Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/30/how-the-mandalorian-is-making-old-kenner-action-figures-relevant-again.html
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Pushes up glasses - well acshully - Dave Filoni has been mining old concept sketches, unused art, and “just off screen” items like the troop transport for years starting with Star Wars Rebels where he made the Imperial Troop Transport canon post the Disney take over where any EU mentions would have scrapped it. Rebels has a TON of references where deep cut nerds are like “OMG, they reused the IG-88 prototype for that droid!”
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When we see mando’s bent at the waist rocket firing stance, I immediately thought of the commercial where I think 3.5" Boba had the same stance. Skimmed through the video to confirm but couldn’t find the ad.
Other thoughts… I always thought there was a hoth playset redesign because the hoth I got for Christmas was nothing like what I remember it being like in the commercials. Now I see I had the Imperial Hoth Base, and the rebel one was microachine sized???
I had the lightsaber with the plastic inflatable blade, and of course it found the thorn bush within the first five minutes of play.
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Yeah… my brother’s hand-me-down Kenner figures did not fair well in my hands (or his). I mean, most of the labels have peeled off of the inside of the Darth Vader case, vonbobo’s aforementioned Imperial Hoth Base is just the white base of the playset (I know the “gatling gun” has been spotted within the last decade… but the rest? …I didn’t even know there was an arch of snow over one end or that phone booth at the other…)
OTOH the figures themselves might be OK… not like the GI Joe figures that look like they came out of the Iraq War >.> And the Defiant Space Shuttle Complex isn’t looking too good either.
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i still have all my figures from that time. Favreau and i are (apparently!) the same age, which completey explains to me why i am loving The Mandalorian so much. I keep saying it’s because he and Filoni understand what the fans from back then found exciting and wanted to see more of, and i guess that’s borne out by this. Snaggletooth was one of my favorite figures, along with Hammerhead and all those other minor character figures, because they hinted at lives in the larger world that the main characters lived in. Favreau and Filoni apparently want to see that, too.
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He always had hot girlfriends, he was always hammered, and he had an in-ground pool and a half-pipe in his backyard. What else do you need?
I just need one thing- for you to not list “hot girlfriends” in a bullet point list of coveted possessions. Come on, dude. 
Those women had names, hopes, dreams, fears, and wants. Do you know what any of those were? Did this dude you so admired?
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I brought him up — and in that way — because I was trying to recreate the mindsight of my 9-year-old self. I suppose I should have brought the article all the way back around and pointed out how unfortunate his life has actually turned out to be, and how I came to realize how toxic a lot of those behaviors were. But then, that would have kind of detracted from the Star Wars point of the whole thing.
So, I do acknowledge that I messed that up, and didn’t communicate it clearly. My bad.
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I see you used my Kenner ads video in your article. I don’t have a problem with that, but it would have been nice if you’d given me an acknowledgement.
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We here in the community appreciate you coming over here to ask nicely for credit. Thom is a pretty upright guy, and normally ensures creators get recognition. But hey, the YouTube link does make sure to credit you as the entity that uploaded it, links to your profile and so on. So it’s not like he or any other Boing Boing Editor is trying to stiff you. Fnord.
That’s what I like about you. Not afraid to risk getting misunderstood, and getting the point out there. I mean, I can remember that when I was 10 back in 1977, I held a lot of beliefs about what was cool that today would be cringeworthy, misogynist and so on. Partly because I was immature, partly because we as a society have matured, and so on.
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Hey, definitely didn’t mean to overstep! I thought including the video was giving acknowledgement, as it gives you plays, and directs people to your YouTube page. Not every YouTuber has additional information or content to share, so I’ll admit, I don’t always check.
Now that I see how much stuff you have on here, I’ll keep a closer eye out, and see if there are more relevant ways to share your stuff with more attention given.
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My dad got me one of the first plastic lightsabers, probably in 1978. I loved it. My mom made it disappear less than a year later. I never broke anything with it, so I don’t know what her problem was. [She refuses to admit to this and other times she took toys or records away from me.]
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