Intro
Many years ago I compiled a list of all the Kenner-issued Star Wars store displays I was aware of. These days it's considerably out of date. But upon its release it surely qualified as the only such list ever published. And I still sometimes get comments on it, largely to the effect of, "When are you going to update that?"
Well, honestly, probably never, though I assume that, at some point in time, I'll get around to overhauling the corresponding Archive database entries. Really, many of them are overdue for an update, and I have no excuse for leaving them as they are. There are also a lot of displays that aren't even represented on the site. That'll need to be rectified at some point.
Anyway, in that old comprehensive accounting of Kenner store display material, I chose to include conceptual items, i.e. items that were pictured in Kenner literature but were either clearly preliminary or weren't known to exist. It was an odd decision. After all, it's kind of misleading, especially to the site's visitors who just want to know what's out there.
But for some reason conceptual displays seemed to me, even then in the '90s, an essential part of the Kenner point-of-purchase story. It's only through the conceptual stuff that we can confidently trace the development of the category. And because displays were disposable items, and had relatively low production runs, it's often impossible to know that something isn't in fact out there. Absence doesn't prove nonexistence, after all. Indeed, over the years many a display once thought "unproduced" has been recategorized overnight when a collector has located an example.
With all that in mind, I decided to put together the below article on the topic of conceptual Kenner store displays. It should in no way be taken as a comprehensive overview of the subject, or even as an article that tells a particular or linear story. It's mostly just my way of presenting several conceptual pieces that have either never been publicized before, or have been publicized (in, for example, a Kenner catalog), but via photos that don't do them justice.
I'm grateful to my friend Eddie for allowing these to be shown. He owns many of the slides and prints from which these images derive. If these photographic records hadn't survived, we might know nothing about some of these items, and our sense of how Kenner's merchandizing efforts evolved over time would be the poorer for it.
Star Wars is Here
The first item that concerns us is, fittingly, one of the earliest pieces of in-store marketing associated with Kenner's Star Wars line: the "Star Wars is Here" floor merchandiser.
Regular readers of this blog may be familiar with it, as I discussed it in my article related to the Star Wars products and associated displays released by Kenner in the key year of 1977.
The article featured a rare photo of the display fully assembled and stocked with product. It being an early display, the products all date from the fall of 1977. That's right, the Early Bird Certificate Package aside, the board game, Dip Dots, Playnts, and the first four puzzles comprised the complete Kenner line at the time. There are no action figures pictured, because they didn't exist: they hit store shelves in the spring of 1978.
The above conceptual sketch, executed in colored marker, presents the display in embryonic form, though it's fairly true to the unit as it was eventually realized. The main difference concerns the "Toy Galaxy" header card, which in the sketch inserts the word "Fun" between "Star Wars" and "Galaxy."
Like, just in case you made the mistake of thinking board games aren't fun...
As you've no doubt noticed, the products featured in the sketch mirror those shown in the photo: board game, Dip Dots, Playnts, and puzzles.
Based on the range of products on display in both the conceptual sketch and photograph, I really have no doubt that this item was intended as a 1977 release [1].
Nevertheless, both of the display's graphical elements saw use independent of this particular format in the days subsequent to the close of 1977. In fact, I'm not terribly confident that the complete floor merchandiser shipped in significant quantity. Rather, I suspect elements of the display were primarily used independently for other purposes.
The Toy Galaxy portion was listed in Kenner's 1978 Toy Fair catalog as a separate item: the "Star Wars Hang/Pole Display." According to the documents reviewed here, 846 of these were shipped by late 1978, with 1,000 being produced overall.
"The Star Wars is Here" portion is more mysterious, and I don't have production quantities on it, possibly because it wasn't part of Kenner's official merchandising program as advertised in their Toy Fair catalogs.
My assumption concerning this one is that the majority of them were cut up and used in a Kenner "promotional kit," probably first issued in 1977, with availability extending through 1978. The kits are believed to have also contained standees and posters issued by Factors, some (if not all) of them branded with a Kenner sticker. The production numbers we have (again, see here) indicate that 200 of these kits were produced. And, as noted here, it appears that at least two different kits were available, a fact which is not accounted for in the extant paperwork. [2]
Hey, some things may always remain mysterious!
Action Figure Floor Merchandisers
The idea of a Star Wars floor merchandiser, i.e. a unit that held Star Wars merchandise and stood independently on the floor of a shop, is one that hung around at Kenner for quite some time, in part because it encouraged orders from retail outlets, like supermarkets, that lacked dedicated toy fixtures.
The above photo isn't new reveal -- I've shared it in the past -- but it deserves inclusion in this article, as it shows an early conceptual version of the large display issued to advertise the first 12 action figures. It was called the "header display" in Kenner's 1978 Toy Fair catalog, and is today informally referred to by collectors as the "Collect All 12 long header." This very photo was featured in Kenner's 1978 catalog, though the photos of it were too small to appreciate.
Of course, the conceptual display is interesting in large part because it shows the early conceptual models of the Tusken Raider, Jawa, and Death Squad Commander figures, the latter of which may have originally been intended to represent a TIE Fighter Pilot, a character not released as a figure until 1982.
Why was Kenner using a weird TIE-Pilot-looking figure to represent the DSC at a time when, as the DSC cardback in the above photo demonstrates, there was no doubt as to the character's intended appearance? No one knows for sure, but I provided plenty of speculation in a previous article.
Aside from that, the conceptual display matches its production counterpart to a high degree. Approximately 5,800 of these displays were produced by Kenner in 1978.
