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Catalog Description:
Star Wars Cantina Adventure Set
SET INCLUDES: Recreate the bizarre adventure and create new ones with 4 fully poseable plastic figures: Greedo, Snaggletooth, Hammerhead and Walrus Man. Graphics depict various characters and activity outside the Cantina. Ages 4 and up. Source: 1978 Sears Wish Book |
Description:
Available soley through the Sears Christmas catalogs (called "wish books") of 1978 and 1979, the Cantina Adventure Set is notable for its inclusion of the most signficant Star Wars figure variation of all time, the infamous blue Snaggletooth. Contrary to popular belief, purchasing this boxed set was not the only means a child had of obtaining the rare figure. The blue version of Snaggletooth was also available independently of the playset, in a mail-away two-pack with Greedo, a product which was also exclusive to Sears. But collectors must keep in mind that the Cantina Adventure Set was available for consecutive Christmas holidays, and thus not all of the sets included the early version of Snaggletooth. After all, by 1979, the smaller red version of the figure was widely available, and must have replaced its blue counterpart in Sears' warehouses.
The four figures included in the Cantina Adventure Set were held in two small white boxes; one contained Snaggletooth and Greedo, the other Hammerhead and Walrus Man. As mentioned above, these pairs were also sold as action figure two-packs, available independently of the playset. The white boxes were inscribed with the catalog code number of each two-pack. (These boxes can be seen here.) Although some four-packs exist containing Greedo, Hammerhead, Walrus Man and the red version of Snaggletooth, and bearing the label "Cantina Figures", these do not derive from the Cantina Adventure Set. They are, in fact, JC Penney products from 1979.
The Cantina Adventure Set is also notable for its rarity-- it is one of the harder to find early Kenner items, particularly in unused condition. The playset itself is graphically interesting, but it's nothing more than a cardboard backdrop, developed, no doubt, as a vehicle for selling hot new action figures. Sears would offer similar "playset"/figure combinations later during the ESB years, calling them "Cloud City" and "Rebel Command Center", respectively. The retailer offered similar products for Hasbro's G.I. Joe line.
It should also be mentioned that the box of this toy shows who has to be, hands down, the goofiest looking kid to ever appear on a Kenner Star Wars package.
First Issued: 1978 (SW packaging, w/ blue Snaggletooth)
Re-issues: 1979 (SW packaging, w/ red Snaggletooth)
