Forum Vehicle of the Year 2023 - Round 1 - Group E

[Pomse2001]

Welcome to Forum Vehicle of the Year 2023.

B-Wing Fighter Vehicle has not done well since 2019 where it was in the quater final. Last year it was knocked out in the first round. Can it get succes again

Desert Sail Skiff Vehicle got to the 2nd round for the first time last year. Can it do it again

Radio Controlled Jawa Sandcrawler has made it to the 2nd round the last 3 years. Can it do again

X-Wing with no sound was in the semi final in 2019 and only made it to the quater final last year. But it will be a big surprise if the x-wing is knocked out in this round

Choose 2 Vehicles from the list

The 2 winners will go to next round.

Let the Vote Begin

 

[Pomse2001]

b-wing and sandcrawler got my vote

 

[Cazza]

The B-Wing is awesome, but got to be this version of the X-wing for me. Still got my childhood one and absolutely love it!

 

[Snaketibe]

It's the B-Wing and the X-Wing for me. The Desert Sail Skiff is probably liked by some people, but not by me, I'm afraid! As for the Sandcrawler? It's good, but vastly undersized, and hence the iconic X-Wing wins my vote along with the stellar B-Wing, which is a tremendous toy.

 

[sith-smith]

Well, the scandcrawler was an easy first choice. Was totally blown away when I first saw an image of this in one of Sansweet's book in the early-ish 90's

Was torn between the B-wing - which I didn't have until I bought a broken one at a carboot sale in 92/3 and my dad was able to take it apart and get it working again - and the X-wing which I remember waking up one birthday morning in the late 70's and finding it hanging from my ceiling above me (my dad again)

But in the end have gone for the X-wing.

 

[Pomse2001]

The B-Wing is awesome, but got to be this version of the X-wing for me. Still got my childhood one and absolutely love it!

I agree the B-Wing is awesome thanks for the votes and support

 

[Pomse2001]

It's the B-Wing and the X-Wing for me. The Desert Sail Skiff is probably liked by some people, but not by me, I'm afraid! As for the Sandcrawler? It's good, but vastly undersized, and hence the iconic X-Wing wins my vote along with the stellar B-Wing, which is a tremendous toy.

Thanks for the votes and support What size would you have liked the sandcrawler to be ? same size as the at-at ? I think it would have been cool if it was as big as the at-at

 

[Pomse2001]

Well, the scandcrawler was an easy first choice. Was totally blown away when I first saw an image of this in one of Sansweet's book in the early-ish 90's

Was torn between the B-wing - which I didn't have until I bought a broken one at a carboot sale in 92/3 and my dad was able to take it apart and get it working again - and the X-wing which I remember waking up one birthday morning in the late 70's and finding it hanging from my ceiling above me (my dad again)

But in the end have gone for the X-wing.

Thanks mate for the support and votes and thanks for sharing this great stories, it is always great to hear stories like that I first learned about the sandcrawler vehicle in 2001 and after I Joined the forum I bought my first B-Wing, mine was also broken when I bought it but I managed to buy the broken part and repair the vehicle

 

[Snaketibe]

Thanks for the votes and support What size would you have liked the sandcrawler to be ? same size as the at-at ? I think it would have been cool if it was as big as the at-at

I agree, a Sandcrawler as big as the AT-AT would have been tremendous!... And very expensive!

 

[Cazza]

Thanks for the votes and support What size would you have liked the sandcrawler to be ? same size as the at-at ? I think it would have been cool if it was as big as the at-at

Yeah, was definitely too small- maybe somewhere in-between the original size and the AT-AT might have been doable.

 

[DanSolo]

Desert sail Skiff vote incoming!!!
It's the only one of these I had as a kid and I used to love re-enacting the luke walking the plank scene, too many great memories to not get my vote!

 

[Pomse2001]

I agree, a Sandcrawler as big as the AT-AT would have been tremendous!... And very expensive!

I do not know what the sale prices was on the sandcrawler since I don't think it was sold in denmark. Any idea about what it cost in the uk ? in the 70s or 80s ?

 

[Pomse2001]

Yeah, was definitely too small- maybe somewhere in-between the original size and the AT-AT might have been doable.

Yes it was to small, I guess they did not sell well in the 70s and 80s maybe because of the size We never saw a rotj box with it.

 

[Pomse2001]

Desert sail Skiff vote incoming!!!
It's the only one of these I had as a kid and I used to love re-enacting the luke walking the plank scene, too many great memories to not get my vote!

