"Laser Pistol" The Eternal Quest

Hi All

Back in the day, my cousins and I became obsessed with owning the "Han Solo Blaster", or "Laser Pistol" to give it the correct name.

This would have been early 80s - and we never ever managed to track one down, even checking all the local toy shops in the Sheffield area every week.

I once saw one in Redgates (the sadly long gone shop in Sheffield) but it was £5 and my parents said I had to wait for Christmas. By the time Christmas came, it was gone I never saw one again.

Years later (mid-90s), I secured a "Star Wars" version for £40, but just wondered how rare these were originally? Were we just unlucky and they could be found everywhere, or were they hard to get hold of?

Also - were they just Kenner, or did Palitoy produce these?

This is what I am talking about:

Well i do have a little soft spot for the laser pistols , with regards to rare i suppose everthing star wars was popular then and with it being kenner maybe even morso? I have never seen or heard of a jedi palitoy pistol ( to date ) but do know Palitoy produced the Star Wars box and the Empire box
versions , one being solo and the other luke .

I remember them kicking about when I first got into SW circa 1980. But as an adult collector I was surprised to see these thing got issued in ROTJ boxes. I think they were thin on the ground in the UK, in my shopping experience anyway.

I have both the Kenner and Palitoy Star Wars ones for Han Solo, but i'm VERY keen to add the Han Solo ESB one. It is more commonly seen as (although still pretty sought after I believe) Luke version. Any leads on a Han ESB one would be very welcome!

There is an ESB Palitoy box with Luke but I've only ever seen one - think it was on here some time ago.

I have only seen Kenner - but not looking that long The one I saw in the 80s was the one with Luke on Dagobah, but no idea if it was Kenner or Palitoy.

SublevelStudios said:

There is an ESB Palitoy box with Luke but I've only ever seen one - think it was on here some time ago.

Click to expand...

might have been mine mate! luke palitoy esb mega hard to find

I have the following han blasters
star wars kenner and palitoy
esb kenner

luke pistol
esb kenner and palitoy
jedi kenner

currymonster6290 said:

SublevelStudios said:

There is an ESB Palitoy box with Luke but I've only ever seen one - think it was on here some time ago.

Click to expand...

might have been mine mate! luke palitoy esb mega hard to find

I have the following han blasters
star wars kenner and palitoy
esb kenner

luke pistol
esb kenner and palitoy
jedi kenner

Click to expand...

Would love to see the Luke ESB Palitoy. Do you have any pics? Thanks

It is an unusual one Palitoy / Kenners releasing of the weapon items does seem quite scattershot. In the US there were several lightsaber types released which never made it to the shops over here - and you would actually think that the lightsabers would be just as big sellers as the laser pistol and laser rifle. There was also the 'utility belt' which only appears to have been sold in Canada.