March 1999 and the Star Wars Expanded Universe in the Top 10
The 1998 Kenner Expanded Universe subline (Amazon.com search*) may not be all that valuable today, but back in March of 1999 — according to ToyFare magazine — three of the hottest ten action figures of the day were all from that set of nine carded Star Wars Expanded Universe action figures.
Now something I have always wondered is just how accurate those ToyFare lists were at the time. I know the info was supposed to have been collected from stores, but seeing as how spotty and random action figure distribution is these days I have to ask: Was the ToyFare staff actually having an affect on the market just by creating and publishing these lists? Was a hard-to-find figure in one part of the country making a toy appear to be hot, when in fact stores in that area just had not yet received their allocation of the toy?
Anyway, the other fun thing to notice is just how many Star Wars figures were in this top ten. Don’t worry, kids. Lucasfilm was going to release a movie just a few months after this March, 1999 magazine was on shelves . . . and that movie would forever dampen the excitement that some felt for Star Wars.
Related articles
- June, 1998 Star Wars Expanded Universe Profiles (battlegrip.com)
- Sixteen Years Later and the Star Wars Expanded Universe Action Figures Haven’t Changed in Value (battlegrip.com)
- All Nine Star Wars Expanded Universe Action Figures Carded (battlegrip.com)
As someone who was actively collecting toys back in ’99 I can tell you that ToyFare was the mag that we looked forward to each month, and the top 10 was typically pretty accurate, if vaguely out-of-date (certainly compared to today’s up-to-the-minute interwebz data).
I distinctly remember how hard it was to find The Creeper and Thrawn. It was a crazy time, sort of like the wild west!