Toltoys Star Wars Diecast Ships
A rare trio on display here, the Tie Fighter, X-Wing and Landspeeder on hard-to-find early release Toltoys logo cards!
Thanks to Superdans Auction House for the pic.
Archive for the ‘Star Wars’Category
Toltoys Return of the Jedi Speederbike
The iconic Speederbike was one of the most loved toys from the Kenner USA Star Wars range, and they were also sold here in Australia in Kenner boxes during the ROTJ era. Recently though the keen eyes of Aussie super-collector Pat O’Brien noticed that some local versions were issued in a slightly larger box than the US version, and backed up the claim to a local variation with the famous “PO Box 72 Alexandria NSW” Toltoys mailing address being present on the included instructions.
The Toltoys box overlapping the Kenner example.
The Alexandria address.
Small differences but significant to Toltoys variation hunters! Is your a Toltoys version? Let me know below…
Thanks again to Pat O’Brien for the find and photos.
Will
08
10 2010
Star Wars Toltoys 3 Position Laser Rifle
These rifles show up boxed much less frequently than the smaller Han Solo Blasters, and finding one in Toltoys livery (Rather than Kenner) is near impossible, so it was great to see this relatively nice example appear on Ebay recently and subsequently make its way into one of the best Toltoys collections here in Oz.
Thanks to Paul Naylor for the photo!
Will
08
10 2010
Star Wars Update
Star Wars Update
We recently featured a rare example of the Toltoys Free 4-LOM promotion on a Yoda card, and now we have been spoilt again with this 41 Back Jawa above featuring the same front and back sticker combination.
Thanks to Martin Lacy and Jason West for bring this example to Toltoys.com
Local contributor Aussie James has also come through with the goods, providing us with a great image of the super tough New Zealand issue Toltoys Death Star playset.
The most obvious point of difference to the Australian version is the box, which has a two piece ‘board-game’ style lift off lid, as opposed to the one piece Australian issue which opens at the ends. The paperwork is also marked Toltoys New Zealand.
Will
24
10 2009
Star Wars Ice Cream Update
More Ice-Creams!
Long time readers of this blog will know that licenced ice-cream items, and Star Wars in particular, are my favourite vintage items. So imagine the smile when the images below came down the line from Queensland, a few guerilla “on-the-run” snap-shots of a collection of original art-work and related items that remains for the time being anonymous…
The translite above shows a great set-up of the four Star Wars Popsicle wrapper flavours. Han does not look pleased about being Raspberry….
The next image is another translite of the original art used on the front of the Peters / Pauls infamous Jedi Jelly ice-creams.
Followed by a hurried 🙂 shot of another major element of the box art, the actual ice-cream!
And a translite of the completed product and wrapper!
The final translite above is one I knew I’d seen many times, and after a quick search I found its final resting place (flipped) on the side panel of the Star Wars Popsicle box, see below…
The last two items are a real treat, a very tough poster and the complete sticker set of New Zealand Tip-Top Star Wars R2-D2 Space Ices…
And the complete run of 16 sticker premiums…
I’m indebted to a very special Toltoys.com contributor from Queensland (who knows who he is!) for all of these great images, thanks mate!
Cheers,
Will
22
08 2009
Star Wars Toltoys Update
Star Wars Toltoys Update
Our latest Toltoys Star Wars update features the unassuming little green guy above. A regular ESB Yoda you say? Computer says No. What appears to be a regular Kenner USA release is in fact a rare Toltoys release Survival Kit Offer card, see the reverse shot below. Or at least that’s what it was, until Toltoys updated the offer with the ultra-rare 4 Lom Offer stickers. Yes that’s right, a double Toltoys offer card. Not since the Anakin POTF / Aussie Coin Offer Sticker combo has a Toltoys double act come along, and aren’t we glad it did!
Part two of this update features the mysterious “Toltoys NZ upside-down blister” attached to the 9/10th scale card. If I were a northern hemispherian I wouldn’t be able to resist some kind of “Down Under” pun here, but I’m not so I will.
These crazy blisters appear to have been affixed to their cards by Ugnaughts, it’s the only possible explanation. The cards themselves are also slightly smaller than their Kenner counterparts (see the pic below for comparison); again resist the urge for size jokes please. This Hammerhead is only the third carded example I’ve seen, although there are a couple of cardbacks out there too. The supposition of New Zealand origin comes largely from anecdotal evidence, plus anyone whose ever seen an episode of Flight of the Conchords understands it’s no stretch for weird yet strangely entertaining stuff to come out of the Land of the Long White Sheep. Anyone have any of these weird blisters out there?
