• I still have my figures from 1977-1982ish some from 83 but then I was becoming a teenager and had to grow up (highly overrated). Still have the Falcon, too, but I would give my right arm for the Death Star back! Ha! Troop transport was gold too, but a battery leaked in mine & ruined it! Tire it apart & would you believe there was a miniature record in their with 6 groove entries to make those sounds!??! Man I'd give my left arm for one of those!!! Haha!

• thats the bugger I had. Cheers for that link. :)

• Weird, never seen that Death Star playset before. Here in the UK I only had the other one that was part of the cardboard set (Jawa vehicle playset etc) and was the top half of the station's dome. Never ever saw a none open belly Tauntaun either, are they real? The advert seems not to mention them either.

• You forgot Darth Vader's Star Destroyer playset. Nothing like recreating the scene where I first saw Darth Vader's scarred baled scalp. And what about that blue plastic that stood in for a hologram of the Emperor!

• The Droid factory is a definite for the list, but what about the Ewok battle wagon? That thing was awesome!

• Yes, it was a TRU exclusive. It contained several reissued figures, an open belly tauntaun.... and tauntaun innards.

• I cut off a droid's third leg once and now I have to register with the cops any time I move to a new state.

• Where's the Droid factory?

• The Star Ward Droid Factory was awesome. It was like Legos for droids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3nHFEPCHTg

• The Chewbacca bandoleer might be simple to explain. It's all Chewbacca wears, and boys, being boys, would most likely wear it in a similar fashion. Which tends to get parents paranoid.

• Reading the commentary about the Death Star playset, it became clear to me that Hollywood has a moral imperative to create a series like The Office but set somewhere in the bowels of the Death Star. Show the daily lives of the grunts and officers that deal with the ins and outs of maintaining and running this moon-sized ship. Perhaps a study of one of the supply depots dealing with the logistics of feeding and supplying that many folks, or... wait for it... THE LAUNDRY!! Just who are these people that do the sheets & towels on the Death Star?

• I actually cut off the droid factory third leg so that it fit in my standard issue R2 action figure.

• Indeed, thus my handle, The Micronerd. They were a little before my time, but I inherited a bunch of 'nauts from my older brother and I thought those were the coolest toys ever.

• THANK YOU!! I knew that thing looked familiar.

• Jabba's Dungeon looks familiar. I had that playset, but I remember owning it LOOOOOONG before ROTJ ever came out. As for the Wampa, they re-released him like twice since the late 90's. The most recent version was a TRU exclusive that came with Luke and a Taun Taun.

• That's not sad at all. I remember going to Toys R Us after seeing Robin Hood in the theater and I was PISSED that they had put my beloved Ewok playsets in new packages and tried to pass them off as something they were not.

• YES! I am grateful to still have mine, though it no longer makes the awesome sound effect. Still looks awesome though...and I love looking through the mini scope.

• Well the ultimate power in the universe in my household called MOM threw out my Death Star after a basement flood and this little rebel was in school. Still miss it to this day. Although I doubt the women in my life would share that sentiment.

• Yeah I sold my Dagobah set 10 years ago on Ebay and the foam on that one disintigrated into some kinda real mush....othwise it was perfect....sigghhhh.....the good old days.

• And I thought I was a nerd....get a load of this guy ^^^^^^^

• The ewoks all died from the death star II's radiation fallout. Let it go man.

• My mom worked at Kenners here in Cinci during the late 70's & early 80's, I had 3 & 4 of just about everything they made but all succumbed to the darkside of the force and died at the hands of a evil child that was suppose to bring balance to the force

• That was a damn fine piece of toy making! The wee chute down to the trash compactor, the awesome illustrations! Good gravy. http://www.landoslocker.com/range_starwars/death_star_palitoy.shtml

• I am shocked at how no-one is talking about TONY JAY being the voice-over guy for that Ewok Village advert!? That man was a vocal beast, he makes that toy look amazing!

• The Ewok Catapult is great! There's no better way to catapult Ewoks.

• Proud to say that I owned the Death Star set, and I do believe my folks still have it in a box in the garage, waiting for me to resemble on a random afternoon. Sadly, the garbage pit monster seems to have escaped, but I know where that green bastard is, so, as soon as I find him, we will have Death Star.

