1984 Kenner Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Commercial
It’s now 2015, meaning that we’re now thirty years since Kenner started to quietly close down their Star Wars Collection line. Once the most popular toys in the world — Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible* reports that over 42 million action figures were sold in 1978 alone — by the mid-eighties the lack of new Star Wars films took its toll and a generation put the brand to bed.
Which is quite unfortunate, because between 1983 and 1985 the designers at Kenner were completely comfortable with the Star Wars brand. Those later years saw some of the best releases in the line, and the decline in popularity means that some toys (like the Imperial Shuttle show in this commercial) were never produced in high numbers like the 1978-1982 waves.
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This is simply fantastic.
I was lucky enough to have one of these. We were on vacation at my Grandparents in New York state and we went to a shopping mall. A KB had them on clearance and it was such a good price that my parents shipped it back to Wisconsin. I stilll have the beat up box with the shipping label attached to the side. I loved that ship.