STARWARS ACTION FIGURES The Unofficial Collector's Guide to Star Wars Action Figures

Kenner Baggies – Why Were There Bagged Figures and Where Did They Come From?

You may have seen them floating around at flea markets or for sale in toy magazines at ridiculously low prices, because bagged Star Wars figures or “baggies” are plentiful and quite easy to come by. So what were these figures and why did they lack standard packaging? Well the explanation is really quite simple and it begins as a promotional offer.

For each of the movies’ toy releases (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), Kenner would offer promotions on the backs of the cards of the figures in the toy stores, in which kids could send in their proofs of purchase in exchange for a special figure from the current film or even better, from the next, yet unreleased film. Four proofs of purchase was all it took and you could be the recipient of one of these new toys. The very first mail away offer was of course the early-bird pack, but after that single figures (as well as as many other things like “survival packs” of weapons) were made available. For the first film, the character released was Boba Fett. Towards the end of the original release, Kenner also put out an offer to get a “secret Star Wars figure” that would be from the upcoming sequal. That character turned out to be Bossk. The strange, dinosaur like guy whose sole role in Empire Strikes Back is to stand with the other bounty hunters on the Star Destroyer and growl angrily. This figure is now very difficult to find in it’s original sealed baggie with the mailing marerials.

For the ESB release of toys, the characters available on the cardback promotions were again Bossk, and 4-Lom. At the end of the ESB run, an Admiral Ackbar figure was made available, promoted as the special toy for the upcoming third installment “Revenge of the Jedi”. As we know, the title was changed from Revenge to Return and the rest is history. Return of the Jedi’s promotions were for Nien Numb, Lando’s co-pilot on the Millennium Falcon in ROTJ, and Emporer Palpatine. Finally, the very end of the ROTJ releases had a promotion for an Anakin Skywalker figure that would be part of the Power of the Force toy line.

These promo mailaways weren’t the only source of bagged figures though. There were three others. First there were multi-packs, like the ones sold by Sears and other chains. Probably the most famous of these is the Cantina multi-pack, which is where you could get the rare blue Snaggletooth figure. There were aparently over 90 different multi-packs sold throughout the toy lines lifespan by different retailers, which accounts for a great deal of the different figures available in baggies.

The third was another Kenner promo in which they’d take an existing boxed vehicle like a Land speeder, Tie Fighter, Millennium Flacon or other, and insert a couple of bagged figures, slap a sticker on the box denoting the special figures inside, and ship it off to be sold as a promotional vehicle. There were a great deal of different figure combinations sold this way.

The final source, which is by far the most common source and the source of the vast majority of the figures out there were giant 200 piece boxes of bagged figures that Kenner sent out to some retailers and even charities so the story goes. These boxes, which each contain 200 of the same bagged figure, are said to have been over-stock figures which Kenner had over produced and needed to get rid of. This is where many of the standard faces you’ll see in baggies came from such as C-3P0 with removable limbs, B-Wing pilot, Prune face and AT-ST driver figures.

Every figure ever released through the Star Wars, ESB and ROTJ toy lines are available in baggies, and a bagged figure is almost always significantly cheaper than a carded figure, so baggies offer a great way for collectors to get mint figures at prices far below what they’d pay for a carded figure. Baggies are definitely a fun way to collect, but since they’re noticeably less valuable than carded figures, I’ve personally always been tempted to tear them open! Let’s see if you can resist that temptation!