Ron writes:
The collector who desires Kenner store displays faces considerable obstacles, not the least of which is price: There's no getting around the fact that Kenner store displays of the vintage era are expensive.
I mean, the bin designed to market the Early Bird Certificate Package recently sold for over $100,000, which is almost as much as a bitcoin.
Kenner store displays also tend to be pretty large.
For example, how many collectors have the space to accommodate the Return of the Jedi header depicting a space battle?
It measures just under four feet in length. That's nearly 1.2 Kenny Bakers.
Collectors who find themselves frustrated by these obstacles, but who still want to own something speaking to the point-of-purchase marketing of vintage Star Wars toys, may choose to explore the world of shelf talkers.
A shelf talker is a small piece of signage designed to mask the facing of a store shelf. That explains the "shelf" component of the phrase.
The "talker" component is attributable, I suppose, to the fact that the signage communicates -- or tries to, at any rate -- something to the browsing shopper. [1]
It "talks" to you.
Like a creepy guy at the supermarket approaching an attractive lady who's just minding her own business sampling the honeydews or whatever.
She was expecting a day of quiet shopping, but here comes creepy shelf talker guy attempting to strike up a conversation, and probably ruining her entire honeydew experience.
Kenner issued shelf talkers in support of the Star Wars line throughout the vintage era. Generally, they were either shipped with large display items -- headers or mobiles -- or issued as standalone items in support of various promotions.
This article summarizes what in the realm of Kenner shelf talkers is available. With any luck it'll inspire at least a few of you to seek out these interesting and often fairly affordable pieces of vintage Kenner marketing material.
Let's get started.
* * *
1978
The first shelf talker issued by Kenner in support of the Star Wars line was the Toy Galaxy shelf talker.
Simple but attractive, and constructed of flimsy cardstock, it boasted the eye-popping black-and-silver livery that helped to make the early Star Wars product so distinctive.
The Toy Galaxy slogan was used extensively by Kenner in 1978. It communicated the idea that Kenner hadn't made available merely a few Star Wars toys, but rather an entire ginormous range of them.
A "galaxy" if you will.
According to Kenner documentation, more than 37,000 of these shelf talkers were supplied to Kenner. And you can bet that they sent most of them to retailers.
Generally, retailers received these when they requested a Toy Galaxy pole display or a mobile advertising the first 12 action figures. Six Toy Galaxy shelf talkers shipped with each item. The Toy Galaxy mobile, which was released later in 1978, also shipped with the Toy Galaxy shelf talker -- eight of them, to be exact. [2]
If you're wondering why Kenner supplied shelf talkers to retailers along with large display items, the above photo may satisfy your curiosity. Shelf talkers didn't just "talk" to prospective buyers; they helped to brand a retail area.
Who when walking past the above-pictured locale could fail to notice that this was the Star Wars, uh, galaxy?
Today the Toy Galaxy shelf talker is among the rarest of Star Wars shelf talkers released by Kenner. It's just never surfaced on the collector market in any significant quantity.
1979
For some reason, Kenner jettisoned their commitment to the Toy Galaxy slogan at the end of 1978, replacing it with Toy Center branding.
Toy Center.
How prosaic. Bureaucratic almost.
I'd much prefer a visit to the Toy Galaxy, thank you very much.
Bureaucratic or not, the company's 1979 shelf talker fell in line and adopted the new branding.
Like its predecessor, it was constructed of cardstock and featured peel-off adhesive swatches on its reverse to affix it to a shelf.
Although the Toy Center shelf talker was at one time only modestly less rare than its Toy Galaxy counterpart, significant finds over the last 10 years have caused unused examples of the former to be readily available on the collector's market -- sometimes at very reasonable prices.
My friend Broc Walker and I were involved in one such find.
Let's pause a sec for a story.
One day I got a call from the former owner of a store. He'd saved quite a few Star Wars store displays. They were untouched in their original shipping boxes and included their full complements of Toy Center shelf talkers.
Broc and I bought the displays. Because of course we did! But the source wanted to sell the shelf talkers separately. He'd searched for them on eBay and discovered they were selling for around $1,000. He had a whole stack of them -- 30 or more.
Understandably, he wanted the eBay price for them -- or at least something close to that.
Our conversation went something like this:
Me/Broc: Yeah, well, they ain't gonna be worth $1,000 once 30 of them get dumped on the market.
Seller: So $900 each?
Me/Broc: How about $200 each?
Seller: Only $200?
Me/Broc: Well, I figure I can sell through them at maybe $400. Priced higher, and it'll likely take me years. I don't want to sit on them. Would you do $350?
Seller: I can't come down that much.
Me/Broc: Enjoy finding someone else to buy your shelf talkers.