• I just want to shamelessly brag about which of these I still have in my possession: 7) Ewok Village 6) Chewbacca Bandolier Strap 5) Dagobah Action Playset 4) Jabba The Hutt Dungeon (technically, I have the first version, the Droid Factory) 3) Tauntaun (With Open Belly) 2) Bespin World (the Micro line was AWESOME!!!!! Still got the figures, too.) 1) Death Star Space Station Playset (Best. Playset. Ever. This is set up in my living room as the centerpiece of about 150 Stormtroopers an various Imperials. And my wife tolerates this!) It is worth noting that some of the materials used in these toys didn't age very well. All the foam pieces, like the inserts in the bandolier or the swamp part of Dagobah, have decayed away into flaky, sticky nast.

• You should have had the Palitoy UK version of the Death Star at number 1 :) http://www.starwarsvintagetoys.co.uk/vintage-star-wars-palitoy-death-star-playset/

• I, sadly, am one of the nerds who knew that the Ewok Village Playset was reissued as the Sherwood Forest Playset.

• the only big starwars toy i had was the rebel troop carrier spaceship.

• I'm proud to say that I own everything on this list, except the Land of the Jawa playset. Oh, and I own not one, but 2 Ewok Village playsets.

• I've heard rumors, but never seen pictures, of some lucky bastard who bought himself a bunch of Death Star playsets and made a "full circle" out of them. If that man exists, he is my hero.

• I totally agree.

• Kick ass! Thanks for the memories.

• God damn it. Why wasn't I a kid in the early 80s? I had to play with the stupid Power of the Force Special Edition Ronto while kids in the 80s were walking around wearing WOOKIE BANDOLEERS WITH FRIGGIN GONK DROIDS ON THEM. I always knew I was born 10 years too late. :(

• YOU had BESPIN!?!?!?! I LOVED BESPIN!! Never had any of the toys but one broken Millenium Falcon bought at a thrift store and also a plastic hollow Darth head that held some type of game but empty when I bought that at another thrift store...

• Wow, I actually had most of those. =) Still need to dig them all out of my parent's attic, to give to my son. =)

• Interesting, from what I've read the Star Destroyer playset is often maligned by even collectors for some reason. I think it was odd in some aspects, like how it was a soley villain environment where the only "action scenes" were Vader choking officers, taking to the Emperor and ordering "no disintegrations". My brother and I had it but stopped playing with much after a year or so. But looking back, it was a cool set, a lot cooler than a cardboard backdrops that were supposed to be Cloud City or Rebel Base.

• I had stingy parents. I had the Chewbacca bandolier and only like two figures: Red 5 Luke and a non-shooting Boba Fett. Two guys to fit in my bandolier. Later I got two IG-88s and Chief Chirpa, but that was the extent of my SW figures. I didn't even get to see the movies until the late 90s when they were in theaters again.

• I can't be the only person to watch the "Land of the Jawas" clip and think of the FFF starring R2D2, Princess Leia, and Optimus Prime. Beautifully adorned rectum.

• I didn't have the Death Star, Troop Transport, Bandolier or Dagobah set, but I had all the others (and a ton more...holy crap I was a spoiled kid). Actually, I didn't have the Dungeon, I had the far superior Droid Factory, which was the earlier version of the same toy (it was AWESOME). In fact, owing to the fact that I never throw anything away I STILL have most of them. Another one I remember fondly was the Star Destroyer, which was really more playset than vehicle. It had this red plastic thing that flipped down from the ceiling and was supposed to represent a hologram somehow and it also had Vader's meditation pod. Very cool.

• for the record, there was a box set that came out in 2003, I think, that featured not only a tauntaun with a split belly, but also some rubbery guts to dangle out of the wound... no, I am not kidding... I think it was a toys r us exclusive, but I might be wrong on that. great list.. while I still have a lot of my old figures, I miss the dagobah playset

• I had the Ewok village when I was a kid. I have so many fond memories of playing with that set...in the backyard, in the mud. Same goes with the x-wing I had. Sigh...I wonder where they are now?

• I have the Bespin World playset (all three parts) in my office as I type this. Not the same ones I had as a kid - those were lost some years ago. But I picked these up off of Ebay and collector sites a few years back.

• I own a nearly complete set of the Micro Collection: Death Star, Cloud City, Hoth, X-Wing, etc. My best friend owned them and gave them to me as a birthday present when we were little. Even as a kid I knew that they were a) awesome, and b) rare, so I vowed to hold them in trust until he had a son old enough to play with them. His son is one year old this Friday. Just a few more years to go...

