Kenner vs Palitoy: What Death Star was Better? 

My vote's for the Kenner Star Wars Micro Collection Death Star World

I played with both as a kid and the Palitoy one won hands down. The reason was you could have your figures run around the corridors, burst into rooms and have so many options. The designers were quite clever in that several areas were mergers of different parts of the death star. For example the Bridge corridor above the docking bay worked as both the place the heros look down on the falcon but also the hexagon shaped corridor in the detention area that leads to the princesses cell- depending on what u wanted it to be in your game. The chasm was there too in the middle to swing over and had a mirror in the bottom to make it look big - again that doubled as the place the heros run from to get to the falcon. The trash compactor had a moving wall and was big. I just threw a little toy rubber snake in there, it was great. Hands down the best toy I ever had in my life. A friend of mine had the other one. It always seemed too limited to me....and wasnt a dome so mine really felt like the death star :)

We actually had both Death Stars in Canada Eh!

I had the Kenner Death Star playset as a kid (Still have it in my collection today), but one of the coolest collection pictures I ever saw was someone who had enough Kenner Death Stars to make a complete circle and had a Palitoy Death Star sitting on top!

There is no competition Palitoy

The only solution was to get them both and put them together with duck tape.

The fastest way to end this debate, is merely to look at the box , and see the look of deep resentment on the Palitoy kid's face.☹️

The palatoy on building it was the start of the fun i had the cardboard one and had years of fun with it

Glad to see the Emperor thought enough of his storm troopers to install the latest arcade machines for some entertainment between missions. All work and no play makes TK-421, a dark lord.

The X-wing laser cannons mounted on the top of the Palitoy playset made it look bootleg.

The Palitoy reminds me more of a Mego style playset.

I remember staring for hours at a picture of the UK Death Star on the back of the carboard packaging of my figures wishing to receive it and imagining the games I could have with it, however alas, I never even saw either Death Star as a child. Though I did make several attempts to make one out of cardboard boxes. I thought it looked good at the time, however, my mother obviously did not becasue they would get thrown away when she discovered them.

I’d have to say the Kenner Death Star was better, since I had one a year ago and I know how big it is and what it had, and plus it wasn’t made of cardboard. And I really liked that turbo laser cannon

This video reminded me of all those old TV-commercials for different video game consoles. 😉 " _On Colico Vision, football looks like this. On the Atari 2600.., football looks like this... what does you prefere?_ "

I didn’t have either of these because we were poor, but kid me wanted the Kenner one. The Palitoy one would’ve been fun though. If they offered it back in the day in the US my family could probably afford it.

In the plus column, the Palitoy Death Star was later repurposed as the Headquarters for Palitoy's popular ACTION FORCE range. It was given new spaces for vehicles, a zip-line, and other hidden features too. Maybe it was a better ACTION FORCE playset than a STAR WARS one!

Did you ever see the video where the guy put several of the kenner ones together?

I don't remember ever seeing anything called Palitoy in Canada. My cousin had the Death Star and it was the Kenner version. My favourite part was the trash compactor with the Dianoga.

The only Death Star in this house, is Kenner. Btw, now that the junk Death Star is close up on camera that thing is not junk at all, it’s well kept.

Kenner Death Star playsets play areas were too small. It's tall but doesn't seem big. The Palitoys seems big like the Death Star. The Trash Compactor also had a sliding wall. You never really see more of the trach monster than what's painted on the floor in the movie. That little toy ruined the illusion and I never liked it. The hangar area could have a ship in it or The Falcon beside it. I love mine. The only thing I like better in the Kenner one is the screen accurate turbo laser.

“beg their mum” was hilarious dude 😂

Man...I loved my Kenner Death Star as a kid! I was unaware of Palitoys at the time and didn't know they existed. I have to admit I'd like to have BOTH of them now as an adult!!

The Cobra Terror Dome sh!+s on both of these. Lol That was my Death Star playset. #imagination

I had this as a kid. Over the years it fell apart piece by piece until all I had left was a few of the plastic pillars, the trash monster, and the main elevator. I ended up using that elevator piece as a robot arm as it fit perfectly over mine.

If the palitoy version was mostly plastic and didnt have character paintings, itd be the better choice. I like the shape of it. Didnt you make a round one out of kenner sets a few years ago?

