Hasbro, Please Don’t Make Me Beg For A Blue Stars Figure

I tend to get obsessive about the rarities from the vintage Kenner area. For years, dating all the way back to TVC 1.0, I was pestering Hasbro for a Yak Face figure on a reproduction, bilingual Power of the Force (85) card. We almost got that as a bonus with the Sail Barge. It was close enough to scratch that itch. Once we got the definitive VC186 - Boba Fett, I started banging the drum for a Droids carded Boba Fett. We got that figure crossed of the list courtesy of the Target exclusive Droids wave. Now that we have a definitive Snowtrooper on the way, it's time for me to switch my focus to another piece of vintage era esoterica: the Uzay Blue Stars:



You will notice above that I said "vintage era" instead of "vintage Kenner era". That's because the Blue Stars are perhaps the most famous of the vintage era bootlegs, as most of you know. They were made by the Turkish company SB Products in the mid to late eighties. The line gets its nickname, "Uzay", from the text in the episode logo box which reads "Uzay Savaşçıları" and translates to "Space Warriors." The card images are my favorite part. Instead of featuring filmouts from the movies, SB Products often used photographs of the figures themselves in fantasy situations. My absolute favorite of these is the Death Star Gunner, which has the figure seated at a calculator. If that doesn't at least get a smirk out of you, you're dead inside. If you want to have some fun surfing the interwebs, check out the full Uzay line up at the Star Wars Collectors Archive.

I would never advocate for tooling dollars to go to such a niche items, but since this is nothing more than a Snowtrooper cast in blue, that part of the equation is solved with Saturday's announcement. Furthermore, it's completely campy and kitschy. Kitsch should never, under any circumstances, invade main line, in my opinion. If it happens too often, the line can devolve into self-mockery. My cynical side says that the campaigning for Yarna and Wilrow Hood in the mid-aughts was done to push Star Wars figures in that direction. I'm actually very on-guard about that exact thing. If we don't take the main line seriously, how can we expect anyone else to? But there should be space for some lighthearted offerings, and there is.

This, to me, would be the perfect convention exclusive. Those items should be fun and whimsical. Recently, they've been, frankly, boring. A Krrsantan with more accessories than a near simultaneously released main line Krrsantan is a snoozer. The fact that it's still available on Pulse over a year later for half price tells me that the community agrees. Instead of putting fans to sleep, I feel that a Blue Stars figure would create a buzz. I know a true "Uzay" card is unrealistic, but a double racetrack Star Wars card would be fine. I just ask that a reproduction of the original card art is used instead of a modern digital rendering.

What says you?

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