gutz1981 h the storm trooper carrier toy was used in Rebels. It would seem the back catalogue of produced and not produced toys and concepts are being used.
Without getting into ‘Disney bashing’ a lot of the abandoned concepts for Star Wars in toys and for the original films had a lot of the designs dusted off and tweaked for the new movies.
Interesting that the sandspeeder at 9:58 was made into a Lego set recently! A lot of these concept designs seem to have been inspiration for some of the more recent products!
I'm surprised you didn't draw parallels between that unreleased line and so much of the new SW. Poe Dameron's X-wing had the same color scheme as the 2 seater Kenner X-wing. The Escape Pod or detachable ship in the mandibles of the Falcon? We got that in Solo. The Artillery piece mounted on a muddy AT-AT? The AT-DT in Solo. Alpha Prime's droid also looks nothing like L3 from Solo. See in SW nothing ever goes to waste. Their "creative" team are like Native Americans... they use all the parts of the Buffalo.
In the classic TSR(?) Star Wars Roleplaying game, a lot of the concept art and such was from sketches that were drawn up for the Original Trilogy, but not used. One of the main freighter designs in the game was an alternate concept for the Millenium Falcon at one point. It is so neat that this stuff keeps brewing and popping up in new incarnations. It speaks to the well of creativity that came forth during the brainstorming for these films.
It's crazy that after all these years they never came out with a Blockade Runner that you could use with the 3" figures..They even came out with Jabba's giant sail barge but no Runner..I'm in if they ever decide to do one..
It costs a lot of money to make molds for toys and models and I'm sure they're resistant to release a lot of playsets now because of the generally poor sales of Star Wars merchandise these last 4 years. Hasbro reportedly laid off at least 10% of its workforce last year? They got hurt bad by the SW merchandise sales collapse and the closing of the US Toys R Us chain stores. There's not a huge market to buy limited edition $500 toy playsets. Heck, people were passing on the $150 toy sets they tried to sell at Toys R Us. They're reluctant even with Original Trilogy toys. I have to say that not all the Star Wars merchandise I've seen on clearance has been Sequel Era, R1, Solo toys. They had things from the Original Trilogy they couldn't get rid of, either, at Barnes & Noble on clearance. The entire franchise was dealt a mortal blow by Disney's mishandling of it from the beginning. The bright side of Star Wars merchandising, the model releases, have been very measured and they're not spending insane amounts of money and building large models, either. The average Bandai model kits are usually well under a foot long; we're talking 7-8 inches at most. They just released the best-detailed, mass-market Star Destroyer model kit and that's just under 13 inches long. It retails for $80 mass-market (the LE edition with the lighting kit costs another $60 at least). You can get much larger resin kits of the Star Destroyer (some even studio scale!) but they're a hell of a lot harder to build and they cost easily 20 times as much. Again, very limited market for these things. And the kids are not buying this stuff... And I've heard from quite a few adult collectors that they just gave up Star Wars and don't want to put more money into they toys and merchandise. They're just fed up with it and discouraged. Can't say I blame them. Why give money to companies that don't listen to you or treat you like at ATM? Disney's finding this out the hard way now. Sometimes, you just have to move onto other hobbies or change your habits.
I’ve first heard of this cancelled Star Wars toy line from reading about it in Toy Fare magazine 18 years ago. It always fascinated me and I seem to have a hard time finding information about it until I’ve seen this video. The whole thing about Tarkin surviving the Death Star is really stupid, that is the one thing I’m glad that this toy line didn’t happen.
I can see why these didn't get approved. Most of them look like cheap hack jobs of the iconic originals. The Imperial Outpost looks amazing though. Truth is, I didn't even get the real AT-AT so there's no way I would have gotten a playset that expensive. I still had fun with my cardboard version though.
"I’m surprised we never got playsets of Palpatine’s throne room or (...) Cloud City (...)" Or a proper 'Dagobah cave of evil' (instead of Yoda's 'doll house') - kinda shows that industrial mass production and _art_ don't go well together, not because it's technically impossible (these playsets would have been rather simple to produce e.g. by molding a throne in front of a transparent, circular window), but because 'corporate chief officers' didn't get into their position by sharing an artist's imagination, realizing that people watch certain scenes _repeatedly_ . The industry seems to be a bit more fluid now (think of the ongoing *vintage collection* exclusives or the sheer variety of sales, LEGO leeches off from the 'Star Wars' franchise), but rarely are products designed quite right: ('Black Series' 'Jaina Solo' - 'wrong' 6 inch line, not detailed enough for the pricing in comparison to NECA, but a an _interesting character_ to collect) news.toyark.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/02/Black-Series-Jaina-Solo-26.jpg ('Black Series' 'Cara Dune' - _photorealistic_ likeness of a popular actress) media.entertainmentearth.com/assets/images/3c1cd454f6bf4bc4961d66c093735708lg.jpg Remember the times when You could walk into a store and sift through _dozens_ of wanted collectibles ? ...me neither...
