HOW A NEVER-RELEASED BOBA FETT ACTION FIGURE BECAME ONE OF THE MOST COVETED COLLECTIBLES IN THE ‘STAR WARS’ GALAXY
By Robert Wilonsky
The Force is strong with Heritage Auctions’ May 31 Star Wars Signature® Auction. Among other intergalactic highlights, the event features the most coveted Star Wars toy never made: one of the two surviving hand-painted, missile-firing Boba Fett action figures pulled from the production line in 1979. Man, oh, Mandalorian.
The Rocket-Firing Boba Fett available in Heritage’s May 31 ‘Star Wars’ auction has been called the ‘Crown Jewel of Unproduced Toys.’
The 3¾-inch Boba Fett is an imposing figure in an auction full of centerpiece offerings, including the lightsaber Luke Skywalker and Rey shared in Star Wars: The Last Jedi; a Lucasfilm-sanctioned Darth Vader helmet, armor and chest box made for early 1980s promotional tours; and early, rare (and even cast-signed) posters. The event spans the beginning of the beginning of Star Wars to the modern-day sequels and streaming iterations. There’s material from the movies (Death Star panels! Ewok heads! Darth Maul’s lightsaber!) and material made to promote the movies, including the only known gem-mint Han Solo and Princess Leia stickers from Topps’ first series of Star Wars trading cards. Whether Rebel or Imperial, this is the auction you’re looking for.
STAR WARS SIGNATURE® AUCTION 7367
May 31, 2024
Online: HA.com/7367
INQUIRIES
Justin Caravoulias
214.409.1644
JustinX@HA.com
It begins with the little bounty hunter with the hefty price on his head, the Boba Fett action figure that has achieved what ABC News once called “mythic, unicorn-like status.”
At first, the figure was intended as a giveaway: “FREE BOBA FETT,” exhorted the in-store displays, the action-figure packaging and TV ads in 1979, shortly after the armored (and, then, animated) figure debuted as “Darth Vader’s right-hand man” in the Star Wars Holiday Special. All a kid – or their parents – had to do was provide proof they’d purchased four other Star Wars action figures. In return, within six to eight weeks, they would receive Kenner’s 21st Star Wars action figure with the “rocket firing back pack.” Even better, said the promos: “Boba Fett not available in any store.” To a kid for whom the force awakened their collecting bug, that sure put the bounty in bounty hunter.
Kenner’s promotional materials for the Boba Fett figure promised a “rocket firing back pack,” but the rocket launcher was removed for safety reasons before the toy was shipped to consumers.
Except, quite famously, that rocket-loaded Boba Fett never arrived in the mail – or anywhere else – after reports surfaced in early 1979 that competitor Mattel’s Battlestar Galactica plastic-missile-firing toys had become choking hazards. When Boba Fett finally did arrive in a plain white box, the rocket had been glued into place, and there was a “Note to Consumers” explaining why the change had been made: “The launcher has been removed from the product for safety reasons.”
Some Kenner employees spared the rocket-firing Boba Fetts destined for the Sarlacc pit. That’s how the few surviving prototypes became the most sought-after Star Wars toy in this galaxy or any other – what Entertainment Weekly’s Andrew Breznican once called “the fulfillment of a broken promise.”
“Projectiles were always touchy subjects,” says former Kenner engineer Jacob Miles III, an original member of the company’s Star Wars team tasked with keeping that rocket safely in Boba Fett’s backpack. “But when Battlestar Galactica had their issues, we immediately just shut it down and destroyed everything. We were concerned about disappointing kids because we had shown that thing [the rocket] taking off. But we had a much bigger concern if we shipped it.”
One of only two examples known, the hand-painted prototype comes with a certificate of authenticity from Collectible Investment Brokerage.
This Boba Fett has the L-shaped latch in the back, of which there are some 70 known examples of the surviving 100 (or so) prototypes. As longtime Star Wars expert and dealer Brian Rachfal notes in his letter of provenance, “it’s uncertain exactly how many Rocket Firing Boba Fetts were created” or survive 45 years later. But this is absolutely among the rarest.
“One of only two examples known, this hand painted figure is still unique in its class,” Rachfal writes, as it’s the only one with its head and appendages painted gray. This AFA-graded, CIB-authenticated figure has been so thoroughly examined that hobby historians can pinpoint where it was made (“Kenner’s 10th floor at the Kroger building” in Cincinnati), how it got out (“it was salvaged from a box of discarded toys deposited there for employees to take home”) and where it eventually landed (with Justin Kerns, revered among Boba Fett-ishists as he once had nine unique survivors from the discarded lot).
Even in an auction teeming with more than 200 rare and limited-edition lots (a Mandalorian pinball machine, anyone?), this diminutive Boba Fett figure stands tall.
ROBERT WILONSKY is a staff writer at Intelligent Collector.