Vintage Star Wars "Revenge" Toy Found! Is it real? How did it get to K-mart?

[@slickrick815]

I worked at Kmart from 1984 to 1990 in the toy department. The pink key on the price sticker is what department it would be. The number one was “general merchandise”. Sporting goods, automotive, apparel, or each department would have its own number. At my store the other numbers would have been the date. But it could be different at each store. The example in the video of the first Empire card was key 1(general merchandise), 4(April), 80(1980). The Master of Universe card was general merchandise, November 1987. Because some stickers are missing something or numbers make no sense means nothing really. I was 17 years old pricing everything at Kmart. You had to spin a dial on the pricing guns to what you wanted. We were high school kids. Sometimes you would make a mistake or just to lazy to setup pricing gun correctly. On the second Empire card in video the yellow price sticker says general merchandise November 1982. The second white ticket on same action figure says general merchandise(key1), but the “5” and “17” could have been a markdown code since figure’s price was reduced 47 cents. So I don’t think the dollar sign missing means nothing. I have a boxed ROTJ speeder bike I bought at the Kmart I worked at and the only thing on the price sticker is”9.99”. It has no key, date, or money sign. What was funny though is I bought that speeder bike in 1999 and the toy was from 1984. It was probably found in the back warehouse in 1999 and just stuck out on the shelf. I also remember all the POTF figures in the mid-eighties and kids were stealing all the coins off of the figures, so we would mark off the figure to zero, and throw it away. I remember blue lighting those figures in a blue plastic 5’ swimming pool for .50 cents a figure, and they still would not sell. Boy I sure wish I could go back in time.

[@futuramayeah]

i heard that the capstone to the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt had a swastika on it, which was the Egyptian symbol for the letter H, but it was stolen by thieves because it was made of gold, this story of yours is sort of like that, on an episode of Ancient Aliens, they figured out that the Great Pyramid is a giant machine that shoots out a spurt of Hydrogen out of one of the shafts leading up and out, possibly to power a spaceship

[@whistlingsage9817]

Thank you! I worked at K-Mart #7440 in Bourbonnais, IL from 1984 to 1987, and for the life of me I couldn't remember the price tag codes. Thanks for the little trip down memory lane. For what it's worth, the price tag on the Star Wars toy looked legit to me. Since everything wasn't computerized back then, things didn't need to exactly follow format in order to work in the system, and sometimes people goofed up. But no one in my K-Mart would have had any trouble ringing up that toy.

[@Rope_Adope]

I was an inventory control manager and it looks like it might have been a return or damaged possibly damaged in-store and placed on discount, which could explain the basic key-codes. Reg Kmart stickers were white. Discount/sales were orange If it was a salesman’s sample, there would be no way to request an RTV (Return to Vendor) for credit. So they probs tossed it on a discount shelf or table. The “general merch” is for the cashier to manually ring up (not barcode) and the date is when it was place on sale because if something doesn’t sell (say after a week) we’d go back and reduce the price more until it does sell. Seems legit

[@vegancam]

The last time I ever saw a vintage Star Wars figure for sale on a regular store shelf was a bunch of ESB characters on ROTJ cards - Bespin Han, Cloud Car Pilot and one other that I can't remember which - but the funny thing was it was no earlier than 1994. It was either ’94 or ’95. They were at a chain of weird discount department stores that no longer exist here in Australia and in a random suburb that I visited only rarely, when catching the bus to go visit my grandmother. There was a couple of Cloud Car Pilots, a few Hans and a ton of the other one, all priced at $2.99. I was a poor student at the time and just bought a Cloud Car Pilot and a Han - I still have the opened cardbacks in my collection to this day. Whatever the other one was it was a unique character I already had and not an army builder, so "logically" I didn't buy one. I feel like maybe it was Lobot. Anyway, when I went back the following week hoping to buy another Cloud Car Pilot, they were none, no Hans either, and whatever the other one was had been moved into a big discount bin at the front of the aisle and marked down to 50c. Seriously, there must've been 30 or 40 of these things. I was so sad that I had missed out on the Cloud Car Pilot that I didn't even think to grab one of the others for 50c just for the heck of it. When I went back a couple of weeks later, they were all gone too. Previous to this, the last Star Wars toys I had seen in stores was somewhere around 1989 or 1990 at a pop-up gift and book clearance store in my home town. They just had the ROTJ one-man minirigs of the Sand Skimmer and Endor Security Scout in dump bins. The Skimmers were twice the price of the Scouts for some reason and my Mum refused to buy both for me, but I managed to negotiate her buying me two Scouts. I still have one in my collection.

[@banesbox]

Holy crap! $2.47 for a Star Wars figure in 1981? That was expensive for the time.