Above you see a modified version of the same basic display, this one issued in 1979 to promote the Boba Fett mail-away offer. 3,000 of these are known to have been produced.
This conceptual version of the display is interesting in that its design incorporates a photo of the conceptual model of the large-size Boba Fett action figure -- the really badass one that featured a firing rocket and electronics (features later dropped).
Of course, the mail-away offer didn't involve the large-size representation of the character. It's just that, at the time the conceptual display was designed, the small Boba Fett action figure hadn't been produced. And, well, something had to stand in for it. Why Kenner didn't use the conceptual model of the 3.75-inch Fett rather than the model of the large-size figure is anyone's guess. Perhaps the model of the large-size figure predates its smaller counterpart?
A comparison of the conceptual display to the one eventually produced will reveal several additional design modifications, none of which are terribly fascinating. But it's fun to see how these things evolved during the design process.
Yo, Prepack, Man... Prepack... Prepack, Yo
As I mentioned above, the idea of independent floor-based displays stuck around at Kenner for quite a while.
Eventually it overlapped with the "prepack," Kenner's term for a freestanding display that shipped filled with product.
This option was especially attractive to venues like supermarkets, which typically lacked specialized experience in toy retailing. When workers at such establishments received a prepack, they would open the shipping carton, quickly assemble the display, and fill it with the included product.
Shown above is the earliest evidence of the use of this term to which I have access. It's an order form that derives from Kenner's "Supermarket Program," which marketed products and merchandisers to outlets like grocery stores.
The middle item, the "Star Wars Pole Display Prepack," is basically the 288-piece floor merchandizer from Kenner's 1978 catalog packaged with a selection of action figures and die-cast vehicles.
The merchandiser was a rotating wire rack with a fixture on top designed to mount a graphical bell-shaped display.
Before we continue with our discussion of the prepacks issued in conjunction with Kenner's line of small action figures, I suppose we need to discuss the prepack mentioned on the bottom of the supermarket order form. It was intended to ship with 36 large-size action figures, and it included a pretty rudimentary graphical header card that utilized Kenner's own repro art.
Because an example has never surfaced, it's long been considered conceptual. But its appearance on this order form gives me pause.
You know what?
I'm gonna stick my neck out and declare that this display likely shipped to retailers. If it made it onto an official order form, alongside two produced displays, and retailers had a chance to order it, I believe at least some were made and distributed.
So keep your eye out, inveterate display collector! You never know when one might turn up.
Note that the large-size action figure prepack is constructed entirely of cardboard.
Later action figure prepacks would adopt this style, abandoning the unwieldy (and likely expensive) wire racks for a material that could be easily shipped, assembled, and discarded.
Above you see the prepack for action figures that was issued in the period of 1981-82. Plastic figure trays aside, it was constructed entirely of cardboard.
Note, however, that it holds a mere 144 action figures, half the capacity of the award-winning wire merchandiser. [3]
The below pieces of conceptual art suggest that Kenner considered producing a larger prepack specific to Empire Strikes Back action figures, and abandoned the effort, perhaps due to cost.
Not only did the conceptual "41" appear in Kenner's catalog; it also appeared in "plan-o-gram" material sent to retailers, such as the above photograph. "Plan-o-grams" were Kenner-designed walls of product intended to help retailers display their wares in a manner designed to move product and boost profits.
[1] The merchandiser may also have been intended to be used after 1977. As I noted here, its instruction sheet depicts the unit as holding 1978 product, strongly suggesting that its usefulness was intended to extend into later years.
[2] The Toy Galaxy header is also believed to have shipped in the promotional kit. It was likely available both independently and as part of the kit.
[3] If you're wondering why the "288-piece" merchandiser accommodated only 264 pieces in its prepack form, it's because the prepack allotment included some die-cast vehicles, which took up more space than action figures.
[4] I'd never noticed it until I started writing this article (or maybe I just forgot?), but the 1982 Toy Fair catalog refers to the metal header as merchandising aid for the Micro Collection. I guess that explains the choice of metal as a construction material.
[5] Kenner counted the updated versions of C-3PO and R2-D2 as new releases. So even though the line expanded from 41 to 48 figures, they calculated nine rather than seven new figures.
[6] The extant Cheerios/Kenner display is of a style common to grocery stores. My guess is that, had the three-side Kenner display been produced, it would have hung in toy stores.
[7] To be clear, I'm not arguing that this item is a direct prototype of the cardboard display stand; rather, I'm saying that this concept may have gradually evolved into it (and perhaps also the mail-away Action Stand). On the other hand, its design certainly anticipates the later "bubble" display, so it's possible that both pieces were intended to represent store displays. In any event, this prototype has always reminded me of the famous wood-encased Apple-1 computer.
[8] The character heads depicted on the base are pretty unique. They don't resemble any other Kenner art that I'm aware of. For a while I thought that a series of mysterious art pieces found in Kenner's archives, and now in the hands of collectors, might relate to this display concept, as several of them depict the heads of the characters represented by the first 12 action figures. But on further review, I don't think the theory fits. Some of the noted art pieces depict space ships and larger scenes, and at least one depicts Grand Moff Tarkin, a character never seriously considered for the first wave of figures. So the mystery remains unsolved!
[9] It kind of reminds me of the sunrooms that used to be attached to Wendy's locations. I mean, is there anyone who doesn't acknowledge that the demise of the Wendy's solarium is inextricably linked to the demise of Western culture?
[10] Kenner was still issuing "bubble" displays in the late '80s. For example, at least one such display was developed to promote the Starting Lineup range of baseball figures.
[11] As of 1981, the cost to Kenner of a mobile display was approximately $8.
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