Ah yes. I saw this on Toy Galaxy a while back. It was a great looking range. I think being catty that these designs were really better what we got in the prequel trilogy.
There weren't any cool toys that came from the sequels, that's what killed the line. And the characters weren't cool. Just a shitty story that needed more development.
The AT-AT should have been made with the cannon the other way and it would raise up as well as swivel 360 degrees, as well as to have the cannon barrel to retract and expand,
That base was ambitious for sure. Remember that in 1985 Hasbro released the USS Flagg for the GI Joe line, this may have been Kenner's attempt to counter that with a massive playset of their own
The storm trooper gunner AT-AT would have been cool as well as the sand speeder. I think they would have had to use a different name for the Prime villain though, it would have been to close to Optimus Prime.
Its fascinating to see how they repurpose parts from other figures and play sets to make new ones or just simply repaint existing vehicles and figures and call them something else. But that's what companies do to save on costs (that rear gun canon on the back of the AT-AT was probably taken from the old Death Star play set. I wonder if these prototypes still exist. If so they would be great museum pieces.
12:22 - Similar to Transformers like the Constructicons, this would have been 3 Imperial sets that could be used separately (Landing platform, Gun torrent tower, Bunker) or combined together. It was started around the same time as the Ewok Village went from concept to toy production. If it would have been approved there would have been a similar 3 Rebel base sets idea. In the mid-late 80's I remember someone being interviewed about the direction Kenner wanted to go to make Star Wars toys be able to compete with Transformers in sales and GI Joe in appearance until the plug was pulled.
One other thing I remember from this mid-late news broadcast interview is that these ships and playsets had some prototypes models simply cut out of cardboard. So the reason you don't see alot of them beyond the sketches is, i'm pretty sure, some would have been destroyed or fell apart. I think there was a cardboard cut out model of the Endor Bunker and Luke's Skyhopper shown along with the Tantive 4, Kenner still had it called Rebel Blockade Runner, and that Imperial sketch, which reminded me of where I seen them all before. I think there was a Star Wars Insider years ago that also showed some stuff of these prototype toys. Rebel Blockade Runner mock-up box I think was in that and the cardboard cut out model of Luke's Skyhopper I think was shown and mostly some mash-up figures and that Prime figure sketch showed up in Star Wars Insider a few times. .
It's sad some of these ideas never made it to the stores. I think Kenner should've tried to bring this stuff out in 1986. Unfortunately, Star Wars toy sales were stagnant in 1985.
A double cockpit X-Wing? I wonder what the point would have been...I mean there weren't any more guns or canons to fire on this...That modified AT-AT is so amazing, though!
@8:57 Lukes T16 Sky Hopper did get released in late 90’s. It was under “The Power of The Force” lineup. I found and bought one while @Target at the time.
Lego released the sandspeeder early this year, or late last year. It was sort of based on that concept but was worked into the storyline between Jedi & Awakens
It's interesting to note you said the Imperial Outpost looked like it was on Hoth. I notice someone else wrote they thought it was Endor. It's actually a Tatooine Outpost. If you look at the sky in the concept art, the twin suns of Tatooine are evident.
I wish they would do more stuff like this. More concept lines and different outfits for characters and concept ships besides constant straight movie or tv stuff.
Poe's black X wing is not a 2 seat version but it has some minor design changes. ✔. Netflix had a good Kenner toy doc about Star Wars. The firm re purposed & re did a few sets, toys in the 1980s post RoTJ. ABC & Lucasfilm has some TV stuff but nothing like the movies. This was pre streaming shows, internet. 💻📱🛸🚀🛰🎬
Most of the bad guys were based on sketches of the Imperial City Planet, the early idea of Coruscant. Kenner didn't do all the drawings, most came from what Lucasfilm gave to Westend Games for role play books. Centenial Prime was actually a Centenial Guard
The Imperial Outpost would have made an amazing Micro Collection add on...especially with an AT-AT in the collection that you could use with the Hoth World playset.
1:10: This villain looks the business! At least it became the Imperial Sentinel in Kenner's 1998 Star Wars Power Of The Force II Expanded Universe figures! Man someone needs to get in touch with the Kenner designers that made this range!