[@perfectallycromulent]

not in New York

[@wishy692]

One thing I noticed with all your price pics: they all were perforated (had small cuts to prevent customers from switching price tags) but the one in question does not. It is a solid price tag with no small cuts in it. I think it’s a fake tag on a salesman sample on April Fools

[@billybatson8657]

I agree. The cuts are there so that if someone were to try and remove the tag to switch with another product, the tag would fall apart. There are no cuts on the Revenge toy box, so it's obviously a fake.

[@theloudamerican2193]

For Kmart the “key1” reflects “General merchandise “ , not jewelry, electronics, firearms, ect.. The various numbers represent the aisle number and the shelf/ rack locations. So , you might have any number of combinations numerically.

[@alexnejako777]

I had a Revenge of the Jedi poster from SW Fan Club .. but i never saw it on the toys.

[@sethallison5682]

I never worked at k-mart, but I did work at a bookstore that had really similar price tags. The digits and symbols are changed with knobs on the end of the price gun. If you change the price or change something from dollars to cents it’s really really easy to not twist the knob all the way or too much and then you end up with no dollar sign on the tag, it happens all the time.

[@jamest3033]

This guy’s detective work is next level, and I gotta get me that bounty hunter t shirt.

[@RansomeStoddard]

I don't know about K-Mart, but I worked at Woolworths in the late 80's and their price stickers had 2 different number codes on them 9aside from the price). 1 was the store number and 1 was the department the item was from. The reason was for returns. On their receipts, it just said the price, not the item in question. So a person could buy an expensive item and a cheap item, take the price sticker off the expensive item, put it on the cheap item, and try to return it for more money. Some scammers would intentionally try to return it to a different store, one that did not have the item in stock, making it harder to do a price check to confirm it is the right item being returned. But, if the code says it is electronics and the item is a t-shirt, they know it is a scam. Also, if the person says they bought it at that store and the code says it was from 2 towns away, that is another red flag.

[@johnhimmelstein4344]

Stay out the Woolworths!!!

[@palpatine775]

Junkman, I've been a longtime member for some years now, and I just wanted to offer my most heartfelt Congratulations for reaching 25,000 members. You earned this! I am happy for you right now.

[@ThatJunkman]

Thanks!

[@captlazer5509]

Has a post it note from George Lucas "Hey gotta change the title! Love GL"

[@forestdodson3030]

I used to work at a local discount Drugmart for years and occasionally I would price loose items like candy bars near expiration and scarfs and such. As far as the dollar sign goes, if they used a similar gun, the dollar sign is entered manually with a dial system. Coming from my experience, if it was an early production it probably wasn’t in the system if they were lucky enough to have that back then and they just found a similar item that they manually stickered. At that point, they were more than likely in a hurry with either a line or a backlog of items to tag and simply accidentally dialed the “5” in place of the dollar sign and forgot to move the next dial to the dollar sign so I wouldn’t count it out simply because it’s missing the dollar sign and just chalk it up to human error

[@Phoenix2312]

Yeah, that was one of my thoughts and the fact that those refills... Even now are REALLY F**KING EXPENSIVE! Most stores now use a more uniform "Inkjet" Coder for price tags... But back then, they were all manual Label Makers...

[@Captain-Cosmo]

I have two original "Revenge of the Jedi" teaser posters. My dad owned a theatre and picked them up one day, believing they were for exhibitors to take. In actuality, they stack was there to destroy! There were re-prints, but these are original folded copies that hung in the lobby for a few weeks.

[@joecas8865]

Hey Junkman, I worked at a Kmart in the late 80s early 90s. The key code had to do with the way an item would be rung up by hand. It had to do with the store department. Now I’m going back a lot of years, but I believe Key 1 was general merchandise. You have to remember, the stickers were being put on by 16 year old kids. Sometimes we were lazy and didn’t change the key codes when we were using the price gun. I do remember however in the opposite corner of the keycode in the white area, we used to put the date. So that Empire strikes back toy you posted with the 80 in the date would be 1980. And the dollar and cents thing could just be us being completely lazy and not setting the gun to show it.

[@ThatJunkman]

Thanks. Yep seems you are right based on this and a few others

[@ImSonnyBurnett]

From the title, I thought this was JUST found in one of the last three remaining K-Marts that are still open.

[@jeffstark8449]

love the amount of research you put into this junkman!

[@curezilla]

Only thing I ever had with "Revenge" was my Emperor Palpatine freebie that I got for sending in something, maybe upc codes? I don't know, I was in 3rd grade lol. I do remember calling it Revenge even when the movie came out. My poor dad waited in that huge line with me just so I could see that movie. The line went around the building! Man. Where did those simple, fun times go? Movies are so mediocre now. ☹️

[@projektkobra2247]

IKR?.....We stood in line for HOURS to get into TESB...then we hid in the washroom to see it again. When we got out...my buddies German (KOFFwarcriminalsKOFF) parents were outside the theatre, about to MURDER him for being late as F...cuz of course cell phones were not a thing. Im sure he thought the severe caning and 2 week grounding he got was worth it.

