Boba Fett

This may be a week of Star Wars-related posts!

This is a cool article about the popularity of Boba Fett

Personally, I don't remember having any particular fascination with the character when I first saw The Empire Strikes Back but in hindsight, I guess I can understand why this bounty hunter's character is so popular. He's pretty cool looking, is a man of few words, and was the mysterious evil guy.

My first memory of Boba Fett was actually slightly before The Empire Strikes Back came out. I was such a huge fan of the original Star Wars movie (at age 7) that I collected all of the action figures from Episode IV. (which, mind you, back then, was simply called Star Wars).

As you probably know, Star Wars was the first movie to build such a successful merchandise franchise - especially in the toy market. Kenner Toys did such of good job of promoting their merchandise.

If you collected the first, orginal 12 action figures, saved the Proof of Purchase from the back of the blister cards, and mailed them in, they sent you a special stand that you could display them all on. (I thought it was pretty cool)

The next promotion (that I remember at least) was to collect a certain amount of Proof of Purchase seals from any Star Wars toy merchandise, and they would send you a special Boba Fett Action Figure. At the time, it was the only way that you could get it. I'm not entirely sure if you could buy it in stores later or not, but I remember thinking that this figure was really special.

Originally, the Boba Fett figure was advertised to have a rocket that actually launched from his backpack. I guess before they shipped the figure, they figured out that it was a choking hazard, so they made the rocket a permanent fixure in his pack.

Anyhow, I'm happy to say that I'm a proud owner of the original Boba Fett action figure. According to this article it's the most valuable (to collectors anyway) of all of the action figures.

All of my Star Wars toys are boxed in a couple of boxes at my parent's house.

I took them all out to look at them when Episode I was released a few years back.
I should really take them out again.

The inner Star Wars geek in me is re-emerging!