The first of the Star Wars films was released in 1977 but at the time the toy releases had been limited to jigsaw puzzles and story books. It wasn't till towards the end of 1977 that Kenner toys decided to create their Star Wars toy range. Kenner realised that they would not be able to release enough of the first batch of Star Wars figures in time for christmas, so they came up with the idea for the early bird package.

The early bird package contained a certificate that could be taken to the toy shops in the new year of 1978 in exchange for the first 4 figures.

The first figures to be released were R2D2, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker. For anyone that is interested in collecting rare Star Wars figures, the first batches of Early bird figures contained a Luke Skywalker with 2 stage telescoping lightsaber, and a Chewbacca with a green gun instead of the normal black one.

By the end of 1978 another 8 figures were released. the new figures were C3P0, Death squad commander, Ben kenobi, Stormtrooper, Jawa, Tusken Raider,Han Solo and Darth Vader.

Click one of the links below to see the different carded Star Wars figures.

A - D
E - H
I - L
M - P
Q - T
U - Z

One of the first vehicles to be released was the Millennium Falcon.

The Falcon had a removable top section revealing the inside of the ship. Inside there was a removable floor section with compartments under it, and a loading ramp. Also inside the ship was a jedi training ball and a chess table. the guns rotated and clicked as they were turned. the cockpit could sit 2 figures.

Another vehicle that saw it's release in 1978 was Darth Vaders Tie fighter.

This ship had light functions plus blast away solar panels. The main body of Darth Vaders Tie fighter was the same as the standard Tie fighter.

Perhaps the biggest release of 1978 was the Death Star playset, 2 Playsets were released one in the U.K and one in the U.S. The picture below shows the U.S version.

The difference between the two versions was that the U.K version was almost entirely made of cardboard and was dome shaped. The U.S version was mainly made of plasic and was tower shaped. Both versions are very rare and difficult to find intact.