[@MrRezRising]

One word: Boxtops.

[@davidlobins2325]

I remember that I did the same thing sent upc for the emperor when I got him it did say revenge of the Jedi and his clothes were grey not black

[@curezilla]

@@MrRezRising That's right! Spot on!!!👍

[@curezilla]

@@davidlobins2325 And my friends made fun of the color. If I only had that now. ☹️

[@jasonking3182]

I have heard rumors that Kenner would sometimes send early production items into stores to test shipments. The biggest one was a very small amount of the Gi joe extreme tank.

[@ringokageyama6439]

The Luke in Hoth gear was not released in the first Empire Action Figure run. We all substituted Luke with the brown Hoth Trooper. So the era is slightly off for a pre Empire early release.

[@trevorwilson3698]

I had one. My R2D2 with censor scope I got in late 1982 had a Revenge of the Jedi backing card. I bought it at Levers toy shop in Sidcup, Kent, England. I didn't think to keep it, damn.

[@lothean2099]

When I was part of the star wars club, they sent us posters and patches with revenge of the jedi. I sold it a long time ago. Kind of wish I kept it.

[@samrickard1529]

My mum bought me an action figure in Perth, Western Australia in 1984 - I think it was Lando in the Skiff guard disguise. A sticker had been put over the logos on both sides of the card to change the "Revenge" to "Return"

[@adamn.4615]

My first thought with the unique price tag with no dollar sign was that it is from another country. I often hear stories about prototypes of toys supposedly being found in other countries. Doesn't Australia have K-mart?

[@starkiller9897]

Yes K-Mart stores are still around in Australia today, have been for decades!

[@B-a-t-m-a-n]

4-1? April 1.

[@backyardchoppers4571]

Another thought you might have missed. Forget the tag. Mattel with hotwheels did their first runs in 68 69 and 70 from Hong Kong as over chrome cars looked like Christmas ornaments. They were used as commercials samples never packaged and were given to office employees after the commercial shoots. Some made it out in screaming kids hands during visits. As for star wars that could have been how its life had started then snuck out of Kenner like the prototypes after they closed shop. How it got to a k mart could be employee knowledge such as a sales rep or someone knowing someone who had it. Better to get stolen goods on a shelf and move it than to keep it as a Kenner employee. We all know employees take boxes and prototypes from the factory. Back in the 80s quality control wasn't as tight. My dad use to get slot cars back in 1966 at the California Mattel plant before hot wheels was even prototypes because he was on the floor there.

[@benefactr1840]

Yep sales sample sound about right. Use to work for Walmart and in bentonville they have/had what is called the Associate Store for associates only. In there you would find sale samples of stuff. Like toys in packaging that wasn't what it would be in production. The vendor would send the stuff to Wal-Mart and then would get sold in that store for a great price.

[@michaeldumas9203]

Do you live in Bentonville? I live in Centerton.

[@benefactr1840]

@@michaeldumas9203 Use to, well lived i Pea Ridge. Left long time ago when I parted ways with WMT.

[@fuse557]

It's Empire toy in a Revenge/Return box. I think it's just a funny prank to get people talking, looks great though!

[@shanester1832]

The '4-1', the incorrect font (which I detailed in my post), the albino unicorn level rarity, the zero details of how it was verified. It could just be to get the guy's account buzzing or he could've been fooled himself. Or it could be real who knows going off this. I work in print, "oops we made 100 of these in the wrong Pantone? Well you can't tell unless they're side by side. Mix em' in and see if they notice" Same kinda thing.

[@ThatJunkman]

Well it was release in a Return box. As most of the toys crossed over

[@katenunyabizness9221]

Price tag looks wrong to me. For starters it appears to be lacking th cuts that are there to make the sticker com apart if you try to peel it off and put it another item. It is also using a - which no Kmart tag used up by the KEY 1 that I am aware of. That price sticker is also pretty damn clean for being on such a beat to heck box, maybe a bit too crisp for a 40yr price tag.

[@SniffHeinkel]

You're absolutely correct. That went completely unnoticed by me. Didn't Kmart's price tags have a serrated edge running down the middle and the right side of them? I seem to remember seeing that when I was a kid.