• cool, didn't know that. the dagger squadron b-wing is kinda badass

• They've issued a couple of B-Wings. The first used the old mold with a few tweaks. Back in 2008 they released an EU themed B-Wing, redesigned the cockpit and a few other features and called it the Dagger Squadron B-Wing. It's pretty sweet.

• I had a house fire that claimed my 12" Han, Chewie, Luke, and C-3PO as well as my Dagobah, Hoth, and the troop transport listed here. For some reason, my parents kept the melted shell that once was Dagobah out in one of the many outdoor buildings. It was once probably 8" high but now is about 2" high. Great toys, great memories, great list!

• did they ever re-issue the B-Wing? I don't think they did. that was my favorite rebel fighter just because it was so weird.

• But they did recycle the Ewok Village w a few added leaves, and called it Sherwood Forest for the Robin Hood movie. ( http://theswca.com/images-speci/recycle/ )

• The last commercial is totally wrong, Vader would never deign to fire the "laser cannon" (technically Turbo Laser Cannon).

• Yep - the droid factory was true gold. I can't believe they repackaged it and sold it as the dungeon. Or can I...

• Being a former die hard SW collector I had a good guess the Death Star Playset was going to be #1. I never owned one buy my next door neighbor did. I'd borrow that monster and "forget" to return it. I bought a vintage one on ebay a few years back and it's a part of my collection I'll never part with. A quick correction, Hasbro HAS made a split belly TaunTaun. The first first couple of Taun Tauns they made in the late 90's (one for Luke, one for Han) didn't have the feature, but they eventually got around to making one that even included fake Taun Taun guts. I'm too lazy to look up the info on Rebelscum, but trust, it got made Chris.

• It would have to be reinforced to carry beers for Hipsters to pay attention.

• I was aways more of a Lego Star Wars kid, but my grandparents bought me a whole set of the re-released figures round about the time of the special edition re-release. I got the whole main cast AND a Millenium Falcon vehicle playset. My pipe cleaner arms could barely lift the thing, but it was a simply awesome toy to grow up with. I've still got it in the attic somewhere, along with my light-up extendable lightsaber. I also remember the adoration I felt for my Mum two years later, when she found an ultra rare Obi Wan figure. The store assistant saved one for her because he owed her a favour. This talk of Star Wars toys reminds me of a thoery I came up with once: for certain generations of boys, loosing the blaster piece to your Han Solo action figure is a universal rite of passage...

• Prince of Thieves holds a VERY minor, yet still special place in my heart. Loved that movie growing up. Watching it as an adult, it is painful to see Costner and Christian Slater as the only Americans in Sherwood forset, but it's not that bad a film. Alan Rickman in particular as the Sheriff of Nottingham is worth watching it for alone. The bit near the end where he's trying to rape Maid Marion on the chapel floor while Hood is trying to break through the door is priceless. "I Can't...Do this with all that RACKET!" Were we living in a just world, we'd be watching "The Adventures of the Sheriff of Nottingham Part 12: Christmas REVOKED!" in cinemas this very minute.

• Actually, the Tauntaun was remade. It was part of a battle of hoth package and came with the guts and everything.

• Same with the initial version of the stormtrooper blaster that had a foldable stock that actually made the toy LOOK like what was in the movie. Meanwhile, we get about 10 separate recasts all missing the stock. What was wrong with that stock?! I demand to know!!!

• Okay, I have to ask- why is there no more love for playsets? How else are kids going to recreate the Death Star or Jabba's dungeon without those hunks of plastic? :) Seriously- an imagination only goes so far when trying to pretend your bedroom is the Death Star. It helps to have a trash compactor (with foam chunks) scaled to the size of the action figures.

• May help to learn Ancient Greek before you do any of the aforementioned activities. At least learn how to say, "I am the god Apollo. Sex, now." P.S. To save you the trouble, it is (transliterated), "ho theos Apollonon eimi. Mixoifia, nun."

• I had the troop transport and the bespin sets. The Bespin set would fling the little minis through the hinged "broken" glass. It was awesome.

• There was actually an Ewok catapult made for the Power of the Force 2 line in the mid-to-late 90's. It was included with the 1997 Endor Attack playset.

