Star Wars: Retro Collection OUT NOW at TARGET! (May 12, 2019)


As with most boys growing up in the late 1970s, I loved Star Wars figures!  I didn't have all of them, but I certainly had most of them...at least most of the figures from Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.  But it was the first wave of 12 that really got me excited about the toys!  Well today, May 12, 2019, a re-release of 6 of those first 12 figures arrived at Target.  There was also a 7th Target figure of Grand Moff Tarkin available only with the Escape from the Death Star board game, which was unavailable at the store where these 6 figures were purchased.

These action figures are available exclusively at Target and they retail for $9.99.  From what I've read online, people have been having trouble finding the figures.  A friend of mine happened to be across the street for a Target store out in the middle of nowhere and stopped by to see if they were in stock.  Even at this middle-of-nowhere location, the figures weren't on the shelves.  An employee had to look in the back to find these and apparently, several had been sold even before the figures made it out onto the shelves.  Also, they didn't have the Escape from the Death Star board game, so I wasn't able to get the Grand Moff Tarkin figure yet.  Still, I'm very happy to have found these six!

The packaging has been designed to look almost identical to the original, vintage card backs, but with a few small changes.  For example, these cards were made to look like there is wear on the edges of the.  The "Retro Collection" text over the red circle is a sticker, not actually printed on the cards.  Although there are many differences on the card back from the original Star Wars 12 back cards, these card backs were made to heavily reference the originals.  The card backs for each character are the same, showing paintings of all 6 figures along with some text.

The figures themselves are very cool and look a lot like the original toys.  Han, Luke, Leia, and Vader are different enough that with close inspection, you can distinguish them from the originals. Chewbacca and the Stormtroopers look much closer to the original, vintage figures from 1978.  I've put together a video comparing these Retro Collection figures to the original figures that I had as a kid.  You can check out that video below:


I haven't taken mine off of the cards yet and honestly, I like the packaging so much, I'm not sure that I will take them off the cards.  Overall, I think these are some very cool toys and for just $10 each, they are relatively affordable.  Hopefully this line will sell well and more figures will be released soon!

Also, if you collect toys, you should know about Toylanta, the best toy show in the Southeastern United States held annually in Georgia.  Visit Toylanta.com for more information.


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