People who own vintage toys from their childhood have learned that many of their beloved collectibles are worth more than they ever imagined. This can be both life-changing for people who have their old toys in mint condition and frustrating for people who actually played with their toys as kids and now have them in less-than-stellar condition. For anyone who used to play with Kenner’s Star Wars toys as a kid, especially those of characters like Darth Vader, there are a lot of action figures and bigger toys that are now worth hundreds and even thousands of dollars. An example is a sonic-controlled Land Speeder from the original Star Wars movie is now worth around $19,000.
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However, there are also some classic Star Wars action figures that are so rare that they are selling for even more than that. Last year, a Darth Vader action figure from the Jeff Jacob Collection sold at a Hake’s auction for $130,095. The big selling point was that it came with a Double-Telescoping lightsaber that was removed from the product because the design broke so easily.
Rare Classic Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader Action Figures Worth a Fortune
The auction was for a Darth Vader 12 Back-A AFA 80 NM (Double-Telescoping, POP 4) action figure from 1978. This came from the first Jeff Jacob Collection, which included items totaling $1.45 million in bids in a previous part of the collection sale. This figure was in a second offering from the same collection, and it was one of several Star Wars toys in that collection up for auction. The big selling point here was the words “Double-Telescoping,” which helped sell toys for a lot of money in the past.
Kenner only produced three Star Wars figures with a Double-Telescoping lightsaber: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. This was limited because of manufacturing issues and production costs, and specifically because these lightsabers broke so easily. The Double-Telescoping lightsaber featured a two-part design, with a thin inner plastic filament that slides out of a thicker outer tube, allowing the lightsaber to extend for battle. It was clever, but when they began breaking easily, Kenner quickly ended the design and started making single-piece lightsabers instead.
The Darth Vader lightsaber was red, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s was blue, and Luke Skywalker’s was yellow. When they were taken off the market, it turned them into a valuable collector’s find years later, especially when they were still in unopened packages. Seven years ago, a Redditor shared that their Obi-Wan in an unopened package was graded at all, saying only 12 or 13 have ever met the standard for grading.
That toy would be a prized possession for any Star Wars collector. Before the Darth Vader auction, there were previous auctions for both the Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi figures, with the rare Double-Telescoping lightsabers. An Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Jeff Jacob Collection sold for $105,182 in January 2025. A Luke Skywalker action figure sold for $84,370 in March 2025. The reason the Darth Vader figure went for more is that it is “infinitely rarer,” and it is the first AFA 80 Darth Vader figure ever sold at an auction.
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