Vintage Kenner Vehicles That Have Not Been Releases In The Vintage Collection

Today we're going to focus on the vintage Kenner Star Wars vehicles that have never been released in the Vintage Collection, but there are rules. First, we're not considering variations to the ship or the packaging. This means you won't find the Battle Damaged X-Wing or the blue box Snowspeeder on this list. Second, this is just vehicles. We're not looking at creatures or playsets, so no Wampa, Dewback or Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Set. Remember that Darth Vader's Star Destroyer is a playset and not a vehicle. It says so right on the box. Third, we're playing by "close enough" rules. So this Imperial Troop Transport counts as this Imperial Troop Transport. Finally, and painfully, mini-rigs are straight out. Your CAP-2 and Endor Forrest Ranger are a subject for another day.

Got the rules? Okay. Let's being.

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Status: Released in the modern line

A Darth Vader's TIE Fighter was released in POTF2. Most of the vehicles released during that era were just re-releases of the vintage Kenner version. Not so here. It was an all new sculpt. It's better than the wildly inaccurate Kenner release, but it's a little wonky by today's standards, mostly for the screen-inaccurate blaster cannons and missiles in the wing struts. The POTF2 Darth Vader's TIE was twice re-released, once in the Original Trilogy Collection (OTC) and again in the epic Death Star Trench Run ultimate battle pack. Darth Vader's TIE really needs a place in the Vintage Collection, but it would take an all new sculpt to get there.

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Status: Released in the modern line

I desperately wanted the Kenner Sandcrawler when I was kid, but I grew up in a mid-lower lower-middle class family, and it was a bit too spendy for the household budget. My parents decided that the cardboard Land of the Jawas playset was good enough. It was what motivated me to get a jobs where I could buy all the toys I wanted, and also eat candy for dinner. Take THAT, mom and dad. Hasbro re-released the vintage sculpt in OTC as a Previews exclusive. The price with shipping was onerous and I decided it was too spendy. DANG IT! My parents won. It was eventually released at brick and mortar via Hot Topics, which would save the ghastly shipping, but that store intimidates me, so I never went in. A Sandcrawler has eluded me my entire life.

As with Darth Vader's TIE, and all new sculpt is needed here. The Kenner mold is far too small. This could only be done via HasLab, but I would do back flips for one. And of course if it were done through "dream project" HasLab, it should have removable attachments that could convert it to the Arvala-7 version seen in The Mandalorian.

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Status: Released in the modern line

2010 was a weird and confusing year for collecting. It gloriously saw the return of the Vintage Collection, but that ran concurrently with the animated style Clone Wars line and the realistic Saga Legends line in what was thought to be an unnamed line look. It was colloquially called the "Shadows of the Dark Side" or SOTDS line look because of the ominous storm brewing on the packaging. Some also called it the "dark clouds" line look. We later learned that this was actually a continuation of the Legacy Collection. Vehicles that were designed to compliment the Vintage Collection action figures were principally released in this SOTDS packaging. Two of the vehicles released in this line look were also released as store exclusives in Vintage Collection packaging. They were the AT-AT (Toys R Us) and the Snowspeeder (Target). Target also had an exclusive Vintage Collection small wing TIE Fighter, which was not part of the SOTDS line. Like I said, it was a confusing time.

The Twin-Pod Cloud Car was released in that SOTDS packaging, but never in the Vintage Collection for some unknown reason. It has a vintage Kenner counterpart, and in 2010, the Cloud Card Pilot figure was released in TVC, but it was relegated to only SOTDS packaging for (shrugs shoulders) reasons. Unlike the previous entries on the list, that 2010 Cloud Car could be re-released as is in TVC. Let's make this picture!

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Status: Never released in the modern line

This one is a rarity on the list. The Rebel Transport is the only Kenner vehicle that has never been released in the modern line, and for good reason. It's stupid. I never liked the design of this "space whale" vehicle even when I was a kid. It looks like an upscaled auxiliary fuel tank from a World War II fighter plane. Slaps wheels on it and send it to the Bonneville Salt Flats. I never had this vehicle as a kid, but unlike the aforementioned Sandcrawler and AT-AT, it never ended up on my Christmas list. I didn't want it.

Due to its size, the Rebel Transport could only be accomplished via HasLab. Vintage Collection HasLabs have bi-annual frequency. That's half as scarce as the Winter Olympics for crying out loud! If one of those precious slots went to the Rebel Transport, I'd punch a wall.

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Status: Released in the modern line

This is the most frustrating entry on the list. As mentioned in yesterday's article, Hasbro released an excellent modern sculpt in 2012 with the TPM 3D - Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper. That was a Toys R Us exclusive, so not everyone had access to it. That means it underserved demand.

Definitive sculpt + underserved demand + vintage Kenner counterpart = no brainer

Yet, we all sit here and wait patiently. Hopefully Hasbro uses the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi in 2023 as an excuse to finally introduce the Speeder Bike in the Vintage Collection.

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Status: Released in the modern line

We've saved the best for last. The vintage Kenner Imperial Shuttle mold has been twice re-released in the modern line. Once was in the blue Star Wars "Saga" line as an FAO Schwartz exclusive. The previous sentence sounds like something that would be uttered by Mr. Burns. The second release was a Target exclusive in The Saga Collection (TSC) as a "limited time only" promotion for Black Friday weekend.

The vintage Kenner package for the Imperial Shuttle is iconic, and it is what cemented me as an army builder. If the Imperial Shuttle never gets released in The Vintage Collection, it will be a painful miss. The problem is that, like two of the other vehicles on this list, the existing tooling isn't good enough anymore. We need a larger and better scaled shuttle, which surfaces a familiar problem. It could only be accomplished via HasLab. The HasLab potential roster is getting very crowded, and we don't even have a Death Star, Jabba's Palace or Cantina yet. Even if Hasbro releases two Vintage Collection HasLabs a year, I will probably outgrow collecting toys (finally) before they get through the viable options.

Hopefully the appearance in The Mandalorian gives the Shuttle a little bump, especially since we have figures of three of the four occupants in the Season 2 finale.

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So there it is. Did I miss any? Probably, but I've been working on this article for over three hours now. Cut me some slack.

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