Kenner is my preference too. yes anything with an elevator or crane was always top of Santa’s list. As an adult I do appreciate the Palitoy Death Star and it does LOOK visual amazing that they managed to produce it only out of cardboard with stylized printing on every surface. I would love it as a display piece if it didn’t warp, mold or fade so easily over time. Not to mention its bout $500 that i would rather spend elsewhere. The Kenner set I currently have, but equally some issues... I will never be able to afford that damn original rubber rope swing piece, the paper piece warps as well and I’m still missing the trash monster I don’t feel like paying $50 for ;)

The Palitoy one looks like the Death Star I made myself out of cardboard as a kid because my parents wouldn't buy me the real one, it just has more color to it. Mine at least had the bridge for Luke to swing across and a trash compactor, geez if I knew about this I would have made more and tried to sell mine in the UK.

When I was a kid there was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much screaming from my D.S. trash compactor... And NOBODY survived.

My friend Herman claimed he had a relative in Florida that had a round Death Star toy. Herman wasn’t always honest, so I figured this was a lie, like his cousin that played a Storm Trooper. I didn’t know about the Pallitoys version until much, much later. Maybe he played with one. Maybe he’s still a big liar. Anyway, I loved this toy so much.

Had 2 of those Kenner playsets as a kid. My brother and I got one each for Christmas. We turn'em on each other or set them together against our Fort Navoron army playset. We had alot of fun as a kid.

Hi Junkman. growing up in the UK the palitoy Death Star was all we had, good for what it was, but we never knew Americans had such an amazing Kenner one .Never did know what happened to my original star wars figures from the 70's . Did have the slide projector by Chad Valley and that was amazing for an 8 year old! All the best.

We didn't have Palitoy in Canada, we had the real one.

I had one of those back in 1978. I was 6. I loved it.

I had a friend that had the Palitoy Death Star. Best time ever!

It's really pretty cool. Put the Kenner one on top of the paltoys one with a bracing. And the working 4 floor elevator is functional. I cut a blue peak antifreeze bottle to cut a perfect swing rope. Any blue plastic. 4 story one is best.

I guess I’m gonna try to buy one. Want the star destroyer play set too. Let’s do a Monday live few min talking about play sets if u could . Things to look for , what’s the best , most valuable, most desirable, and what to make sure they come with

This review made my night! Loved you naming the kids on the boxes.

In Canada we had the Kenner one,never seen the Palitoy one until now

Had them both as a kid and still have them! We got a couple exclusives here in Canada! Got to say, played with the “palitoy” version more, the Kenner was to narrow and restricted play I found. Each to their own!

I had a LOT of Star Wars stuff as a kid including collecting all the Marvel comics for about ten years. The dianoga monster in the trash compactor was a cool touch, I named mine Eyegore after the Marty Feldman character in Young Frankenstein which is still a great movie that holds up as well as Star Wars. Edit - I grew up in Canada and I had the large one. It was available here in '79.

As a child I never had the playsets only the figures. Any vehicle I had I made. Looking at both Death Stars, as a child I don't think it mattered which was better, as the mind could take on any challenge. Thanks Junkman yet another great vid.

