The Star Wars Stormtrooper Shortage of 1979

Back in 1979, after the re-release of Star Wars Kenner show an up in sales and that sales caused a shortage of the Stormtrooper action figure. Lets take a closer look at why that happened.
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[@matthewurquhart5495]

Moms everywhere: "I don't see what you need another stormtrooper for, you already have one!"

[@3cheaptrick]

Even Uncles I just need two I am glad I never bought that Stormtrooper Transport Station .

[@omlettedufromage8588]

OMG!!! you just took me back 42 years! hahahaha

[@robert5235]

Man I wasn't allowed to get more then one stormtrooper 😮

[@deadend1041]

It's impossible to explain the phenomenon Star Wars was to a kid today. Thing is that big nothing is even remotely close to being that big and nothing has been for many decades. It makes the pokemon craze look tiny

[@letzvisit1661]

I can only remember things like Ghostbusters and Ninja turtles. I remember those being very hard to get in the shops ack in the 80s/ 90s

[@sethallison5682]

Jurassic park and Teenage mutant ninja turtles are the closest we probably had in the 90’s, but I imagine it wasn’t close to Star Wars in the late 70’s

[@1220b]

The modern fans have no idea what a buzz to see racks of figures in the late 70s early 80s. The smell alone was over powering

[@BangBang-hk4rg]

Duplicate figures were out of the question for me as a kid. I was lucky to get my folks to buy me one Stormtrooper. 🤣

[@mikeclemens795]

Yup. The only reason we got a 2nd Darth Vader was because my brother broke off his head by rubber banding him to a doorknob & letting fly. xD

[@mikelitoris9610]

Same !

[@jediknightjairinaiki560]

Really? It was surprising to Kenner that kids would want multiple action figures of a character that there were multiples of in the movie? Well, golly. Who'd have thunk it.

[@jackphoton]

In New England, the vinyl cape jawa was initially all over the place, we had three to five of them... Once the cloth cape came out, we dropped/lost the vinyl capes off ours and let those jawas go capeless. If only we could have known!!!

[@seventiesfan717]

I put a vinyl caped Jawa back on the store shelf and bought a cloth caped Jawa instead back in 1978.

[@jackphoton]

@@seventiesfan717 Even at that age I knew from baseball cards that misprints and weirdos were more valuable. Should have applied that lesson to these guys. But toys were toys and baseball cards were baseball cards.

[@Allison_Troy]

Who the heck were those lucky kids who's parents were buying them multiple Stormtroopers? I was only allowed one because "You already have that figure!" and when I got my grandmother and aunt to buy me extras along with another Leia (since I'd lost the cape and the gun by that point) I got grounded for a week to my room. Which at 5 wasn't awful... all my SW toys were there. Great thinking there, Mom.

[@williamwilkinson381]

LoL I had 3

[@Allison_Troy]

@@williamwilkinson381 Lucky!

[@oldschooltommyim]

I got a Stormtrooper and there was no looking back…

[@JackieWohlenhaus]

Troop builders are always in demand. They still haven’t learned a damn thing.

[@robd1329]

Yup

[@demonicaxeman7264]

Go on eBay and look for Chinese sellers. I bought 10 stormtroopers in a bundle for $36 plus shipping. The Chinese must have major inventories of product they never shipped to the US where private sellers could get their hands on. The figures were loose, but they were authentic.

[@kenhill8272]

I don’t remember having trouble finding Stormtroopers. I had trouble finding Luke Xwing pilot. Got him for Xmas 79 and was thrilled to find him and an Xwing fighter under the tree. Got Boba Fett too!

[@BangBang-hk4rg]

X-Wing Luke was a tough one for me to find too. I wanted it soooo bad because I already had the X-Wing ship. This was around 83 or 84 so I would comb through all the ROTJ figures on the pegs looking for him anytime I was at a store. I’ll never forget the feeling of finally finding one after what seemed like an eternity of searching.

[@bearshockeyfan1970]

I remember the R2D2 and Stormtrooper shortage!!! Holy crap!! I forgot about this until your video Junk man! Wisconsin kids were constantly searching for R2 and Storm troopers! Great flashback video buddy!!

