For the longest time, I’ve been meaning to write this article. Years, now. I think. So, over the weekend, your friendly neighborhood jman finally put some time aside, dug through my five (5) 18 gallon Rubbermaid containers filled with loose action figures and came up with my Top 5 (ish) vintage Star Wars Action Figures.

Now, these figures are pretty old. Obviously. I can’t tell you exactly which runs/movies they were released from. I can tell you that they were mostly from Kenner’s The Empire Strikes Back line, though. A few might be from Star Wars ( A New Hope), as well. By the time Return of the Jed i came out? I was moving out of toys onto more “sophisticated” pursuits.

And here we are, 30 years later (give or take) with my favorite 5 Star Wars Figures:

R2D2 – not sure what it was about this “figure” that I liked so much. If I had to narrow it down, I think it was the “clicking” on his dome when you turned it. Stupid, right? Such a silly little noise. But, when I went to take the above picture of him, I turned the dome to see if it still work. Sure as shooting, it still clicks. And it really brought me back.

Luke Skywalker (Hoth outfit) – This one was a tough call. It was between Bespin fatigues Luke and Hoth Luke. I didn’t have a “regular” Luke Skywalker. So, whenever we played Star Wars, as opposed to Empire, I always had to make due with one of these two Luke figures. So much for continuity.

Rebel Soldier (Hoth Battle Gear) – Wow. My childhood is now a sham. I just found out the figure I thought for the last 30 years was Hoth Luke is just the Rebel Soldier. It’s like my life has been a complete and utter lie. All this time, the Rebel Soldier has been pretending he was Luke Skywalker. I don’t believe it. I don’t even know who I am any more…

Darth Vader – What’s there to say about the dark lord that hasn’t been said any number of times? The baddest of the bad. That is, until he was completely neutered in the prequels. But…you know. Whatever. But, pre-prequel days? Vader was one scary dude. And he had a telescoping lightsaber. Which is nice.

Yoda – Yea…even back then, your friendly neighborhood jman knew Yoda was a badass. You could just tell. You see the way he schooled Luke and pulled that X-Wing from the swamp in Empire? Yea…Yoda was the man.

The problem with the figure? Well…it wasn’t so much a problem with the figure as it was with my little brother. He had the Dagobah playset. And he was my little brother. And you know how little brother’s are. So I was left pretending the living room couch was Dagobah most of the time. That sucked. But, I’m totally over it now.

AT-AT driver – Hands down, no argument…my favorite all time Star Wars figure. The AT-AT driver! Why? I have no idea. I mean, he was in the movie…what? A total of 13 seconds? Still…I love this figure. Whenever me and my crüe got together to play Star Wars, we’d divvy up our figures. The first one I always pick? That’s right…AT-AT driver.

Honorable mention: Snowspeeder. Yea. I know. I know. I knowiknowiknow. It’s not a figure. Still, of all the ships…it was the best. Yea. Even over the Millennium Falcon. I don’t care how fast that ship did the Kesel Run. The Snowspeeder was always my go to ship.

There’s a brand new episode of the Almost Internet Famous Internet show. And by total coincidence it’s just happens to be about? Vintage Star Wars toys!