By the time The Empire Strikes Back was gearing up for release, Kenner had its tooling department well-funded and running full-throttle and so no longer needed to recycle toys from previous lines. This rule didn't apply to newer lines borrowing from the Star Wars line itself, however.
By the mid-'80s, when Kenner's classic
Star Wars lines had run their course and were no longer lining store shelves, new properties started borrowing from items originally tooled for the
Star Wars saga. There was a "Glamour Gals" plastic stage based on the early
Star Wars mail-away 12-figure display stand, which ironically is much more common today than its successor. Repurposing the Han Solo 12-inch figure for
Indiana Jones was a no-brainer, seeing as how Harrison Ford had played both roles. Strangely, this swap-out didn't apply to the 3 3/4" Indy figure as well.
Other film properties also got the recycled Star Wars treatment -- Batman's "Sonic Neutralizer" was almost a dead ringer for the early Star Wars Electronic Laser Rifle, although Batman's included a more PC "dish" at the muzzle. The Real West -- basically a re-branded version of the late '70s Butch & Sundance line, re-imagined the Star Wars Creature Cantina as a western saloon playset. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves truly lived up to its namesake when you counted the number of designs it stole from the Star Wars line. Apparently, Kenner had scrambled to get the Robin Hood line to market, and based many of its designs on other lines, including the entire Sherwood Forest set.
Based on Return of the Jedi's Ewok Village playset, Kenner only made a few adjustments to re-jigger it into a medieval forest -- it added plastic leaf canopies and mounted crossbows, and lost the throne used to carry C-3PO. The Ewok Battle Wagon found new life as a rolling battering ram in the Robin Hood line, which included a catapult that had been a separate part of the Return of the Jedi line.
Probably the strangest entry derived from the Star Wars line was that of Friar Tuck, who appears to be a retooled Gamorrean Guard figure from Return of the Jedi. The two share many similar features, including bare legs and sandals, belt, shoulder and wrist gauntlets, and hands. Many other figures from the Robin Hood line were apparently lifted from Kenner's earlier Super Powers line.
Once Hasbro acquired Kenner in the mid-'90s and had access to all of their original molds, re-issues of the old Star Wars vehicles from the vintage line emerged with some slight modifications -- usually minus the electronic components.
While hunting down recycled toys can be challenging, it can also teach collectors a little bit about how the toy industry works, especially when they are dealing with an unexpected hit like Star Wars that that sends them running for the company archives.
Thanks to Todd Chamberlain, Isaac Lew, and Tommy Garvey for helping compile this article