Of course, he did find someone else. And the predictable thing happened: the market for Toy Center shelf talkers cratered.
Not that that has stopped people from asking $1,000 for them on eBay...
Here ends our lesson regarding the continuing operation of the law of supply and demand.
Now back to our discussion of shelf talkers.
The Toy Center and "Get a Free Boba Fett" mobiles shipped with eight shelf talkers. The header, on the other hand, shipped with 16.
Due to some holes in the available Kenner documentation, I am unable to estimate the number of Toy Center shelf talkers produced. But considering the greater number of shelf talkers shipped with the 1979 series of displays, it would almost certainly dwarf the 37,000 estimate of the previous year.
1980
Above I mentioned that the Toy Galaxy shelf talker was among the rarest shelf talkers released by Kenner in support of the Star Wars line.
Challenging it in that arena is the Empire Strikes Back shelf talker released in 1980.
Like its Toy Galaxy and Toy Center predecessors, the 1980 shelf talker was constructed of cardstock. Unlike them it featured an eye-catching and surely relative expensive-to-produce semi-reflective finish that was intended to complement the large header display that Kenner issued in the same year.
Evidence suggests that Kenner originally intended their 1980 header to feature a "lensatic" surface. That is, a surface covered with reflective prisms, similar to those that adorned the reflectors that kids in the '80s used on their bikes. It's unclear, however, whether they planned to extend that motif to the shelf talker.
In any event, as both display items were eventually produced, they were merely semi-reflective, and not "lensatic." Collectors sometimes refer to them as having "foil" surfaces.
Speaking of the 1980 header, it shipped with 12 shelf talkers. Beside which the six that shipped with the contemporary "Collect All 32" mobile seem rather paltry.
Kenner budgeting documents suggest that around 1,500 examples each of the header and mobile were delivered to Kenner. From that we can estimate that at least 27,000 of the 1980 shelf talker were produced. Because Kenner would have needed that many just to fulfill the allotments advertised in their catalog.
Also released in 1980 was a shelf talker of a different type altogether.
Where the items we've previously discussed "talked" via simple messages, this one was a bit bolder, a tad more flirtatious: it included a pad of coupons that asked the shopper to reach out, tear off a coupon, and use it to enter a sweepstakes.
Like, it didn't just want to talk to you, it wanted to establish kino.
Gross.
The grand prize in this sweepstakes was a trip to Washington D.C. to see the premier of The Empire Strikes Back accompanied by C-3PO and R2-D2.
How do you reckon C-3PO and R2-D2 were as dates? I bet not very good. I bet they met you on the red carpet and then left to do whatever it is that droids do when they aren't forced to be nice to impertinent sweepstakes winners.
Released in March of 1980 along with a newspaper ad promoting the sweepstakes, it was the first of several shelf talkers of this type that Kenner released in association with the Star Wars license.
For more on the sweepstakes, see here.
1981
By now you've probably guessed that Kenner released a new shelf-talker in virtually every year they held the Star Wars license. As each year saw the release of a new slate of point-of-purchase display materials, it was natural for Kenner to debut a new shelf talker along with their other displays.
And in 1981 they debuted something a bit different.
The shelf talker issued in that year was made of plastic rather than cardstock, meaning it was undoubtedly much costlier to produce. But that extra cost bought durability: A cardstock shelf talker that might hang around a store for a month was surely worth less than a plastic one that might endure for a year.
Six of these 1981 shelf talkers shipped with the "Collect All 41" mobile that Kenner released in the same year. And 12 of them shipped with the contemporary header. As we have a general idea of the quantities of the aforementioned displays that were received by Kenner, we can estimate that at least 20,000 of the 1981 shelf talkers were produced.
A significant variation affects this shelf talker.
Some examples exhibit a Kenner logo that is white and red rather than black and white.
This suggests that the red-logo version of the 1981 shelf talker was 1) the result of an intentional design choice, and 2) of earlier derivation than the black-logo version. [3]
The red-logo shelf talker of 1981 is undoubtedly much rarer than its black-logo counterpart. I've only seen a few examples of the former in the time I've been collecting.
1982
1982 saw an expansion of the Star Wars line.
It was in that year that Kenner debuted the Micro Collection, a range of metal miniatures accompanied by plastic playsets grouped into "worlds" corresponding to key Star Wars environments, like Hoth and Bespin.
Ultimately, the line was a failure, and it was quickly cancelled.
But it wasn't for lack of promotion.
To alert the public to the existence of the Micro toys, Kenner issued three separate store displays: an aluminum header sporting the ESB logo, a three-sided mobile, and of course a shelf talker.
That shelf talker was a fairly simple affair made of red plastic (the signature color of the line) and boasting a black-and-white Micro Collection logo on each of its ends.