[@Dale_The_Space_Wizard]

Target stores all reported not receiving any Stormtrooper action figures. Apparntly it was because Stormtroopers always miss the Target.

[@robd1329]

Admiral Kirk also said that to Kahn in the Wrath of Kahn movie. Lol

[@hollywoodghostbusters9869]

Ok you win

[@pappafett9826]

We always found stormtroopers here in L.A. when we were kids..we used to buy our figures at J.J. Newberrys, and Zodys.. Between me, my sister, and my friend Jimmy, we had 6 Stormtroopers..when Empire came out it was all about the Snowtroopers and their. Long rifles!!! [[[EDIT]]] As i was writing my comment just now, i found a Stormtrooper, a Draconian Guard, and an Ovion with his vest but its not sparkly anymore, at a thrift store in Compton for 2.00 each😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@RansomeStoddard]

Here in Philadelphia, I remember the hardest figures to find over the years were Sand People, Boba Fett, Hoth Luke, and Luke as a Jedi Knight.

[@ricktaylor4789]

I can remember never having enough Stormtroopers for my Death Star. By the time I could find enough Stormtroopers to buy, Empire and the Snowtroopers were out!!!

[@oddeagle1968]

4:37, yes sir. These vintage SW figures, though, are still quite "hot", as the kids say, going on 43 years. This vid took me back to 1979, thanks again, JM.

[@williamrandall9502]

You forgot about the Stormtrooper shortage of 2021, not enough Stormtrooper figures in the Retro line! They should have made the Stormtrooper the 8th figure in the case pack and offered a full Beskar Mandalorian in the Monopoly game. Hasbro isn't very smart.

[@ChrisCaldwellO66]

Yep, I just pre ordered the damn monopoly game just to get the stormtrooper to complete the set.

[@williamrandall9502]

@@ChrisCaldwellO66 it's better than paying some stupid scalper on eBay 80 plus 10 shipping for just the figure. I got into an argument with a scalper about it, then I ordered the game from Hasbro Pulse and rubbed it in his face!

[@thestarkknightreturns]

1:24 "The Force will be with you for three weeks only". Damn, the irony of the spirituality vs the cash grab....

[@mattmc5069]

And I'll add Star wars really was a space western: you had the hero (luke), the wise leader (kenobi) the dismal in distress (leia) the rebel cowboy and his comical partner (han and chewbacca) the Billy the kid bad guy (vader) comic relief sidekicks (c3po and r2-d2) the army/enemy troops (storm troopers) ships replaces wagons, monsters replaced horses, space was the new frontier and stores where replaced by planets. Just like kids loved collecting Indian figures and army figures storm troopers where the new update.

[@macew2002]

As per the first Star Wars the only figure that my family had trouble finding was R5-D4. They said they looked through every toy store for one and finally got one.Empire came out and i remember the toy section completely filled top to bottom, whole isle of figures and toys. Then Jedi came out and toys were reduced to like 8 rows of figures but every one of the 1983 figures. Power of the Jedi was never in the Wal Mart I grew up near nor any other store near me. Our grade school class went on a field trip 2 hours away and went to a mall. We were told not to spend over $3.00 on any toy because some kids in the class didnt have money. There were 3 small pegs of POTF figures on those shelves but they were more than $3.00 in that mall so i ended up getting this knock off rambo toy instead. In line a girl bought a $30. talking doll and the teachers said nothing. I will never forget how i should have just purchased a few of those figures reguardless because i didnt see their images again until 1999 or 2000. I now I always think of you because one of the figures I was actually going to get was Imperial Dignitary. lol

[@thatoldcomicsmell56]

The Stormtrooper was one of the last figures I ever got. I wonder if this was why I never got one early. I had the Hoth Trooper, ATAT Driver, and Biker Scout. But no normal Stormtrooper

[@rumblehat4357]

Certain figs were very hard to find in 1978. When I first went, the local Woolworths had ONE Ben Kenobi and the rest of the set up just Princess Leia (probably 30 of them.) I got them both, but up to that day I was imagining which ones I would buy first. Luke? Han? Chewie? Artoo? Didn't have a choice. Old Ben and Leia.

