Anyone else collect the heck out of PTOF 2 figures?

[yojoebro82]

I was at my parents yesterday and pulled out the huge basket of POTF 2 figures from the 90s. When those things hit, I thought they were the greatest things ever. Growing up, two neighborhood kids had a ton of original SW figures and I never had any. So when these came out, my 14 year old self was all over them. "Dude, these are so much better sculpted," I said, "Look at Luke's muscles!" (The fact that luke actually HAD no muscles in New Hope didn't really enter into my mind at the time). So I went on to buy nearly every figure from POTF 2.

 

Of course, today the SW figures are better in almost every way shape and form. When I find myself getting ready to try to sell the POTF2 figs, I get this feeling of 90s nostalgia and want to hold onto them, even though they're inferior. I have almost every OT character in POTF 2 form. I even have mail ins like Storm Trooper Han, Oola and Crumly, and Jabba's spider guy. I'm going to start all over again?

 

Then there's characters that I actually really like such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Slave Leia. I remeber seeing Leia pictured for the first time in Wizard magazine (yep, no internet back then) and thinking, "Man, this figure is going to be sooooooo popular because she's in a bikini and I'll probably never find her" Then I actually did find her and it blew my mind(She's 49 cents on ebay now).

 

So yeah, I don't know what to do. Sell or keep. I will likely end up keeping the 90s and rebuying them all again in the new well-sculpted, highly articulated form anyway. Which makes me a huge tool. In the meantime, I still need POTF 2 Max Rebo, Sy Snoodles, and Uncle Owen.

[Wheeljack35]

I remember being excited that Star Wars figures were coming back.I stopped getting them when G1 hit the market and in 1995 bought my very first one in years.I still have them on there backer cards too

[featofstrength]

As nice as super detail and max articulation is, there is so much to love and appreciate about the simplicity of POTF2 in this age of pandering to the aging "collector" market: the standard 6 point articulation, the overexagerated features...definitely colorful, sturdy, and very much made for the encouragement of play.

 

With skyrocketing prices, geek pandering, online exclusives vs retail, and big corporate screw-ups, Ive found myself going back to the old figure lines ive loved and appreciating them even more than i did as a youngling. He-man, Batman TAS, TMNT, POTF2, and so on...nothing beats the classics

[featofstrength]

As nice as super detail and max articulation is, there is so much to love and appreciate about the simplicity of POTF2 in this age of pandering to the aging "collector" market: the standard 6 point articulation, the overexagerated features...definitely colorful, sturdy, and very much made for the encouragement of play.

 

With skyrocketing prices, geek pandering, online exclusives vs retail, and big corporate screw-ups, Ive found myself going back to the old figure lines ive loved and appreciating them even more than i did as a youngling. He-man, Batman TAS, TMNT, POTF2, and so on...nothing beats the classics

 

 

And from what ive see of the new Tarkin from the Vintage collection, POTF2 Tarkin still wins.

[Wheeljack35]

Thats one thing I never could understand about the origional line..Why did they have a Tarkin figure out back then?

[yojoebro82]

With skyrocketing prices, geek pandering, online exclusives vs retail, and big corporate screw-ups, Ive found myself going back to the old figure lines ive loved and appreciating them even more than i did as a youngling. He-man, Batman TAS, TMNT, POTF2, and so on...nothing beats the classics

 

I tend to agree with all of that. Nomatter what I decide to do with my POTF2, chances are I'm keeping leia, Tarkin, and a couple of choice others. Yes, that new Tarkin is none too exciting.

[hamsterboy]

I always liked the stuff that came out with the Freeze Frame Wave.

[featofstrength]

Thats one thing I never could understand about the origional line..Why did they have a Tarkin figure out back then?

 

Kenner tried to pitch Lucasfilm a post ROTJ storyline for new figures and vehicles. Tarkin was supposed to have escaped the Death Star explosion and been a supporting villain. Pitch denied: Tarkin never got made til POTF 2.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Epic_Continues

[Devilbat]

I'd keep them if I were you yojoe. I still have all of the MOMC ones I cherry-picked back when they first came out. POTF2 is what got me back into collecting toys as an adult. Good grief...wasn't it exciting when they started coming out? I remember I was in college back then while working part-time at Walmart, and one of my friends was coming off his shift and I was coming on, and he stopped by the paint department to tell me he had seen the new Star Wars figures over in toys. I had been looking for them all over the place and had been waiting forever for them to come out. So what did I do? I immediately left my department to go check them out. (lol) Oh man...my eyes boggled when I saw the packaging, and everybody...kids and adults alike were digging through them. I dug a little too and found Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was my first POTF2 action figure, and I still have my MOMC one to this day.