Solo looked like he just came back from another medal ceremony. Would have been great to see all those cool toys, though in 1986 I was way into GI Joe and would probably have skipped them in favor of more Joes :)
I think this might be my favorite video out of all the great ones you've done. Gonna check out the Kenner Chronicles too. Had no idea about it. Keep up the stellar work, Junkman.
It’s been here for over a year. But people asked me to do this topic. It has like 200 views. So I just cut this part out and uploaded it. Now over 1,000 :)
Absolutely amazing concepts! Some of these would be awesome, and definitely would be a welcome addition to any fans collection. If Smithlords wanted to do ANYTHING, he should work on stuff like this. Not basically kit bashing existing figures. Come original. And it's so cool how a lot of this stuff actually made it through to other areas of the film's and comics. Absolutely amazing video Junkman!!
If they made that playset it probably would have been that big ! It was the 80s ! G.i joe the f.l.a.g.g ! I can see a grey and white color scheme for the outside with red and black computer accessories ! A slide out deck to get to the at at ! Trap door that leads to jail cells ( the trash compactor thing has been done ) I think we'd possibly see a computer monitor with a spinning real of pictures on it ! And most definitely lights and sounds ! And the guns on top would blow up with a button push ! A place to store your small star wars vehicles ! Second floor with opening wall hatch for vehicle entry or exit ! A working elevator and a fake break away wall for stormtroopers to get blown out of ! im sure that set would have had all that !! A collector can dream !!! Mabey the next online pre order playset we get !?!?! For like 900 dollars ..... lol ....
Anybody know animation? Could we produce our own alternative ROTJ-sequel continuity fan-film using these characters and concepts? Keep Han & Luke alive? Perhaps Chief Bast ignored Tarkin's bravado and flipped a trapdoor-to-shuttlepod switch, and now Tarkin's back and wants revenge! :)
A Tarkin action figure would have been AWESOME! Just because he died, doesn't mean that he can't get a figure. I mean, the Death Star blew up with Tarkin, but the Death Star gets an ENTIRE PLAYSET?! Walrus Man got a figure, and he had FAR less screen time! I could be wrong, but I thought that the whole point of the figures were so that kids could RECREATE their favorite moments from the movies! Like, Tarkin was THE MAIN VILLAIN! PETER FREAKING CUSHING! No figure for him. But, the "Gonk" Droid... well, dang... who's R5-D4 gonna stand next to? I don't know about you, but when I was a kid back in the 70's & 80's, the idea of "prequels" wasn't an unheard of thing, and I would've LOVED to be able to have some adventures that took place BEFORE Star Wars. Or, maybe even come up with my OWN take on what happened on the Death Star! But, no... Kenner made SURE that Tarkin DIDN'T EXIST in the Star Wars universe. Totally AWFUL. Like, we weren't even allowed to PRETEND that the Tarkin figure could've another balding Imperial officer. I'm still angry over it!
And we didn't get rebel fleet troopers either. When I was a kid, I got white out and painted a death squad commander's helmet white with it. Instant rebel blockade trooper to fight the stormtroopers.
"Tarkin somehow has returned." 😂😂😂 The AT-AT with the cannon would have been a hit for Kenner! The Imperial base was off the charts! That would have been like $300. in late 80's money. And impossible to get. But what a Dream! Cheers Junkman
I saw a figure in a store here in Sydney a few years back which was called Mongo beef head. This was Squidhead's head repositioned...looked like Hammerhead's arms were used also
He-Man, She-Ra, GI Joe and Transformers were massive at the time. Star Wars had no new movies or media presence other than loosely associated Marvel comics to support the toys.
I was there, I remember. I quit asking for Star Wars figures after the Empire Strikes back, I was around 11 yrs old when Return of the Jedi came out and I wanted a bb gun and a computer. Atari 2600 was big and the Commodore 64, and some kids wanted GI Joe figures or Hee Man and Transformers, so we outgrew Star Wars toys.
I was the perfect age in 1986 and remember the shops haveing no starwars it was all a team and he man stuff most of my starwars was second hand would of loved theys by this time a lot of kids were getting out of starwars and theres me getting into it it was a struggle to get stuff back then no Internet great video junkman love your content fantastic 👍 ☺
@thatjunkman I actually have a prototype single figure air speeder which was actually later made with a firing missle and bigger than the version I have.
That Atma Prime figure concept looks a lot like a figure from the Shadows of the Empire line that came out after the videogame was a hit, the Luke Skywalker in Imperial Guard uniform. Shame none of these came to be back then, it would have made Star Wars hot for a few more years at least, maybe until the new POTF2 line came along.