[@BangBang-hk4rg]

I was into the toys when the ROTJ line was on the shelves and I wanted an original Leia really bad but never found one. Seems like the pegs were always full of nothing but Wequays and Gamorrean Guards back in those days

[@darthwizzywizard]

@@BangBang-hk4rg depends where you were in world. In Canada we had abundance’s of some figs that people in the US had to work to find.

[@emperorpawpateen.9992]

I was 11 back in '79 and I never had a shortage of stormtroopers. I must've had at least a dozen. I don't remember any shortage of figures in shelves. Mustve just been lucky. I even had 5 or 6 vinyl caped jawas.

[@demonicaxeman7264]

Holy Moly! From 12 years old up to now of the age of 33, I am still baffled how rare stormtrooper action figures are to find in stores. I stopped collecting figures around the age of 14, but when I was 23, me and my wife went to Toys R' Us back in 2011 in the UK, there was only one stormtrooper on the rack. There was an overwhelming energy inside me that told me to get it. From that point on, my golden Star Wars action figure collecting days were ahead of me. I don't think I would be a collector again if not for that special one stormtrooper on the rack. I hardly found anymore stormtroopers ever since.

[@doctorgoodguy1]

It's kind of crazy how this story is reminiscent of contemporary supply problems.

[@ThatJunkman]

These company rather Unproduced than over.

[@seventiesfan717]

I have that Cash Refunds booklet, and most of the Star Wars mini catalogs. The Stormtrooper was my second Star Wars action figure (Luke was the first), and there certainly wasn't a Stormtrooper shortage around here. People were buying them by the cartloads, and the stores would always bring in more and fill the toy aisles (remember those days?). There was, however, a Snaggletooth shortage back then. The only Star Wars figure I had a difficult time finding, despite looking in many stores. Finally, after several weeks, my grandmother's friend found a Snaggletooth for me, since her grandson was also looking for one. I've still got him, with his original blaster. I have five Stormtroopers now. I bought them for the Death Star play set.

[@6548ww]

I remember this well...parents were buying their kids as many Storm Troopers as they could find so their kids could build their own army of Troopers I had 20 or so I think I really enjoyed being a kid then

[@qwaurk985]

I'd have to agree that the troop transport was the problem. It's mpg was horrible and couldn't move stormtroopers very far.

[@Daniel-415-Ponce]

I loved the original Kenner Troop Transport vehicle with its electronic laser blast sound effects, but I never had enough stormtrooper figures to man it properly. In 2020, I broke down and ordered the new Vintage Collection Mandalorian Troop Transport vehicle, and I am still trying to scrounge up enough Vintage Collection Remnant Stormtrooper figures for it. (Hopefully, my pre-order for figures with Entertainment Earth that keeps repeatedly getting pushed back will come through eventually.) The more things change, the more they stay the same! There is ALWAYS demand for Stormtrooper figures - - when is Hasbro going to learn and actually make a reasonable effort to do whatever is needed to maintain an adequate supply?

[@davereece2470]

The most valuable piece in my Kenner collection; my mint, on card, 21 back Stormtrooper Mini Action Figure! My favorite figure in my collection? ...The first figure I ever owned (got it at a store called Children's Palace in Indiana) ...my loose Stormtrooper figure, which was played endlessly & now has been on permanent display for 43 years & counting. Yes, they were hard to find back then. I recall searching for weeks in every grocery store, department store, & toy store with my mom until I finally got my hands on it!

[@exoticcarfactsofficialchan7050]

2:14 "Thirteen additional Star Wars episodes" 😳🤯😱 ...Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. 😂😂🤣👍 Great video Junkman 😎🔥🔥🔥

[@williamwilkinson381]

How could anyone tell if there was a shortage of an figures ? I remember from like 79 through at least 84 walking into most stores that sold toys and seeing walls of Star wars figures lining the shelves ..I never could not find any vintage figures ..I had 3 storm troopers by the way

[@theriddler8695]

Stormtroopers were my favorite as a kid ( and still is today) and the figure I wanted the most. I don’t remember having trouble getting it, but that was so long ago....in Galaxy far, far away 😉

[@alexnejako777]

This was a good one. there were some figures that you never saw more than once on the shelf in the old days.

