Toys / Toy Collecting

Star Wars Action Figures - Life or Death?

By Randy Herkowitz
April 15, 2008 - 11:44

Just like any other breathing human being growing up in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, I was in love with Star Wars!  My world revolved around it and its plethora of merchandise especially the action figures.  Most of the products sold well up until 1985.  By then, whatever was left on the store shelves were clearance out to make room for the next big thing?

I as well moved on.  However, around 1992 I got bit by the Star Wars bug again and went back and hunted down the original action figures and was fortunate enough to complete the series, Yakface (the rare European exclusive) and all but once I was done, I wanted more. 



Thankfully in 1995 Kenner started up a new line of Star Wars action figures that created quite a stir in the action figure collecting world.  The figures had better sculpts but many were a bit muscular and slightly pre-posed. This however, did not bother me a bit.  I bought every figure I could get my hands on; even the absolutely ridiculous deluxe action figures including, Han Solo with Smuggler Jet Pack and Crowd Control Stormtrooper.

Over the years, these new Star Wars action figures received improved sculpting and added articulation and with the Star Wars prequels Kenner (now Hasbro) has an even larger list of characters and vehicles in their catalog available to produce.



Today, all three prequels have come and gone.  Almost every original trilogy action figure has been made (sometimes a few times over) and a good majority of the characters from the prequels as well, including the dozens of different variations of Clone Troopers.

I lost a lot of interest in completing my Star Wars universe years ago.  It wasn’t because of the lackluster prequels but more so the over saturation of product.  I can’t imagine being the Star Wars action figure completist I once was, especially with so many other cool action figure lines out there.  I still pick up a figure here and there and usually find them to be a vast improvement of what was produced even only five years ago but it is hard to pay close to seven dollars for an action figure when there are so many other toys with far superior play-value for nearly the same price.



Hasbro Toys has the Star Wars license until 2018!  I can’t imagine the amount of products there will be by then!  Hasbro Toys aren’t just making individually carded figures but have also added battle packs containing two to ten figures per pack!  That’s a lot of action figures!  You would think Hasbro Toys would run out of characters to produce but they keep pumping them out.  They seem to have recently put a lot of focus on the Star Wars “Expanded Universe” characters (these are characters from the comic books and novels).  I never particularly got into any of that stuff.  If it wasn’t on the screen, it wasn’t for me.

Now with the new Clone Wars CGI television show soon to hit the air, Hasbro Toys is putting many of their resources to promote their series with action figures compatible with the show.  I can only imagine how many new figures and vehicles that show will bring.



Perhaps, the new Clone Wars television show will be so good it will drag me back in but I highly doubt it.  I had my time with Star Wars and I was able to break free from the addictive total commitment of being a Star Wars completist due to the difficulty of keeping up with the constant release of new products and the price inflation didn’t help either.  Let me tell you, regardless of the negative aspects, like any other addiction, it wasn’t easy to break.

Last Updated: November 30, 2025 - 19:25