Vehicles & Playsets
Frank Mewes
Chihuahua
Chihuahua
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
A lot of these special offer items if not all were issued to catalogue stores like Sears & Wards (US/Canada) so they could offer something that was not readily available through the larger high street retailers.
There is a huge point of contention with many of the special offers, being did they come with carded figures or baggies? For the sake of completeness I will include some offers here where little to nothing is known about them, EDITED 6.9.22 – the GDE Canadian issued special offers shown did not come with baggies with the exception of the Dewback, all others shown here were as far as we know issued with MOC’s rather than baggies, but they are just to cool of an item to leave out of the guide IMO, so they shall remain – please bear this new edit in mind when reading the below sentence which was written many years ago & I wanted to leave in place for continuity & to show how our understanding of this area of the hobby has progressed over time.
This is an area of baggies which is a little bit of a mystery for some of the released items, many of the Canadian issued items came with MOC’s rather than baggies but I am not 100% sure which ones did come with baggies, from my understanding to date only these few Canadian issued SO items have turned up with baggies, but can not be confirmed as having come with them as no sealed examples have been found & opened 
to confirm this one way or the other & after so many years it is highly unlikely this will ever happen, so please do not regard everything in this section of the guide as set in stone, rather speculation & assumption, it may simply be a case that some had baggies substituted for the tough to find GDE 12/20 back MOC’s.
GDE Bi-Logo
Dewback with stormtrooper – Confirmed to have been issued with a baggie (ESB-a) & the only GDE Canadian issued S.O item we can confirm did come with a baggie as standard.
Land of the Jawas ultra rare with a yoda figure, though as it is the world’s only known example, its likely we will never know if this came with a baggie or a GDE MOC, but is highly likely to be carded.
The Kenner issued SO items came with large yellow stickers usually in one of the corners on the box fronts like the one at the top of the post, they sported photos of the figures that were included in vehicle/play sets & have become a very iconic & sought after item, many of them are hard to obtain with some of the mini rigs being near impossible, due to very small numbers of them having survive.
X-Wing with Pin head Han & Luke Farmboy SW-a’s.
Imperial Tie Fighter with Darth Vader & Stormtrooper SW-a’s.
Landspeeder with R2-D2 & C-3p0 SW-a’s.
ESB Action Display Stand – never actually issued, but salesman samples & toy fair mock ups have been discovered though extremely rare, the backing card & stand remained the same, presumably to be updated when released with an ESB scene, the only difference from the first issue one was the name tag stickers, but it was intended to be issued as a special offer item (presumably?) due to the inclusion of 6 baggied figure (Bossk/FX-7/Luke Bespin?Leia Bespin/Lando Calrissian & Hoth trooper), examples have been found with ESB-c baggies, but 2 sets surfaced with SW-a baggies, making these SW-a baggies some of the rarest & most desirable baggie know to exist (bar the Bossk which was issued in a single figure mail away & is quite common), it is assumed that the SW-a baggies are correct for the stand & that the ESB-c line up ones are either substituted or possible the salesman samples which were a little later than the toy fair mock up which as said came with SW-a’s
Twin Pod Cloud Car – Bespin Security guard (White) ESB-c.
Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Set with Hoth trooper ESB-a.
Rebel Armoured Snowspeeder – Hoth Rebel Soldier ESB-c.
Darth Vader Collector’s Case, bounty hunter pack including IG88/Bossk & Boba Fett & confirmed to be the sole way to find the very rare & highly desirable ESB-b baggies, though to Date I have only ever seen two of the 3 figures in this baggie type with IG88 never having to my understanding shown up & could in fact be in an ESB-e baggie (unconfirmed).
New info for this set 9.6.22 –
The set was usually always issued with the Fett & Bossk in ESB-b baggies but the IG88 can be found in either ESB-a or ESB-b, this is confirmed from an overstock find in more recent years (details on the bulk finds section) it would seem the intended baggies for IG88 was the ESB-b, but for some reason they likely ran out of stock & substituted this figure with the ESB-a baggie for the set, it is “possible” the ESB-e baggie had also been used as a substitute for the set, but if so it would have been rarely, same thing with the Bossk which has only turned up a couple of times in the ESB-a baggie for the set, it’s a bit of a strange one really when you consider the fact that this is likely one of the rarest of all production pieces & as such had a very limited lifespan as an offer, also the only way ESB-b baggies were issued, so why the shortfall in the correct baggies stock? – another baggie conundrum I feel we will likely never have an answer for.
