Dynamic Subspace

Tag: Kenner

  • My Humble Star Wars Collection

    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models


    Panning around my desk at home is the Star Wars version of the original opening toThe Ray Bradbury Theater. My favorites are the Kenner line of action figures. To the left of my computer monitor is Sy Snootles and the Rebo Band set, which is sealed in its original box and blister pack, but the cover plastic has yellowed and Max Rebo’s skin has faded to a lighter blue. To the right and behind my home-built mini-AI workstation is Jabba the Hutt smoking hooka and reclining on his throne. Klatuu, Amanaman, Bib Fortuna and others mill about. Slave Leia, a Kenner-inspired action figure by Stan Solo Creations, completes the scene. A 1/144 scale Bandai Millennium Falcon (ESB version) swoops away from Jabba’s den around my computer. Directly in front of my keyboard are The Emperor safely sealed in a mail-away baggie, and bearing arms in a row are the bounty hunters contracted by Darth Vader aboard The Executor to locate the Millennium Falcon—Zuccuss, IG-88, Bossk, Dengar, and 4-LOM, but wait, Boba Fett should be here. Oh, he’s just above my monitor in the cockpit of Slave I that is posed mid-flight thanks to a LEGO Technics stand that I built for it. To its right is the Millennium Falcon on another custom LEGO display stand. The Dagobah Playset completes the shelf with Luke, R2-D2, Yoda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi looking across at an X-Wing Fighter with Battle Damage stickers applied (Darth Vader awaits hidden in the Cave of Evil). To the right of my trackball are two Stormtrooper from Hasbro’s updated 3 3/4”-line called The Vintage Collection that I fondly think of as Tag and Bink. To my right is The Emperor’s Thone Room playset and the huge box containing an unassembled Bandai Perfect Grade 1/72 scale Millennium Falcon (ANH version).

    Living in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn requires creativity when it comes to one’s hobbies. My simple solution for my Star Wars collecting is to surround my desk area with my action figures and models. I have a mixture of original Kenner 3.75″ action figures, vehicles, and playsets; Hasbro re-issued “Retro Collection” figures; Stan Solo Creations re-issues and originals; Hasbro modern 3.75″ figures including “The Vintage Collection;” LEGO minifigures and sets, and Bandai Millennium Falcon models (1:350, 1:144, and 1:72 scale–the middle one is built, the other two remain to be assembled and painted).

    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models
    star wars action figure collection of assorted figures, vehicles, playsets, and models

  • DIY LEGO Display Stands for Kenner’s 1979 Millennium Falcon and 1981 Slave I Vehicles in Flight

    I wanted to display my Kenner Millennium Falcon, which I’ve had for awhile, and my recently acquired Slave I on a shelf above my desk at home. While I liked seeing them on the shelf above my desk–Falcon with gear down and Slave I resting on its base–I thought displaying them in flight would look a lot cooler. There are aftermarket displays, including some nice ones that are clear acrylic, but since I have so much LEGO on-hand, I figured I should use what I have instead of purchasing something new. Below, I’m including detailed photos of each stand in case you are interested in building your own.

    LEGO Flight Display Stand for Kenner Millennium Falcon (1979)

    The Falcon display stand presented an interesting problem. Due to its asymmetrical design (with cockpit stuck off on its forward right quadrant), getting it to balance from the center gunner platform was difficult. Also, I didn’t want to build the stand with a wider width so that I could avoid putting any weight on the fragile loading ramp piece. A very simple solution presented itself when I ran out of single-stud wide tires. Putting a two-stud wide tire on the front support arm in the direction of the cockpit substantially balanced the Falcon so that it doesn’t wobble or move on the stand at all even while I’m typing on my keyboard below it on my desk.

    LEGO Flight Display Stand for Kenner Slave I (1981)

    Slave I’s unique design presented its own unique challenges for building an in-flight display stand. It is designed to be in flight mode by someone grasping the handle on the back of its base. The straight forward approach would be to build a long arm with a hook or some assemblage to “grasp” around the handle. When I was testing this out, I didn’t have enough long black 1 x n Technic bricks to construct a stable and supported arm (needing at least a sandwich of Technic bricks over and under a 2 x n plate).

