In 1982 at the age of nine, Santa brought me (among other things) a Star Wars Rebel Transport.
Along with the Millennium Falcon and the AT-AT (“Snow Walker”), the Rebel Transport is one of the biggest ships from Kenner’s original toy line. While many of my fellow Star Wars collecting friends carried around their action figures in those Darth Vader-shaped carrying cases, I used this thing. For comparison, the Darth Vader carrying case — something designed to hold action figures — stores 31 figures. The Rebel Transport officially holds 45, with three sitting in the ship’s chairs and 42 standing on pegs in the middle. If you don’t use the pegs and just toss your figures in the middle in some sort of intergalactic orgy, it’ll probably hold 200 or more.
Yeah. It’s that big.
To me, the Rebel Transport kind of marks the turning point in Star Wars toys — yes, all the way back in 1982. Pretty much all the toys before the arrival of the Rebel Transport were integral to re-enacting scenes from the movie, but starting with this thing … not so much. The Rebel Transport appears for just seconds in The Empire Strikes Back as the rebels are evacuating Hoth. Sure, other ships like the Twin Pod Cloud Car and Boba Fett’s Slave One barely got more screen time than this thing, but at least those ships were cool. The Rebel Transport is the equivalent of a bloated, intergalactic pickle. Trust me, no kid ever stood up during the evacuation of Hoth, pointed at the screen and shouted, “Oh yeah — I gotta have one of those!” This is around the time we started seeing action figures for every character that appeared on screen for more than a second. You can almost feel executives combing through those movies a frame at a time, wondering just how many toys they could mine from those fertile fields.
The coolest thing about the Rebel Transport was it’s hidden storage compartment. Located underneath the pilot’s chair is a hollow space where small accessories could be stowed away and hidden. Originally the ship came with four gas masks and five backpacks — odd choices, to be sure — but personally I found the storage compartment a great place to hold spare guns, lightsabers, and … Yoda’s snakes.
Yup, the stash is still down there, 28 years later. Should we get attacked by the Empire, we’ve got guns-a-plenty tucked away ready for use. And if we run out of ammo, I suppose we can start hurling Yoda’s snakes at them.
I received the Rebel Transport for Christmas one year from my Grandma. We had gone to Kmart and looked at the Star Wars toys a month earlier. For some reason, she thought that I wanted the Rebel Transport and not the AT-AT. I was gracious and appreciative, but it was the first time I remember being a bit disappointed at Christmas.
There is a strange bright spot though. Years later while I was in college, the Rebel Transport saved most of my Star Wars collection. Someone broke into my grandma’s lake house and stole a bunch of stuff. I had stored some of my old toys and things at the house. While they wiped out my classics illustrated comic collection, tv, Darth Vader carrying cases, a few vehicles, numerous unopened Rubix type items (the snake, the orb, Chuck E Cheese rubix cube), they left the Rebel Transport. I had stored almost all of my figures in the Rebel Transport. It was always easier to throw them into the transport than it was to put them back in their proper spots in the cases. Thank you Rebel Transport. I owe you one and will never replace you with an AT-AT.
You’ve still got Yoda’s snakes and the old strap-on face breather mask things? Man, I’m jealous. I have one of the Hoth backpacks left, forever strapped onto a spare Rebel Hoth Soldier. That was a great kit that could be sent off for.
As for the Rebel Transport, it’s the fin of the shark. The shark itself didn’t get jumped, in toy terms, until those little things called “Mini Rigs.” They were the little vehicles that held *maybe* two figures, barely. They were interesting designs, but nothing that really smacked of Rebel or Imperial tech… because they were never in the movies to begin with.
Most of the really good vehicle toys came from the first two movies. Even the playsets weren’t as interesting by the time you got to ROTJ. Ewok Village? It’s a giant treehouse! I think that was the last playset I got prior to the new stuff in the ’90s.
You got Yoda’s snakes on a transport? MFing snakes on a transport? Aren’t you MFing tired of those MFing snakes on the MFing transport?
Other than that, I got nothin’.
@Earl: Yes, that’s right — the backpacks and gas masks were also available as a mail-away “Survival Kit” (Link: http://theswca.com/images-speci/mailaways/survival.html) which sadly I never had (I’d remember that “Jedi Training Harness for sure).
Also, I have all my old mini-rigs out in the garage somewhere too. One year for my birthday (that same year?) my mom baked a cake and stuck a mini-rig and a Twin Pod Cloud Car Pilot on top of it. Funny, the things we remember. But yeah, real quick Kenner went from “things that were only in the movie a minute” to “things that weren’t in the movie at all”.
@StephenB: See? The Rebel Transport really DID protect the rebels from attack!
@Charles: You goof … too funny. :)