10 awesomest Star Wars toys and swag we saw at Toy Fair this week
Star Wars is eternal—especially when it comes to merchandise. There's no such thing as a light Star Wars year when it comes to the annual American International Toy Fair going on in New York City this week.
Booths and showrooms are still chock-full of brand-new collectibles from all six movies and the animated television series, which means no rest for the Star Wars obsessed. You might even want to seriously consider that addition to your house so you can shove in all the galactic goodness that'll be available by the end of 2012.
Here are some of the best items we spotted at the Toy Fair.
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AT-AT Backpack If the Star Wars fan in your life is looking for some stylish back storage, look no further than this awesome AT-AT backpack. The latest in the Back Buddies line from Comic Images, the AT-AT will be available in June at various retailers. Watch out for friends with rappelling wires.
Millennium Falcon and Death Star Bottle Openers Listen—geeks have parties, too, and thankfully retailers are addressing our need to nerdy and social with these new Millennium Falcon and Death Star bottle openers. While still going through final design approval (as seen in the image), the final product will be buffed to a shine. (Available from Diamond Select Toys in August and November 2012.)
Star Wars Movie Heroes Action Figures with Light-Up Lightsabers Remember when Star Wars action figures had lightsabers that slid out of the character's arms? They lasted about four slides until they were trashed or stuck and that was as cool as they got. Well this generation of Star Wars lovers gets action figures with sabers that light up! It was tried years ago with clunky results, but now Hasbro gives us Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul and Qui-Gon with an internal battery that lights up their appropriately colored lightsaber. Technology is magic. (Available now for $8.99 each.)
Star Wars Pop Vinyl We're a sucker for well-done Jabba the Hutt figures and Funko's Pop Vinyl line offers up the slug-like overload in fancy urban vinyl design style. He's got fat wrinkles, some drool and that nasty oversized tongue, but man, we still want him. There's also a new Slave Leia design and a super golden C-3PO. (Available in 2012.)
LEGO Jabba's Palace LEGO always comes up with play sets that capture the fun of the Star Wars, license and this year one of the best is Jabba's Palace on Tatooine. The multi-leveled set features Jabba's throne room, a big fat LEGO minifigure Jabba, his toady Salacious Crumb, Bib Fortuna, a Gamorrean Guard, Oola the green dancer, Princess Leia as Boushh, Chewie and M'omarr Monk. But the pièce de résistance is a carbonite LEGO case with Han inside. It's only missing a Rancor. (Available August 2012 for $119.99.)
LEGO TIE Fighter LEGO continues its fine tradition of turning every Star Wars universe vehicle into a construction set. This year they give us the Imperial TIE Fighter with missiles and four minifigures. There's also an X-Wing Starfighter so you can dog fight to your heart's content with little bricks. (Available now for $54.99 and $59.99.)
Star Wars CLASS III MTT Vehicle If you're going for big, then Hasbro has what you're looking for with their massive MTT Vehicle. Tying in with The Phantom Menace 3D release, this battle Droid carrier holds 20 Droid figures that can be accessed by mechanized droid deployment. They slide out and then shift down for better access to the ground war they'll be unleashing. It's pretty impressive. (Available Fall 2012 for $139.99.)
Kenner Style 12â X-Wing Luke Skywalker Back in the day, Kenner was responsible for feeding our Star Wars obsession with their action figure lines. Gentle Giant celebrates another one of that lineâs bestsellers with this X-Wing Luke Skywalker thatâs 12â tall and digitally scanned from a mint 3-3/4" Kenner original. The figure is fully articulated and comes in blister packaging. Their first Luke sold out so this looks to be another hot offering. (Available 2012 for $75.00.)
Star Wars Vintage Grand Moff Tarkin Action Figure Hasbro's giving the classic Star Wars characters a gorgeous sculpt overhaul in their vintage series of 3.75 inch action figures. Grand Moff Tarkin in particular practically screamed at us from the shelf saying "Look at these cheekbones!" We're positive Peter Cushing would have been shocked and delighted at his little doppelganger. (Available now for $9.99.)
Star Wars Perimeter Droids Kid's spy tech is all the rage now and it seems like a no-brainer to theme out that gear with some Star Wars tech. Jazwares has married the two with a spyware series including Darth Maul Perimeter Droids like the ones used in The Phantom Menace. Each Perimeter Droid features a trip wire alarm that projects an invisible beam of light to its companion unit and when the beam is broken LED lights blink and an alarm is set off. (These are a limited run, special edition set out in February for $19.99.)