Toys & Collectibles – theLogBook.com

Star Wars action figures

With an incredibly tight lead time (rights were secured some weeks after Star Wars became a box-office hit), General Mills subsidiary Kenner Toys brings the first Star Wars action figures to market. A dozen characters are sold individually, with a colorful mixture of the film’s heroes (Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Ben Kenobi, R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewbacca) and villains (Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Death Squad Commander, Tusken Raider, Jawa). While Kenner brings the figures to market in both the industry-standard 12-inch scale and a smaller, cheaper 3 3/4″ scale, marketing focuses almost entirely on the smaller toys, which then redefine the industry-standard size of boys’ character toys (and make any future vehicles and playsets much more affordable). Ironically, prior to the movie’s release when no one expected Star Wars to take off, 20th Century Fox surrendered all toy and merchandising rights to George Lucas, meaning that the runaway success of the toy range is key to his fortune.

Star Fleet Battles

Task Force Games publishes the tabletop wargame Star Fleet Battles, based on the 1960s TV series Star Trek (though not initially released as a licensed product). The game is created by Allen D. Eldridge & Stephen V. Cole, working under the collective name of the “Amarillo Design Bureau”, and will be reissued and updated in many guises in the years to come, taking in future additions to Star Trek lore from movies and television series yet to be released. Star Fleet Battles will also inspire later computer games such as Interplay’s Star Trek: Starfleet Command.

The Empire Strikes Back – Wave 1

In contrast to 1977, where no toy licensee had a lock on the right to make Star Wars toys until weeks after the movie’s premiere, Kenner rolls out the first toys for The Empire Strikes Back nearly a month ahead of the movie; kids (and their long-suffering parents) make the first wave of figures an immediate sell-out, despite not knowing anything about the movie’s plotline.

Galoob Star Trek: The Next Generation Action Figures – Wave 1

Lewis Galoob Toys releases its first wave of toys from Star Trek: The Next Generation, consisting of six characters (all members of the Enterprise crew) and a die-cast metal miniature starship Enterprise. While there’s an instant interest from Star Trek collectors, Galoob is perhaps a bit premature: the series upon which its toys are based is in the middle of a very uneven first season, and has demonstrated more appeal to older viewers than to the age group that normally buys action figures. A more successful line, geared more toward adult collectors, will surface in the 1990s.

Playmates Star Trek: The Next Generation Action Figures – Wave 1

Completely unrelated to the brief series of toys released by Galoob durign the show’s first season, Playmates Toys begins to release a larger-scale series of action figures based on Star Trek: The Next Generation in late 1992, as the series’ sixth season is launched (and has become a TV favorite). The initial assortment of ten characters, a combination of Enterprise crewmembers and enemies for them to fight, is released, complete with copious accessories to make them popular with kids. But Playmates – whose biggest toy license previously has been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – quickly finds that it has a new hit toy line on its hands, but the buyers are older than anticipated.

Star Trek: The Original Series action figures

Having successfully kicked off a series of action figures and other toys based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Playmates Toys goes into the 1993 Christmas season with a product that sends longtime Trek fans salivating: a box set of the complete Enterprise bridge crew from classic Star Trek, packaged in a cardboard replica of the bridge complete with captain’s chair, in the same scale as the growing lineup of TNG characters. With toys based on the relatively new Deep Space Nine spinoff on the horizon in 1994, it’s suddenly the best time ever to be a Star Trek toy collector.

Dapol Doctor Who action figures, wave 3

Earl E. Daleks Welsh toy company Dapol announces the release of the first wave of new Doctor Who action figures since the late 1980s, this group including the third Doctor, the Master, a Sea Devil, two different Silurians, and four variants on a “Gallifrey High Councillor”.

The Phantom Merchandise Menace

Weeks ahead of the movie’s premiere, stores across America open at midnight as the first merchandise from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace goes on sale, ranging from action figures to the movie’s soundtrack (whose track titles offer major spoilers for the film’s storyline). Heavily featured in advance promotion, any items with the face of Darth Maul sell faster than nearly anything else.

