Correct Release Order of the First 12 Figures?

Hi,

I like to display my loose vintage figures in the order the waves were released, and then within each wave, in the order of appearance within the saga, e.g. the Early Bird 4 were the very first figures released globally, and so I display them first in my cabinet in the order: R2-D2, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and then Chewbacca, since that is of course the order those characters first appeared in the original Star Wars.

From the 20 backs onwards, I am happy that I know the correct figure release order, but I am slightly fuzzy on what is 'correct' for the release order of the remaining eight 12 back figures. Were they all released together, or were they released in waves? I am looking for the order in which they first appeared anywhere in the world (i.e. if they were all released together in America first, but were then released in waves in the UK later, then I would treat them as being released all together for the purposes of arranging my loose figures).

I have searched on-line for a definitive release order, but cannot seem to find one, and yet I am fairly sure I remember reading somewhere that the 12 original figures were not all released at once, but rather were themselves released in waves after the Early Bird 4. Now of course, I may be completely wrong about this, or it may perhaps have been a Palitoy only thing here in the UK, but I wonder whether anyone here knows whether there is a definitive release order for the next 8 figures after the Early Bird 4, please?

Again, I may be quite wrong, but I'm old enough to remember actually buying Palitoy 12 backs when they first came out, and it seemed to take me forever to find a Jawa; I even remember the lady in Ware Toy Shop making some comment about him 'being rare' to my 6-year old self, which may be because he was short-packed and hence always sold out first, or may be because he was not in the early cases. Perhaps it was delayed due to the running change from the vinyl cape, or perhaps it is indeed because the Jawa was in the last wave (a wave of 1?) of the first 12 figures to be released. Or is my mind playing tricks on me and they were all released together after all?

Can anyone help me with a definitive release order for these 8 figures please? My loose collection is just begging to be rearranged into the 'correct' order (and yes, I probably am being a bit anal about this, but hey, that's collecting! )

Many thanks.

The only thing I've read about the first twelve coming out in stages was when my favourite Star Wars podcasters bought that 1978 time-capsule in a suitcase. The SW Weekly winners of a complete run of twelve mini action figures were told that a couple of them hadn't come out yet and they'd get them a bit later on.

On a related note, I can never see anything about approximate release dates.

SKU number order : http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1114521/#post19479761

Thanks for that link James, not seen or even thought about the release order of the first 12 before. The first four certainly make sense considering they were all included in the early bird set.

The Earlybird 4 obviously came out first, and Tusken Raider, Jawa and Death Squad Commander were last. I think the middle 5 must have been in a single wave (along with the carded Luke, Chewie, Leia and R2).

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=38499 is pretty cool and illustrates the 3 figure 'wave' at the end of the 12bk run.

I believe Stormie was 9 due to it being late in a comp run by Palitoy back in the day.

aussiejames said:

SKU number order : http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1114521/#post19479761

Click to expand...

Not to muddy the waters, but in case you are differentiating between VCJ and cloth Jawa, the VCJ would have come out with the second wave of the first 12 (after the first four early bird) and before the third wave of first 12, which included DSC, Sandy, and cloth Jawa:

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=38499

This is so geeky but also strangely interesting. We can't just leave it at the first 12, now we'll have to compile a full list of release waves through the line and update it as it goes along, like this:

R2, Leia, Luke, Chewy

C3P0, Stormtrooper, Vader, VC Jawa, Ben, Han

Sandpeople, Jawa, DSC

Etc etc

Ross_Barr said:

aussiejames said:

SKU number order : http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1114521/#post19479761

Click to expand...

Not to muddy the waters, but in case you are differentiating between VCJ and cloth Jawa, the VCJ would have come out with the second wave of the first 12 (after the first four early bird) and before the third wave of first 12, which included DSC, Sandy, and cloth Jawa:

http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=38499

Click to expand...

Interesting you should say this Ross as the Jawa was the last of the first 12 I received as a child and was really tough to find. I remember one day my mother coming home with the Jawa, which was a VCJ, and as I'm from the UK it's likely ( although not for sure) to have been a Palitoy one as all my other figures were. I do remember getting it and and putting it in the Palitoy Death Star along with the other 11 and as I received the DS for Christmas 78 the Jawa must have been given to me in early 79.

Not sure how this fits in with your comment or if indeed there was such a wait for the Jawa in the UK that Kenner versions were sent over but it was from a small, local toy shop that I'm unsure if they would have been importing figures from the US back then. I agree that the cloth cape Jawa was the last of the first 12 wave released but only really remember seeing this figure released much later in the UK, maybe even after the 20 backs were out. This doesn't mean it didn't come out in the UK before then , it's just what I remember at the time and I would always be looking in places where they sold these figures most weeks.

Ian

This is pretty interesting, the SKU numbers for all the figures.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kenner_Star_Wars_action_figures

I'm guessing the Yoda one might be a mistake. Time for some rearranging.

The situation between UK and USA might be very different.

Could easily be carded first 9 here with no EB kits, and then the last 3. I can remember the DSC being hardest to get in the UK, and have some vague recollection of Jawa and Tusken later than the rest but it's hard to know what was released first, as opposed to what people bought before others.

Thanks for all the replies and info. I'm glad I didn't imagine the staggered release / waves within the 12 backs! The link to the Rebelscum SKUs is particularly useful, so many thanks James.

The link to theswca and the photo of the '3 New Action Figures' display sign was a wonderful thing to see too, so thanks for that Maxf.

Thanks also for the wikipedia link, Dantooine. I'm sure it's mostly right (I haven't checked it properly yet, mind), but I can't help wincing when I see them boldly claiming Yak Face was released on a 93-back. It does make me wonder what else might be in need of tweaking!

Thanks for your reminiscences Ian. As stated in my original post, I too found the Jawa the hardest to come by, although I certainly never saw a vinyl caped one (and if I had, the child me would have doubtless felt outraged at finding such an inferior version to the far more accurate-looking cloth caped one! LOL). One nugget of info I can add is that I believe at least some UK shops were either importing Kenner carded SW figures which included the vinyl Jawa, or else that Coalville distributed a few, because years ago when I bought some bits from Jim Stevenson, he told me the tale of how he had just bought a complete (and I do mean complete) collection of pristine Palitoy carded figures from a lady who had bought them and put them away from new (and presumably has bitterly and frequently regretted selling them in 1994 for dealer's prices ever since!). She had all the 12, 20 and 30 backs (and I believe all the other Palitoy cards as well, but my attention was mostly caught by those first three, and the following fact) and they were so mint, Jim swapped them out for his own collection versions, which he then sold. However, amongst the sale was a Kenner carded vinyl Jawa (Jim at this time was adamant, as many collectors were, that there was no such thing as a Palitoy carded vinyl Jawa, and was quite explicit that this was a Kenner one), which the lady in question had apparently purchased in England from the same shop she bought her palitoy 12, 20 and 30 backs from.

So if Jim's tale was true (and I have no reason to doubt it), it is entirely possible your vinyl Jawa could have been on either a Kenner or a Palitoy card.

Anyway, thanks again for all the info. I knew this would be the best place to ask the question!

Jeremy

I so wish I'd kept my card back for the Jawa.....the only one I have from my childhood is a FX-7 30 back.

Ian