    I opted to build a shorter support arm that would contact with Slave I in three places–hook around the bottom of the handle for stability, 4 x Technic, Axle Connector Double – Flexible Rubber holding the weight under the two bottom engine exhausts, and two 1-stud wide tires under the screw assembly that holds the base at the loading ramp together.

    Due to its center of gravity, I angled the arm back a couple of degrees and built the display stand’s base wide, short in the back, and long in the front.

  • Star Wars Kenner Speeder Bike Vehicle and Biker Scout Action Figure

    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, 3/4 view

    The speeder bike chase on the Moon of Endor is one of the most exciting sequences in Return of the Jedi (1983). Kenner captured that excitement in the speeder bike vehicle and Imperial Biker Scout action figure. There are some ingenious elements to this vehicle. First, when one picks up the speeder bike, the stirrups descend and the engine flaps on the back lift up and open. Second, when a speeder bike is hit by a laser blast, struck by a lightsaber, or runs into something, one can press on the blanket on the back to trigger the speeder bike exploding into three separate parts. This was one of my favorites in my Star Wars action figure collection, but it is now entrusted to someone else.

    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, front view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, right side view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, rear view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, right side view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, lifted with engine flaps open

  • Remembering My Friend Greg Doke

    Jason Ellis on the left wearing a Boy Scout uniform and Greg Doke on the right wearing a scouting t-shirt. Other people in the image have been removed using Stable Diffusion and inpaint+lama.

    The photo above shows me (left) and Greg (right) as we’re about to leave for the 1989 National Scout Jamboree in Washington, DC. By that point, we had spent a lot of our early life together–same elementary school, Cub Scouts, Webelos, and then, Boy Scouts.

    On the long bus ride to the Jamboree, he assembled a plastic model kit of the USS Enterprise USS-1701-D. Imagine his determination to build that model while the bus is bouncing around on the roadbed and young boys are shouting and carrying on around him. He laid out his sprues in the flimsy cardboard box–full color lid inverted to hold the plain cardboard bottom–and applied bits of modeling cement from a metal Testors tube to bind and hold the bits together. I thought that he was out of his mind to build that model on the trip, but he wasn’t out of his mind–he was focused. It meant something to him. It gave him an escape and outlet from everything else going on around him. It channeled his love of Star Trek: The Next Generation into something tangible and real–bringing the utopian world on the screen into a moment of his real lived experience.

    Some years before that trip, I spent an afternoon with Greg at his house. We pulled out his older brother Jeff’s precious Star Wars toys–carefully preserved in their original boxes and meticulously stored in his bedroom closet–for otherworldly battles in outer space. We assembled the Kenner Death Star playset and strafed its villains with an X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon.

    Greg was an aficionado of great toy lines based on children’s cartoons. He had an extensive collection of action figures from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and he proudly showed off the Miraj with a full compliment of heroes from Silverhawks. I can safely say that I’m as impressed now as I was then. And, I was awfully glad we got to play with them together.

    Even earlier, I remember being sick in elementary school. I might have missed a week of school. When I returned to classes, I didn’t have a lot of get-up-and-go. Greg became my companion during PE–we would walk the track beside Glyndale Elementary School. While we walked, we talked about all sorts of things–things that I can’t recall but feel like something important, meaningful, revelatory.

    An even earlier memory is of Greg, me, and a bunch of other boys pretending to be Transformers in the expansive field behind Glyndale. Sideswipe was my preferred character. Greg, however, took it to the next level as Megatron–nailing his character’s raspy electronic voice and striking an imposing silhouette with his arm canon raised.

    The last time that I saw Greg was June 16, 2018. I had visited his parents Wayne and Faye–my Boy Scout Scoutmaster and Cub Scout Pack Leader respectively. Greg happened to be home, so I got to catch up with him some, too. Our lives had diverged in significant ways, but he was still the same determined and playful guy I had know in my youth. However, I also sensed there was a gap between who we were and who we had become that couldn’t be bridged in a brief visit.

    Greg passed away last Monday on 1 Jul. 2024–about six weeks shy of his 47th birthday. Looking at his LinkedIn profile, it seems like he was still moving forward–starting his own company and getting certifications in cybersecurity, which makes the unexpected news that much harder to bear. Even when the bonds of friendship have frayed with time, we still can’t help wanting our old friends’ dreams come true and feeling heartbreak when they don’t.