Toy of the week 2, Week 21, 2024, Tatooine Skiff Vehicle

[Pomse2001]

Tatooine Skiff Vehicle:

 

[Pomse2001]

I think kenner did a great job with that vehicle. The only sad thing are it came out for sale so late.

 

[welshwookie]

There's 2 in my household. An unused, and a used one all complete bar the inserts.

 

[Snaketibe]

I really love the Tatooine Skiff! It's a beautiful craft and design, IMHO, but I do wish Kenner had made their version a bit bigger and a lot less flimsy! It's woefully undersized and can barely squeeze in all the figures you're going to want to stand on it, plus the rear vanes are an absolute nightmare to keep mint! This is especially true if (as is sadly the case for me), you have no inner packaging to store it properly. And if you are missing the inner, the best way to store a skiff is actually upside down with the feet retracted! That's certainly how I keep mine when in its box

I bought this skiff many, many years ago and one of the rear vanes was broken. It had been clumsily reattached with copper wire poked through the circular part of the vane, and I do mean literally through it! It looked every bit as bad as it sounds, and so a few years back I bit the bullet and bought a vintage replacement vane I found for sale on eBay, and now my skiff's as good as new! Sadly the same cannot be said for the box, which certainly isn't in bad condition, but is also a long way from being mint. That said, I'm very happy to have one and pleased I can share it with the forum here.

The Tatooine Skiff originally came with a Planetary Map from Kenner. As many of you will know, 3 different Planetary Maps were produced; The Death Stars (even though they're not planets...), Tatooine and Endor. They were packed with the Power of the Force Tatooine Skiff, The Power of the Force Ewok Battle Wagon, the Droids A-Wing, Droids Side Gunner, and the Droids ATL Interceptor. As far as I can tell (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this), they seem to have been randomly inserted into the packaging, meaning even if you bought all 5 toys, there was no guarantee you would get all 3 different maps.

No map came with my Skiff when I bought it second-hand, and I don't own a Side Gunner, ATL Interceptor or Ewok Battle Wagon, but I did get an Endor one with my A-Wing. Because I only owned 1 of them, I made the decision a couple of years back to track down the other maps, and now have a complete set, which I will also show below. The side of the map showing the various toys for sale is the same on all 3 maps (which is why I've only included one image of it below), however the other side is unique to each map. One point worth noting is that on the toy side of the maps, the image showing the line of figures shows all 93 available at the time the original vintage line came to an end, as it includes Yak Face, the only figure (that was still available to buy) missing from the 'Collect all 92!' POTF cardbacks. Interestingly, they gave old Yak Face the honour of being figure number 1, and poor old Bossk was relegated to 93 for some reason!

Jeremy

I don't own an original sticker sheet for my Skiff, however I do have a colour photocopy of one:

And here are the maps:

And lastly, here's a quick diorama I cobbled together about 30 years ago!

 

[Mini99]

Nice pictures, cheers.

I knew there were 3 maps, but I don't think I've ever seen a Death Star map before.
They are expensive bits of paper now.

 

[welshwookie]

Nice pictures, cheers.

I knew there were 3 maps, but I don't think I've ever seen a Death Star map before.
They are expensive bits of paper now.

£50 roughly for the Tatooine one.
Am I right to say Tatooine in the skiff, endor in battle wagon, death star in A wing ?
Or were they random ?

 

[Snaketibe]

£50 roughly for the Tatooine one.
Am I right to say Tatooine in the skiff, endor in battle wagon, death star in A wing ?
Or were they random ?

See my (admittedly lengthy!) 3rd paragraph above . I believe they were randomly inserted. My A-Wing came with an Endor map...

Jeremy

 

[welshwookie]

See my (admittedly lengthy!) 3rd paragraph above . I believe they were randomly inserted. My A-Wing came with an Endor map...

Jeremy

it's only due to seeing skiff's for sale with the " correct "tattooine map. I've 3 tattooine maps, I must have bought 1 years ago thinking the used skiff was missing it, and it was stuck inside the end flap of the box.

 

[Gadders]

The maps were distributed as follows:
Tatooine Skiff: Tatooine Map
Ewok Battle Wagon: Endor Map
Droids A-Wing: Tatooine Map
Side Gunner: Endor Map
ATL Interceptor: Death Star Map

Which would also account for the Death Star map being the rarer of the three.

