Star Wars die cast models - In response to the pod cast

It was great to hear the vintage Star Wars die cast models featured on the podcast. I have a little background information if people are interested.

As was the consensus on the podcast, I have never come across Palitoy examples of the Star Wars die cast models in Empire Strikes Back packaging. Palitoy sold the entire Star Wars range in unchanged packaging throughout 1980 except for the action figure X-Wing – unless anyone knows differently? I have never come across Palitoy branded Empire Strikes Back die casts.

The Imperial Cruiser was named as such because "Star Destroyer" was not coined until the Star Wars Sketchbook came along. "Imperial Cruiser" is the name of the ship in the film, novel and the comic.

The X-wing has the markings for Red Three – Biggs Darklighter, just as all the vintage X-Wing products do (except for the original kit). The main reference photograph used by merchandisers seems to have been the one printed in the Art of Star Wars, which is exactly the same size as the kit.

The Landspeeder has Luke at the controls rather than C-3P0, which contradicts the scene where the pair search for R2-D2. It would have been a lot of fun to have had a miniature R2-D2 included!

All the T.I.E variants are piloted by Darth Vader (although he's coloured white in the Bomber!). The small scale of the figure compared to the ships is in line with the original T.I.E Fighter blueprints which show the cockpit window being at least six feet tall. It's interesting that the die cast T.I.E and Vader's T.I.E duplicate the battery box from the action figure toys, although this feature doesn't exist on the movie miniatures.

The miniature Blockader Runner supplied with the Star Destroyer looks very squat because reference photos of the ship from the top and side were not available. The action figure toy prototype was of similar dimensions. Even official diagrams of the ship from the 90's depict the ship as looking very squished together. The photographs unearthed fairly recently reveal the Blockade Runner to be extremely long and elegant compared to all its previous incarnations.

I often wonder what a Return of the Jedi die cast range would have included. The T.I.E Interceptor would have been essential, along with the A and B Wings.

I'll look forward to other lesser-known items being featured on the pod cast!

Craig.

Once again fantastic stuff Craig.

Have you ever seen a Landspeeder on an ESB Card?

Quality post with some top information.

Love reading more information on items we've discussed and learning more and more.

Cheers Craig your posts after the podcast are always a real pleasure to read through.

Good to hear it was worth typing up that information.

I wish that I had seen a Landspeeder on an ESB card, because that would be a sight to behold. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

One thing I forgot to mention was that as a child I was bothered by the Y-Wing die cast having red markings. I couldn't understand how a big error like that had been made. Only later in life did I learn that the Y-Wings were originally going to be Red Squadron in the movie and the X-Wings Blue Squadron. I suppose that Kenner must have been sent photographs of a red striped Y-Wing by mistake.

If Kenner had released a set of four ROTJ die casts, my choice would be A Wing, B Wing, T.I.E Interceptor and Imperial Shuttle.

Craig.

Brilliant as always.

Thanks again craig.

Lets hope you know something staggering about video games for the next podcast.

Cool post. Thanks for giving us all the info

Interesting stuff - never thought about the battery box oddity before. Very odd

Just as a clarification the pilot is actually a snowtrooper in the Tie bomber

That's my dodgy memory at work. Thanks for the clarification.

I found something else of interest based on photographic evidence rather than my grey matter. I seems that Lucasfilm had a squadron of die cast T.I.E Fighters! They were probably used to film "videomatics" - the video films used to mock up the effects sequences. Perhaps though with the pressures of film making, some of the toys were used to depict T.I.E Fighters in the distance.

Craig.

Jus finished reading 'making of ROTJ' it mentions using toys in the film for fat off scenes

It also mentions binning thousands of revenge boxes an packaging but that's another thread