By 1985, Star Wars was on its way off of toy shelves. It had been two years since Return of the Jedi had left theaters, and although the Droids and Ewoks cartoon series were still airing on Saturday mornings, the franchise was rapidly fading from the public consciousness. Kids had moved on to new toylines like Transformers and Masters of the Universe, leaving Kenner’s “Power of the Force” Star Wars action figures to collect dust on store shelves.
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And while a generation’s nostalgia for Star Wars would inspire a renaissance for the franchise and its collectibles in the 1990s, no such collector market existed in 1985. Power of the Force figures and vehicles were purchased exclusively by children, and that means they were opened, with accessories and small parts lost to backyards and bedroom carpets. Combined, these two factors make the Power of the Force line among the most sought-after collectibles for Star Wars collectors today, with even loose, incomplete samples of its playsets and vehicles commanding prices in the triple digits.
The Ewok Battle Wagon routinely sells for almost a thousand dollars loose, explaining the $100k asking price of this Action Figure Authority (AFA) boxed, near-mint graded sample.
Why is the Ewok Battle Wagon So Rare?
Along with the “Tatooine Skiff” from Return of the Jedi’s Sarlaac pit sequence, the Battle Wagon was one of two vehicles released in the “Power of the Force” line. Although released in comparable numbers, the Battle Wagon is arguably rarer and more expensive of the pair, owing to the higher number of easily-lost pieces.
The Battle Wagon features a ladder, a battering ram, a capture-cage, a massive ornamental animal skull, and a retractable front wall. This retractable wall feature is responsible for many collectors’ headaches in trying to source a complete Battle Wagon. The front wall is raised and lowered by a pulley made from a thin string, prone to breakage from both age and play.
History of the Ewok Battle Wagon
While released under the “Power of the Force” banner, the Battle Wagon is never seen in Return of the Jedi/. Instead, it appears extensively in the Ewoks cartoon, a weapon of war against the wicked Duloks, the Ewoks’ rivals for control of Endor. The cartoon demonstrates the wagon in use, with the ornamental animal skull becoming a hiding spot for Ewok scouts on patrol (a feature not replicable with the Kenner toy).
As with several other Star Wars sculpts, the wagon would be reused for Kenner’s 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves toyline, becoming the “Robin Hood Battle Wagon.” This reissue heightens the collectability of the original release, as incomplete samples of the Robin Hood Battle Wagon are difficult to distinguish from the Star Wars version. The Robin Hood wagon makes several key modifications, replacing the front wall’s pulley with a latch and losing the animal skull and cage.
Boxed “Power of the Force” Battle Wagons are few and far between, with a graded sample selling in May of this year for more than $3.5k. This sample was graded at a “75” on the AFA’s 100-point condition scale, ten points lower than the “85” rating issued to the $100k wagon on eBay now. While some twenty or thirty graded Battle Wagons exist at an AFA rating of 75 to 80, there are only eight in existence rated 85 or higher. The only vehicle harder to come by in near-mint AFA grade is the Tatooine Skiff, making this one of the most unique centerpieces possible for a Kenner collector’s Star Wars display.
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