Vintage Kenner Holy Grails: Let’s Do This!

Posted by Chris on 03/28/19 at 01:40 PM Category: Vintage Collection

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The rarest items, the Holy Grails if you will, are the straws the stir our collecting drinks. While commonality doesn't preclude us from loving and cherishing an item, scarcity is what distinguishes the centerpieces of most collections. Also scarcity alone doesn't make for a collecting grail. It's a balance of appeal and rarity. The modern line has a few such items. The US carded Freeze Frame Weequay is one. Certainly the TVC minifigures, VC66 - Salacious Crumb and VC67 - Mouse Droid, are two more.

The vintage Kenner line gave us a handful of grails. While most of us would love to own them, they are price prohibitive. Furthermore owning such fragile valuable items carries a degree of stress. Preserving something, which was designed to be disposable, for decades is not for the faint of heart. That's where Hasbro has stepped in to give us facsimiles in two cases, and these are fast becoming grails of the modern collection in their own rights.

Rocket Firing Boba Fett

This is an amalgamation of the 21-back Boba Fett and the mail-away rocket firing Fett.

If you were in elementary school in 1978, the recess grounds were rampant with rocket firing Fett urban legends. An implausible number of kids claimed to be only a few degrees separated from someone who received an actual rocket firing Fett in the mail. Some would even swear that this lucky idiot they knew promptly fired the rocket down their throat and choked to death, and that was why Kenner pulled them. Of course none of that was true. Rocket firing Fetts only exist as prototypes, which fetch 5 digits on the market. Amazingly, high grade copies of the retail release 21-back Boba Fett fetch almost as much. Here Hasbro gives us two-in-one with a reimagining of a rocket firing Fett on a replica Episode IV card.

POTF Yak Face

This guy has been in the collecting news lately for some reason.

As with the above Boba Fett, high grade samples of an actual POTF '85 Yak Face will set you back 5 figures. And that is for the honor of likely owning one with a heavily yellowed bubble that you have to worry will worsen on your dime. This figure is legendary, and we all know what the announcement of its inclusion with the HasLab Sail Barge did for that campaign. The backing rate took of on a hockey stick trajectory! That proves there is absolute demand for vintage Kenner Holy Grail replicas, and there are several more.

In the coming weeks, we will highlight some of those grails, and make suggestions of how Hasbro can bring them to market. By my count there are at least six of varying degree of collecting draw. Let's get 'em done!