Star Wars Vintage KENNER Commercial – Early Bird Certificate

@hbk92701 Yes, you’re right. They turned him away, “Initially”. I am talking about AFTER. NO company on earth would turn away pre-paid orders involving toys for the biggest movie in history. Kenner, @ the time a fairly small company, (& was the only 1 interested). I mean after, if they couldn’t keep up with production, they should have got their license (for Star Wars toys) revoked, & given to a bigger company that could fill the orders. It all worked out in the end though, I guess.

@gjc82071 License yanked? Those companies turned lucas away. At least kenner thought to make some toys, unlike those guys, they didnt want anything to do with Star Wars.

as a collector..a MISB Early Bird mailer in nice shape (and afa graded) could run 2k
an opened one but with sealed bagged figs and pegs and a non dt luke 700-800 or 1200 for a dt luke sealed inside (double telescoping)

Nice piece of action figure history here

Just what every boy & girl wants for Xmas! An empty F!#%’ing box, & a 3 month wait. (we all know how patient children are). Kenner’s infamous “Empty Box campaign”. Had to wait until March to get the toys. Due to the companies vision & keen foresight into predicting Star Wars would be a “flop”, they didn’t make enough toys. IMO, Kenner should have got their license yanked & given to Mattel, Parker Bros, Milton Bradley, etc.

lawl feb firsth thru june first rofl still those toys look kooler then todays

@padawan23: No kidding–I was born a year later than you (obvious from my screenname, yes?) and I’m happy to say that my brother & I hold the distinction of having seen all 6 movies in the theaters when they were first out. Great memories… *happy sigh*

These Figures are awesome, I have collected Luke, Darth Vader, Han, Leia, C3po, Chewbacca, and I even got Boba Fett in near mint. I am still after a good R2, Yoda and Obi Wan

@KDAWGx7777777 …you are not alone

an unopened misb original early bird certificate I could going for at least 1000 bucks. Keep in mind its just the display and stuff not the early bird set which a sealed one goes for more. These toys aint cheap anymore lol

How much would an early bird certificate MIB be worth now???

I remember this,How exciting to wake up Christmas morning to a picture of what you didn’t get! LOL

Kenner mad a killing on both the six million dollar man and bionic woman and starwars figures i love the toys

Kenner Toys was the only company that George Lucas could afford to hire to produce toys and games for Star Wars at the time. But when Star Wars became the runaway success it was, Kenner, being only a small toy company mind you, was caught completely off guard and wasn’t able to make enough toys to meet the Christmas deadline, so they came up with this clever “Early Bird Gift Certificate” scheme to buy them time to make enough toys to meet up with the demand. And the rest is history.

i have the early bird certificate package and the sears cantina adventure set the two cardboard stands kenner offered in 77/78

no they were good figures… they only broke when kids would be too rough with them

My dad bought all the 77 star wars action figures…. he was 20 years old then he told me he only bought it because he thought it would be worth something someday, but my mom made him get rid of it….. JEEZ!

where the figures cheaply made?

I have the vinyl cape jawa and double telescoping “early bird” luke. Not cheap but pretty rare! It was a good marketing ploy to children instead of waiting til they could put out the figures. Here’s a display kids now wait for the figures lol

They basically ran out of figures during the ’77 Christmas season, so they had to put these certificates out to get them in April or May.

It goes to show what a marketing explosion Star Wars was.

It would have seemed like an a eternity waiting for those figures to arrive. The were and still are amazing.

I’ll never be as excited about anything like I was about Star Wars figures.

Many thanks for posting this wonderful piece of Kenner history!

I wonder how much it money it was back then

call me mad but im getting the 1977 original early bird kit this year all figuers are sealed in the baggies and luke is telescopic, paperwork also,, it aint cheap but who gives a shit i will own one after all these years of waiting!!!!! its a rare item now and its a must for a vintage collector!!!!

i’m only 25 and din’t get to experience the original Star Wars craze but was around for the mid 90′s rebirth. Proud to say i have all of the first twelve mint and in display cases. never got ahold of the original early bird stand though only a remake.