 

[Snaketibe]

The maps were distributed as follows:
Tatooine Skiff: Tatooine Map
Ewok Battle Wagon: Endor Map
Droids A-Wing: Tatooine Map
Side Gunner: Endor Map
ATL Interceptor: Death Star Map

Which would also account for the Death Star map being the rarer of the three.

That's very interesting, thank you. I'm not questioning you as I genuinely don't know, however whilst researching before making my post above, I found this Rebelscum thread (https://forum.rebelscum.com/threads/potf-planetary-maps.1047398/) where someone claims a former Kenner employee told him these were randomly inserted into the boxes from stacks sitting on the assembly line. Mind you, to be fair the same thread also provides the same list you have above from another poster, but they can't remember where they found out the info. Do you know where you got the info from please? I'm genuinely curious to know, and actually hope you are correct, as I much prefer facts to best guesses!

One thing I have noticed is that I managed to miss the Side Gunner completely from my post above (D'oh!), so I will edit it now to correct it!

Jeremy

 

[Frunkstar]

I like the fact they look very screen accurate, but not a fan of how fragile many of the parts are, one that came out way after I finished collecting as a kid, so I never actually had one, in short I think it's a great display piece but as an actual toy a disaster waiting to happen, much to easy to break & loose parts from for a kid.

 

[Gadders]

That's very interesting, thank you. I'm not questioning you as I genuinely don't know, however whilst researching before making my post above, I found this Rebelscum thread (https://forum.rebelscum.com/threads/potf-planetary-maps.1047398/) where someone claims a former Kenner employee told him these were randomly inserted into the boxes from stacks sitting on the assembly line. Mind you, to be fair the same thread also provides the same list you have above from another poster, but they can't remember where they found out the info. Do you know where you got the info from please? I'm genuinely curious to know, and actually hope you are correct, as I much prefer facts to best guesses!

One thing I have noticed is that I managed to miss the Side Gunner completely from my post above (D'oh!), so I will edit it now to correct it!

Jeremy

Ah I'm not going to argue either, I got my list a couple of years back from a Rebelscum forum post too
Either way, these are nice posters/maps.

 

[Snaketibe]

Ah I'm not going to argue either, I got my list a couple of years back from a Rebelscum forum post too
Either way, these are nice posters/maps.

Thank you.

That's one of the problems in general with this hobby, and especially so after all these years. It can be really hard sometimes to know what actually took place back when these toys were being made. Without being in the factories to see what went on, or having good documentary evidence of what took place there, we rely on detective work after the fact. As a collecting community, some fantastic work has been done in this regard of course, but I guess there are some things (possibly quite a few!) that we may never know. it's a real shame too as I'd love to know the actual answer to this and many other things!

Just because my A-Wing came with an Endor map doesn't mean they all did. Also, mine wasn't sealed, so who knows if that was the original map that came with it?

Jeremy

 

[Gadders]

Getting back to the Skiff... I quite like it, but dislike it at the same time. It looks cool, but its a little on the small side and is far too flimsy. If I had one of these as a kid, so much of the plastic would've broken.
I remember when I bought it back around 1998. I was so excited to get one.. then it arrived, and it was a disappointment

Here's a 25 year old photo of mine:

It's not sealed, it's not got the cardboard insert.. but the Skiff is complete, I have the instructions and the map... and it's mine.

 

[sith-smith]

In my early days of collecting when I had specific goals, this was one of my grails.

Early 2000s, this seemed like an impossible piece to acquire. Thankfully got one...or 3 i think in the end.

It's a really well built toy with some cool mechanical features

Here's mine. I have an unused one in the box behind.

 

[Snaketibe]

Getting back to the Skiff... I quite like it, but dislike it at the same time. It looks cool, but its a little on the small side and is far too flimsy. If I had one of these as a kid, so much of the plastic would've broken.
I remember when I bought it back around 1998. I was so excited to get one.. then it arrived, and it was a disappointment

Here's a 25 year old photo of mine:
View attachment 193069
It's not sealed, it's not got the cardboard insert.. but the Skiff is complete, I have the instructions and the map... and it's mine.

Whatever the condition, it's a great piece to own! Thanks for sharing yours

Jeremy

 

[Snaketibe]

In my early days of collecting when I had specific goals, this was one of my grails.

Early 2000s, this seemed like an impossible piece to acquire. Thankfully got one...or 3 i think in the end.

It's a really well built toy with some cool mechanical features

Here's mine. I have an unused one in the box behind.

View attachment 193073

Tremendous stuff, and a great display too! Thanks for sharing

Jeremy