As Christmas draws near it’s not unusual for memories of toys past to creep into our minds. They may be good memories of toys we loved, bad memories of toys we didn’t want, and some are…well let’s just say not memorable, and you’re trying your hardest to block them out. Thank you hollow headed knock-off GI Joe parachutist! For me some of my best toy memories revolve around slot cars, electric trains, Go-Bots, and of course video games. But, for a lot of other guys and girls my age, many a Christmas also revolved around Star Wars toys. Now I was into Star Wars toys as a kid, and I have a great story to tell about my first few, but for me they were kind of a summer toy so I never got, or asked for any for Christmas.
Over the years and through the many films under Lucasfilms and now Disney’s belt, we as fans and collectors have gotten some really cool toys. For many years most official toys have been made by Kenner, and after 2000 by Hasbro parent company of Kenner. This toy line can trace its roots right back to the first Star Wars toys ever in 1977, or actually 1978 as the film Plastic Galaxy recounts. It’s also what most Star Wars fans and toy collectors recognize as the official toy line. In nearly 40 years it’s given us everything from Darth Vader’s Tie X1 Advanced in 1978 to Kylo Ren’s Tie Silencer this year with a lot of room in between for AT-AT’s, X-wings, LAAT’s, Millennium Falcons, B1 Battledroids and a lot of other cool items and characters in between.
With that said though there are still some pretty cool items from Star Wars canon and legends we as fans would like to see. Which is why I’m going to give you my top ten list for Star Wars toys I’d like to see made.
Before I do so here are a few rules.
- These have to be items that Kenner/Hasbro hasn’t mass produced (i.e. prototypes don’t count).
- Items made by other manufacturers don’t count, 3.75 inch figures and vehicles are out there from manufacturers but are either unlicensed or limited production.
- Last, they have to be from the 3.75 inch figure line, Micro Machines, Kenner Die Cast, Galactic Heros, Lego, and others don’t count.
So here we go:
10) Chiss Clawcraft (Legends) – One of the coolest characters to be pulled from the pages of the STEU legends materials is undoubtedly Grand Admiral Thrawn. The blue skinned, cunning, and cool as a cucumber character has endeared himself to fans for two decades as both a villain and quasi-hero one can identify with. In the Timothy Zahn’s Hand of Thrawn books we are introduced to a new type of fighter used by a small group of Chiss living within the inner galaxy. The Chiss Clawcraft is a combination of Imperial and Chiss technology, looking like a Tie Fighter affixed to claw like wings. The Chiss take on the Imperial Tie Fighter, is both unique in style and function, being more advanced than its predecessor in many different ways. This one would look cool with a blue skinned Chiss pilot figure included, or even the eye-patch wearing Baron Fel from the Hand of Thrawn books.
9) Prototype B-wing (Rebels) – Star Wars Rebels has been a welcomed device for bringing many EU characters and elements into the canon of Star Wars. Although the B-wing has been a part of canon since Return of the Jedi most of the lore behind it has been legends material, including its creation by Admiral Ackbar. In the episode Wings of the Master we are introduced to the B-wing, and it’s true potential. Unlike its later Jedi variation, the B-wing prototype in this episode is a bright orange color like US Navy test aircraft of old, and with that recognizable dot but this time in white. Also, rather than carrying a multi-gun pod on the side opposite of the wing from the cockpit, it features a gunnery pod for a gunner. In the episode we get get to see Hera in the cockpit with Sabine in the gunnery pod, as the B-wing lets loose on an Imperial cruiser. The bright orange beauty with its large white dot would look great with a Sabine, and test pilot Hera figure included.
8) Mining Guild Tie Fighter (Rebels)- Like military aircraft in our own real world, in the Star Wars galaxy military grade spacecraft may be produced by one faction or another, but end up in the hands of allies, even indirectly involved allies, like an Israeli F-15, or a Tunisian Mig-21 in our own world. Although X-wing producer Incom may have been slightly more liberal with whom they sold their fighters too, the Empire was a lot more strict with who got access to Tie Fighters. The morally bankrupt Mining Guild, with its lack of ethics in strip mining whole planets and using slave labor to do it, is one of those allies the Empire was willing to supply with their Tie Fighter. The Mining Guild Tie Fighters are yellow, and have a large triangle of wing cut out in there front wing sections, leading my son and I to dub them Pac-Man Tie’s. With the Mining Guild having a huge numbers on non-humans involved, it would be cool to see this fighter toy with an alien pilot in a Tie Fighter pilots suit.