 

I know there are definitely better sculpts these days, but I still hang on to my older POTF2 figures because of what they represent to me...new Star Wars figures that got me excited about collecting toys again. And they can be seen as a highly-stylized take on my favorite characters, kinda like how DC Direct does different figures based on artistic interpretations. When you think of it, the musclebound look of those first figures kinda matches the look the characters had in those early Marvel comics, so they seem to fit in with some of my memories of those even. I still love them, funky proportions and all. Besides that, at the time they reminded me somewhat of my beloved M.A.S.K. figures; they seemed to have similar sculpting and plastic quality, and I had always thought that size and articulation would have made for some great Star Wars vehicles and playsets. For example, I always thought the vintage Millenium Falcon was just the right size and scale for my M.A.S.K. figures. Of course the POTF2 figures weren't that tiny, and they didn't have the knee joints, but they still in some way reminded me of the M.A.S.K. figures, and I think that was a big part of the appeal of them for me, and still is.

 

Oh, and there are still some I don't have. I still don't have the POTF2 AT-AT driver, among others. (lol)

[jedimaster-c]

As nice as super detail and max articulation is, there is so much to love and appreciate about the simplicity of POTF2 in this age of pandering to the aging "collector" market: the standard 6 point articulation, the overexagerated features...definitely colorful, sturdy, and very much made for the encouragement of play.

 

With skyrocketing prices, geek pandering, online exclusives vs retail, and big corporate screw-ups, Ive found myself going back to the old figure lines ive loved and appreciating them even more than i did as a youngling. He-man, Batman TAS, TMNT, POTF2, and so on...nothing beats the classics

 

 

And from what ive see of the new Tarkin from the Vintage collection, POTF2 Tarkin still wins.

 

This is the truth.The new Tarkin is horrid.

[Wheeljack35]

Thats one thing I never could understand about the origional line..Why did they have a Tarkin figure out back then?

 

Kenner tried to pitch Lucasfilm a post ROTJ storyline for new figures and vehicles. Tarkin was supposed to have escaped the Death Star explosion and been a supporting villain. Pitch denied: Tarkin never got made til POTF 2.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Epic_Continues

 

Yeah but why wasn't Tarkin part of the origional 12?..He was a major player in that movie?

 

All I find is this

 

In the way of characters affiliated with the Galactic Empire, the designers decided to re-introduce Grand Moff Tarkin, who had been apparently killed at the conclusion of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. They had failed to create a figure of Tarkin during the original Star Wars run and intended to rectify that for their new line.[1] To present the idea of a Tarkin figure, Kenner simply used a promotional still of Peter Cushing in the role from A New Hope.

[Dake]

Toys for Tots is going to get a hundred and fifty or so carded POTF2 figures from me this next Christmas. I'll be doing my part to help all you suckers still sitting on yours in the hopes they'll be valuable by getting them out of the market!

[MikePrime]

I had pretty much all of them. I sold them about five or six years ago. I keep seeing them at toy section of the Half Price Books store that I go to. As I compare them to what Hasbro is making today, and to the vintage figures, I think POTF 2 was a nice middle ground. Maybe musculature could have been toned down a bit, the first Luke figure does look like He-Man, but overall they were nice toys.

[yojoebro82]

Pretty much anyone who was overly buff in the first wave got scaled down toward the end, Luke, Leia, Han, Vader, all got better sculpts...and I got those too!

 

As for why there was no Tarkin originally, I can imagine with the 70's and 80's mentality of "girl action figures don't sell", they'd be thinking along the same lines when it comes to old men action figures. I'm not really suprise he took a while to get made.

[Devilbat]

Gosh...since you have brought this up yojoe, so many great memories are coming back to me...

 

Back in 1994 or so, I remember someone telling my brother that they had found Star Wars figures at a local Big Lots store. We excitedly hurried over there to find those awful bendy figures. My brother snapped them up. At the time he was buying anything with the Star Wars logo slapped on it. (lol) But me? I was alot more discerning.

