Tuesday, May 4, 2021

[YouTube] Star Wars: Kenner Mini-Rigs

Between 1981-1984 Kenner released nine Star Wars toys that did not appear in the movies that it called "mini-rigs" as they are small vehicles that retailed for $4.99 which was about the price of two action figures. While there were creatures the figures could ride, like Dewbacks and Tauntauns, most movie vehicles were on the medium to large side until Return of the Jedi's speeder bike. The mini-rigs offered an affordable option for kids to have more toys to use with their action figures. Kenner did release another original vehicle before these and once the movies ended a few more of its own creations appeared in The Power of the Force series. I'm going to leave a link here to a 2013 story on StarWars.com that details the toys that did not appear in movies though many did later turn up in the comic books: Offscreen, but Not Forgotten: Mini-Rigs, Body-Rigs, and Other Kenner Vehicles.


I own seven of the nine mini-rigs which appear in the video and the photos below. The two I do not own can be seen in the above catalog scans where the left image can be considered toys for The Empire Strikes Back and the right Return of the Jedi (action figures were sold separately). In the left image I do not have the Multi-Terrain Vehicle (MTV-7) and in the right image I am missing the Endor Forest Ranger. Kenner appears to consider four of the mini-rigs to be Imperial, three to be for the Rebel Alliance, and two for Jabba-the-Hutt's guards. 


I'll put the photos in the same order as the catalog lists them and I'm also including a piece of the MLC's packaging and the ISP's manual. Also, some of the stickers are peeling, I'm missing the front piece of the Captivator, and I intentionally didn't pick the action figures that would make the most sense. In most cases I chose what I thought would be more obscure or less popular characters for the photos because the mini-rigs fit that profile as well since they aren't in the movies. The choice of Admiral Ackbar was for humor as I thought he looked good in the MLC with its fish bowl-like bubble. 

Captivator (CAP-2)




Interceptor (INT-4)




Mobile Laser Cannot (MLC-3)




Personnel Deployment Transport (PDT-8)


Desert Sail Skiff




Imperial Shuttle Pod (ISP-6)





Armored Sentinel Transport (AST-5)




MLC vs. AT-AT


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