from Galoob shows up the smallness of the Tiger Electronics one, they were 'header-card' scale! Which makes the speeders perfect for Micro Machines, but leaves Jango's ship needing some muck it its boots. Why they didn't use the Galoob one - when they had previously used the Action Fleet AT-AT for their battery-operated effort - is something to ponder?

N is for Not That Long Ago, in the Galaxy We Share . . .

. . . I scored a couple of Star Wars items, the middle of August to be exact, and having another hanging around, a small post was born . . . phffft . . . that's a different movie!

I think this must be either an unmarked McDonald's type premium (which is unusual; their stuff is usually clearly marked?), or some bootleg market-stall rack toy type thing? I don't remember it being marked anyway, but as it was not working I'd already decided to take it apart for the figure. Is that crown the Burger King logo or the new movie graphics? Kylo Ren?

A light-sabre will cut through anything! The funny thing was it started making Star Wars noises and flashing as I was taking it apart - it clearly had a loose connection somewhere - and for clues to origin I took similar equipment out of those Tiger Electronics spaceships and Speeders when I added them to the Galoob fleet a decade or more ago now?

From the same Charity shop (and the same collection?), I also got the C3PO jiggler, like a bobble-head he is articulated, but at the waist, and he jiggles like a hula-girl at the slightest movement. He's unmarked apart from a single figure '15' on the underside of the base, and while construction seems simple, it is robust, even the push-on base can't then be removed due to a sharp shoulder on the pegs.

Go Berserker! Get him while he's posing for the camera! . . .

. . . the final item in the line-up is the Stormtrooper toothbrush Peter Evans had chucked in the big bags at Plastic Warrior's show! I'm using it, not on my teeth mind; to clean dirty toys!

For some reason it is called 'Firefly' which is also another movie altogether? And is carried by Dr. Fresh in the US and Canada; Grosvenor Consumer Products here. It came with a spinning Power Rangers Biro-topper TV thing!

L is for Landspeeder

According to the predictions of the 1950's we'd have had anti-gravity vehicles by the year 2000, if not the 1980's, yet we are still waiting! And despite various 'mag-lev' train systems (some of them dating back to the 1950's - I think? 1970's?) and the recent announcement of a floating skateboard; there's still not much sign of Landspeeders, or plain-old 'Speeders' any time soon...

 ...luckily George Lucas took care of it in 1977..sort of! On the left of each pair above is the original Kenner toy which although dated 1978, is probably based on pre-production artwork, as it's not exactly accurate.

On the right is the Galoob 'Action Fleet' version, a much better rendition, which although almost the same length is a smaller scale. I'd say the Kenner effort is about 1:48, the Action Fleet model being around 1:56?

A few comparison shots, it's interesting to see Kenner described as a division of General Mills (who went on to buy the rump of Airfix), what might have been huh? And Kenner went on to give Hasbro a run for their money...for a while, only to be swallowed by them!

Quite a traffic jam of Speeders in down-town Coruscant, the plastic Galoob being joined by a later die-cast - technically from the same range - of a Royal Naboo Security Force patrol/staff car (?) and two Tiger Electronics 'Real Sound' models of the opening chase scene's vehicles in the 2/5  movie.

The Naboo machine is scaled more toward the MicroMachine end of the spectrum, and a small part of Kenner's problems was likely the clear failure to control the brand franchise when the three new movies came out. If they hadn't had two similar yet partially incompatible ranges (MicroMachines and Action Fleet), if they hadn't had various sub-contractors and subsidiaries producing bits and bobs (like the solid-window Tiger Electonics car), if they hadn't experimented with die-casts (twice), pre-production prototypes and other nonsense, if, if, if.

If - instead - they'd stuck to one range and expanded it into a gaming system (before Wizards of the Coast did exactly that with a third scale and few vehicles) at toy prices with a broader range of figures and vehicles, the range might still be with us, even though; under Hasbro's name. With the subsequent demise of the Wizards range, we are still waiting for a decent set of small scale Star Wars figures and accessories from the expanded universe!

As a postscript...the 54mm people are also still waiting, as Paul Stadinger was saying the other day; new range of figures in that size is being scaled-back after less than a year! It was the same with Horrible Histories...the manufacturers don't give them a chance, like Spartan babies - if they don't turn an immediate profit, they get the chop!

A is for AT-AT and AT-ST from Galoob, Kenner, Hasbro

I'm not some Klingon learning died-in-the-wool sci-fi fanatic, but I do have a soft spot for the "Increasingly inaccurately named" (to quote Douglas Adams) Star Wars Trilogy, and like most aficionados; The second film (The Empire Strikes Back) with it's set piece arctic battle on the frozen ice-planet 'Hoth'.

The AT-AT is the main mode of transport for the ground troops, a sort of mechanical horse/APC, and here are the three main versions of the 'Action Fleet' AT-AT. On the left is the first issue, then a motorised version (which needs the flattest of surfaces to move an inch!) which was by Tiger Electronics - if memory serves. Finally the re-issue by Hasbro with it's daft snow 'weathering'.

One of the Micro-Machine play-sets by Galoob had this 'dead' AT-AT, I've cut a couple out and given them a bit of work. The one on the left is a work in progress, the one on the right is as good as finished. I had to pare-down the blobs of snow that were all over them, and with the earlier one went on to fill some of the seams on the roof, I wish I hadn't now, but like tanks today, there would be many variants, so; hey ho!

Galoob 'Walker' behind, with the Tombola 'prize-egg' premium in front. Sandwiched between the two is the Pizza-Hut premium.


In the final film (The Return of the Jedi) we met AT-ST's, smaller two-man reconnaissance 'Walkers', and it's likely a few of them would have been operating as a screening force on the flanks of the main snow troop attack. Indeed, I think George Lucas retro-fitted a AT-ST into the re-mastered version of the original Star Wars movie during the huge hype when the new films were announced and various boxed sets of the old films were issued on VHS, just as it became obsolete. Lucas may be a good film maker, but he's far better at getting the pounds out of peoples pockets

In front of the Action Fleet ST, is the standard Micro-Machine version, and the two Micro-Machine AT-AT's to the right. One of the things I hate about these series are the complete inconsistency of scale, adherence to scale or compatibility. It's visually OK to use the wider range of figures in the Micro-Machine range with the Action Fleet vehicles, but for a realistic AT-AT you would have to use the 6" Palitoy/Hasbro Action figure AT-AT for true accuracy, remember the Land Speeders flew among the legs of these things.

Or...You could get the far more accurate Wizards of the Coast AT-AT, but get a credit card first, you'll need it, And that range is for another day!