Rick Alsop beat me to it...In fact Junkman we DID have both Death Star playsets in Canada. Both were released by Kenner here. The tall plastic playset was available everywhere toys were sold. However, the one you refer to as the PALITOY one, was released under the Kenner banner as a Sears Canada exclusive. And I loved and played with both of them for hours on end. I liked the adventure of the tall one and all the adventures you could get into that playset. But the cardboard one was fun too because you could better park the Falcon next to it and feel like it was the better landing bay. When it was time to repackage up the two when my figure playing days came to an end, the plastic one was definitely the easiest to dismantle without damage. The cardboard one used these pressure fit plastic tabs to hold the whole thing together and if you had to break it down often, these cardboard holes would get frayed and worn. Luckily though I think I managed to get it tucked away well. One SAD part of the Sears Canada story was two-fold. First, Sear would place a LARGE delivery sticker on every box shipped, and unlike Amazon today, your shipping box was the SW toy box. And the adhesive was impossible to remove without pulling a layer off of the SW box (I didn't know the lighter fluid technique ala Toy Polloi back then) and given that the delivery box was the toy box, many of the boxes arrived crumpled and damaged. So mint in the box was not really a possibility unless you had the ability to shop in store at Sears. Back in the day, Sears Canada was THE PLACE for exclusive Star Wars toys. With figures, they created a bunch of multi-figure sets that would often have one exclusive figure in each one. For Empire, they packaged next wave figures like Dengar, Bespin Han Solo, and two others that were released well in advance of the retail figures. They came on generic perforated backer cards and instead of a bubble, they were sort of shrink wrapped to the card. I remember it was hard to get the shrink wrapped plastic off of Dengar. Now I wish that I hadn't opened them! This exclusivity bit me in the butt though come time for the Power of the Force figures to be released. Sears once again packed one POTF figure with a collection of pre-released SW figures that I already had, so I couldn't ask my family to purchase four more figure sets just so I could get four new figures. Especially when I had already started collecting unopened figures prior to this. Also I assumed that I would eventually find the POTF figures in stores. I remember SO wanting that Stormtrooper Luke, and the Han Solo in Carbonite. But I didn't...Only once did I find a new POTF figure at a now defunct store in Canada called Zellers (thanks Target). It was Yak face...and I looked at it and the card wasn't in perfect condition, so I put it back on the peg. Never saw another POTF figure in any stores after that. And OF COURSE, those became the most valuable figures in the line to collect down the road. My luck! Anyway, all the best wishes for your son and I'm sure we're all pulling for a successful procedure for him and a quick recovery! Take care!

The Australian Toltoys Death Star was #1! So many play options for so many figures.

I got that one in Canada as a kid. Palitoy was a US release. I wanted the palitoy . And now that cardboard is worth way more

Is the cannon turret on the Palitoy set a reused Star Trek communicator? It looks familiar. I recall parts from the Droid factory also being used in Micronauts sets. I like the idea of Kenner designers hurriedly running around between offices during lunch, seeing a Mego guy and asking " using this???" and bolting away while the Mego guy is chomping on a pastrami sandwich.

I think the debate on which is better is only the last few years because I never heard of the Palitoy version until RU-vid!

I had the cardboard death star, and I played with that thing endlessly, my buddy across the street had the plastic tower. I didn't find it nearly as much fun to play with.

Awesome playset. "And a free trash monster" I always wanted one of these playsets, great video.

Had them both and still have them...the Palitoy was played with more, could get more friends around it when playing, miles better then the Kenner one.

They featured a boxed Palitoy Death Star yesteday on the UK antiques Roadshow , now i feel really ancient It was valued at £800, that is undervalued, I see them go for that unboxed.

Around 5 years ago my Wife bought me this Huge cardboard Death Star Playset that was very familiar to the Palitoy version..It was more of a arts & craft set but was pretty much in scale with the 3.75” figures

The Palatoy had an appeal to me of which I could only dream. It was Death Star shaped and had lots of rooms. It looked expensive though

Loved the trash compactor and trap door on the Kenner one I had as a kid 👍

I had tons of hours of fun with my death star playset. I still have it, I lost some pieces of course, but still have the original box.

A little known fact about Furgus was that he was Canadian Break Dancing champion in 1986.

Kenner Death Star for the win but I'd still love a Palitoy Death Star to display figures.

As much as I like British Palitoy items, I much prefer the Kenner Death Star, and not only because it's the one I got for Christmas in 1978. It's because it's the better play set. The Palitoy play set does have some great artwork in it. I enjoy the Mego Palitoy action figures (Space 1999, Steve Goalgetter, Doctor Who). I recently decided to buy all of the card backs of the original figures, and the Sand People card back says Palitoy on it. The back of the card is a little different and does not offer the mail-in posing stand. I'd love to get the big box for the Kenner Death Star, but I don't know where the heck I would put it. I'm running out of space!

That UK one has a way more aesthetic design though

The Kenner one of course! It's funny I can still close my eyes and see and feel the blue grappling hook thingy.

Grew up with the Palitoy...still have it and love it!

In Australia the Palitoy set was sold and the Kenner was not available. I always thought the Death Star Palitoy was very poor value for a $25 box of cardboard. By comparison, the Landspeeder was $5 and the action figures averaged about $1.50. At the time I bought anything Star Wars, but had zero interest in the cardboard Death Star.

I always thought Kenner should have released the Death Star as a series of smaller, more affordable playsets that could all be linked together. They eventually did this with their Micro Collection series, but I didn't want a bunch of tiny metal miniatures that were out of scale with all my other toys.

