In 1980, there was one toy on every boys wishlist- a Boba Fett action figure from the Empire Strikes Back. The figure at first was offered as a mail-away offer from Kenner. That meant you have to buy 3 or 4 other Star Wars action figures, cut the UPC code off the back and wait 3-4 years (okay, it was months, but it felt like years) for the figure to arrive in the mail in a very small nondescript brown cardboard box.
By the way, this willful destruction of mint-in-package figures in why an unopened Yoda figure is worth the price of a small car.
Anyways, the main thing that made this toy so awesome (besides it being of Boba Fett) was that the figure was supposed to come with a feature on the back in which you could fire the missile on his jetpack at your little sister. It also meant you might shoot her eye out. Kenner realized this and instead removed the firing pin, glued the rocket into the jet pack and mailed the bounty hunter far and wide to disappointed kids everywhere. (BTW- a prototype Boba Fett with Firing Jet Pack is worth the price of 4 small cars.)
For today's advent, I have included a link of several Star Wars toy commercials from 1980 along with the one telling kids to cut up their action figures, plus a great article about the whole firing missile debacle.
So fill up a glass of egg nog, snuggle up in your vintage Star Wars comforter and enjoy being 5 again...
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