A Star Wars Collectible Story

Recently, I unearthed an unlabeled box from deep in my basement that contained vintage original 12-back Star Wars carded actions figures. Let me share the story of how I originally found them.

It was back in 1995 when I started running ads in newspapers to buy vintage Star War toys from the 70’s and early 80s. As it turns out I got a call that summer from a woman who had said she might have something I would be interested in. She asked if I was still interested in buying Star Wars Toys and I gave her a resounding “YES!”

I went over to her house that Saturday morning. She had a bag sitting on the dining room table. I was quickly looking around for boxes proudly displaying the Kenner Star Wars logo we all knew so well. I said there’s got to be boxes of Star Wars stuff somewhere. She turned on the dining room light, and that’s when the faint glow through a white plastic bag started to show through.

She said, “This is all I have. Take a look.”

My heart was racing. I slowly opened the bag and confirmed what I could only dream of to this point. Inside the bag were twelve carded Star Wars figures, all showing the original STAR WARS logo at the top. These were not Empire, they were not Jedi, these were from A New Hope, or just Star Wars as we knew it back then.

I picked up the first figure – C-3PO – and slowly turned it over. On the back was something I can only recall from the brief memory I had of when I was 7 and ripped open my first figure. The back of the card only showed 12 figures. A 12-back! I could not believe it. As it turned out, the whole bag contained the first 12 figures from the vintage Star Wars action figure line.

“How did you get these?” I asked.

That’s when she told me she had worked for years at JCPennys. When the first figures came out, she went and bought one of each. She took the very bag that I had just looked at and placed it in her attic.

“If it wasn’t for your ad in the paper, I may have forgotten I had these.” she said.

At that point I knew I could not pass these up. We worked out a price. I went back home to ask my dad what he thought. He of course told me to get them. I raced back that very same day and bought her collection. I couldn’t stop thanking her on the way out.

I’ve kept them ever since that day. Here is the link to the Vintage Star Wars 12-Back collection. Enjoy!

If you have a collectible story you want to share with the community on this site, send it to: bill@jnbcollectibles.com