I don't know if this has been asked before (I couldn't find anything about it if it has) and I'm not sure there is a definitive answer, probably just speculation but I would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

I have always thought that some vintage foreign figure lines made a strange choice of figures.

Firstly Lili Ledy. Now I know a lot of this has to do with time of release and it makes sense when you look at it in terms of figures produced but when you look at all the great figures that were not produced it seems quite surprising. No original Han, Luke, Leia, no cantina creatures, no droids apart from R2 and C3PO, missing some great bounty hunters, no Luke X-Wing, no Hoth Luke, Han, Leia, no Hoth Snowtrooper or AT-AT driver. The updated version of C3PO with removable limbs gets included but not R2 sensorscope. Man those are some great figures that got left out. Once more I know a lot of this has to do with the time of their release but comparing it to other vintage foreign lines like Glasslite and Top Toys it make even less sense.

Glasslite came along later at the time of POTF but managed to include 5 of their 8 released figures from the Star Wars waves (original Luke, Han, Leia, Chewy, Vader), 2 figures from the ESB waves ( C3PO removable limbs and Hoth Snowtrooper), none from ROTJ and surprisingly only 1 POTF wave figure (R2 pop up saber). This seems very strange to me that they would choose figures from the earlier waves whereas Lili Ledy chose figures in the later waves. Also if you're going to go with figures from the early waves it's a little strange to miss out such an important and iconic figure like the Stormtrooper and choose the Hoth Snowtrooper instead.

Now Top Toys choice of figures was all over the place as far as I am concerned. Vader and Stormtrooper - ok fair enough. Luke Jedi is understandable if you're going to go with ROTJ waves. Strange to include Chewy and Yoda but leave out such important characters like Han, Leia, R2 and C3PO. Now 2 more figures and an opportunity to make it good, but no they chose not one but two bloody ewoks

Any other foreign vintage collectors pondered these strange choices too??

I have!!

Top Toys is the one that I can't get. Chirpa?? Really?? I assume it had to have something with molds and maybe domestic product being brought in and maybe labeled (like Harbert did during the ESB line).

Ah so you think they didn't have so much choice on the figures they used in the line it was more a case of what they could get there hands on!? That makes sense. I guess it could of been a lot worse then!

Still Chirpa AND Logray and no Han or Leia!!

I can imagine Lili Ledy's focus was on ROTJ characters when they started to mass produce figures in 1983, as this movie was just released and would appeal to Mexican kids the most. So sales guaranteed.
Characters which appeared in all three movies, (like Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Yoda, Imperial Commander, Stormtrooper) were produced as well.

Off course there are exceptions, like Bespin figures (Luke, Han, Leia), Hoth Rebel Commander, but some of these also appeared on the early ESB 10-backs in 1982, which were meant to test the market before deciding to carry on.

What seems strange is that Ledy released a Snowspeeder but no Luke X-Wing to fly it?

Dr Dengar wrote:

What seems strange is that Ledy released a Snowspeeder but no Luke X-Wing to fly it?

Yes that is an odd one.

Dr Dengar wrote:

I can imagine Lili Ledy's focus was on ROTJ characters when they started to mass produce figures in 1983, as this movie was just released and would appeal to Mexican kids the most. So sales guaranteed.
Characters which appeared in all three movies, (like Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Yoda, Imperial Commander, Stormtrooper) were produced as well.

Off course there are exceptions, like Bespin figures (Luke, Han, Leia), Hoth Rebel Commander, but some of these also appeared on the early ESB 10-backs in 1982, which were meant to test the market before deciding to carry on.

Yes your absolutely right the focus was on the ROTJ waves as well as the ESB Bespin waves. Hoth figures got missed out apart from Rebel Commander. Generic SW wave figures that appeared in all 3 movies were included. And strangely the Jawa.

Also seems odd that they went about it completely the opposite way to Glasslite who chose the original SW figures instead.

I know it sounds weird but toys were meant for kids and not for collectors.
Kids liked those small Endor furballs (that's why Lucas gave them such a prominent role anyway), so from a commercial point of view Toptoys did a good job releasing no less than two Ewoks. I am not talking our point of view....

About Glasslite, I wonder what commercial masterminds were behind that company.

Releasing a X-Wing, I totally understand, a DV TIE Fighter, OK, and a TIE Interceptor,....what?!!...wait a minute, another TIE fighter? You got to be kidding me, why not something completely different, like a AT-ST instead?

Luke FB, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Snowtrooper: sure, why not Luke Jedi, Leia Boushh, Han Trenchcoat, Biker Scout?

Vlix: what an ugly bastard, why releasing him, no kid wants to buy that one, maybe just a few collectors in 30 years.

Very interesting Topic Oli!

The most confusing of the lot for me is to release a Snowspeeder but no Luke to fly it!

Dr Dengar wrote:

Vlix: what an ugly bastard, no kid wants to buy that one

olisuds wrote:

Yes your absolutely right the focus was on the ROTJ waves as well as the ESB Bespin waves. Hoth figures got missed out apart from Rebel Commander. Generic SW wave figures that appeared in all 3 movies were included. And strangely the Jawa.

Well Lili Ledy based their Jawa on the ones appearing in Jabba's palace, which were wearing the latest fashion with removable hoods compared to their retarded relatives (seen in A New Hope) which were still wearing burkas.

Marco, you're a funny bastard today. You get 2 + points for making me laugh

OK I know it's a little different to talk about Bootlegs but Uzay also made some very strange choices. Infact they are probably the strangest of all.

Lots of imperials which is great as far as I was concerned as a kid. Lots of droids which is ok. Now how about some goodies like Luke, Han, Leia. No screw that lets just have Chewy and then make some bright blue fella and a guy with a shiny gold head.

Man those guys must have been on drugs when they decided on the Uzay figure line

olisuds wrote:

OK I know it's a little different to talk about Bootlegs but Uzay also made some very strange choices. Infact they are probably the strangest of all.

Lots of imperials which is great as far as I was concerned as a kid. Lots of droids which is ok. Now how about some goodies like Luke, Han, Leia. No screw that lets just have Chewy and then make some bright blue fella and a guy with a shiny gold head.

Man those guys must have been on drugs when they decided on the Uzay figure line

I really love headman, that must be my favorite figure of all time, would love to own one at some point.

Dr Dengar wrote:

I know it sounds weird but toys were meant for kids and not for collectors.
Kids liked those small Endor furballs (that's why Lucas gave them such a prominent role anyway), so from a commercial point of view Toptoys did a good job releasing no less than two Ewoks. I am not talking our point of view....

EWOKS RULE

"Man those guys must have been on drugs when they decided on the Uzay figure line "
real good drugs to think of a pig nose Yoda, fluoro pink Bossk, pink pouch Chewie, no articulation, ........