 

I remember having so much fun hunting all of the first couple of waves down. I also remember accidentally snagging the "tan-vested" Jedi Luke; I grabbed it initially simply because it was the new Jedi Luke I was looking for. I didn't know anything about any kind of variant until later. I had gotten the regular version too since I was all about having doubles back then. (I still do sometimes.) I actually still have the figure, and I have considered getting it graded.

 

With all this POTF2 talk, I'm gonna have to go drag them out and look at 'em. They've been in storage for years.

[yojoebro82]

I remember having so much fun hunting all of the first couple of waves down. I also remember accidentally snagging the "tan-vested" Jedi Luke; I grabbed it initially simply because it was the new Jedi Luke I was looking for. I didn't know anything about any kind of variant until later. I had gotten the regular version too since I was all about having doubles back then. (I still do sometimes.) I actually still have the figure, and I have considered getting it graded.

 

 

These guys had JUST come out when I got my license and was able to drive on my own without mom or dad bringing me to TRU or Target, I'm sure that had a lot to do with me buying them all. Yeah, the first wave or two were selling out pretty quick. I imagine that's because there had been a Star Wars drought for about 10 years (can you imagine 10 years with no Star Wars these days?) I remember being so proud because I got all the long light saber versions of the characters (though those were freakishly long...way too long) AND Boba Fett with rare half-circle gloves instead of the more common full circle gloves (as if that affects the enjoyment of a figure in the least!) I never did find that tan vest Jedi Luke until just this past fall at a comic con. He was like $2!

[Bespin refugee]

Back in 1994 or so, I remember someone telling my brother that they had found Star Wars figures at a local Big Lots store. We excitedly hurried over there to find those awful bendy figures. My brother snapped them up. At the time he was buying anything with the Star Wars logo slapped on it. (lol) But me? I was alot more discerning.

I remember seeing a Bend-Ems box set (What th--?! ) ; passed on it, but, did buy a Luke later, for the heck of it, lol. I also collected the Micro Machine sets & Action Masters.

Then in Spring of 1995, w/ just a small pic or 2 in Previews catalog, the hype began. The surprise of the Vintage 4 pk and AT-ST, the toy runs spurred by phone call that the figures had been found in the area. I still remember hitting that last Wal*Mart for the night, and running across two figs left in a cart. Anybody else rembember long lightsaber; short lightsaber/long tray; short lightsaber/short tray? lol Yeah, I actually tried to be a completionist for a while, didn't last too long though

There are a couple of POTF2 figs I still have on display; Emperor Palpatine, Tarkin, and a few background Cantina/Jabba's Palace aliens

[Wheeljack35]

I still have the Bend ems on their cards.At the time I thought this might be it and will never see the regular action figures again so I grabbed almost all the line

[featofstrength]

ah, the Bend-ems...from back in a dark time for Star Wars fans. Nary a toy or any other piece of merch to be found.

I remember getting Heir to the Empire, the bend-ems, and the micro machines set way back when SW was a thing of the past.

[spystreak]

I had almost all of them as a kid now I only have Solo and Tarkin both MISC my comic shop has the POTF figures but they aren't sealed on card and are pretty expensive if they weren't so pricy or atleast in card still I would have picked up a few

[Dake]

I had almost all of them as a kid now I only have Solo and Tarkin both MISC my comic shop has the POTF figures but they aren't sealed on card and are pretty expensive if they weren't so pricy or atleast in card still I would have picked up a few

Man, every comic shop I've been in can't get rid of carded POTF2 at three bucks a pop and they certainly aren't buying 'em. If that's cheap to you I'll sell you all of mine at two-fifty each (including carded Tarkin, Carbonite Han, Long-saber Vader, variant Leia... All kinds of stuff)!

[yojoebro82]

Oh I'll agree there's almost no value to about 99% of the line. I also have comic shops in my area that will be sitting on these guys forever. Still...

 

Another thing I like about the line is Yoda and Anakin Skywalker. Yoda is probably my second favorite version ever made (behind the vintage version). Seems that every Yoda that came out after 2000 has to have a little green light saber and an "I'm-ready-for-combat" scowl on his face. To me, that's not what Yoda's about. I like Anakin because it may very well be the last Shaw-Anakin we see ...(if I go any further with that it will turn into an anti-"New" Star Wars rant, so I'll just show pictures!)

 

 

 

 

[yojoebro82]

 

 

 

 

[yojoebro82]

 

 

[Wheeljack35]

Wow thats tiny compared to mine..At least you got Jabba when I finally had money to grab him it was gone