I have the Palitoy one, we actually it's a Australian Toltoys one. I played with it so much as a child it is my favorite Star Wars playset. It did suffer a bit of wear But It still looks great. So many great adventures and it's so big you can really sneak around the death star

I had the Kenner one. It was my first play set. I loved it.

The Kenner playset had a mini-playset included in the form of the trash compactor. They could have sold that on it's own! Also, the elevator had a clear, violet colored screen that could be moved into place. I didn't notice that for WEEKS and it was nice to have that surprise. I wouldn't have minded the Palitoy along side the Kenner set. I would have just thought of it as "other sections" of the Death Star. But on its own is looks flimsy and the play-narratives would not have been as clear to me.

I had both. Both were great but I preferred the Palitoy one. In Canada mine came with two Stormtrooper figures. Stick'em next to each other on our ping pong table and play for hours on end. Think I got the cardboard one first on Christmas '78(?) the the Kenner one for my birthday in July.

I had the Kenner DeathStar toy. I loved that thing,but I think the graphics on the plalitoy DeathStar looked pretty cool!

I am one who spent many an hour for many years playing with the Death Star (US) playset...good memories.

The Palitoy looks like 4 paper plates glued together. Your Kenner is a Holy Grail.

Kenner all the way. I got mine in '79 and it is in my spare room right now.

I had the Kenner Death Star. IT WAS THE BEST PLAYSET EVER!! Everything you pointed out was true: 4 levels or floors ... working elevator ... exploding cannon .... retractable bridge .... rope for swinging across chasm ... “trap door” hatch leading to trash compactor ... pegs to use for displaying figures in action poses ... monster in the compactor ... Here is what you FORGOT to mention though: - take the foam “garbage” OUT of the compactor, and you had a COOL DETENTION CELL to hold multiple figures - the narrow catwalk at the top of the playset where Obi Wan (or any hero figure really....in my adventures, the Falcon got captured and tractor beamed into the rebuilt Death Star many many times!!! LOL) could turn OFF the tractor beam - I don’t know if it was a fluke, but my Death Star set came with AN EXTRA GIRDER so that the heroes could use that in the trash compactor to force open the door. That alone was lots of extra play value!!!! - Combined with the X-Wing and TIE fighter, and I could stage cool dogfights around and above the Death Star and the cannon could factor into that fight. Many times Luke Skywalker X Wing Pilot was shot down by that cannon and then captured in the [rebuilt] Death Star, imprisoned in the trash compactor / detention area and interrogated by Darth Vader SO MUCH FUN~! Sigh. I just want to be a kid again. Make it 1979 again, so I can enjoy that wonderful time in my life again :) Thanks, Junkman!!!

Having never owned either set as a kid. I like the points of view over which collectors find was better, Kenner or Palitoy? Great Video!

The uk play set, while cardboard, did have a working trash compactor, you were just missing one piece of cardboard to make it work 👍. Also I’m pretty sure the one my friend had at the time also had a peg with a ‘rope’ that figures could swing across the centre, but that’s over 38 years ago so I could be a little hazy on the last one

Junkman 👊😁 The Kenner Death Star playset was superior to the Palitoy playset by far! At least in my opinion.

Judging it by play value is absolutely the only thing matters! Well done!

I'm Canadian and have never laid eyes on or ever heard of Palitoy until this video. I received the Kenner Death Star for Christmas via SEARS in the late 70's. Palicrap must have been a U.K. thing. Up here in the Great White North we had Kenner trash compactor sponge pieces and all.

I liked the video as soon as you said “mum” And I snort laughed when you said “Fergus”

Like the red Ryder range model air rifle this was the best present I would ever receive. I spent hours and hours with this playset as an 8yo and it’s the prize of my collection today. As playsets go it’s number one followed by castle grey skull, dungeons and dragons fortress of fangs, and gi joe secrets of the mummy’s tomb. In my opinion

I had the American version and I didn’t play with it much. But I did have an action man cardboard play set and I loved it. It didn’t last though.

I remember as a kid in the 70's and 80's some British shops would get Kenner SW toys which always seemed exotic and more desirable than the Paliitoy equivalents. My parents wouldn't pay for the Paliitoy Death Star set, it has left me permanently emotionally scarred 🤣🤣

I had the Kenner in 78!