Now a fantastic confirmation of the baggies & also a conformation they were now always as previously thought to be ESB-b’s but also in some cases ESB-a’s, this one as you can see shows both Fett & IG88 in ESB-b baggies, but the Bossk is an ESB-a bag, though Bossk has also been found several times in the very rare & pack specific ESB-b baggie, which confirms (finally) that all three of the figures can be found in this ESB-b baggie, but as said not in every case, good to put this one to rest at last, please also see IG88 ESB-b baggie in the single baggie section for further details.
Darth Vader Collector’s Case 2ND issue with Luke Bespin/Yoda & Darth Vader, I have to date not confirmed which baggie type came with this set, but it is presumed to have been either ESB-e or ESB-f but I think? its the ESB-e’s.
New info 9.6.22 – the set can be found with ESB-a baggies as well, so much like the 1st issue vader case with the bounty hunter offer, this set can have a few baggie variations & things are not as set in stone in terms of baggie types that are suitable as was previously considered.
Further photo of another example which shows it a little better but minus the protective bag.
Some new more decisive info on the S.O Mini Rigs, courtesy of Mike Heel:
3-backs
- MLC-3 ESB-F
- PDT-8 ESB-F
5-backs
- MLC-3 ESB-D
- CAP-2 ESB-A
- MTV-7 ESB-D
The above are confirmed & here is a little more info:
The INT-4 is a 5 back. The MLC-3, MTV-7 and PDT-8 all came on the 3 and 5 back boxes however the stickers that represented the free figures were different. The CAP-2 and INT-4 were never offered on 3-backs.
MLC-3 – 2 versions 3 & 5 back Hoth Rebel Commando presumed ESB-c.
MTV-7 – 2 versions 3 & 5 back, again presumed ESB-c but may have been ESB-a.
PDT-8 – 3 back 2-1B either ESB-c or ESB-a.
INT-4 – 5 BACK At At Commander presumed ESB-c.
CAP-2 – 5 Back, Bossk Presumed ESB-c.
Usually found with a smaller yellow rectangular sticker without pictures of the figures like there Kenner counterparts. Also have cropped up with small red circle stickers & also huge yellow strip like the ones at the bottom.
Landspeeder Luke Farmboy/R2-D2/C-3p0 – not confirmed which baggie, could even have been MOC’s, but baggies are presumed to have been in this (speculation).
Dewback stormtrooper baggie type unknown.
Hoth Wampa.
Tauntaun – Sadly the only example to have surfaced was just a cut section from a box front – so again no clue as to which figure was included let alone the baggie type, but it is logical to assume it was a Hoth figure, maybe Han & another figure?? We will just have to keep guessing eh.
Tauntaun Version 2 this one was offered in the Australian equivalent of the Sears wish book (Waltons Greatest show on earth) & as you can see by the sticker it was Han Hoth included with this version of the special offer & it also still sports a Waltons sticker in the top right hand corner of the box front, I am assuming this was an earlier offer that the other one above as its a solid belly Tauntaun rather than the open belly version in the other offer.
Waltons Greatest show on earth toy catalogue as mentioned above, this is the 1981 issue which shows the above special offer Tauntaun as well as some stunning 3 packs & the death star playset 8).
Troop Transporter – An obscure baggie I picked up is in fact a legit baggie rather than an aftermarket botch, great news, though sadly the baggie is split & missing one stormtrooper.
Special offer Troop Transporter ESB issue, same Star Wars logo box was used but the stormtroopers were replaced with Hoth troopers for the ESB release. All 3 images COURTESY OF Stéphane Faucourt.
Baggie for the above Troop Transporter.
Same baggie as above but with a double weapons error.
Land Of The Jawa’s – at last a Palitoy item to include, though not technically a special offer item as the Jawa came as standard with the Palitoy version of the play set, this one is rather special as it has the elusive SW-a baggie for the Jawa, the general consensus is that either A – this was issued prior to Palitoy getting there own baggie stock, or B – low stock levels, so this being a substitute, though I assume scenario A is more likely.
Close up of the baggie is in the Jawa section of the guide if you want a closer look.
As well as offering special offer items that included baggies Kenner/Palitoy etc also offered sets that were widely available which included action figures as standard as a way to entice folks to buy items that may well not have sold as well had they not been offered due the the limited playability of some of them.
Palitoy Land of the Jawas – Normally issued with SW-a but possibly also a palitoy baggie (unconfirmed).
Jabbas Dungeon playset 1st issue, 8D8/Nikto & Klaatu Skiff in ESB-c baggies.
Jabbas Dungeon playset 2nd issue, Barada,EV-9D9 & Amanaman in ESB-c’s
Cloud City playset, Lobot/Dengar/Han Bespin & Ugnaught ESB-d’s
Rebel Command Center (Adventure Set) At-At Commander & Luke Hoth in ESB-d with R2 Sensorscope in ESB-c.