Dapol Doctor Who action figures, wave 4

Sontaran feet Dapol, the makers of Doctor Who action figures, release a fourth wave of 3 3/4″ toys from the long-running series, including two varieties of Sontarans and the calcified Melkur from season 18’s The Keeper of Traken. Though not the last action figure release from Dapol, it will prove to be the last non-Dalek-related wave of Doctor Who figures before the Welsh toymaker loses the Doctor Who license.

Doctor Who Early Daleks Playset

Earl E. Daleks Welsh toy company Dapol announces the release of a box set of “early” Daleks depicted in various 1960s Doctor Who episodes. The set, containing four uniquely modified Dalek action figures, is a limited run of 2,000 units.

Transmat Dalek

Welsh toy company Dapol announces the release of a Doctor Who Transmat Dalek action figure. Essentially the same mold and tooling as with their existing Dalek action figures, these toys are to be molded in clear plastic with a colorful “mutant” inside.

Doctor Who action figures, wave 1

Doctor Who action figures British toymaker Character Options releases the first wave of 5-inch action figures based on characters from the new Doctor Who series, including the ninth and tenth Doctors, Rose and K-9. The figures are identical to those included in Character’s Dalek infrared battle set.

Doctor Who: Voyage Of The Damned set

British toymaker Character Options releases a boxed set of action figures based on characters from the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas episode, Voyage Of The Damned.

Sarah Jane Adventures action figures

British toymaker Character Options releases a wave of three action figure double-packs from the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures. Made in scale with the company’s popular range of Doctor Who toys, the spinoff characters do not sell well enough to justify the manufacture of a second series of figures.

Doctor Who Classic Dalek Set #1

Doctor Who action figures British toymaker Character Options releases a boxed set of action figures based on the Daleks as seen in the classic Doctor Who series, reflecting various Dalek redesigns and color schemes from 1963 through the ’70s.

Doctor Who: The Sontaran Stratagem figure set

British toymaker Character Options releases a boxed set of action figures based on characters from the Doctor Who episodes The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky. These are the first Sontaran action figures since one of the last waves of Dapol action figures in the late 1990s.

Doctor Who Stolen Earth set

British toymaker Character Options releases a boxed set of action figures based on characters from the Doctor Who episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End. This features the first Davros action figure since the earliest waves of Dapol action figures in the late 1980s.

Doctor Who Ages Of Steel action figures

Doctor Who action figures British toymaker Character Options releases a wave of action figures based on various versions of the Cybermen as seen in the classic Doctor Who series, including Cybermen from The Tenth Planet (1966), Tomb Of The Cybermen (1967), The Invasion (1969) and the recently-aired Christmas special The Next Doctor (2008).

2009 Doctor Who Comic-Con exclusives

Doctor Who action figures British toymaker Character Options and American distributor Underground Toys release a wave of exclusive Doctor Who action figures at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. This wave includes the first action figures ever made of the Doctor’s two earliest incarnations, as well as the first Cyberman design not from the current series. Rounding out the wave is the first action figure of any Doctor Who character in a costume specified by the Big Finish audio adventures.

Doctor Who: Eleven Doctors Collectors’ Set

Eleven Doctors Collectors' Set British toymaker Character Options releases the Eleven Doctors Collectors’ Set, a boxed set featuring – for the first time – action figures of all eleven actors to have portrayed Doctor Who. With prices weighing in at around the $100 mark (and often well past that price point), the set is, for the moment, the only means of acquiring the eighth Doctor (as played by Paul McGann) in action figure form.

Doctor Who Silver Nemesis set

Doctor Who action figures British toymaker Character Options releases a double-pack of action figures based on the Cybermen as seen in the classic Doctor Who series story Silver Nemesis (1988).

Doctor Who: The New Dalek Paradigm action figures

Doctor Who action figures British toymaker Character Options releases a wave of five action figures depicting the New Dalek Paradigm introduces in the 2010 season of Doctor Who. These toys reflect the extremely colorful redesign – somewhat controversial in Who fandom – of the Doctor’s arch enemies.

Doctor Who: Vengeance On Varos Set

Vengeance On Varos Set Character Options and Underground Toys release a box set of action figures from the 1985 Doctor Who episode Vengeance On Varos, including the first figure of the sixth Doctor’s companion Peri.