Thanks for the vote mate, cool that you had the skiff when you was a kid and many great memories with it I did not have any of the 4 vehicles in this group when I was a kid

 

[Snaketibe]

I do not know what the sale prices was on the sandcrawler since I don't think it was sold in denmark. Any idea about what it cost in the uk ? in the 70s or 80s ?

Sadly, it was never sold in the UK either.

 

[Pomse2001]

Sadly, it was never sold in the UK either.

Wow I did not know that, I guess it was not a big succes since it was only sold in usa

 

[Snaketibe]

Wow I did not know that, I guess it was not a big succes since it was only sold in usa

I don't know how successful it was in America, however it stands to reason that as a large electronic toy, it would have been relatively expensive, and hence a relatively low seller compared to a cheaper vehicle like the X-Wing. Even so, it must have been deemed to be enough of a success for Kenner because they were happy to reissue it later in ESB packaging. Regardless of its US sales figures however, what I do know is that in the UK for Star Wars, Palitoy famously made their own versions of many toys to reduce the amount of plastic and electronic components used in them, and hence lower the production cost and (I believe) the RRP / selling price. The Cantina, Land of the Jawas, Droid Factory and most famously of all, the Death Star were all different to their US counterparts in this way, but so were the Land Speeder and X-Wing. All of them used less plastic, and or had fewer moving parts, and or had any electronics present removed, compared to the US versions. To this day, I'm still amazed that the Palitoy Darth Vader's TIE Fighter and Imperial Trooper Transporter retained their electronics (the 'Palitoy' white TIE Fighter was of course simply an imported Kenner version with a Palitoy sticker applied).

All of which is to say that since Palitoy were trying to reduce the amount of plastic and electronics (and hence cost) used at every turn, it's not that surprising that the Sandcrawler never made it over here, since it was the second biggest and most expensive electronic toy made for the first film in the US behind only the much more desirable Millennium Falcon. I imagine Palitoy either didn't think they could alter / cheapen the Sandcrawler sufficiently to make it a viable prospect for decent UK sales, or that it would simply be too expensive to sell well if they left it unchanged. It's also worth noting that even the Millennium Falcon never made it onto UK toy shelves until The Empire Strikes Back came out, again presumably because Palitoy thought it would be too expensive to sell well initially when Star Wars came out. So again, it's no surprise that the Sandcrawler wasn't released in the UK for Star Wars if the Falcon wasn't, and by the time ESB came out and Palitoy were happy enough with sales to be confident about releasing the Falcon, without the Sandcrawler being in the new film, they would presumably once again have been reluctant to release it in ESB packaging, again fearing poor sales (as mentioned above, of course things were different in the US, where even though I don't doubt the Falcon massively outsold the Sandcrawler, sales of the latter were obviously good enough for them to reissue it in ESB packaging).

 

[Pomse2001]

I don't know how successful it was in America, however it stands to reason that as a large electronic toy, it would have been relatively expensive, and hence a relatively low seller compared to a cheaper vehicle like the X-Wing. Even so, it must have been deemed to be enough of a success for Kenner because they were happy to reissue it later in ESB packaging. Regardless of its US sales figures however, what I do know is that in the UK for Star Wars, Palitoy famously made their own versions of many toys to reduce the amount of plastic and electronic components used in them, and hence lower the production cost and (I believe) the RRP / selling price. The Cantina, Land of the Jawas, Droid Factory and most famously of all, the Death Star were all different to their US counterparts in this way, but so were the Land Speeder and X-Wing. All of them used less plastic, and or had fewer moving parts, and or had any electronics present removed, compared to the US versions. To this day, I'm still amazed that the Palitoy Darth Vader's TIE Fighter and Imperial Trooper Transporter retained their electronics (the 'Palitoy' white TIE Fighter was of course simply an imported Kenner version with a Palitoy sticker applied).

All of which is to say that since Palitoy were trying to reduce the amount of plastic and electronics (and hence cost) used at every turn, it's not that surprising that the Sandcrawler never made it over here, since it was the second biggest and most expensive electronic toy made for the first film in the US behind only the much more desirable Millennium Falcon. I imagine Palitoy either didn't think they could alter / cheapen the Sandcrawler sufficiently to make it a viable prospect for decent UK sales, or that it would simply be too expensive to sell well if they left it unchanged. It's also worth noting that even the Millennium Falcon never made it onto UK toy shelves until The Empire Strikes Back came out, again presumably because Palitoy thought it would be too expensive to sell well initially when Star Wars came out. So again, it's no surprise that the Sandcrawler wasn't released in the UK for Star Wars if the Falcon wasn't, and by the time ESB came out and Palitoy were happy enough with sales to be confident about releasing the Falcon, without the Sandcrawler being in the new film, they would presumably once again have been reluctant to release it in ESB packaging, again fearing poor sales (as mentioned above, of course things were different in the US, where even though I don't doubt the Falcon massively outsold the Sandcrawler, sales of the latter were obviously good enough for them to reissue it in ESB packaging).

