A new wave of vehicles from the Hot Wheels Starships Select line has shown up at a local department store for use down here in New Zealand, so we were excited to be able to a nice new rendition of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder from Star Wars: A New Hope. This classic vehicle sits nicely alongside the other Original Trilogy spaceships, in particular, that we have from this Hot Wheels collection.

Unfortunately local stockists of the Hot Wheels vehicles have missed a few waves over the last couple of years, so we were definitely pleasantly surprised to see good stocks of this wave, even though it contains three re-packed vehicles (Millennium Falcon, Boba Fett’s Starship, and Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter). The wave does also include a multi-coloured prototype version of Luke Skywalker’s T-65 X-wing Starfighter (Red 5), which we also picked up.

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Although we’re very keen collectors of the Black Series line of 6″ action figures from Hasbro, we did miss a few key characters from the early releases, so we were very happy to see new, updated releases of Han Solo and Chewbacca from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in particular, become available at a local stockist recently. We grabbed the whole wave, which included Nightsister Merrin from Jedi: Survivor, and Ezra Bridger and a Night Trooper from the Ahsoka series.

Han and Chewie look great together, and the modern articulation and paint application have given us some great details and features on all of the figures in this wave. In addition to taking a quick look at all of the figures in a video on our YouTube channel as soon as we had them in hand, we have detailed reviews of each uploaded now too.

Check out our in-depth video reviews for each character here:

• Han Solo Black Series 6″ Figure (A New Hope #10)
• Chewbacca Black Series 6″ Figure (A New Hope #11)
• Nightsister Merrin Black Series 6″ Figure (Gaming Greats #28)
• Ezra Bridger (Peridea) Black Series 6″ Figure (Ahsoka #18)
• Night Trooper Black Series 6″ Figure (Ahsoka #17)

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In the following video, we take a look at our convention program from Star Wars Celebration IV, which contains a grand total of 42 Star Wars celebrity autographs!

We have both been collectors of Star Wars autographs for many decades – it’s a hobby we very much enjoy, with the autographs serving as souvenirs of celebrities we have met or seen at various events, and we currently have over 180 Star Wars autographs, including George Lucas, spread across photos, toys, books, and other collectibles.

Celebration IV, which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, May 24th to 28th in 2007, was the second Celebration event in the US that we had attended, and was in fact our honeymoon. While we were there, we caught up with a good friend, Star Wars actor Gerald Home, who played Tessek and Mon Calamari Officer in Return of the Jedi and who was attending Celebration as a celebrity guest. Gerald sadly passed away in 2021. I’d known Gerald for more than a couple of decades, since before he started attending Star Wars conventions, and we had caught up with him in person previously when we visited his home town of London, as well as each time we crossed paths with him at a Star Wars convention. At Celebration III he introduced us to many Star Wars celebrities, during the convention and after hours, but at Celebration IV, knowing that we are avid autograph collectors, he went one step further and went around as many of the guests that he could that were in the autograph hall with him, and got them each to sign their respective photos in a copy of the official Celebration program, as a gift for us.

The resulting souvenir book is now an absolute treasure for us, commemorating the celebrities we saw at the convention, the experience of the event itself, and our friendship with Gerald.

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Over the years there have been a lot of Star Wars cards and stickers released exclusively in New Zealand, particularly in conjunction with food items and related promotions. I recently re-organised my collection of vintage, Original Trilogy-era, NZ-exclusive cards and stickers into new protective sleeves and a new folder, and have but together a quick video tour.

Sets covered include R2-D2 Space Ice stickers from the Tip Top Ice-Cream company (as well as the follow-up set of The Empire Strikes Back paper masks from the same company), Return of the Jedi ewok stickers from the Tip Top Ice-Cream company, Allen’s and Regina Star Wars and Return of the Jedi bubble-gum cards (the New Zealand equivalent of Topps trading cards), Twinkies Empire Strikes Back stickers, Kellogg’s Cornflakes Return of the Jedi stickers, Confection Concepts Postacards, and Quality Bakers bread cards.

You can also read more about each of these sets on the SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand website.