[@lemelstudio]

That's right, Kmart tags had slits cut in them to deter fraud (tag-switching) that was a common before bar code check-out. The tags were pre-cut on the roll, so you couldn't say, for example, "they forgot to slit that one". That's a pretty dead give-away. The 'crispness' of the tag seals it (perfect word for it)! None of this proves that the box is fake, but in my opinion, the tag is. But of course, that leads to the obvious: there's no real reason to fake a price tag. It certainly doesn't add value to a vintage piece - quite the opposite... unless it's part of a larger attempt to hide provenance?

[@Smokr]

I worked for an inventory service in the eighties. We went to big box stores and counted items on the shelves and in the back area, keying in quantities and item numbers as we counted them. It paid really well as long as your audits came in correct. We did K-Marts, Target, Venture, and Walgreens stores all around Chicago and suburbs, as well as lots of independent and smaller chains. I saw thousands of price tags of all descriptions all day long. Night, actually, because we inventoried at night when the stores were closed. Price tag markings were not very well defined as far as what numbers were set to be printed on them at any of the stores. Most of the time they were dates, sometimes shelf locations, sometimes the store number, sometimes the stocker's ID, sometimes a special number to make sure the tag belonged to the item (this was mostly for expensive things like electronics and small appliances - I remember that 69 at K-Mart belonged to appliances because we made jokes about it) some places didn't care so long as the department number was right so the cashier could ring up the sale to the right department. Many times the same store used two, three, even more kinds of tags at the same time - they didn't seem to care about it. As far as serrated tags, those came in during the eighties when I was doing inventores, different times for different stores. They were meant to prevent tag switching. They also had colored ink for the store names instead of black at many stoes, most of the time, because printing in color was not possible at home back then, and photocopying in color wasn't a thing unless you went to a print shop and had them done. That was also why the pink area existed.

[@stevegallo8483]

I believe the theory you presented about it being a salesman's sample that a manager at K-Mart was going to buy is plausible enough. Could very well be what happened. This would be a good question for the owner of the Toy Shack in Las Vegas. By the way, I saw on the news that a K-Mart store in New Jersey was closing, and there are still three other K-Mart stores in the country. Another in New Jersey, one in Miami, FL and one on Long Island, NY.

[@Ziz62266]

I live on Long Island. Where is this lone surviving K-Mart?

[@stevegallo8483]

@@Ziz62266 They didn't give an address on the news, just that it's on Long Island.

[@Ziz62266]

@@stevegallo8483 I thought they at least gave the name of the town. I could hunt it down from that point.

[@stevegallo8483]

@@Ziz62266 All I heard was Long Island.

[@pjdolont9012]

@@Ziz62266 none in Michigan, I believe there 3 stores left.

[@TheLedonne3]

I'm guessing "key 1" was a tab on the cash register used for toys and games. This was a time before all these stores had scanners. "Key 2" could be clothes, "Key 3" house wear, etc.

[@ThatMainframeDude]

I worked as a stock boy at a retailer in Canada (not Kmart) and spent many hours putting price tags on various items. I do recall the the company the supplied the price stickers that were loaded into the price gun, always varied in some way. This was the 1980s and consistency was not a really thing back then. We did not even have scanners back then, cashiers inputed everything manually. Errors in prices did happen if you did not set the numbers correctly on the price gun. Did I, give family some price breaks back then? Sure, but nothing that could not have been explained away as "human error". Teach them to pay me minimum wage.

[@catfishcooler1566]

The only merchandise I ever saw with "Revenge Of The Jedi" on it was an "Empire Strikes Back" rebel transport box with a sticker offering a free Admiral Akbar figure from the upcoming movie. This would have been around Christmas 1982 at a WoolCo dept store.

[@ChroniqueVintage]

As we know Kenner was so close to send "Revenge" proof packaging to production, and cost at least $ 250 000 to reprint everything just for one word, I believe you're right about the salesman sample goes to one store and to another. You have some spare boxes ready to go so let's use them. After all, Kenner ad some "Revenge" flyer with Akcbar , Nien Nunb special offer, playsets & vehicles late 1982 early 1983. I found that pretty cool to see one these sample showing up today.

[@oddeagle1968]

6:36, you have a neat little rhyme going on. 54, sure, more. Edit: had to listen again a few times, so rhythmic. Serendipitous, Junkman....

[@107Karnage]

I think the figure was meant for a coming soon display only. Kenner has done that before.

[@SuperFurry100]

Great work Junkman!

[@akoww1000]

My best friend growing up in the 80s has a Revenge of the Jedi movie poster. His dad was a toy rep for Toys R Us from the 70s to the 90s and he got the Movie poster at a Toy show before Return of the Jedi was finished being filmed. They showed off some of the new toys for the movie and had a few different types of movie posters on display. At the end of the show, he went around asking for display items that were going to be tossed out and was able to get a few Star wars signs and posters. Yes, he still has them in his collection. He even has Star Wars newspapers Ad prints movie companies used to send to theaters to run in local newspapers. I gave him the Return of the Jedi and ISB ones, I found those in a storage room of a Movie theater I was a projectionist for in the 90s

[@cameltrophy3]

I am in my 50's now. When I was a teenager I had a job in retail and used pricing label guns for years and years. The dollar sign and the cents signs are adjustable. You have to be able to print both with the same price gun. The absence of a dollar sign is not a big deal.