Nope, I was there. Kids got away from Star Wars, it was GI Joe's, He Man, and later teenage ninja mutant turtles. Also computers were big then. Now if Lucas kept making more Star Wars movies or TV shows then yeah, that would've kept the toys going for awhile, but I quit wanting Star Wars toys right before Return of the Jedi came out. I wanted a commodore 64 and a bb gun, I was 11, my action figure playing days came to an end. But older me got back to collecting Star Wars figures, nostalgia.
Time to think like a hopeful and imaginative kid: The Imperial Outpost I'd have sold it in modules with each module being a separate section that could stand alone. You'd have one section that would be the Outpost's base, one "Communication" section would hold the antenna, one section would hold the large cannon, etc. Each would be sold separately so they wouldn't break the parents' wallets. Kids could have fun playing with these individual components and as birthdays, saved up allowances, Christmases, etc came along, new components could be bought. When completed, this station would stand about 4 feet tall, 4 foot long, three feet wide. With each component sold separately, they wouldn't be cheap. They'd come with different figures, weapons, etc. They would allow for an elevator to pass through each floor with removable hatches on each component. If kids wished, they could leave the base's components separate where kids could imagine they sat around a defensible perimeter. ("Hey, dad? Can we get a new cannon section? I need to set up a cannon on this other hilltop.")
Hey Junkman, I absolutely love stuff like this. It's fascinating to think how things might've turned out. I personally would've loved to have had that Imperial Attack Droid, I've always liked the idea of that figure. Also, as naff as it looks, the one you missed off the list..... Mongo Beefhead! What a name for an action figure that is!! Also, had we have had these extra figures and playsets, would the last 17 figures even be worthy any money? Great stuff as always, more like this please 😁
FWIW IIRC Marvel kept their Star Wars comic going for several years after Return Of The Jedi. And with Hasbro already working with Marvel on G.I. Joe I could easily believe that they had planned to work together for post-Star Wars merchandise.
I would have lost my mind for this expanded line. I had some of the Droids line characters and made my own adventures with them and odd Star Wars droids like 8d8 and r5d4 as the main players. I would combine them with Star Trek aliens and voila, new stuff.
Would've liked the Rebel blockade runner starship and it makes me wonder why Hasbro HasLab hasn't made one for the 2020's yet in a vintage New Hope Kenner box.
Apologies if TL;DR. :) Some of these concept art designs look like they did end up in some of the Disney Star Wars movies. -The droid in 5:46 made me think almost immediately that it was a borrowed concept for L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story. -The Apex Invader concept at 3:32 also made me think of Dryden Vos' space yacht in Solo. It also makes me think of something that would've looked at home as an Imperial craft of some kind in the Dark Horse Comics miniseries "Star Wars: Dark Empire". -2:33 The 1986 design for the Falcon with the mini-ship up front did end up getting recognized in the first version of the Hayne's Millennium Falcon Owner's Manual as an excursion vehicle called F-LER (Freight Loading Exterior Rover). I agree with poster *Simple Tricks & Nonsense* that the design got reworked as the escape pod for Lando's Millennium Falcon in Solo. Also, JunkMan, do you remember that later on, I think in the '90's, there was a Millennium Falcon that was released with a mini-fighter that fit in the side of the ship, in one of her docking ports? That was covered in Hayne's MF Owner's Manual as well. :) I LOVE the design concept for the Imperial Outpost! Good Lord, if they'd made that to scale with the action figure AT-AT vehicle, it would likely have been at least 3 1/2' to 4' tall! I would've loved to have had that! Even if they'd pared everything down to where the AT-AT was smaller so they could keep the design more like a mini-diorama at half-size, that would've been cool with the Death Star styled turbolaser tower...especially if the main turret swiveled and elevated. I do think a full-sized set intended to work with the action figure AT-AT set would've been feasible. Heck, they made the Imperial Shuttle, which was probably the largest action figure ship they ever made, and it stook, what?, almost 3 feet tall? May the Force Be With You and Yours, JunkMan!
5:27: Kenner’s idea on bringing back Tarkin might have unfortunately been deliberately the cause of the revival of Emperor Palpatine in Episode IX. It must be stated that most of the Kenner concepts have found their way into the recent Disney era of Star Wars.
These designers for Kenner had really great original ideas for new vehicles and figures, I wonder why they never made it into production, thanks for the video Mr. Junkman, have a great day!
hondorockz totally wished these made it to at least the state where we could see the vehicles and Imperial Outpost in packaging mock ups. I want to know what the logo would've looked like!
The 2 seat version seems different. Newer ST X Wings were black too. If I recall, the Y Wing version fighter bombers could fit 3 pilots, crew or 2 pilots & a R2 droid.
