Kenner cards in UK toy shops.

I'm interested to know what Kenner cards made it onto UK pegs during the vintage years.

I don't remember noticing Kenner cards until well into the ESB era. They were very commonplace here during ROTJ. It's the Kenner cards I associate with the second wave of ROTJ, rather than the Tri-logos which I didn't notice until the last 17 wave. I do remember cards with the Dewback, Cantina on the rear so we did get 20 backs, I think.

So - it's going to be utterly anecdotal - but does anyone with sharp memories remember 21 backs and wonder what the Boba Fett figure is? Any 12 back cards with a display that's only available to residents of the USA?

As per a story told to me by Jim Stevenson in the mid-nineties, he bought a carded collection from a British woman who bought all her figures in the UK. The collection included a Kenner 12-back vinyl Jawa.

Like you, I personally also remember seeing Dewbacks on the back of some SW cards in a Hertford toy shop, and I recall wondering what it was and why I hadn't seen it in the shops! Also, my Boba Fett figure came from Stevenage market and was not a Palitoy card. I don't remember it being Kenner specifically, but I am quite certain that it wasn't Palitoy because the familiar logo was missing and it was too early in the run for a 45B card, plus the stall holder said he had imported them as he simply couldn't source them in the UK at the time and demand was huge for Mr Fett

I wasn't born when the 20 backs came out so no idea.
Interestingly my Dad got me a Meccano 20 back Jawa in the mid 80's, from somewhere in West Cornwall. If I had to guess would say Tesco's but not sure.

I remember the 20/21 backs for the reasons already stated- the dewback and the land of the jawas escape pod. Really wanted those two toys.

Your man was certainly on the ball with his imported Fetts, Snake. I never got one until 1981, having missed the mailaway.

chipsteak said:

Your man was certainly on the ball with his imported Fetts, Snake. I never got one until 1981, having missed the mailaway.

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I imagine he did quite well selling them! It took me a few visits until even he had one I could buy, they sold out so fast. I can't say I'm surprised the Palitoy 30 back Fett is so damned expensive these days. There really can't be very many that weren't ripped open by their eager new owners on the spot back then!

Yeh I don't think I ever waited till I got home to rip open a new MOC, just too excited as a kid

As I have said b4, I rem the Kenner logo better than the Palitoy one simply because my era was late Empire/early Jedi so where Palitoy more of less lost their logo, Kenner kept theirs. So unfortunately I missed the SW era.

I don't recall any Kenner cards at all being sold in Toy & Hobby, Wigan. Then again my memory is poor and don't even remember any POTF cards. I would claim that all the figures I purchased were from Palitoy and Tri Logo card, but I cannot be 100% certain, nor prove it.

They were quite canny about the cards they imported. For example, I don't remember seeing a Survival Kit offer card or a Secret Bossk card.

All utterly anecdotal on my part, of course, and i would never rule anything out since it took until the last year for me to find UK stickered cards with the ESB arena offer which went totally under this kids radar. Which really wasn't like him.

My reason for being interested in this is that my collecting fixation is to be as UK- centric as possible. I've got a keen long term memory, which helps, bit I'm well aware of the condition that is 'false star wars memory syndrome'.

I still have quite a few of my cardbacks left from childhood. Of the 16 I have for ROTJ, 11 of them are kenner

Of my childhood card backs which were purchased, 2 are star wars, which I would have purchased from our local toy shop music and toys about empire time one is a Pali power droid and one is interestingly a kenner sand people.
I have 32 empire of which 11 are pali logo 14 are no pali logo and 7 are kenner. These would have been bought at the same toy shop or another called wings and wheels about the same time. They the kenner, are all 48's and comprise of boba, 3x stormy,1x cloud car and 2 s d commander.
31 jedi cards of which 11 are kenner logo 65 backs and 20 no logo pali mixture 45 and 65's , these would have been purchased mostly at the local market shop straight out the shipping cases can only think they had pali and kenner cases or they were mixed at that stage which I have heard of before. hope this helps chipsteak It was a long time ago but am pretty sure of the above

I have found 2 of my original cardbacks both are ROJ
Luke jedi and Bib fortuna and they are kenner also.
For some unknown reason I cut lumps off lukes card with scissors the things you do that make sense at the time :roll:

That's nothing. I cut the right hand off of all of my bad guys because of what they did to Luke. I still have them... minus the right hands of course

Wow that is bad I'd say you cringe every time you think of that!

Every single time. I basically collected most of the figures back then. I cut the right hand off of all the bad guys, and scored the feet of the good guys with a hot rod to mark them as mine. I basically have a full set of figures that are priceless to me, but utterly worthless to the rest of the world... so yep, every single time

Thanks for the replies. Bosk70, if it's nearby, what type of Kenner was your Sand People? I've got an irrational burning desire to know if we got 21 backs rubbing our faces in the Boba Fett figure a year before we got him.

I used to attack my cards with scissors for absolutely no purpose, much like I did with everything so I've got bugger all except for memories of Telescoping Sabre instructions, Dewbacks, Palitoy address stickers, Bandolier offers and the like.

Hello Chipsteak its a 20 back I'll upload a photo tomorrow and its missing the name which I always cut out for the mail aways.

Thanks Bosk.

Here you go, I defiantly bought this on my 11 or 12 birthday in 1981 or 82 from a local toy shop, as I remember buying about £20 worth with saved up money, think they cost about £1.15 ish each in those days, still have the empire cards that I got with this and the only other sw one the power droid, (palitoy) card. Hope this helps

You can see how enthusiastically I ripped this sucker off to get to the sw goodies inside :lol: