Creating the toys billion dollar companies are afraid to: My Rebel Blockade Runner playset

I blame Michael French.

Michael French is the creator/host/producer/writer and driving force behind the Retroblasting YouTube channel. Years ago, he inspired me to start looking at the very narrow hobby of custom toy creation. He highlighted fan creators like Stan Solo, who produces incredible vintage style Star Wars action figures. After several videos I was like, “Hey, I could do that.”

As many of you know from the previous posts, I started recreated vintage toys I couldn’t afford, and then started creating my own original toy and playset pieces. Then I met Michael IRL, and the result of that meeting was my Freeze Chamber Playset.

And then the floodgates opened.

I created an extension of the Freeze Chamber, building on that by doing the Control Room and the Gantry. I started looking at the (horrible) MEGO Bridge playset from Star Trek The Motion Picture, and decided I could make it not only better, but screen accurate. And then, I started looking at unproduced toys.

In 1982, Kenner created a prototype of the Rebel Blockade Runner from the original Star Wars. It was about the length of the Millennium Falcon toy, and had very weird play features. For example, the Land of the Jawas Escape Pod was used as part of the toy, and it was removable, to represent the droids escaping the clutches of the Empire with the Death Star plans. The radar dish could flip open, to allow a figure to stand in the section. It was… Weird. Undersized, and it probably would have cost a lot of money to produce. They shelved it.

I got a book on Star Wars collectibles, and I kept going back to that one page, showing the image of the prototype.

“Hey, I could do that.”

So I started.

And then realized that if I did it, 18″ was WAY too small.

By a factor of 3X.

I stretched the initial forms, I started thinking about doing something ambitious and CRAZY: A toy version the same size of the studio model I had looked at in the Disney Hollywood Studios Star Wars exhibit. But one that was ‘Kenner accurate’ – Where the details were NOT the same as the filming model, but reflective of what Kenner would have done if they had produced a toy way back when (using filming model photos as reference).

I started in June. Nights and weekends were dedicated to this project. My wife called herself a “3D Printer Widow”.

In early December I was done.

It’s slightly over five feet long, and has multiple play features. The hallway that Darth breaks through. A bridge that figures can sit in. And a rear section where Princess Leia gives the droids those precious plans. And a hatch they can go into, just like in the original.

I even designed my own escape pod.

So here’s some pics of my latest project. I plan on selling the kit on ebay, for only $600. $100 more than Hasbro’s Sail Barge, because… Well, I print on demand. I don’t have the resources of a billion dollar company, and I have to make some money off my effort.

(Of course, my playset is also a full feet longer than Hasbro’s, so you get the equivalent value, size wise. And I didn’t have to do a Kickstarter to do it, unlike Hasbro.)