7) K-Wing (Legends) – Imagine kit-bashing an X-wing, B-wing, and Y-wing into one enormous spacecraft, and you have the K-wing. Essentially this big boy may stay as legends material, since the upcoming The Last Jedi gives us a different take on New Republic bombers. The K-wing is a massive but well defended bomber used late in the Galactic Civil War, but mainly by the post-war New Republic once full production kicked in. It’s almost equivalent to the USAF’s B-36 Peacemaker which narrowly missed use in World War II, but saw extensive use in the years after. The K-wing looks like a B-wing, with a Y-wing attached to its center, and X-wing or ARC-170 airfoils hanging off the B-wing portion. With its load out of weapons the K-wing is reminiscent of a fully loaded A-10 Warthog with the way its weapons are loaded on its hard points.That brings me to a another cool toy the A-10 like GI Joe Cobra Rattler, which if it served as a toy basis for the K-wing would make it an awesome toy fully loaded. A K-wing toy would be huge, but it would have a lot of great play value with weapons change outs, and even its breakaway emergency cockpit.
6) Rogue Shadow (The Force Unleashed 1 & 2) – Most people dog on The Force Unleashed games, and I will admit they do have some “WTF were the developers thinking” moments as well as a few that feel more like busy work than actual gameplay. The game does give us some pretty cool vehicles and characters though, including Carbonite and flame droids, wierd V-22 Osprey looking ships with Gatling blasters, and small walkers (not AT-MP’s?) that fire missiles. One of the coolest vehicles though, has to be Starkillers private vessel the Rogue Shadow. The Rogue Shadow looks like a cross between a Tie Fighter and a YT-2000 freighter, with additional V-wing elements and of course being a Tie Fighter fan I loved it instantly. With the little love the game we got no toy version of this or much of anything else from the franchise. Of course in toy version of this bad boy would probably be the size of a Millennium Falcon, but it would be cool anyway.
5) Tie Crawler (Legends and Video Games)- Add one part Tie Fighter and one part Tank. If you haven’t played Empire at War, this is basically a Tie Fighter fuselage, with large tank treads instead of wings. In game it shows up, smooshs your infantrymen and then is picked off quickly by your tanks. The Tie Crawler, although stupid in concept as an actual field weapon, does manage to look pretty cool. As we know cool concept equals cool toy, and who doesn’t want a Tie Fighter tank in their collection?
4)Imperial Royal Guard Tie Interceptor (Legends) – Sure Tie Interceptors have been made by Kenner since about 1980, and in 2007 we got a 30th anniversary Aces Edition featuring Baron Fel’s orange stripes. But, we’ve yet to see the red colored Tie Interceptor flown by the Imperial Royal Guard. Nothing like a bright red Tie Interceptor in your collection.
3) Z-95 Headhunter (The Clone Wars)– The Clone Wars series cartoon introduced us to a lot of new vehicles, and made some others like the Z-95 canon. Although the V-19, ARC-170, and V-wing would go on to get toys, the Z-95 an occasional visitor to the show in its later seasons, wouldn’t. This is somewhat surprising since the Z-95 is touted to be the direct predecessor of the X-wing. Whether used by clones, the Rebellion, or even pirates it would’ve been cool to have a toy version of this parent of the X-wing
2) The Ghost (Rebels) – Yes, the Rebels original Phantom was a toy was made, but we still haven’t gotten a full size Ghost. The toy more than likely would be just a touch smaller than the Millennium Falcon, but would give Rebels fans a great model version of the beloved ship. Allowing it to have a detachable Phantom 1 or 2 would also be a nice touch as well.
1)Tie Defender (Legends, video games, Rebels)– As a Tie Fighter fan this is my number one choice for an official Hasbro toy. The Defender was originally introduced in video games as well as books, but became canon in season 2 of Rebels, and is playing an integral part in season 4. The three winged Defender is the empire’s most advanced fighter, featuring the shields and hyper-drives, its predecessors lacked. Essentially, it’s the Empire’s way of going toe to toe with the T-65 X-wing. Despite years in games, books, and now a canon TV show we have yet to get this ultra cool Tie Fighter in toy version.
Well those are my picks for top ten toys I would like to see Hasbro make for the 3.75 inch toy line. To be honest there are so many great vehicles out there from both legends and canon it was hard to narrow this list down to just 10. Let me know what your thoughts are are, and who are on your list.
