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A Collector's Guide To

Baggies

By Todd DeMartino and Bill Wills

It's funny to watch all of the little niches that begin to pop up over time within any collectible community. Some are the result of a collector's desire to add a little variety and uniqueness to their collection by focusing on areas that aren't as intensely competitive as some of the more mainstream segments. But online communities with large, active membership roles and a steady influx of new collectors may very well be the biggest factor in shaping collector tastes as they can dramatically increase the amount of exposure that these niche areas might not receive otherwise. Of course an increase in supply through venues like eBay certainly doesn't hurt either. One such area in the vintage Star Wars toy hobby that has experienced growth over the past couple of years is Kenner baggie collecting.

Kenner baggies were available in the U.S. from a variety of sources, the very first being the Star Wars Early Bird Kit. But the majority of Kenner baggies were undoubtedly purchased in the over 90 different multi-packs that Kenner produced from 1978 through 1984 and sold through the catalogs of Sears, JC Penney, Montgomery Wards, Spiegel and Alden. These multi-packs ranged anywhere from 2 figures up to 16 figures in a single pack.

One source that remains a bit of a mystery is the solid pack case. These were 200-piece shipping cases that contained the same loose figure in a Kenner baggie.

So what real purpose did baggies serve? Kenner employed factories all over the orient (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau) as well as Mexico to produce Star Wars action figures. During various stages of the production process, samples were shipped back to Cincinnati for the designers and engineers to inspect. Baggies served a few different purposes. They were primarily a method of demarking where the figure was manufactured, but they were also an ideal way to keep the figure and their small accessories together as well as providing some measure of protection for the figure. When the decision was made to offer the Early Bird Kit and figure multi-packs, baggies were a perfect and inexpensive part of the packaging solution.

There are a lot of reasons why people collect Kenner baggies. Created with function in mind, there's not much to a Kenner baggie aesthetically speaking, so it's doubtful many people collect them for their visual appeal. And while a few retailers sold individual bagged figures on clearance (Sears Surplus, Boscov's, etc.), most collectors remember buying their figures on the card, so there's little if any sentimentality associated with a baggie. However, since every figure through Return of the Jedi (including the Max Rebo Band members, Jabba the Hutt and Salacious Crumb) as well as Anakin, EV9-D9, Amanaman and Barada from the POTF line were available in Kenner baggies in the U.S., we suspect many collectors see them as a way to get a mint, complete figure at a fraction of the cost of a carded figure. They also take away the worry of getting reproduction accessories when buying a loose figure, which plagues today's market. Kenner baggies also offer the character focus collector another avenue to further expand their run. For example, Tatooine Luke and Darth Vader can be found in 9 different baggie styles. Han Solo appears in 7 different baggie styles. Pictured below are all 6 versions in which Boba Fett can be found.

For the most part, baggies are very affordable, although since AFA began grading loose figures and with un-circulated examples commanding such premiums on eBay, even more common baggies are now fetching record prices. With the exception of Cat IV's and the insanely rare Cat V's (which can get very pricey), most can be had for less than $50. Interestingly enough, there isn't always a correlation between rarity and price. Some of the more popular characters like a Cat II Vader, Fett, and Ben are fairly common, yet because of increased demand, their prices can be equal to (or even higher in some cases) than some Cat III baggies, or even a very tough Cat IV baggie like a black Bespin Guard. One other factor that can increase or decrease the price is the baggie version. For example, most of the original 12 figures can be found in multi-packs all the way through ROTJ. However, any of the original 12 in the very early SW-b style tends to be more desirable and usually command a premium over their latter tape-sealed counterparts.

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