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After what seems like far too long of a writing period, I finally finished and published my first Star Wars reference book, entitled SWNZ Guide To Toltoys NZ Vintage Star Wars Action Figure Cardbacks. The book is written to complement similar content on the SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand website, but includes a lot of new material and photos.

The guide book is a comprehensive guide for collectors and fans of the Vintage Star Wars action figures and the cardbacks they were packaged on, that were released specifically in New Zealand during the Original Trilogy era (1977-1983). This is a topic that I have been researching for decades, but my passion for which really goes all the way back to my childhood when I was already collecting and archiving the packaging materials my Star Wars toys came in.

It can be purchased via Amazon. In fact, in its first week after publishing, it became the no.1 Bestseller in its category on the local Amazon site.

New Zealand/Australia:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0473706458
United States (affiliate link):
https://amzn.to/4bRWAIH
United Kingdom:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0473706458
Rest of the World:
Search SWNZ Guide on your local Amazon site.

The cardbacks of vintage Star Wars action figures are a big part of the vintage nostalgia phenomenon, with their bold logos and famous chrome “racetrack” border. These packaging items are, in fact, often seen as collectibles in their own right. During the early years of Star Wars mini-action figures, when many licensed Star Wars toys were being bought into New Zealand by Toltoys NZ Ltd, imported figures were sometimes packaged on locally printed cards in kiwi factories, resulting in unique collectibles that differed from the rest of the world.

This unofficial guide introduces the history of Star Wars in New Zealand, and covers the relationship between Toltoys NZ Ltd and its United States and Australian counterparts. A chapter is dedicated to each of the main categories of New Zealand Star Wars action figure cardback packaging, including Star Wars Toltoys Logo cardbacks, New Zealand 21-back, 32-back, and 48-back cardbacks, with 90 colour photos to illustrate key features and differences from the Star Wars packaging seen in the United States and elsewhere. Includes detailed info to help you identify and collect Toltoys NZ cardbacks, with a full character/cardback matrix, along with new photos of very rare specimens.

The post I wrote a Book – Guide to Toltoys NZ Star Wars Cardbacks appeared first on Villa Varykino.

At the Star Wars Celebration Europe event in London in April 2023, we presented this panel entitled New Zealand collectibles: Tip-Top, Toltoys, “Taste the Magic“, and beyond, as part of the Star Wars Celebration Collecting Track program. It is now online for public viewing.

This version contains the same slides and details, but has had the audio re-recorded for clarity, to compensate for the ambient noise in the main convention hall where the Collecting Track stage was located. In it we discuss the range of Star Wars collectibles, companies, and promotions that are unique to New Zealand, across the eras of Star Wars collecting – topics include Toltoys figures and packaging, Tip-Top Ice-Cream promotions, Kellogg’s stickers, Twinkies stickers, Allen’s & Regina trading cards, Confection Concepts, Bing Harris Sargood Ltd, Pizza Hut, KFC, Pepsi, Mainland Products Ltd (“Taste the Magic”), Folio posters, and much more.

This was the fifth presentation I have given at a Star Wars Celebration event, and the fourth for Kristy – we very much enjoy talking about our specific Star Wars passions, and hope you enjoy this topic.

• For more details about the collectibles covered in this video, visit this SWNZ article category.
• For more about Toltoys NZ Ltd, visit this SWNZ page.
• For highlights of New Zealand Star Wars collectibles, visit – this SWNZ article category.

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The vintage Toltoys NZ Star Wars 48-back action figure cardback is one of the rarest and most interesting New Zealand-specific collectibles from Toltoys. There have been a number of NZ-specific vintage Star Wars cardbacks (we have written comprehensive articles about them on the SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand website), but the 48-back is the only one that specifically mentions Toltoys NZ Ltd.

The New Zealand variant of the Empire Strikes Back 48-back is a truly unique design that stands out in particular because of the white box on the rear where the barcode would normally reside, which bears the text “Marketed in New Zealand by Toltoys NZ Ltd under license from General Mills Creative Products Pty Ltd Australia”. It also has a distinct white circular space for retailers to write in the price, where the proof of purchase is found on US cards.