The Palitoy version was considerably larger then a Cantina Playset box....and as stated below we did indeed have both in Canada.

Kenner SW toys had tremendous play value in general. The SW Set, the Droid factory, the Millennium Falcon, they provided spaces and suggestions for play narratives that could either align with the movie, or (if you were me and weren't allowed to go to the movies!) you could make up your own scenarios! Kenner set a very high benchmark. If you had SW and you had Micronauts AND Legos, (and maybe Capsela and Tinkertoys) you could really keep yourself engaged for hours!

I'm glad I grew up in America, we had the Kenner death star playset.

IMO The Kenner D Star is the greatest play set of all time!.Honorable Mention is that Giant Army Man Playset From the 70’s that had different levels and was built into a mountain

As a grown up I’m pretty sure everyone likes the Kenner one better . I assume that if you would let kids choose between the 2 they might go for the Kenner one as well . Now , back in the day the USA kids had great fun with the Kenner one and I’m sure that the kids from the UK had great fun with their Palitoy one too . Nobody knew any better . As a grown up I’d like to own them both .

I would say the Kenner Death Star was the better of the two and that is someone who lives in the UK

I like the artwork in the Palitoy trash compactor and I like the functionality of it and that bridge that overlooked the hanger, but the color scheme is too colorful and you can't unimagine ever-present stormtroopers and other Imperial personnel. The Kenner Death Star playset is superior in every way. It doesn't even have to be a Death Star, it could be almost anything you want it to be, like a military base or a guard tower. Maybe the trash compactor is a vault for precious material as part of a mining operation, or maybe it's a prison. Even the display value is superior. Hell, put an AT-AT next to it as part of the Imperial military base idea. "This station is now the ultimate power in the neighborhood, I suggest we use it." Thanks for the video :)

So jealous they never re-released this in the 90s when i was into the PotF2 line. They really didn't have any playsets then.

The Lego Death star is still the best desthstar playset in my opinion. It has every important room from episode 4/6,including a trash compactor,it also has the superlaser,a manned gun,and two turbolasers. Also including a figure of every character you would need to play with it helps too..

I got 2 of the Kenner sets. I love them.

Whichever Death Star play set toy you were lucky enough to have - that was the best.

Arrgh i had the US Death Star station set and a Droid Factory, but that was it on playsets. I wanted the Cantina set but never got it, but i collected all the aliens and weird creatures that would have went with it. The sandcrawler and M.Falcon , Slave 1, Xwing were the only other ones i wanted. I wish i had kept all my collection but i had parents that were like those shifty crooks who while you are gone away from the house, they gather up all your toy collections and take them away to goodwill or salvation army. Backstabbing creeps! I had never really forgiven them for that. All those toys would have been worth a small fortune in recent years and wouldve helped me buy something useful like a motorcycle or pay for some college time. I had a original issue landspeeder, a Tie fighter, a grey version that was supposed to be Vader tieF., and imperial troop transporter. I used a toy triceratops into a dewback for Tatooine plots as i didnt have the official stormtroopr dewback patrol set Lol

I’d love to see a mash up of the two. Maybe a future Haslab project 😊👍

So in the mid eighties did the friends you gained by owning the Kenner Death Star desert you? Maybe to do a follow up video to explore the psychological impact of having your friends leave you because some kid down the road has Snake Mountain or the USS Flagg.

I did not know that Palitoys sold products here in Canada I always assume the Star Wars line was strictly sold through Kenner I don't remember seeing anything with Palitoys on the packaging. I didn't know they even made a death star playset truthfully. Then again I'm not a Star Wars expert. When I was younger I used to confuse Star Wars and GI Joe till I got older lol the two toy lines action figures did look similar when I was like five.

Put both playsets together for double the fun and double the imagination

I have never had the Kenner Death Star play set. Santa didn't bring it Christmas 79. I had a friend who did get it and I thought it was the coolest play set. I have never had one as an adult collector either. Because I never had it as a kid it's never been a priority to collect. I still have good memories of playing with one and it is in my top 3 80's play sets.

I feel like you almost can't compare the two of them. If you were a kid in the UK, and you didn't know about the Kenner version, it would be cool to have it. But yeah, the Kenner version does have more playability to it.

I grew up in Canada and had the Kenner Death Star