[@bradleygood6871]

You may have just provided the answer to a question I have had for years. I have always wondered why Kenner kept rereleasing the old figures with the new. No other toy lines had done that except maybe Mego. Other lines like He-Man, GI Joe, and Transformers usually had a two year run and then the figure or character was done. But it now makes sense that each time 20th Century Fox put a Star Wars movie back in theaters, interest would rise. Thank you for making and sharing this interesting piece of toy history video.

[@williamwilkinson381]

It's not like stormtroopers were only in one movie they were in all 3

[@bradleygood6871]

@@williamwilkinson381 It wasn't just the Stormtroopers. Even through 1984 and Power Of the Force, the 1978 and 1979 figures were being issued on new cards. In fact in 1984 they replaced the original Luke card art with one of him in the Millennium Falcon gunner station.

[@lunarmodule6419]

I saw SW and EMPIRE as double feature re-release the year before RETURN of the JEDI release.

[@jamesbounds]

Shortage of Star Wars figures. Sounds like todays times. Same with a lot of Hasbro figures.

[@ascensionindustries9631]

It's not Hasbro's fault. The last two movies of the Disney trilogy didn't really give them much to work with.

[@ricktaylor4789]

I think Kenner was more reliable back in the day!

[@jamesbounds]

@@ascensionindustries9631 True

[@christhornton8219]

Gret video, man. It takes me back to that time in my life. My 6 year old self was stoked to get the Death Star that year. Good memories.

[@frangrock]

'Thirteen additional Star Wars episodes have already been written.'

[@williamwilkinson381]

LoL .. George keeps changing that number iced head 9 6 and now 13 😆

[@TheSickNeeds]

They were counting the Christmas special at that time HAHAHAHAHA!!! and the ewok movies.

[@robd1329]

I remember as a kid in the 80s Jedi came out and all the kids had the figures...but i dont remember anyone ever having Stormtroopers

[@Tr0nzoid]

I somehow collected three stormtroopers. It wasn't common for me to get multiples, but the photo inside the collector's case showed that two slots were to be used for stormtroopers.

[@ImSonnyBurnett]

The Jawa was my Holy Grail...we didn't find him until 1981 in Western PA. I remember the day I found him in Murphy's Mart in Butler, PA on the way home from my grandmother's house. My mom was in the opposite side of the store and heard me scream "MOM! THEY HAVE A JAWA!!!".

[@lamarravery4094]

You should've screamed "Utteeeneee!", lol.

[@suedenim]

I wonder why they never tried selling six-packs of a cheaper stormtrooper figure? Maybe cutting some corners, using cheaper plastic or something? With just black and white they were probably cheaper to make than most figures anyway. And kids probably wouldn't care if the six-pack Stormtroopers were a little cheap and expendable - they are in the movies too! Personally, I never had nearly all the characters I wanted, so I'd always prefer something I didn't have to a second Stormtrooper.

[@bikerscout7467]

40 years later and hasbro continue to make the same mistakes as kenner!!!! Not releasing enough stormtroopers!!!!

[@hunter350js]

Maybe they should put army builders like stormtroopers in multipacks so you could get more than 1 at a time. Great video JM!

[@Daniel-415-Ponce]

That would make too much sense - - Hasbro evidently prefers that collectors all suffer and/or are forced to patronize the damn scalpers in order to obtain what we need.

[@hunter350js]

Very true

[@ilbftman]

Wow well army building was popular even back then. Such a great time to be a kid

[@orangebike900]

We were kinda poor growing up but I did find a way to get star wars. I'd spend the night at my grandmothers on weekends and her boyfriend would take us to the local mall. She would buy me one figure from Woolworth for $1.99 It was usually another stormtrooper. Could never have to many!

