Talk about winning the lotto!

Its really interesting to read a first hand account of how some of the pre production stuff survived

"Engineering threw away barrels of first shots on a daily basis"

Here are some pictures of a lot of the stuff that Tom saved from Kenner. There is a lot of impressive stuff that he was able to save.

I've picked up about 20 or so POTF coins in my collection from him and they have always been the mintiest examples.

Wow, he did save a lot. Sooo much stuff, not enough words to descibe it

shawn_k wrote:

Here are some pictures of a lot of the stuff that Tom saved from Kenner. There is a lot of impressive stuff that he was able to save.

I've picked up about 20 or so POTF coins in my collection from him and they have always been the mintiest examples.

Dam that link is hot im gonna have to allocate some time to look through all the things on there properly!

Nice one Shawn

A couple of more quotes to go here too

Quote :

And then there's the salt mines in Louisiana. Yes, Kenner effectively destroyed thousands of POTF figures at the end of the line. They were already produced, but retailers would not take them. We also could not donate them to charity, as that would make retailers unhappy who were already trying to sell off low demand figures they still had on the shelves (as donations would still make their way back into mainstream somehow). I don't know how the location was chosen, I was just told salt mines in Louisiana. But I'm pretty sure they were mangled up in the process first (just in case some of you guys were ready to put on your boots and helmets).

Tom N.

Quote :

As many of you know, I worked at Kenner from 1982-92 as marketing research director. I was also a known SW afficionado and collector within the company (before the collectible market truly emerged). It was around 1989 that the Senior VP of Marketing for boys toys came into my office, sat down, and said something to the effect of: "We have a lot of old Star Wars molds in Hong Kong, taking up too much space. We have to get rid of most of them, and they can't be shipped here. Here's a list of what they have. You're the guy. On the outside chance that we might re-introduce some classic pieces someday, tell me which vehicles and figures are signature pieces. We'll keep those molds. The rest will be defaced and dumped into Hong Kong's harbor." (I'm sure I asked, but was told no.)

So, I was given the responsiblity of telling Kenner what to keep and what to destroy. Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy of that list (wouldn't that be nice to know). Obvious keepers were things like the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, key characters, etc. - things that immediately came to mind back then when you heard the words "Star Wars". (Sure, a few odd ones survived, which might not have been in HK at the time.)

Interestingly, we did begin testing the idea of re-introducing some classic SW toys in 1991, but they still did not look viable relative to other leading action figure concepts at the time among boys (as a high volume toy line).

Tom N

I picked up some bits from Tom recently. Jees they are immaculate.

That's amazing.

What sort of stuff did you pick up Tim??

Just a few coins mate, nothing super rare or exciting.

Love this most:

Hodidoodili....I´m Sis Pruni!!

Wolff

wbobafett wrote:

Hodidoodili....I´m Sis Pruni!!

Classic

Wolff you are a funny guy

Thanks Shawn for getting some more quotes to add, also the picture gallery is awesome, I have them all saved from a while back but it was good to see them all again, definitely refreshed my memory and puts it into perspective just how much he did save !

I am thankful he was in a position to save them, imagine if it was ALL destroyed

That's the coolest link I've ever seen! That's a bunch of priceless pieces of plastic and cardboard.

Guess you learn something new every day. I never , ever, knew the Black Bespin Guard's cardback photo was him escorting the Carbonite Han.

Not sure why I care so much, but I actually do.

My cousin works for Hasbro. He basically does what Tom Hanks did in Big... he tests their toys (especially star wars). He used to send me all sorts of production figures and moc ups. Too bad it was all current stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bump for some of the newer guys

What a great read, i wish there were more stories from ex kenner employees, I picked up a few potf coins from Tom some years ago

Joe thanks for bumping this buddy... what a fantastic review. I been lucky to get a few items from Tom but the gent is so humble I never realised how important Tom 's role was in saving all the preproduction material.

I am going to learn to scuba dive so I can look for a Luke jedi Mould in Hong Kong's harbour!

I'm bumping this for anyone who hasn't read it... truely a great story! (thanks James for the link)