Well, Shadows of the Empire sold, so why not? Actually, truth be told, I was more than happy to snatch up as many of the scarce Expanded Universe action figures as I could, while I never even considered the Shadows toys seriously. The Expanded Universe characters originate from the novels and comics that appeared in the early 1990s, and even a couple of figures from the Dark Forces video game.

For some reason, the Expanded Universe toys are extremely hard to come by and fetch quite a price on such places as eBay - despite the fact that Star Wars Insider usually has some combination of the Expanded Universe figures available fairly inexpensively through their catalog.

Though fan interpretations of the appearances of such major characters as Mara Jade and Thrawn may vary widely, it's still an interesting selection of figures. On the other hand, I have to complain about the lack of aged interpretations of such characters as Han and Lando. Perhaps if the New Jedi Order book series takes off (despite an unpromising start), there may be more Expanded Universe characters.

   
   
Expanded Universe figures (1998): Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia (both from Dark Empire), Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Imperial Spacetrooper (from Heir To The Empire), and Darktrooper (from Dark Forces). Not shown: Kyle Katarn, Clone Emperor, Imperial Sentinel.