[@tombutler6451]

Lumbot 😂😂 great video this is magical & seems genuine to me!

[@barrybenecke9191]

Back at that time, the labels were made with a pricing gun. The employees would twist a knob, over different characters, numbers, dashes, $ signs, dashes, etc. I believe this could be real. Pretty cool find. And I was interviewed by Jordan Hembrough for an episode of "Our Star Wars Stories", along with my kidney recipient. It's a cool story!

[@rhettgenung1223]

Im glad it slipped through and I believe it Junkman. Great Video!!

[@phillipmccurry5729]

Hey, I worked at Kmart from the early 80's till the mid 90's. Looking at the price tags on the products they are all legitimate price stickers. Different colored stickers refer to different departments. Yellow is general merchandise. The key number is also the individual department number. Key 1 is also general merchandise. Different types of stickers are used depending on the printing process. The square cut sticker is made on a hand ticket gun. There was also a yellow sticker that was hand printed on a crank ticket machine. There was also a square cut sticker that was slightly different, which was printed and ticked at a wearhouse. The codes may have different meanings at different stores. It may be the month and day, month and year, or a code for a special sale. Once we even had to put our 2 or 3 digit employee number on the price sticker that we made for a while to ensure efficiency. It's not unusual for a different colored sticker to be used 8f a particular department ran out of stickers, which was more common than you'd think. Example, hardware used a white sticker, building supplies a tan sticker, home center a blur sticker. If the home center ran out of blue stickers they would simply borrow a roll of maybe tan from building supplies. Therefore the key number (so called because I matched the department code key on the register) would be say dept 60 for building supplies, 61 for home center. Therefore the tan sticker would have a 61 in the key block instead of 60. However this often necessitated a time consuming price check at the register to make sure there was no sticker changing be a customer.

[@MrGuardiankaos]

Funny, I have all three of those toys on that box in a plastic bin in my closet, plus a crap load more Star Wars toys. Opened of course because I played with them, but I still have them.

[@fuse557]

"where's the shitter" Chewbacca to Darth Vader, Empire Strikes Back, Cloud City

[@jessicajujubean5004]

When I was a kid the movie theater near us had a Revenge poster that they kept up for years along with several other classic posters. The theater was called Studio 28 and for a long time it was the biggest theater in the world.

[@Digthemadscientist]

Grand Rapids ?

[@jessicajujubean5004]

@@Digthemadscientist yes sir. Born and raised

[@Digthemadscientist]

Awesome yeah I lived there for years and that place rocked 🤘 And yes according to the owners that poster was legit and judging by the amount of vintage rare goodies in the joint I believe em 🤘🤓

[@jessicajujubean5004]

@@Digthemadscientist when it closed they had an auction and the vintage posters fetched a lot.

[@Solomangarcia]

I only remember the tru stickers being orange.

[@daveclarke8229]

Hey junkman I use to work for Kmart. The#4 is for the toy department. I stocked at Kmart and we always priced toy. Each # you see is the code for that department. Love the channel keep up the good work.

[@ThatJunkman]

But some of the other toy price tags didn’t have 4 had other numbers. Or is based on the store.

[@daveclarke8229]

The thing about that is who does the pricing you have to put all the numbers in manually . You are suppose to put the department number which for toys was 4 but if they got in a hurry they would just put the price. Some people are lazy and just put the price in. Hope this helps. Love the channel keep up the good work

[@HipPocketMemories]

I worked for a display company back then. We were creating interactive mall displays promoting REVENGE OF THE JEDI. We had a locked storage unit filled with merchandise labeled with REVENGE just like that shown here. I remember working overtime to remove the graphic for REVENGE from the display units we had spent weeks creating and replacing it with RETURN after frantic communication from the studio. About a month later we carefully packed up all of the REVENGE labeled stuff and returned it to the studio where I was told that it would be destroyed. I've always wondered if any of that merchandise slipped through the cracks and made it out into the world.

[@ThatJunkman]

odd.. being that the people that work at Kenner who designed the boxes and the people that have to approve the boxes to be made, say none was ever made under the samples and test boxes and that the title was changed long before any toy would have been shipped. I guess they all could be lying for no reason.. yet no boxes other than samples have ever showed up :)

[@heavymetal19610]

Fascinating! Thxs for sharing!

