Yoda - Jumbo Vintage Kenner Figures

You really have to hand it to Gentle Giant Ltd. sometimes when it comes to their ability of capturing the most minute of detail on classic toys and apply them to their collectibles. This is especially true with the Jumbo Vintage Kenner line, a line of high-end collectibles that are scanned from the original Kenner 3.75” action figures we grew up with as kids. The Jumbo Vintage Kenner Figures line was warmly embraced upon its announcement, but potential fans/collectors of the line wanted to know more before they could make a hearty preliminary decision that this was a collection for them. What will Gentle Giant do for this line and how far will they take it? Well, questions like these were quickly answered. Gentle Giant Ltd. since this line’s inception has been clearly making it known that they’re in the Jumbo property for the long haul and it appears that their commitment is to produce every last vintage Kenner figure in 12” “Jumbo” scale. They have released collectibles from every single card back Kenner released between 1978 and 1985 now and it continually invigorates those collecting this line. By the time these figures had been released, Gentle Giant Ltd. had announced a huge run of figures from The Empire Strikes Back, too. So great things are planned for collectors of this line.

The Yoda Jumbo Vintage Kenner Figure is pretty cool in general. It comes with all the individual parts the vintage Kenner figure did. It comes packaged on a The Empire Strikes Back card back (which is only for the general release version), and the “The Jedi Master” subtitle has been dropped (obviously since this only made its way on the Return Of The Jedi card back). Differences including orange eyes and the orange snake have been included here as well. It was during the Return Of The Jedi Kenner line that Kenner decided to update Yoda. In addition to updated card back art, they enhanced the actual action figure too by changing the snake accessory from orange to brown. They also changed his skin color by making it darker. So this release is lighter and based on the first inception of the toy. It’s very cool to get this classic Kenner vintage Star Wars figure in a large scale and a collectible format. There are a lot more variations with the brown snake than the orange snake versions (like skin tone variations and the like), but this was the very first version and it’s likely that adult collectors can identify with this version a whole lot more than the ROTJ revision.

The packaging of course is pure perfection. Gentle Giant Ltd. has revised the shape of the card backs to accommodate the larger figures, but they’ve really done a great job to make them look quite proportional. The sad thing is they are very large collectibles (packaging wise) and often cost a pretty penny when they are shipped. This adds a lot of extra cost to the already expensive line that now is quickly approaching $100 per figure. Without hopefully sounding hypocritical, we are thrilled that Gentle Giant Ltd. is intent on bringing the rare Kenner variations to this collectibles line as exclusive pieces. Yoda is a perfect example of this. It makes the PGM worth it and the lower edition sizes of these variations truly make them collectible in every sense of the word. But we just wish that Quality Control was employed more stringently in this line. They literally have one chance to do each of these figures right and if that means things need to be delayed a little while longer to get all of the fine details correct, then so be it. Regardless, Yoda is a wonderful addition to the Jumbo Vintage Kenner Figures line, so please don’t misinterpret our complaints to mean you shouldn’t consider this piece for your own collection. We just want them to be more careful with the upcoming exclusives they have planned. These just have to be done right.