Very interesting If I remember correct the sandcrawler esb box is very rare. So guess they did not sell many of them and the production was cancelled fast or maybe it was just to try to sell the old ones with a new packing. They could have removed the sandcrawlers that was not sold from sw boxes to new esb boxes before they was sold to a shop. I am not 100% sure but I think the sandcrawler maybe also was sold in canada with a canadian box I think I have seen a canadian box.

I did not know the falcon first came later to the uk. But I guess it could be worse. Most toy shops first got star wars in denmark after the esb or after rotj. It is very hard to find any proof that
star wars was sold in denmark before 1980. I have only found a few cardback of sw from one danish toy shop. But I have no idea about when they were sold.

Yes I have heard the stories before about palitoy tried to make the toy cheaper with less parts and changed the design.

 

[Snaketibe]

Very interesting If I remember correct the sandcrawler esb box is very rare. So guess they did not sell many of them and the production was cancelled fast or maybe it was just to try to sell the old ones with a new packing. They could have removed the sandcrawlers that was not sold from sw boxes to new esb boxes before they was sold to a shop. I am not 100% sure but I think the sandcrawler maybe also was sold in canada with a canadian box I think I have seen a canadian box.

I did not know the falcon first came later to the uk. But I guess it could be worse. Most toy shops first got star wars in denmark after the esb or after rotj. It is very hard to find any proof that
star wars was sold in denmark before 1980. I have only found a few cardback of sw from one danish toy shop. But I have no idea about when they were sold.

Yes I have heard the stories before about palitoy tried to make the toy cheaper with less parts and changed the design.

I see that I should have done a bit more research before posting!

OK, to correct what I previously wrote. Kenner released the Sandcrawler in Star Wars packaging in the US. However, it is NOT believed that they reissued it in ESB packaging, or at any rate, no known ESB-packaged US examples are known to exist. What does exist is the Kenner Canada version of the Sandcrawler, which was released in ESB packaging. In other words, the ESB packaged examples that you and I have seen are ALL Canadian.

You learn something new in this hobby every day!

As for Denmark and the release of Star Wars toys, I feel very sorry for Danish kids! What a shame they didn't release them sooner, they would have sold very well, surely?

 

[Pomse2001]

I see that I should have done a bit more research before posting!

OK, to correct what I previously wrote. Kenner released the Sandcrawler in Star Wars packaging in the US. However, it is NOT believed that they reissued it in ESB packaging, or at any rate, no known ESB-packaged US examples are known to exist. What does exist is the Kenner Canada version of the Sandcrawler, which was released in ESB packaging. In other words, the ESB packaged examples that you and I have seen are ALL Canadian.

You learn something new in this hobby every day!

As for Denmark and the release of Star Wars toys, I feel very sorry for Danish kids! What a shame they didn't release them sooner, they would have sold very well, surely?

Then i also learned something today, I though I had seen us esb boxes but also canadian.

Yes danish kids was not happy with that I guess I am not sure about when star wars toy first came to denmark. But it was late that the big shops began to sell it.

I remember a guy that sold me his childhood lot to me here in denmark maybe 10 years ago. He was a few years older than me and told me that he could not buy star wars in denmark in the stores he visited in the late 70s and when the esb came out he could in 1980 he could still not find the new esb toy in denmark. But he had family in usa that bought star wars to him and his brother and mailed them to denmark to them. So all his star wars toy was bought in usa. I only got 50% of the lot because his brother had the other part of the lot and he would not sell his star wars toy. But it was a nice lot I got maybe 50 figures most complete with weapons and maybe 5 vehicles, 1 playset and a tauntaun. So they got a lot from usa.

I would not say star wars not sold in denmark in the late 70s and very early 80s. I am sure a few shops maybe in copenhagen imported star wars. But most kids bought toy in the local toy store so not many kids could buy star wars or saw star wars in the stores. First later between 1980 and 1983 the big toy stores began to import star wars and sell it and then the shops were full with star wars all over the country. But I can't still confirm if it was in 1980, 81, 82 or 83. I only remember back to about 1983 where I was 4 years old and the toy stores I visited was full of esb star wars toy.