What figures do you remember being rare in the 1980's

When i was well into collecting vintage figures, the two that i remember being hard to find in the shops where:

1, Gamorrean gaurd
2, IG-88
3, Han Solo hoth

What about you guys ???

I got into vintage a bit later on and the figures I had no luck getting were princess leia organa and stormtrooper.....

Kid down the road from me had a ****ing army of them the joker!

I couldn't find a Luke X-Wing or Biker Scout while I was a kid. I eventually managed to get both in trades in the late 80s, but I'd lost interest by then.

I've read lots of stories about particular figures being hard to find at certain times or in certain places. It's a shame there's no distribution details left to figure out why that happened.

I found it very hard to get a power droid back then in Oadby/Leicestershire, which I think is why I find it one of those unloved figure I like best, & in Hamburg/Germany it was near impossible to find stormtroopers

I can remember Chewbacca being difficult back in the 70's. Funny how that particular card is still highly sort after!!

Beyond that i don;'t really rmemeber any others being difficult. Apart from the last 17, of which I'd only seen 4 as a kid, I never had a B-wing pilot or Han endor. Not sure why, but maybe I'd never seen them?

I remember Yoda was one I could not find for a while.

tiefighterboy said:

I remember Yoda was one I could not find for a while.

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Yep Yoda was a bastard to find for me too pal! Mum finally found one for me on a 45b Palitoy card(not that I cared about the card back all those years ago lol but know bcause I still have the card back)! The thing is all my figures came from my small local toy shops, I was never taken to Hamleys etc to chose from (I'm guessing) a first rate selection of figures!

I don`t really remember any Star Wars being hard to get, but I still have the letter I sent Hasbro complaining I couldnt find Soundwave

I remember several which seemed to be non existant; Yoda, Power Droid, Bespin Guard and Most Cantina guys.

The last 2 figures i bought were actually a Power Droid and Hammerhead for 49p each in my local woolies, i remember feeling well chuffed with myself for finding them, i wasn't sure if any of my mates had a Power Droid.

I think we all had a guy who lived around the corner who got absolutely everything though. At the time my best mate's Dad had connections with a toy company (Now known to be Palitoy). I got a Rebel Transport for Xmas, my mate got the Millennium Falcon and an AT AT. I went over to his house one day to find that he had just been given every last 17 figure. Even at the age of 9 i thought the toy manufacture was taking the mick a little bit with the number of ewoks and non main characters.

I can't really remember seeing any twin/triple packs, Dewbacks, Dagobah playset or the Death Star either.

I remember (vaguely) having to wait for 4 LOM & Zuckuss as the last of my Empire figures. And I know Greedo was the last figure that completed my first 77.

CharlieCharlie I don't think the Dewback made it over the pond?

I don't think it did.

Mind you, I saw the Kenner death star over here!!

The only figure we ever had a problem with was Greedo. Me and my brother found a young kid round our way who had one and it was very quickly swapped for an 'Exploding' ( I use the term very loosely) Laser cannon

Some vehicles and all playsets were new to me when I started collecting again. I was of the tri logo era as a kid, mid to late 80s, so knew most of the figures (I definitely had a POTF R2-D2) but by then they didn't make any playsets and some of the vehicles any more. I remember drooling at Cloud Cars and Probot playsets in the Tomart guide in the early 90s

Had to drag by my Dad round every toy shop in and around Nottingham to find a jawa back in the day.



Jason

Jawa is one of the only first 12 I remember getting. I can remember where I got it, what I did afterwards with it.

The only other ones I have any recollection of are Han, Chewbacca and C3P0

Remember dragging my folks to Hamleys in Brum (before it shut) as they were having a Huge Star Wars Sale... after lots of faffing by my folks we finally got there and I can still recall this little smug twat walking past me with a B-Wing fighter (Being around 8/9 years old this was devastating to see). So I was off, it was chaos and and the shelves were empty except for a single Ben Kenobi - I had never seen one before so grabbed it! Think after a bit of routing around I found Zuckass and IG88 too - which at the time I thought were very rare.

Still have them all too - and in good nick. Though If I do ever see that kid again he's dead. F*cker.

I remember Luke Bespin,Yoda & Jawa being very hard to find when i was a kid & i never saw an ugnaught until i moved to Scotland in 1984! :lol:

I vividly remember buying my ROTJ Ugnaught MOC from a little toyshop at the bottom of Airdrie high street as i passed a John Menzies shop on the way there which had about 20 imperial shuttles piled up on the floor! 8)

I collected/was bought SW figs in the early 80s (past 82) so i remember a lot of non ROTJ figures being hard to find. I remember going from store to store looking for a Fett and/or a Yoda at one point and having no joy. Most jedi figures were in abundance (Bid Fortuna, Gam Guard, Ewoks, Ree-Yees and so on) but things like Ugnaught, DSD, Yoda, Fett, Bossk, IG88 were much more scarce. I think Fett and Yoda because they were, and still are the 2 most popular figures (possibly along with Lukes and R2s but there were always **** loads of those) and things like DSD, Ugnaught etc because they just weren't being manufactured in the same numbers by 1983 & 1984.

Actually, now that i think about it, I never remember seeing a lot of the early figures once ESB and Jedi were around.

I can remember looking on the back of some of the later cards, seeing all the SW characters and thinking that kids wouldn't be able to get them anymore. I guess I must never have seen them around in the later years. In fact when I started collecting as an adult I was quite surprised to see the earlier figures on later cards.

Does anybody have any numbers as to how many vintage sw figures were produced?? It makes you wonder as the years go on, these figures/vehicles will become even harder to collect as numbers dwindle and the original stock will all become rare??