Finally this update we have a Droids 3-pack set. It appears to be a standard Kenner USA release but check the back and you’ll notice all the height measurements have been blacked out. Why? Well for the same reason the Royale with Cheese exists – the metric system. The card was printed with US imperial measurements, not the proper (!) legally approved Australian metrics. While they appear to have been done by hand that seems unlikely, so unless Toltoys employed a thousand 15 year-old work-experience kids for the worst week of their lives I’d suspect (as does the discoverer and owner of this item) that they were created with a template or hastily constructed overprint. It will only take one more example to prove the theory, anyone got one?
Huge thanks to Dax for these three incredible items this week, what will his eagle eyes turn up next?
Cheers,
Will
18
07 2009
Kenner Toltoys 12 Back
An unusual Star Wars Toltoys find!
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To most Star Wars collectors that item above appears to be your run-of-the-mill Kenner Star Wars C3PO 12 Back figure. The keen eyed collectors will note that the blister has been reattached to the card-back for use as a display item, but that is not of consequence here.
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Flipping the card over reveals a metric conversion sticker of a type used by Toltoys Australia. These stickers were applied to foreign card-backs to comply with local sales laws requiring the use of metric measurements over imperial. These stickers have been previously found on Toltoys printed cards, but to my knowledge they have never been found on a Kenner card-back.
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These are tough enough to find on Toltoys card-backs, but this discovery opens up a whole new variation for collectors to search for! Speculating on where these figures fit into the chronological release of Star Wars figures in Australia is tough to do, were they late release items dumped here at the change-over to Empire Strikes Back figures? Or were they in fact the very first Star Wars figures sold in Australia, before Toltoys managed to print their own card-backs. All suggestions and ideas are welcome!
Special thanks for this discovery goes to Toltoys collector Pat O’Brien, who also provided the photos.
Cheers,
Will
31
03 2009
Star Wars in the 1982 Waltons Wishbook
More Star Wars from the 1982 Waltons Wishbook
$60 was a lot for a toy in 1982, hell it’s a lot for a toy today. Just as well then that you received one of the all-time great play-sets for your cash back in ’82, the Kenner Millennium Falcon.
Walton’s caption writers went off the deep end in this one, declaring the Falcon to be ‘faithful’, as opposed to all those other lousy cheating spacecraft one presumes. Dig the “Simulate Space Chess” – is the simulate really necessary? I mean even slow Darren from down the road gets that we’re not actually playing real space chess here.
The keen-eyed among you will have already noticed the uber-cool Empire Strikes Back Electric Toothbrush labeled as a Star Wars one, a tough item to locate for collectors today. They were one of the earliest Star Wars toys so it’s good to see them still around in 1982.
The last little reveals of this particular page are the fantastic AT-AT, still sold in the modern Hasbro line today, and the short lived but much admired Micro Collection, represented here by the Bespin environments. Comparing the prices of the Micro stuff with the creature / figure combos to their right gives some insight I think into why the line did not last. What would you have preferred as a kid? Micro Rob don’t answer that 🙂
Finally we have the whole page on show, and what a treasure trove it has proved to be, solving the mysteries of the not one but three Toltoys Special Offer items, and throwing in rare ads for 3-Packs and ESB Toothbrushes just for fun.
I’ll be continuing the Wishbook posts soon, but stay tuned for some other vintage toy coolness this week.
Cheers!
Will
21
03 2009
Waltons Special Offer Star Wars
Two more Special Offer mysteries solved…
A couple of years ago on Toltoys.com we presented a feature on all the known Star Wars Special Offer boxed toys that had surfaced in Australia during the 1978 – 85 period. In the post below we were able to confirm that the Attack Base was a Waltons Department Store special offer and also list the contents.
This week I’m happy to reveal the origins and contents of two more mysterious special offer items, the Empire Strikes Back Wampa and Tauntaun. There is only one known example of the Wampa box, and only a cut front of the Tauntaun box.
Neither were found with contents intact, leaving it open to speculation as to which figures were included.
Now thanks to the discovery of the 1982 Waltons Wish Book we can confirm that these two were also Waltons Special Offers, and narrow down the identity of the figures included.
This is the ad for both items, and while we can confirm the price and the three figures included, I’m not sure we can say which figures came with which! The photo suggests that Han Hoth came with the Wampa and the other two with the Tauntan, but it could just as easily have been the Snowtrooper with the Wampa (Bad guys together?) and the other two with Tauntaun.
Until we find a sealed example let the speculation continue!
More reveals coming soon…
Cheers,
Will