• A friend of mine owned a comic book shop in the mid-90's and had a Death Star Playset (Complete) for about $70-$100, I wanted it but didn't really have the money, now I really wish I found a way to come up with the money. Awesome list, I only had the open belly Tauntaun and 1 piece of the mico-Bespin set (really wanted the complete set). E-bay just isn't the same

• I never owned that but I was jealous of a friend who did. The only one on this list my brother and I had was Yoda's hut which was awesome at the time.

• I had pretty much all of the Ewok stuff (catapult, battle wagon, et al) as vehicles and playsets from the Robin Hood line as well. Weirdly, for all the stuff I had from it, the only two figures I had were...Robin Hood, and...another Robin Hood. Wtf.

• Hasbro/Kenner had a small Dagobah set in the works for the late 90's, but IIRC from seeing the prototype, it was less impressive then the 80's one. Hasbro says playsets don't sell. But their efforts in the past 15 years have mostly stunk or at best been half-arsed. The two small 90's Death Star sets that looked like stage sets at best and in no way connected to each other. Not much better were the underscale Hoth turret and generator, and the also underscaled Endor bunker doorway with a tree stump and a small catapult (taken from Dragonheart toy line, I read). Episode 1 had a few sets, one was really a figure case shaped like R2-D2. ROTS got the Mustafar set...a small volcano with some platforms for two bad-looking Anakin and Obi-Wan figures (included!) to duel on. Then they retooled that into the Indiana Jones Akator Temple set. And they did do cardboard, well, cardstock sets in the late 90's...a cantina and Jabba's throne room. They were okay for display purposes, but overpriced for their time ($15 with an exclusive figure). I think more were planned, but they bombed at retail. Actually this year they are making a Clone attack shuttle that turns into a base of sorts. That's about as close to a playset as they'll get.

• I have the troop transport! I was given it from my great aunt when I was young. Luke's speeder, a few tie fighters, many troopers... awesome.

• I too miss them. I had an uncle who worked for mego as a delivery driver, and had ALL the micronauts. I picked up the US rerelease of Time Traveler when it came out several years ago, and hoped they were going to relaunch the line, but alas no luck.

• I also had the Death Star set and I agree with your assessment. However, the trash compactor was outstanding, what with all the foam garbage and the green one-eyed critter. I got more play out of the compactor than any other part of the set. Come to think of it, I still have the monster kicking around somewhere...

• Wow, I was a spoiled little nerdling. The only things I never had were the ewok toys listed. And I never realized the open belly tauntau =n was NOT the only one available...

• Totally agree!

• Awesome article. The vintage commercials brought back some memories. Even after I left grew out of this stuff, my mom, suffering from empty nest syndrome, continued buying it at garage sales. She dug out all of my star wars crap from the attic and gave them to my 4 year old several years ago. He immediately saig "F@#$ Thomas the Train!, this rocks!" Now I trip over my Millenium Falcon, Jabba playset, Ewok village, Darth Vader collector's cases, Death star remnants, At-At, ect and cuss much like my parents did.

• Yes, yes, absolutely yes! Micronauts are the childhood toy I miss the most.

• I had the Sherwood Forest playset (I was a tad too young to have much in the way of Star Wars toys). I recall being rather frustrated with how poorly the Robin Hood figures fit inside the tree houses and more than a little perplexed by the human-sized cooking spit! Just what were the Merry Men up to!?! Of course it didn't stop me from playing with it like crazy, including with the couple of ewok toys I did have. It all made a lot more sense when I later discovered it was a reissue of the ewok village. That catapult from number 10 also got rereleased as a Robin Hood toy. I played the heck out of that one too. (I loved Robin Hood, but wasn't a big fan of Prince of Thieves. However, since I couldn't exactly get Errol Flynn action figures, I made do with what I could.) Speaking of those Prince of Thieves toys, Kenner really loved to recycle. For years I had wondered why my Robin Hood figures had a letter "G" belt buckle, only to later discover they had reused the body from the Super Powers Green Arrow figure. Given how much more Robin Hoodish Green Arrow looks than Kevin Costner I always found that especially amusing.

• screw you americans and your plastic death star set.we europeans got a HUGE cardboard death star playset that was nearly the right shape(by half)

• I was also disappointed when they didn't list the droid factory. Only in that factory set could you build an R2-D2 with the third leg... ...wait, that didn't sound right.

• And the catapult was the only one I didn't have.