[@johnbradshaw5900]

As a kid the biggest problem with action figures and toys was the cost of the things that needed to be bought in numbers, like stormtroopers. It's hard to imagine at my stage in life where these things are not going to bankrupt me, but in the late 70's and early 80's a figure was pretty much a week or more of pocket money. So getting together 10 or 20 stormtroopers was a crazy amount of money. The flip side is I really appreciated everything I got in a way I don't now.

[@wallyandellen5099]

In Australia I bought mine at Myer, every week they would release two new figures on the pegs. Then a few months later all 12 were available, such an amazing feeling to see them all together, like when you dig up your first gold nugget when out detecting.

[@Jelperman]

I remembered my grandmother taking my cousin and me all over town looking for stormtroopers. We found a bunch at a Best store and between our saved up allowance and my grandmother paying for the rest, my cousin and I each got six. We were the envy of the neighborhood with two full squads of the bad guys.

[@duckmann5000]

Great Episode loved it 💯⭐️

[@nerdcraftercoley7305]

Kids were army building storm troopers. Makes sense and not sure why Kenner couldn't figure that out. I suppose it had never happened until then. Storm trooper until this day is my favorite figure from the vintage and even now I love any of them.

[@danielherrin]

I had that Jawa set back in day.

[@edfivedownunderplasticplanet]

I had two Stormies for Xmas in 79, because they were my Luke & Han in disguise. To be honest we probably didn't have a shortage in Australia though. Great story J.M. Cheers🍻👍🏻

[@thegadflygang5381]

YES. Every kid needed a few Stormtroopers to use as canonfodder. My earliest movie memory is falling figbting not to fall asleep in the drive in right after the trailer for Empire was shown and Darth Vader entered Hoth.

[@Arnold_Rimmer]

I only had 2 stormtroopers because a pair came in a set of the original 12 through Montgomery Ward, I think, that I got for Christmas 1978.

[@prymetyme2171]

Impossible to troop build back then. By the time ROTJ came out. I had only 5 stormtroopers.

[@mattneve9352]

Amazing video. Thanks JM

[@thetworoos]

Great video, Junkman!

[@ParkerLewis411]

They should’ve sold a 5 pack of troopers for the price of 3 single figures.

[@ultragoji3358]

Some things never change. I find trying to get certain Black Series figures listed as "Store Exclusives" only to find certain popular characters light packed.

[@edwardbeaty8899]

Army Building is hard! I only collect Black series and at $20 a pop they get expensive. In numbers I'm slowing starting to get a decent number, about 20-25, but they are all over the place, 2 or 3 of several different styles. Finally getting a decent Mandalorian force too. I have the 2 female figures on order, and finally, finally got my long on order Boba Fett yesterday!

[@digitalmagicAR]

I never saw Luke for sale in the store (white robe). My mother ordered him from a catalog and I got him later for Christmas. It was probably around 1981. I was thrilled.

[@jebstuart4004]

Army builder ? i don t think that kids think like that, or if they do, parents won't buy multiple same figures just like that. i remember that we did not go to a toy store every week-end, and prices were always in mind ( quite impossible to buy big toys like ATAT for example, it was a graal ) we were not poor, but you were lucky if you came back home with 2 figures ! So buying 6 stormtroopers ?! NEVER. I suppose that Kenner stocks were just too scarce for some figures.

[@mlcash9]

Damn army builders even in 1979

[@mattmc5069]

So let me guess finding the outfit for Halloween I bet was near impossible to

[@tperson8347]

I really loved this video. Stormtroopers were one of the top best figures of the first 21. I heard they were smart and thought ahead and were actually producing more Stormtroopers than any of the other characters for troop/army-building. It might've even been Lucas's idea! Making for a fuller figure play and a more expansive experience. Still one of the best Stormtrooper figures to this day. Thanks alot for the video. :)

[@judgejase7583]

As a kid back in 1979, here in Sydney, Australia, I only ever managed to buy ONE Kenner Stormtrooper & I had to wait almost a year to see THAT carded one on the pegs (and they only had the one). They had plenty of Artoo's, Luke's & Kenobi's, but never a Stormtrooper. I NEVER saw another Kenner Stormy at my local shopping centre until the early 80's. Ironically the same thing happened in 2019/20 with the new Hasbro TVC Stormtrooper ... NONE at my local stores & I had to import a full case from the USA just to have some ! Kenner = dumb case mixes in the 70's >>>>> Hasbro = possibly dumber case mixes in the 2020's !

