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!
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