[@johnlewis3358]

Wow.Thanks for the video mate.That was really interesting.Cheers! :)

[@davidclough3951]

Probably a sample. Someone dig it up while cleaning and thought it would be funny to put a price tag on. I still have the paper that came with my mail away Admiral Ackbar. Says he is a new character from the upcoming movie Revenge if the Jedi. Something like that,but know it calls the movie by Revenge.

[@bladestar2322]

I have been a member under 4 different names, as I keep having to get new phones! 😀 But also add my congratulations on 25,000!

[@charlesentrekin140]

I was an assistant receiving manager for Kmart at about the same time. What that price tag tells me is it was never priced-in receiving. I think your call of it being a sample is the correct one.

[@jamesross1003]

Ok, I was a merchandiser for several years and had several Kmart that I serviced. The funny colored tag is most likely a closeout or discount tag as that item would not be in the active inventory. In other words a manually printed tag. The numbers in the corner ie... the 4-1 would indicate on a normal tag where the item would be located. Since it was a manually printed tag without an actual home on the planogram, that is just a number indicating probably the employee that printed the tag. For example 4 would denote that it was someone from department 4 and the number would denote the ranking of the employee. Department manager would be 1. Store manager would be 0. Store manager would be 0-0 in that instance. Hence department 4 department manager is what 4-1 is most likely referring to. It could also be just random numbers where it doesn't have a home position, but I doubt it. Most stores including Kmart have a system that tracks where a product belongs. It's called active inventory. JC Penny and Kmart were some of the first stores to implement such a system. Even back in the 80s it would have been tracked. Though scanners were not really that much of a thing back then, the numbers to reference that item would have been kept short in that case anyway. The reason it says key is a clue. If you manually have to check this item out for purchase "key in those numbers" followed by the price. Also the missing monetary denotation($) means nothing. At that time manual pricing guns to print the tag would only print what you told it to print by spinning a wheel for each print spot, many still do for the cheap generic tagging gun. A lazy employee wanting to save time by not turning the wheel that sets it to make it print would explain that issue. I could very well be wrong, just what I think is the case if it in fact is not a fake. Just a thought and good luck with this little mystery.

[@futureshockxl]

I did a lot of shopping in used record stores when I was a kid, and I can tell you that, like, half the records I bought at those shops (not just one shop, but across the board), had "For promotional use only. Not for sale." stamped on the back. Now, K-Mart is a little more legit than a mom and pop used record store, but this was still in the time before barcode price scanning. So I could easily see how a store would have gotten some samples and just put them on the shelf (either intentionally or accidentally), or maybe someone who thought they were being sneaky returned them without a receipt for store credit (but the joke was on them, huh?), or maybe someone had taken them down to the Kenner shipping department to demonstrait something or show somebody and they put the on a shelf when they went to lunch, forgot about them, and some one else saw them sitting there a while later and threw them in the box not noticing the old logo.

[@andrewmize823]

I actually owned the Radar Laser Cannon when I was a kid. Unfortunately, it was purchased well before I started learning to read, and I have no recollection of the packaging whatsoever. All I remember is that it had a little button on it that would make it "explode" for realistic battle damage.

[@sandynewman5533]

The only thing I can add is, those price stickers were applied with a hand held price gun. There was an ink pad that inked the adjustable dies that would strike the tags, one at a time, on a roll, with the price and other pertinent information. It was the same in grocery stores then too. The inking of the dies was not always 100% coverage, so you could have imperfect inking on them, but still be good enough for inventory and register entry at the checkout.

[@albertmorel2771]

wow junkman! I like those new shirts. So very cool

[@brokencigarette3017]

great video brotha

[@CHASEMARC]

I worked at a Kmart in 90's: for us key was a department, the other number might be store number (Store number 4, Department 1)

[@DrMarten]

I've got a Revenge of The Jedi patch I received from The Official Star Wars Fan Club.

[@digitalmagicAR]

I don't remember seeing any Revenge of the Jedi figures at stores but I certainly bought a new "Revenge of the Jedi" Admiral Ackbar figure via mail order back then and was really disappointed when it later became named as Return of the Jedi. I always thought the new name was wimpy in comparison but decades later I learned why the name change. I've wished I kept that figure in package ever since but as a kid at the time had no idea.

[@MrAvenger1975]

Me, too. I got the same Ackbar with "Revenge" inserts.

[@sharkymark]

Some good research JM!

