Spotted Online – Not Everyone Loves the Star Wars Jumbo Vintage Action Figures
In a number of my Star Wars Jumbo Vintage action figure reviews I’ve mentioned how the toys aren’t for everyone, and a recent online search led me to this post at Titans Terrors & Toys where the author writes:
Considering how much these Jumbo figures cost individually, I can’t imagine why anyone–even the most die-hard Star Wars fan–would want one. For figures that size, they are much less detailed and less posable than other Star Wars figures that are on the market now and are available for roughly the same size (if not smaller) and the same price (if not cheaper).
For me, the entire Star Wars Jumbo Vintage series (Amazon.com search*) is fun for a few key reasons:
- Nostalgia, obviously, is important. As upsized versions of the classic Kenner Star Warsaction figures, each and every one of these toys brings back memories.
- Tough! The toys are pretty durable — when Boba Fettfell from the shelf the only damage suffered was when a dog ate his gun — and I don’t have to worry about them breaking; a real concern with many collectibles.
- Fantastic display pieces. As these accumulate on my shelves — I counted 15 in my collection (I need to stop counting) — the entire group looks better and better.
Yeah, these clearly aren’t for everyone. But the toys make me happy and these days I’m loving these a lot more than hyper-articulated, realistically-detailed 12-inch scale Star Wars action figures. Gentle Giant’s got a great line going and I hope they continue to succeed with it.
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- Affiliate Link – Star Wars Red Snaggletooth Jumbo Kenner Action Figure (battlegrip.com)
I think these figures are awesome. Obviously they’re not comparable to modern Star Wars figures, but that’s not the point. The point is to give us giant versions of the vintage Star Wars figures. And in that sense, they’re successful.
The main problem I have with them is the price. $90 for something that’s just a bootleg of a vintage figure is crazy talk. Sure, the production run is small, but the articulation and paint apps are very limited so I’m not sure how they justify that price. Other than the fact that they know that Star Wars fans would pay that much, so why not?
Anyway, keep up the great work on the reviews. I always enjoy seeing these figures in high-res pics.
I’m currently torn on whether to keep the plastic packaging for each of these figures. I currently have around 10 figures which are all out for display. I’m thinking just ditching the plastic and just keeping the backers. Maybe I could figure out a cool way to display those!
@Nathan – In talking with Gentle Giant staff at shows I never once got the impression that costs were based on “Star Wars fans will pay that.” The people working their booth at SDCC always feel like fans; I suspect it’s just really expensive to make and sell toys of this size, especially in such low numbers.
And thanks! More reviews are on the way.
@Jon – I’ve been keeping my packaging in the storage unit. But yeah, those packages take up a ton of room. I’m going to continue to keep the packaging; if I decide in the future to sell these having the package will help a lot. (I love them now, but I can’t say what I’ll thinking of them one, two, or three years from now.)