Action Figure Overview: Star Wars - Bespin Security Guard (Kenner, 1980)

The Empire Strikes Back - Bespin Security Guard (Kenner, 1980)

I loved Kenner's Star Wars figures the minute I first saw them.  A kid in my neighborhood had a handful of these amazing toys on the way to school one day and I thought they were the coolest thing in the world!  I begged my mom to take me to the toy store right away, but had to wait until the weekend and that was an eternity for me at the time.  By the time The Empire Strikes Back action figures were arriving in stores in early 1980, Star Wars figures had become the main toys that I played with and I was very excited about having new figures for the first time in over a year!

The First 10 Empire Strikes Back action figures from Kenner in 1980

The first wave of toys from The Empire Strikes Back included 10 different action figures.  I loved the scenes on the ice planet Hoth, so of the 10 new figures, I wanted the Hoth themed figures the most (Hoth Han Solo, Hoth Rebel Trooper, and Hoth Stormtrooper).  I also wanted the Bespin Luke Skywalker because he looked close enough to Luke when he was on Dagobah training with Yoda AND that's the outfit he wore during his amazing fight with Darth Vader!  The other Bespin themed figures weren't as appealing to me because I wasn't really very excited about Cloud City in general.

Bespin Security Guard: Probably not in Cloud City.

Cloud City was a city located on the planet Bespin.  Well, technically, Cloud City is a floating city located in the atmosphere of the gas planet Bespin.  After watching The Empire Strikes Back, I left the theater with the feeling that Cloud City was a relatively dull place where rich people had dull dinner parties and ate fancy, expensive food that tasted like crap.  We just happened to get a chance to see Cloud City during the one time that anything interesting was going on, but even with Boba Fett around, the only real action we saw was the awesome fight between Luke and Darth Vader...which happened in the parts of Cloud City where typically only the maintenance workers would ever go!  Even when Han Solo faced off with Darth Vader and Boba Fett, Darth Vader just used The Force to take Han's gun away and there wasn't really any action at all.

"We would be honored if you would join us."

As a kid, this left me thinking that the Bespin Security Guards probably didn't have much experience doing anything but standing around while snobby, rich people had dinner parties.  I didn't feel like they were much of a threat to any of my other action figures.  As a result, the Bespin Security Guard action figures weren't very high on my list.  However, I loved Star Wars so much, I still wanted all of the figures, so I picked up a Bespin Guard anyway.

I'm not sure any of my childhood adventures took place in Cloud City.

Although they weren't my favorites, I have nothing against the Bespin Security Guards in general.  They were designed just as well as the other Star Wars figures.  I'm sure that some people love these figures, and that's cool.  It's just a matter of taste, so I wouldn't argue that they are lesser figures.  They're just not as exciting for me as many of the others were.  I'm sure that's partly due to their role in The Empire Strikes Back and party due to their uniforms not resonating with me personally.

The cardback for my 2nd Bespin Security Guard.

I don't know why, but at some point I ended up with a second Bespin Guard.  The second figure had so many differences in the head that it felt like a completely different character to me.  My original Bespin Guard had pink skin while the second one had darker tan skin color.  The first Guard had his eyebrows painted higher on his face making him look like he was always surprised or worried while the second one had his eyebrows lower on his face making him look much more laid back.  Lastly, the original Bespin Guard had a mustache that stopped at the corners of his mouth while the new one had a mustache that continued on down the sides of his mouth.  The new Bespin Guard was obviously a ladies man and probably constantly bragged to the first Guard about all of the girls that he had kissed.  Although neither of these guys ever played prominent roles in my adventures, they did have two distinctly different personalities...before they were inevitably shot.  I've said this before, but it's amazing how these slight differences in two figures (that would have been completely overlooked by an adult at the time) made such a huge difference to me in the way I imagined their personalities!

Subtle differences in the color and paint applications on the face
made these Bespin Security Guards seem like two different characters to me.

A couple of years later in 1982, the third wave of Empire Strikes Back figures was released.  This wave included six figures.  We finally got a Hoth Luke Skywalker!  We were introduced to a new R2-D2 with a blue sensorscope that came out of his dome and a C-3PO with removable limbs so that you could re-create the scene where Chewbacca carried around C-3PO parts in a bag on his back!  There was also a relatively cool AT-AT Commander, a Twin-Pod Cloud Car Pilot who was ok I guess, and another Bespin Security Guard.  This time it was the black Bespin Guard from the movie.  It's surprising that Kenner did a whole new sculpt for this guy.  They could have just given him a new head, but they actually created an entirely new figure who, at a glance, looked pretty much like the last one, but with a new head.  I got all six of the figures, but honestly this new Bespin Guard saw very little action.  G.I. Joe came out in 1982 and my mind was moving away from space adventures and towards military battles.

My three childhood Bespin Security Guards: Left & Center from 1980, Right from 1982

Star Wars figures let me act out all kinds of adventures from my imagination throughout the early years of my childhood and I have fond memories of playing with these wonderful toys wherever I would go.  Even though the Bespin Security Guards weren't among my favorites, they did contribute to those adventures and I'm glad that I had them.

Did you have Star Wars figures as a kid?  If so, who was your favorite figure?  What did you think of the Bespin Guards?  Tell me in the comments below!

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