[@lamarravery4094]

My dad got me 3 stormtroopers. Of course, I wanted more. I managed to find one in the toy aisle and bought another one a few yrs later. So I had 4 growing up, a friend of mine had 10. But yeah, I recall, stormtroopers were hard to find back then.

[@jeffreypryor4549]

Stormtroopers are always in demand with me. Hell, I've bought several of the Bandai models and plan to keep buying them, those are the best action figure/model kit ever made of the Stormtrooper. Still have my few Kenner ones, too.

[@TheSickNeeds]

There was a shortage of Stormtroopers up here in Canada (Ontario...Toronto area) that was never ever resolved. I was bornin 75 and Starwars was the first movie I ever saw in theaters....I believe that this was the 79 rerelease because it was insanely fast into my collecting that the Empire toys were out and the Starwars toys were in short supply. I think I got an R2 before I even saw the movie but once I saw the movie it was game on! we were PLAGUED WITH Yodas here!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please do a story on that if you know what was up with that. Sure they thought he'd be the big draw for kids in the second movie but wow did they over estimate. K-mart had SOOOOO MANY that they included a free one in the sandcrawler (cardboard) playset. My dad swapped it out for a Bobba Fett....Then Kmart dropped the price of Yoda to $0.89 WHILE THE MOVIE WAS STILL IN THEATERS because they had so many! While all the other figures remained $5.99 (the standard Canadian price up until Jedi came out)....what does this have to do with Stormtroopers??? Well one day while in Sears I saw a bin 4 feet deep by 12 feet long by 4 feet high.... IT WAS ALL YODA!!! still at the high price.... I rooted through it for what seemed like an hour while my Mom and Sister were clothing shopping.....possibly longer..... YODA YODA YODA YODA YODA YODA YODA....I was on a mission to find anything but yoda.... and then I found it.....white gold!!!! I pulled a Stormtrooper out of there!!! I felt I earned it!!!! When my mom came to get me "No you aren't getting a starwars figure today"....but...but I earned it! I threw a fit! She caved. I wasn't the kind of kid who threw a fit often. I guess I'm glad I did because I never saw another stormtrooper in stores until 1986 when they were liquidating and they only had 6 of them then!!!! My town is 2,530 miles from LA... yes I looked it up and we didn't have stormtroopers either!

[@darthwizzywizard]

Yup. Ontario Sucked it seemed for Star Wars in the early days.

[@TheSickNeeds]

@@darthwizzywizard what figures did you have trouble finding? and what were they drowning in in your area?

[@newwavepop]

i was 7 in 79, i dont really remember if there were certain figures i wanted and couldnt find or anything like that. i was a very poor kid, i just remember whenever my father would take me to the store which wasnt particularly often he would let me get a star wars figure and i just remember looking through whatever ones were there and choosing the one i wanted most out of the selection that i didnt already have. same thing in 82 when G.I.Joe burst onto the scene. i dont remember ever having ads or coupons or things to even know what figures were actually available, i just looked at whatever was on the pegs when we happened to be there. i often wonder if its the reason i am an adult collector today, because i didnt have much back then.

[@alice_evermore]

I remember that little booklet!

[@paulchoccyt1303]

In UK the Stormtrooper was my first figure, I ended up with loads of them.

[@DEATH2thaSTUpid]

At $1.75AU..I was only allowed one..I was ok with that..many more figures to plead for my parents to buy..cheers for this Junkman 🍺🍺🍻

[@fireatwill7707]

I’d like a TVC escape pod

[@chrisnelmes3786]

I do remember the WOOLCO at Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener had large baskets on the shelf at this time,mostly filled with STORMTROOPERS. We would often see Americans buying a dozen at a time.

[@jameslamasters5254]

So. You're saying is, "Aren't there a little shortage for a Stormtrooper...Figures?" Bad, I know. Just needed to be said...

