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Vintage Star Wars die cast toys

 

Welcome to vintagestarwarsdiecast.co.uk a source of information for everything that is die cast vintage Star Wars – well not quite everything, but certainly everything released by Kenner and their international cousins between 1978 and the early 80s.

This site is not for profit and purely for information purposes. If you do share any information found here please do credit us.

Original photo art used for the ESB11C cardback showing all 11 die cast ships. Used with permission of Kim D M Simmons / the man who shot Luke Skywalker.


All 11 carded die cast ships with the unproduced small wing Darth Vader TIE Fighter


First things first is it die-cast, die cast or diecast – that's up to you, even Kenner couldn't decide on that one! We'll stick with the Kenner's starburst and 'Die Cast Metal and High Impact Plastic'.



Kenner released their detailed die cast range of ships in 1978 along with their hugely successful 3 and 3/4” range of action figures. The die cast ships were at a much smaller scale than the action figures and never achieved the same level of popularity. The die cast line was released with collectors in mind and following declining sales the ships were discontinued after the release of the Empire Strikes Back die cast line in 1980, with Kenner focusing on the larger ships designed for their action figure range. Only eleven vintage die cast ships were ever released, which might explain why die cast is such a niche part of vintage Star Wars collecting. Die cast might be underrated but is an affordable and fun line to collect - and the only vintage Star Wars toys to star in the original films!

The full run of die cast ships were released in three waves, which are detailed on the second issue Empire Strikes Back cardbacks:

  • Wave 1: Land Speeder, X-Wing Fighter, TIE Fighter and the Darth Vader TIE Fighter

  • Wave 2: Millennium Falcon, Y-Wing, Imperial Cruiser and the TIE Bomber

  • Wave 3: Twin-Pod Cloud Car, Snow Speeder and Slave 1



Dive into the rest of the site for all your vintage die cast needs.

 

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