Though at first glance the form of the Micro shelf talker may seem identical to the ESB shelf talker of the previous year, it actually differed in that its facing was flat, whereas the graphical portions on the facing of the 1981 shelf talker were raised. [4]
What about the regular shelf talker of 1982, the standard Empire Strikes Back one?
In form it was identical to the Micro Collection shelf talker: it, too, featured a flat facing. Where graphics were concerned, however, it was very similar to its 1981 predecessor.
Six Micro Collection shelf talkers shipped with the three-sided mobile advertising the line. As for the ESB shelf talker, it was available to orderers of either the header that debuted in 1982 or the "Collect All 48" three-sided mobile. Eight shelf talkers shipped with the former, six with the latter.
1983
The flat plastic shelf talker persisted beyond 1982.
Like its predecessor, the Return of the Jedi shelf-talker of 1983 featured a flat facing.
And, in terms of graphic design, it didn't reinvent the wheel.
Setting aside the obvious alterations owing to the change of movie title, the main adjustment to the design concerned the positioning of the Kenner logo, which moved from the border surrounding the central element to the right corner.
This was a late modification; the original plan was to retain the Kenner logo in the border surrounding the film's title.
We know this because a couple of prototypes for the Jedi shelf talker preserve the original design.
But the importance of these prototypes isn't limited to the placement of the Kenner logo; they're far more interesting for what they tell us about the timing of the retitling of the third Star Wars movie from Revenge of the Jedi to Return of the Jedi.
Each item exhibits two lines of handwritten notations. These reveal that the change must have been communicated to Kenner sometime around the middle of November of 1982.
Exactly a week separates the two designs -- pretty neat! [5]
Eight Jedi shelf talkers shipped with the snazzy metallized header that Kenner debuted in 1983. Six shipped with the "Collect All 65" action figure header.
Also released in 1983 was a cardstock shelf talker enhanced with a pad of coupons encouraging shoppers to enter a sweepstakes.
This sweepstakes was very similar to the ESB sweepstakes discussed above. It even had a similar grand prize: a trip to view the premier of the latest entry in the Star Wars saga.
But this time around C-3PO and R2-D2 weren't available. Your sorry a** had to find his own d*mn date.
For more on the sweepstakes, see here.
1984
1984 was an unusual year for Kenner shelf talkers. Though it didn't see the release of a new ROTJ design, several novel pieces within the category were debuted. Some were quite interesting!
Okay, I know I just wrote that there was no new ROTJ design, but the truly anal among you might value knowing that the standard Jedi shelf talker can be found with either 1983 or 1984 dates printed on it.
So, technically, the 1984 version is the one with the 1984 date. Duh.
Four of these 1984 shelf talkers shipped with the header that Kenner debuted in 1984. Six shipped with the "Collect all 79" action figure header.
And now we can move onto the more interesting releases of 1984.
First up is this shelf talker advertising a poster mail-away that expired on December 31, 1984.
Featuring a group photo of all of the action figures then available on one of its sides, and a collage on the other, the poster prominently highlighted the slogan "Star Wars is Forever."
Kenner had long used this slogan to communicate to wholesale buyers that Star Wars was not just a single movie but rather a continuing franchise. [6] Now they extended its scope to retail shoppers. The gambit was somewhat hopeless, as, for the remainder of the '80s and even a chunk of the '90s, Star Wars was basically dead. And, of course, Kenner nixed the entire line after sales declined in 1985.
Still, the marketing folks at Kenner weren't entirely wrong: Here we are 40 years later, and Star Wars is still around, despite the best efforts of the Walt Disney Company.
Maybe it really is forever?
Also released in 1984 was this shelf talker focusing on Kenner's Preschool range, which in addition to Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears included a line of Wicket the Ewok products.
Look, I know you think the Preschool stuff is lame and maybe even slightly appalling, but it's part of the Kenner Star Wars story, all right?
Be a real collector and least feign some respect.
Even if you persist in totally dismissing it, you'll have to admit that the Preschool shelf talker is pretty rare. It wasn't long ago that collectors questioned its very existence. The fact that it does indeed exist suggests that the Preschool header featured in Kenner's 1984 catalog was also released. [7]
Per that catalog, the Preschool header shipped with eight shelf talkers.
The final shelf talker released in 1984 is also the most interesting. [8] It may actually be the rarest shelf talker released by Kenner in association with the Star Wars line. Certainly, it's the most desirable one in the eyes of most collectors.
It advertised the final Star Wars action figure mail-away, Anakin Skywalker.
Curiously, Anakin is the only action figure mail-away to be advertised via a shelf talker; all of the other mail-aways were promoted via cardbacks, and maybe the occasional print ad.