[@hansolo6101]

I had multiple Death Squad Commanders, Sand people, Jawas as well as multiple Stormtroopers. I was always confused (8 years old) why they never made a Tarkin figure.

[@lamarravery4094]

No Tarkin figure, but we got an imperial dignitary, lol.

[@Daniel-415-Ponce]

Even more baffling was why we never got a Rebel Trooper figure from the opening scene of Episode IV. That particular character should have been a no-brainer for the toy company to manufacture.

[@ascensionindustries9631]

Hey Junkman, you should a video on the figures released for TFA that barely appear in the movie. I have one whose scene was reduced to a 0.3 second background shot. Others only made appearances for only one shot similar to those in the cantina scene of A New Hope. It's also the only movie of the new trilogy that gave us figures worth collecting.

[@maxrico6660]

I remember clearly when Stormtroopers were always hard to find.

[@hcmv007]

Hasbro had the same problem with the VC Stormtrooper in 2019.

[@davidclough3951]

Pretty sure that is when I got my stormtrooper. Black paint missing on one part on one side of his face, but not the other side.

[@JohnFourtyTwo]

I grew up around Mobile, Alabama and I don't remember a shortage of any Star Wars toys back then, then again I was 10 in 1977 and I remember the shelves in the toy departments of Sears, JCPenney, and other stores had a full section of everything available, even the TG&Y and Five & Dime stores in my little hometown in Lucedale, MS had a pretty decent selection. You could be right though about the Stormtrooper, I didn't get a couple of those until a couple years later because my parents refused to waste any money on this stuff so I had to save up my lunch money instead, which is how I got all my Star Wars toys, novels, and comics back then. Unfortunately after I joined the Navy in 1985 my mom threw out everything but the books and I had a pretty good collection of original Star Wars branded, not Empire or Jedi branded toys of the same items.

[@ThatJunkman]

I don't thin I would even notice, I was just told you can have one and I can pick one :) I might be like dang they dont got *** but that would be it

[@jamespeters2859]

Cool.

[@MorganMcGinnis]

I ALWAYS felt like they should have made Action Packs similar to the MultiPacks but all Army Builder Packs............ lets say Packs a couple more times...... PACKS!!!!!! ;)

[@EnthalpyH]

You'd probably need a million stormtroopers in order to hit the main protagonist with their blaster. I always loved that trope. 😂

[@thomasmeyers2565]

Wow ,, extremely interesting junkman thanks for doing this video as I was not even 5 till August of 1980 so I was only 4 when empire was released so again thanks for sharing

[@Starwarslegacy76]

Just subscribed! Great video man!

[@lunarmodule6419]

13 more episodes!?

[@troyc4250]

I never had a stormtrooper. Oh well. I had good friends that had them. So we played with those figures for hours and made our own sets. I still have some of my figures and my kids have them now.

[@bradbrown8759]

Every body needed 3 - 4 Stormtroopers. Jawas & sand people to.

[@mrkrinkle72]

Well, Ricky Shroder with a dewback. From Sweet, Silver Spoon kid to Angry Grandpa!

[@robertnovelli2960]

Santa skipped my cookies but mom was pretty happy that morning.🤔🤣(kidding)

[@_The_Worst_]

Stormtroopers are always so hard to find...😒

[@woncarlos7494]

Imperial Dignatary?

[@peterkopczyk3744]

Hardest Star Wars Figures That Were Hard To Find When I Was Little. Death Squad Commandef Red Snaggletooth And FX-7.

[@ModernFossilOuttakes2004]

This shortage is still around today... troopers are always popular

[@badape3620]

Ok at the beginning of this video I had a funny thought. The land of the Junkman playset, complete with? I don't know what accessories that should it come with. Anyone have any ideas?

[@ThatJunkman]

Escape pad

[@davebooshty299]

3:10 Simply put maybe because we were building Armies of Stormtroopers best we could?

[@bradforever4489]

The Star Wars Stormtrooper Shortage of 1979? How about the great Star Wars Black Series Stormtrooper shortage of 2020 and 2021!?! Nothing has changed ...

[@arthurdaley5731]

In my little corner of England, the hardest figure to find was R5D4