Star Wars movies came out every three years its interesting had more sequels been made after JEDI and seeing how other toylines were influencing Star Wars had there been new toys in 1986 and 1989 and 1992.
I once thought that the Imperial Outpost was the outpost from ROTJ. There was an ATAT in the movie that "dropped off" Luke to Vader and the Emperor. At the time 1986-87 where the BIG PLAYSETS including the USS FLAGG gi joe playset. I wonder if this was inspired by that? I wish I had the skill and time to make a custom one of these using the sketches of it or 3d printing. Someone devoted would make this piece because it is an awesome concept. Maybe Kenner could create this like the did the Sail Barge one day??
Although I agree that bringing back maul was a terrible idea in theory. If you watch the clone wars episodes with him in it. You'd be surprised at how phenomenally well he was handled. It's entirely up to you. But I would highly recom giving it a chance. But we can both agree that there's no way that tarkin survived being incinerated by the death star.
Fascinating! I've only seen the X-Wing and AT-AT before. This stuff looks amazing! Very in line with the later EU stuff like Dark Empire, which i love. Too creative for corporate approval i suppose, just like today.
I agree that bringing Tarkin back would been a stupid ides, but I strongly disagree about bringing back Darth Maul being a bad idea!!!! Yes, it sounds like a dumb idea on paper, but it gave us some awesome episodes of The Clone Wars where he has robotic legs, is given character development and a brother, and a cool voice by Sam Witwer!
Interesting when u think what could have been ? However what didn't work in 86 we got alot of it through in 97 -98 so it took 12 years for the expanded universe but it was just the right time !!
Ok - I can pretty much guarantee that this expanded universe story did get developed - and became Heir to the Empire. Prime is C’Boath and Tarkin becomes Thrawn. As anyone that has looked into or produced a fan film back in the day knows - the way Star Wars licensing worked, is anything that is produced and is cast in the Star Wars universe immediately becomes the property of Lucasfilm. They can take anything and rework it. It’s interesting that the new x-wing colours become the colours of Poe’s x-wing don’t you think? Lucas is the consummate remixer. The entirety of the Star Wars story was lifts from various western, war and Japanese films. Heck the entire Death Star run was infamously shot for shot from Dam Busters. So Kenner folds but Lucas lifts a bunch of ideas, gives the overview to Zahn and you get Clone Jedi, and resurgent Admirals. And since the sequels basically lifted from the Heir to the Empire as well, then you can now, officially blame Kenner and their want to hock toys on us for that travesty. As an aside - that walking ION cannon - looks suspiciously like the prequel ATAPs in RotS doesn’t it?
Remember how they said in Empire that they had adapted those speeders to the cold? It always bothered me that they keep on only showing them on other ice planets as if they’re specifically designed for snow. And they call them ‘snow speeders’ instead of just ‘speeders’. Like in Clone Wars, etc. That sand speeder totally validates my obsession! I wish they had showed them in a cartoon sometime.. All those figures are great. Seems like a few of the characters made it into Shadows of the Empire, the multi-media crossover which featured everything except a film. Too bad Kathleen Kennedy says theres no stories for them to do movies of, lol. Because Dark Horse is owned by Warner and she doesn’t own them or want to pay royalties to license them. She just wants to steal this or that scene from the cool parts secretly and make her own bootleg versions of their characters like Mara Jade. If you look at the list of 92 Kenner figures, and circle the ones who bit the big one in the films, there’s a lot of ‘done’ ones. Why does it matter if Tarkin lived to do a figure? Boba Fett and Rancor keeper didn’t live, even Jabba didn’t. Yoda, Greedo, Imperial Probe droid, R5-D4 (bad motivator), Vader..? No kid ever would have not wanted that figure based on him dying. The reason they didn’t do it is because he’s another ‘old man’ figure like Ben Kenobi. When a kid walks into a store the two figures he’s going to want the least are ‘old man’ Kenobi and Leia. The only way they’d buy those is if that’s the only figures on the peg or if they already have all the other ones already. That’s what Kenner execs think because the sales patterns reflect it. No one wanted the ewoks either, only middle aged ladies like them.. Which is worse, the yub yub song or the e e e e eeeewoks cartoon theme song..? Sorry George, but you cannot out-do the Muppets. Shame he spent so much effort competing with other directors in areas he was awful at, like singing marionettes. The live action ewok show was quite a bit cheesier than the Holiday Special which Lucas is so embarrassed of. No wonder the line fizzled. Imagine if they had put Wookies instead of ewoks like the original script called for? It might have kept going.. Chewbacca is popular, unlike just about every Disney ‘Imagineered’ character.
