This is one of my most recent acquistions, and the oldest to date! This is a wampa, the abominable snowman type creature on Hoth at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, where it attacks Luke, kills and eats his riding beast, and is going to eat Luke when Luke cuts it's arm off with his father's lightsaber. Interestingly, there were some deleted scenes where a wampa got into the Rebels' base, and ran amok until they shut it in a corridor with a warning sign on the door. When the Empire attacks and the Rebels evacuate, C-3PO removes the warning sign, and a couple of snowtroopers open the door only to get mauled by the previously-trapped wampa. It would have been nice if those scenes had made the final cut, but they wouldn't have really added much to the story, and they already had enough sub-plots, with Vader's search for Luke, Luke's training, Han and Leia getting close etc.
Anyway. This creature figure was made by Kenner, the original license-holders, in 1981, around the time ESB was released. It should be no surprise to learn I got this second hand. It was loose, with no packaging, and has been without packaging for some time. Let's have a look:
Isn't that a terrifying monster? He's got scary horns around his face, strong arms and big claws. His arms and legs move, and he stands well unsupported. You can't see it too well from the photo, but his arms and torso are made from a different plastic to the legs, and the two types have aged differently. The legs are still a fairly bright white, but appear to have a slight pink tinge. The torso and arms have yellowed. They're mostly a sort of cream, with some orange-brown pieces. The worst of this orange-brown is behind the ears, as this photo shows:
So he's not exactly mint, but he is still in very good condition. Likewise, the paint on his paws and claws is only a little chipped and rubbed:
That's a little chip near the side of the paw and rubs at the edge of the claws. The large unpainted streak from the heel of the paw is part of the design, not wear and tear.
I don't mind these defects. They give it a little character while still leaving it in good condition.
The wampa also has an action feature, where if you pull the arm back, it will swing back into postion and give a firm clout to any figure in the way. Unfortunately, my wampa can only do this with it's left arm. I think it's a slight degradation of the plastic on the right shoulder joint. But let's see that left arm pulled back:
It's not easy trying to hold him in position with one hand - the arm keeps trying to swing back!
This picture also gives a slightly better look at the contrast between the aging of the two types of plastic, if you look at where the right arm is resting on the leg.
The legs also have molded marks on the back:
The leg on the left has the copyright symbol followed by "LUCASFILM", with the year "1981" written below. The leg on the right says "MADE IN HONG KONG". Of course, because the molded words are going on top of the fur pattern, they're a little hard to read, and did require some tilting. I'm not entirely sure if the Country of Origin mark has any significance, but I like the date stamp - a reminder of how old this little treasure is!
The molding and design leaves a little to be desired, what with the advances in toy design over the last 40-odd years. But I love the swinging arms, and the paws and face. And this is my first bit of vintage Star Wars, something special in and of itself. I do really, really like it.
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