In addition to being very slightly wider than US cards, other distinguishing aspects include the matt finish of the printing on the rear of the cardback, small radius corners, and an unmistakable, flat-based peg hanger hole. The cardback is otherwise similar to the US ESB48A, promoting the Scout Walker, Rebel Transport, Tauntaun, Wampa, and Mini-Rigs.

Footnote: we first wrote about the Toltoys NZ 48-back cardbacks on the SWNZ website back in February 2006 (Internet Archive link). Since then, we have added a lot more research and content about the products and history of Toltoys NZ – check the list of articles out here.

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As part of our ongoing comic storage and protection project, I recently took a look through my collection of vintage 2000AD comics, and made a video to highlight all the times Star Wars showed up among the pages of issues from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The content in 2000AD comics that covered Star Wars material could be grouped into three main types: 1) action figure advertisements (featuring Palitoy branded versions of the Kenner mini-action figure line), 2) competitions, and 3) movie reviews.

Star Wars Action Figure Advertisements

Palitoy advertised directly to kid’s via 2000AD comics, including some mail-in items like the famous Boba Fett offer that was available before The Empire Strikes Back hit cinemas – sadly, the offer was not available to us in New Zealand. The fun and memorable aspect of these advertisements was that the illustrations were of the toys themselves, not the movie characters, complete with their simplified styling (particularly noticeable on characters like R2-D2). Contributing artists included 2000AD regulars like Judge Dredd artist Brian Bolland – his work on the full page comic strip-style advert for the Creature Cantina, Droid Factory and Land of the Jawas playsets was one of my favourites of the time.

These advertisements were predominantly presented as line art or monochrome renditions, but for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, we did see pages that incorporated a splash of colour. As well as the Boba Fett offer, which required a proof of purchase and 3 name plates to be cut from action figure backing cards, there were also mail-in offers to get a Dengar action figure, and Emperor Palpatine figure, or The Empire Strikes Back display stands with backdrops.

Competitions

There were only a few competitions with Star Wars prizes in issues of 2000AD, but some of those prizes were very worth while indeed, including access to see filming of The Empire Strikes Back at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England ! Other competition prizes included large-sized action figures, sets of mini-action figures, and electronic/computer games.

Reviews

Each of the 3 Original Trilogy movies got a 2-page review with accompanying pictures in a 2000AD comics. The printing process for comics at the time did not allow for high-quality rendering of photos, but in that bygone era, we were appreciative of any details or images from the Star Wars movies.

The film reviews were, of course, overwhelmingly positive.

Gallery – Star Wars in 2000AD comics

The gallery below presents all of the Star Wars content in issues of 2000AD in chronological order, from the 1977–1984 issues of our collection, and includes the comic cover for each. We’ve also included a bonus page from the back of Prog 125, where the Green Cross Man, famously portrayed by David Prowse (Darth Vader) teaches kids about road safety.

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Following on from our previous Twitch streams after the episodes of Disney+ Star Wars shows, we’ve continued with our tradition of jumping online to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and discuss episodes after each Andor instalment concludes. We’re uploading the streamed video and conversation, where we break down our immediate post-episode thoughts for each week, to the Villa Varykino YouTube channel.

Episode 7 of Andor is now up, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of next week for episode 8. Join us on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel as we run through planetary heroics as a background to a deep dive into Andor straight after the credits wrap. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat.

The post SWTOR Streaming and Andor Chat – Episode 7 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

Following on from our previous Twitch streams after the episodes of Disney+ Star Wars shows, we’ve continued with our tradition of jumping online to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and discuss episodes after each Andor instalment concludes. We’re uploading the streamed video and conversation, where we break down our immediate post-episode thoughts for each week, to the Villa Varykino YouTube channel.

Episodes 1-3 of Andor are now up, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of next week for episode 4. Join us on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel as we run through planetary heroics as a background to a deep dive into Andor straight after the credits wrap. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat.

The post SWTOR Streaming and Andor Chat – Episodes 1-3 appeared first on Villa Varykino.