Only a handful of these shelf talkers have surfaced over the years.
Even rarer is this large-format version of the piece, which features two pads of coupons rather than one. Based on the perforations near the top, it seems designed to be inserted over the pegs that typically support action figures in a retail environment.
Does that make it more of a peg talker than a shelf talker?
As far as I know, only one example of this item is known to exist, and it originated with a Kenner source. Consequently, most collectors consider it an unreleased prototype.
But who knows, maybe more examples will turn up...
1985
As most people reading this probably know, Kenner's Star Wars toy line continued for one year beyond 1984 via the Droids, Ewoks, and Power of the Force ranges.
Alas, no shelf talkers were released in association with these ranges.
Kenner did plan them, as the above image from their 1985 catalog shows; they just didn't release them.
Fortunately, a mockup of the Power of the Force shelf taker survives. In appearance it's probably very close to the final design.
The mockup resides in the collection of Will Grief, who has generously agreed to share it for this article.
As you may be able to tell, it was created using the Micro Collection shelf talker as a base, paint and stickers being judiciously applied so as to effect a complete transformation. Additional photos can be seen here.
As far as I know, no prototypes of the Droids or Ewoks shelf takers have surfaced, which means this POTF mockup is our only tangible connection to the coulda-been-but-wasn't shelf-talker lineup of 1985.
What Else?
Finally, there's Play-Doh.
Play-Doh? I can hear you thinking.
Who cares about Play-Doh?
Well, like the previously mentioned Preschool line, Play-Doh is a part of the Kenner Star Wars story. Play-Doh was owned by Kenner, and Star Wars products were released under the Play-Doh banner.
I mean, you watched Ahsoka, didn't you? Because it's Star Wars, right? Well, there's no way that Play-Doh is harder to endure than Ahsoka.
So man up and spend a few minutes thinking about Play-Doh.
[1] As the graphic at the top of this article demonstrates, Kenner actually referred to these display items as "shelf cards." They did this even after the switch from cardstock to plastic. But I've never heard someone use that term. It's always "shelf talker."
[2] Throughout this article, the shelf talker quantities noted as being shipped with larger Kenner display items derive from Kenner's published catalogs. The quantities actually shipped may have differed. The catalogs are hardly the last word on this (because plans sometimes change). And I confess that I haven't systemically examined intact shippers to determine what they actually contained.
[3] Does this image show a cardstock shelf talker? It almost looks like it. If so, it's possible that the 1981 shelf talker was originally envisioned as not a plastic, but a paper, product.
[4] A mockup prototype of the Micro shelf talker exists. As it's a modified version of the 1981 shelf talker, it features the raised graphical portions distinctive to that item. See here.
[5] Also note that the 11/18/82 note features an "R" in a circle. This is owing to the fact that this revision of the design of a week prior added this element to the areas below the ROTJ logos occupying each side of the shelf talker. If you look closely, you'll see that the 11/11/82 design does not include them.
[6] I've long wondered if the title of the third film in the Burton-Schumacher Batman franchise wasn't at least partly inspired by this battle-tested Kenner slogan. Kenner, of course, had the Batman toy license, and the company worked pretty closely with Schumacher and his team on the development of the "toyetic" implements featured in the film. Famously, Batman Forever was supposed to be the film that returned Batman to toy-aisle relevancy, Burton's Batman Returns having been deemed too disturbing for a successful toy line. From a toy-marketing POV, Batman Forever made a lot of sense as a title.
[7] I am aware of one example of this header. As it originated with a Kenner source, its existence doesn't prove it was released. But, based on the existence of the shelf talker, I'm betting the header was indeed sent to stores, albeit in limited numbers. You can see a mockup of this header here. The finalized display differs in that it features Ewoks on one of its sides, and Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears on the other.
[8] Though the Anakin offer expired in May of 1985, it was officially a fall 1984 promotion, so it's a safe assumption that the shelf talker was issued to stores at that time.
[9] In his classic book, Star Wars Vintage Action Figures, John Kellerman identified the 1981 "Save Your Ticket" store display as a shelf talker. I suppose he did this because its surface featured three spots to which pads of coupons were to be anchored. But the display was designed for a countertop. In other words, it doesn't satisfy the "shelf" requirement of the term. So I didn't include it in this article. In the shelf talker section of John's book were also included the sign advertising the 1984 poster mail-away and the "Three New Figures" dangler. Again, I do not consider these items to be shelf talkers, though a case could be made for the latter, as it was likely often affixed to shelves.
Special thanks to Will Grief for sharing the images of the Power of the Force shelf talker. And thanks to Eddie for consenting to the use of the vintage store photos.