• You forgot the Speeder Bike pistol. For some reason that's never been re-done despite being all sorts of cool!

• Man, does this take me back...The only thing you missed was the Droid Factory--I never owned one, but it was pushed heavily in early '80s comic book ads and looked like a lot of fun. Annoying as the Ewoks were, they had some badass toys: I got the catapault from a Walgreens on clearance in '86 or '87 for maybe $2 and loved it to death, I really wanted the Hang-Glider, but I missed the boat there XD I'm proud to say I owned the majesty that is the Death Star Playset...I bought it at a garage sale in '88 for the princely sum of one dollar, and though it was, naturally, unboxed--not a single piece was missing! Even all the fake foam garbage in the Trash Compactor and the little plastic Dianoga were there (first time I saw what the whole creature was supposed to look like--give Kenner props for attention to detail!). And while the family I purchased it from had managed to keep it intact for almost a decade, a few months with 11 year old me were enough for "The Ultimate Power In The Universe" to end up mostly broken and/or lost :( Sometimes grown-up nerds want to beat the piss out of their younger selves XD

• I can just go buy the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves playset. Its pretty much a rerelease of The Ewok village anyway

• Hell yeah. Micronaut wars! Taking a red projectile to the eye was practically a badge of honor. *sigh* /misses childhood

• WHAT'S WITH THE LOUSY VIDEOS? I JUST WANT TO SEE PICS! ok i'm calm now. sorry for the outburst.

• I had the Death Star playset as a kid. I remember being the envy of my friends mainly because it had a plastic trash compactor monster, so you could see what it looked like. Boggled our little minds!

• There exists an old Christmas video where my cousin, upon unwrapping the Dagobah playset, exclaims "I GOT THE DAGOBAH!" It's an inspired moment in an otherwise unremarkable home video. I, too, "GOT THE DAGOBAH" and, a few years later, the ewok playset as well. Even after ROTJ ran its course, the ewok village lived on as a forest outpost for G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. (though the smaller M.A.S.K. figures didn't fit so well over the spit when it was time for torture). The Degobah saw similar service as a swamp outpost before eventually being shelved in favor of more adolescent pursuits (i.e., surfing the Prodigy bulletin boards with my spiffy new 2400 baud modem).

• Well, it did, but in the guise of that crummy dungeon. They just left out all the droid parts...

• I still have and let my kids play with the Tauntaun and Hoth Wampa.

• nice list. could not agree with it more espically with the chewbacca strap for given all the new figures that thing though some would have to buy a few sets would come in handy. Dagobah Hasbro has stated no plans ever. death start given what they did with the falcone and Hasbro keeps getting asked for new one . can see why its number one. though Hasbro has said they would do a death star if it appears in a new movie or even the clone wars. other wise given its a playset new collectors will be forever denied a death star.

• Lego has defined the Death Star toy. I'm not that huge of a Star Wars fan, but I love the Lego Death Star :D I had most of these as a kid, I know my 5 year old would love to have any of them. Knowing Lucas and Hasbro, if the molds exist, I'm sure we'll see them again at some point.

• What about the droid factory?

• The real issue is that kids wont understand the first 3 films and why they are so good. CGI ruined it.

• I still have a few of these in the closet at my parents' house. Last time I checked in on the Dagobah playset, the foam "quicksand" had dry-rotted and pretty much disappeared. I also remember leaving my cardboard Hoth playset out in the rain a few months after it came out. D'OH! Still have the plastic base, though.

• Plus it talked! Why's that not mentioned. I'm pretty sure my mom got sick of hearing, "There's one! Set for stun!" coming from my bedroom about 200 times a day.

• That just made my day.

• I have the Chewbacca Bandolier Strap... and all the foam parts are slowly turning to dust.

• Micronauts were the coolest action figures EVER.

• No love for the Droid Factory?

• The Troop Transport is solid gold - tons of storage and little hats to mobilize prisoners. What's not to love?

• Agreed. The Droid Factory was the first way you could have an R2 unit with it's third leg extended. It was years after the Droid Factory was no longer around before they added that option to R2.

• Hard to believe the Droid Factory did not even make this list. That was one of the most fun playsets they ever produced. The Death Star is definitely #1, but the Droid Factory should've been #2!

• I really hate to have to be the nerd who does this, but they did eventually make an open belly Tauntaun complete with removable guts: http://www.rebelscum.com/sw03trubattlehoth.asp

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