Not sure how many variations there are for this set exactly (blister pack aside), but below is the one I have seen most frequently with everything together in a larger bag with the black font, “possibly” the same size & type baggie used for the Woolies 99p 8 packs – speculation ??
Hoth Rescue POTF Line, Luke Hoth & Han Hoth usually in Palitoy-a / i & b’s or Palitoy-u baggies, oddly usually one in each type, but can be either in each type, though I have to date never seen a set with both the figures in the same baggies IE both A’s or U’s.
So combinations that have been see to date are as follows –
Han & Luke – both in Palitoy-u
Han & Luke – Han in Palitoy-u & Luke in Palitoy-b
Han & Luke – Han in Palitoy-b & Luke in Palitoy-u
Han & Luke – Han in Palitoy & Luke in Palitoy-u
Han & Luke – Han in Palitoy-u & Luke in Palitoy-i
All the seen Palitoy-i baggies for this set have been found open ended / not tape sealed.
Those are the combinations that have surfaced, but in a nutshell any of those 3 baggie types are acceptable for this set in any combination, we know it was a mess at Palitoy in terms of quality control by the time it came to assembling these packs, but I figured it worth listing the options that have been seen to date – phew that was hard work for just a single item.
Endor Chase POTF line 2X Biker Scout/Wicket & Leia Poncho, have seen this set with various baggies types & can not confirm exactly which are correct, but are Palitoy baggies either Black Vertical or Blue Horizontal font.
I have seen this set with 2 main configurations in terms of baggies included in the set
1. Leia Poncho – Palitoy-f, sometimes open 1 end, sometimes taped & even stapled
2. Wicket in Kenner ROTJ-h & has been found with both heat seal types & now also simply as a loose figure (which is confirmed from a set where the wicket was still sealed with the other figures within the large outer baggie)
3. Biker Scouts in either Palitoy-u or Kenner ROTJ-h
These were found in a larger tape sealed baggie, we assume they could be the same size baggies used for the Woolies 99p 8 packs but are unable to 100% confirm this
Ewok Combat Catapult POTF Line, has been found with all baggies & a mix of baggies & folded over MOC’s included & now also with all carded, there seems to have been very little in the form of consistency by the time these were issued, not sure of baggie type, but assume Palitoy’s. Sadly no other images of the ones with baggies in as yet – if you have one please do LMK.
Baggies types confirmed:
Stormtroopers Palitoy-u or Palitoy-a baggies.
Wicket – ESB-c
Teebo – ROTJ-h
Special thanks to these contributors for their knowledge and image contributions:
Laurence Dyer, Arnaud Heyser, Andrew Neo, AJ, Snaggletooth, Kevin Bletsoe, Brett Meyer, DEL, Gary Borbidge, Edd Grant, Chris Eddleman, Vince Hely, Nathan Maunder, Jamie Woollard, Niels Pit, Andrew MacLachlan, cantina_patron, Franck Gadal, Joe, Richard Temple, Sven Schneider, Steve Savory, Shane Carter, Chris Fawcett, Andy Clarke, psybertech, Jake Neilheisel, Alex Pardi, Marc Caraway, Spookedhippy, Frank Ferro, James Body, Jonathan Freeman, Grant Criddle, Chris Arbizzani, RobbieZombbie, Narayan S. Naik, Mark Yeo, SHAWN_K, Andy Raymond, MOMIKE, theguiltyone, Sublevel Studios, Mike Silver, Mr Palitoy, Ronny Anngren, Willem-Jan Bos, Robert Heron, Darren H, REBELALLIANCE, Uncle Ron, LandoSkiff (Dan), Mike Horn, Pat O’Brien, Benjamin, Samir Krim, Pete Fizke, Final Frontier, Mike Heel, MR KENNER, John Kellerman, Paul Naylor, Matthieu Barthelemy, Stéphane Faucourt, Yogi, Chris Simmons, Stormtrooper37, Thomas Derby, Todd G, Sheldon Wagstaffe, Derek Ho, Broc Walker, Adam Marks, James Gallo, Charles Jones, Darrell Johnson & Brendi Burton, Christian Somma, Johnpaul Ragusa, Jesse Cedar Soberman, Dorothée Drouin, Dennis Hall, Javier Ruilopez, Enric Rovira, Matthew Carlise, Stephen Tzaras.
Photos in the guide galleries below are compiled from a number of photo sources. It’s not been possible to find credits for each one, however, if you own one of the featured images and want to have your credit added, or don’t wish to have your photo included, please let me know and I’ll arrange.
Thanks, Chihuahua.