[@LDWing12]

Junkman, You ask about what would the code means on this video... In my experience, remember a couple things. In those years there was no electronic cashier machines, most of those were mechanical machines. And also for the electronic ones (only a few were introduced in the transition period) were not linked to any electronic centralized system yet to attach it to the accountability system of the store. So, the code above the tag is related to the internal accounting of the stores. The most of times were among various options Digit or digits related to the Store, or the main account number in their accounting system to charge the product there. About the separate digits by spaces or dashes, the following numbers were related to the store apartments were the merchandise came from. Because in those years, the accounting information to know about the statement of the store was manual and they needed to know from were the merchandise move in order to re-stock products or to know about the money movement. And related to the dollar sign, remember that the tags were made with a mechanical stamping machine, so the operator had to put all digits manually on the stamping machine before mark the products. That could explains why the dollar sign is missing. Remember that the information came from a list the most of times related to the stock department indicating which information have to be stamp on the tag, and those lists were made manually from an operator (in a rare cases came from a typewriter machine). Checking from were the product was purchased and checking with similar tags from those years, it's possible conclude if the digits are related to the toy department of the store. Giving sense to the information of the tag. Thanks for the space and... Greetings exalted one...

[@cobramike13bravo63]

Junkman is the Sherlock Holmes of Star Wars toys.

[@thaddeusmcgrath]

If I had a time machine I would go back to 1982 to K-Mart just to watch those blue light specials. I would figure this mystery out too but blue lighting while tripping balls in 1982 eating K-Mart hot pretzels keeps a man busy.

[@PhuVet]

The font on "revenge of the" is slightly different. The "tape" doesn't tear the label correctly, it's too even. The last digit of the price means something. I remember something from my marketing classes. I think the 88 is which isle its in or planogram number. The 5 and 9 and 6 aren't parallel. They are printed in a handheld device that has reels, which would make them parallel.

[@bagman147]

the codes on the price tag are mainly to help employees identify if its the correct updated price that matches to accompanying mylar for the product. Also where in the store & what shelf space its located. The $ symbol missing dont mean anything. If you dont set the price gun to have it ityll just be missing.

[@jessicajujubean5004]

My guess is that the key number is a classification number. Perhaps 1 is for toys and the first number is classification for the type of toys. Having number system for inventory makes sense. You could compare those to price tags from other goods like candy and see if it's in a different key. It's possible that they had to hit a numbered key on the register before scanning certain things to register it in the computer.

[@jordil6152]

Those price tags hurt like hell. What was minimum wage back then? A new Star Wars figure from the vintage line costs about an hour minimum nowadays. A 12 pack of beer costs about 1 and a half Luke Skywalkers.

[@pjdolont9012]

We had a white felt blanket that was the best rebel base... We used those big half gallon soup cans as the cave entrance and you could create the entire hanger bay by using some VHS tapes to build in the walls

[@spins321]

Little late to this, but I distinctly remember Revenge of the Jedi promo material TO INCLUDE owning a Revenge of the Jedi poster (With the silhouette of Vader helmet and Luke and Vader crossing swords on the Emperors platform). Besides this, I also remember a story book record pressing as well.

[@ThatJunkman]

yes, fan club sent out some thing and there was a few things that couldn't be stopped. did a video on all that did get released

[@ciscodeer9094]

I never knew this thank you junkman

[@destinycaptain247]

Just for reference the price guns can be sent to pretty much anything anywhere anytime. And just because an employee is supposed to mark them a certain way doesn’t mean they always do. There were frequently mismarked tags on items where I worked in the late 80s early 90s… Frequently. One of the crap jobs on Sunday was to go around and retag everything correcting any mistagged items.

[@furiogiunta7886]

My friend's older brother worked in the movie theater when we were kids and he gave my friend a preview poster of Revenge of the Jedi. I remember when he sold it a few years later at his folks garage sale for $20. I'd bet that poster is worth a lot now.

[@d0nKsTaH]

Back in the day when we had a TG&Y store we saw several of the "Revenge of the Jedi" action figures around the time it came out. Then one day they were all gone... then a week or so went by and the "Return of the Jedi" figures were there. Had I known then what I know now....

[@ThatJunkman]

no, sorry but no there was no figures, it didnt ever get the sample check, if so, like we have for all the others lines, there would be sample check forms

[@MrAvenger1975]

I remember TG&Y!! Its where I got most of my SW figs. That and Sears.

[@futureshockxl]

They could have easily made ten cases and sent them out. Most kids ripped through those boxes like wrapping paper on Christmas morning, especially for the vehicles and small boxes.

[@TheChadTI]

Orange usually means clearance. Don't know. Guess Lopez is awesome, gave me good advice on storage back in the day.

