Early Bird figures - the chosen four

If this has been covered before then I apologise.

I know the Early Bird was not released in the UK, but why did Kenner chose the four figures they did. I find it an odd choice, they are all Rebels, no baddies in the pack at all.

I understand Luke and to an extent R2 being the pack but Leia and Chewie, why those two :?

Surely a better combination would have been Luke, R2, Vader and Stormtrooper. That would have been my choice anyway.

What do others think?

Interesting question, to which I'm sure there is a definitive answer,

My shot at it......

image by Michael j s1, on Flickr

The early bird envelope sent out prior to the figures pictured the central 4 characters, so maybe it was just that? A marketing link up,

Production run...these were the first figures produced?

But why? Don't know

Be interesting to hear some views

Excellent question. My thinking is these were a good mix you've got the hero, a droid and a creature. Also the early bird idea might have been an after thought to the process of manufactureing, so they might have had no choice. I mean the people who came up with the idea said look these are going to be massive we need to start selling some. So they got on the phone to the right people and said which four caracters can you have x amout off by this date and Luke, Leia, Chewie and R2 was their answer.

Just a theory, probably completely wrong.

I think that both Vader and Han were meant to have lesser roles in the movie. Biggs was a much bigger character and some of his scenes went to Han in the later script revisions. Not sure if this explains anything but it may help if Kenner were working with concept ideas.

I've wondered this too.

One theory for at least 3 of them that I have is that it was to get you to want to go to the store and get the other figures. You have Luke, so you obviously need Vader for a duel. You have Chewbacca, so you also need to go and buy Han to go with him, and then R2-D2 you have to get C-3PO. Maybe with Leia there's the connection that she sought out Obi-Wan for help, so you'd need him too.

On the other hand it very well could have been that they were the first figures available. I know in some documentaries it was also mentioned that they didn't expect Vader to be so popular with kids as he turned out to be, so it could have just been Kenner wanted to give a nice "hero" set in the beginning as they thought it'd help sell more early bird sets for Christmas.

monsters, robots, ships and guns... those were the things kids wanted. Not people.

Im not 100% sure but a lot of the adverts focused on Luke then a lot of aliens, ships, stormies etc. 'People' figures were synonymous with girls toys as they were the ones grounded in 'reality' (Barbie, Cindy) rather than boys who went off round the universe in a starship.

Some good theorys, I'm not sure there was as much reason to it as that. Why didn't they make Moff Tarkin, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Imperial spy etc?? There were a lot of strange decisions. They prob just wanted two young heros and two weird characters? Who knows.

Wasn't it just because those were the only ones ready to be produced at that time? It was already a mad rush to get anything in the stores, so perhaps they were the only ones at an advanced enough stage to get the certificates issued with a guarentee that they'd be ready for shipping.

Some were really late weren't they? Tusken, Jawa, SDC? Not that you'd want to put any of those out in the EB group.

Robstyley said:

Some good theorys, I'm not sure there was as much reason to it as that. Why didn't they make Moff Tarkin, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Imperial spy etc?? There were a lot of strange decisions. They prob just wanted two young heros and two weird characters? Who knows.

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They wanted a mix of characters including our protagonists and lesser known background characters. I think that's why we have the likes of Snaggletooth and Death Star Droid instead of Dr Evazan or the Beru family.

Well Luke and Leia are part of the original SW logo so maybe that is part of the reason :idea: R2 and Chewie have no idea :roll:

Probably a coincidence, but those four figures were everywhere in staggering quantities back in the day, every shop it was the same - dozens each of Luke, Leia, Chewie and Artoo, and nothing else, maybe the occasional Han or Ben.

Fishtalk said:

Probably a coincidence, but those four figures were everywhere in staggering quantities back in the day, every shop it was the same - dozens each of Luke, Leia, Chewie and Artoo, and nothing else, maybe the occasional Han or Ben.

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Really? I found Han easier to get than Luke or Leia. Ben Kenobi I agree wasn't easy to find back in the day.

I would've chosen luke , vader, ben, and the greatest of vintage figures the mighty tusken raider