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As any collector can tell you, action figures can be pretty valuable, sought after items, but there are few action figures as hot as those from Star Wars. Pretty much from the premiere of A New Hope in 1977, fans have wanted to get their hands on the movie-inspired toys and even among Star Wars action figures, there are some that are more collectible—and valuable—than others. That includes the rarest Darth Vader action figure and it just sold for a massive price.
At a recent auction at Goldin, a 1977 Kenner Darth Vader First Shot Loose Action Figure sold for a staggering $51,241. According to the auction house, that amount sets a new, all-time record for the sale of that figure of which only one other figure is known to exist. The auction ended on June 3rd. The Darth Vader figure was just one of several Star Wars items sold at the auction that broke records, including a 1979 Kenner Rocket-Firing Boba Fett Prototype which sold for $86,620 and a production-made Emperor’s Royal Guard Helmet from Return of the Jedi which sold for $91,500.
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What Makes This Darth Vader So Special?
While this Darth Vader isn’t the most valuable Darth Vader action figure to sell at auction—that distinction belongs to an action figure from 1978 with a Double-Telescoping lightsaber which sold for a staggering $130,095 earlier this year—it’s still a very special collectible in the overall history of Star Wars toys. For context, you have to go back to 1977 and the release of the first Star Wars movie. When the film was released in May 1977, success wasn’t guaranteed. There had been, up until then, nothing quite like Star Wars. As a result, Kenner didn’t pre-make a bunch of toys to rush to market. They waited and while that sounds like a sound business move, it turned out to be almost catastrophic. Demand for Star Was toys ended up being wild right away which put Kenner a bit on the back foot, especially as the Christmas holiday loomed.
To capitalize on the demand for Star Wars toys while also giving themselves a little time to catch up Kenner launched a kind of insane and genius campaign, the so-called “Empty Box Campaign.” The concept was actually pretty clever. Consumers could buy literally an empty box that featured renderings of the 12-figure Star Wars toy lineup that Kenner would be releasing in 1978. While the box itself was a kit that could be turned into a neat display, it also contained a mail-in certificate that promised the bearer would get the first four figures in the line delivered to them in early 1978. It was a big hit.
So, what does Darth Vader have to do with this? Vader wasn’t one of the first four figures for that campaign (those figures would be Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, and Chewbacca) but the figure that sold at auction earlier this week comes from that same general time frame where Kenner was getting their designs together to get toys to market as soon as possible. The “first shot” element of this particular figure refers to quite literally an early version of the figure, one that is used to test the toy’s various elements of the item. In this case, the valuable Vader has a mushroom tip, double-telescoping lightsaber and a thin, alternative cape. Specifically, the particular lightsaber this toy exhibits never actually made it into mass production, which makes this pre-production item very rare.
Given the rare structure of the lightstaber, the fully intact thin cape, and the general history of where this Darth Vader figure fits into the overall story of Star Wars action figures, particularly those from the early years, it’s not a surprise that the item is highly sought after by collectors—and that it would go for such a big price at this latest auction.
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