[@Phoenix2312]

I am very glad you looked at teh Price Tag @That Junkman as tis will be a major point of contention in teh community - While I am not a collector, I do spent a great deal of time around Thrift Stores... And have bought a few Vintage Board Games... So I can offer a little insight on Price Tags of the period! In fact, the clues are there in your won video how you CANNOT rely on the Price Tags to prove a fake! I have board games from around this era that were at one time all bought from the UK Woolworths And Price Tags were INCONSISTANT! The Design, Shape, Colour and Print of the Price Tags could vary greatly from Store to Store... Including some store Using the good old Pound Sign / Dollar Sign and others skipping it to save on the Ink which as is still true today was and remains REALLY DAMN EXPENSIVE! Ageing Boxes as well, While it is POSSIBLE, Jesus you would have to have some serious dedication to make that look authentic... There is something else that suggests to me that this may indeed be a Salesman's Sample... And it is THE TAPE! The way the tape is does suggest that it WAS OPENED... Probably in a meeting to show how the Box had changed but the toy would be pretty much the same... The Tape is Torn in a very particular way that would only be done by an "Employee" of Kenner to preserve the sample for showing to other potential Sales Outlets - No way would Kenner SHIP a box like that with the tape in the position it was!!! Where part of the Logo had been torn... Would not happen! (Where I work, You get teh occasional Box go through like that - But we are in the mass production phase and the machines can screw up... You have to remove the tape and reseal it! But I have also worked on "Pre-Production" Samples... And NO! In Pre-Production / Samples... They have to be SPOT ON PERFECT... If the Tape rips the box even slightly - Strip it down and repackage!) I remain a healthy Sceptic, but the possibility this is genuine - Knowing it is Jordon Hemsborough, The Toy Hunter - And knowing a bit about how the Production would work... I am thinking that this is currently on the 80% side of a genuine Vintage! If its a fake, its one of the best fakes ever made!

[@ThatJunkman]

Yep good theory on tape. I thought about it also it couldn’t rule out it was taped later at Kmart or someone else. It doesn’t fit with the release boxes that used one piece of tape

[@Zan_Jayna]

The numbers are instructions to the cashier about which way to ring in the products. Key 1 means that you key in the 1 and then it puts the item in that category.

[@braddollahite]

What I first see is the Kmart price tag that says 4-1 which could also mean APRIL FOOLS DAY

[@matthewbromwell6740]

The 4-1 would lead me to believe it’s an April Fools joke.

[@futuramayeah]

they said on the news just yesterday that there are only 3 Kmarts left in the USA, i thought there was still one right near me in PA, it could be gone, i haven't taken the bus that goes past it recently, a best buy near me closed without me knowing it, maybe that Kmart has survived, anyway, try calling one of the remaining ones to get the answer about the price tag

[@gcwbc]

The top numbers were different for every store/district based on management decision's. Some were received dates, some were department codes. Toys were department 4. The 1 was likely a season code.

[@clobberonline6812]

Revenge of a grail !! LOL

[@billybatson8657]

That price tag doesn't look like it has cuts in it, cuts designed to make the tag tear into pieces if it were to be removed, like all of the others in the video do.

[@monitorearthprime74]

Since the movie was released on May 25, 1983, I would go with and Apirl Fools joke. Stars Wars proved it would sell so I cannot see a preview package coming out just to see if it would sell.

[@tikvision]

The font is suspicious. Prototype or sample probably. Final customer product? Nein

[@shanester1832]

Exactly, I made my whole post about the font. On the box it's far bolder and the 2 lines of red text are closer spaced. Look at the side by side at 4:20 or pull up a card back 'Revenge' image. Somebody had the means to either make the box or photoshop the images but not quite the counterfeiting skills to match the font & arrangement. On the other side it could've been an early layout & prototype run but I looked through all kinds of original images and the thin 'roman' font is always used, never the bold.

[@mccallosone4903]

I had some collector baseball style cards that were labelled Revenge of the Jedi, bought at a Service Merchandise store long before the movie was released. they had characters and scenes from the movie. caused me lots of arguments in school, with the kids trying to convince me the movie was going to be named Return of the Jedi. in the pre internet days it was hard to verify, and even after i saw the movie, i wondered if there was a different film that i had somehow missed. it confused my little kid brain for a long time

[@grinchville1]

YES....I personally saw carded figures in Zellers store in Canada. Only saw the small figures nothing else, wish I had bought a couple when I saw them as when I went back with some extra cash they were gone.

[@turnergerald]

Price gun.. human error is a factor. The numbers are pog sequence. Where on the shelf it's supposed to be hanging. The display is very important to the manufacturer. The K mart clerks needs to know where it goes.. and they didn't always reset the pog .. just make sure the price was right. Yellow original price. White tag.. clearance Ile. It sat around in some management stock room and eventually went on clearance

[@anthonysemaan5666]

You said revenge of the Sith on accident

[@ClunkerSlim]

When I worked retail, we just used the top numbers for the date. Like on the Fisto figure, that would be the date of Nov 1987. Of course, that would be if we even bothered to change the top numbers, when most of the time we didn't.

[@saulmorales1513]

I got the trípode cannon...those minirigs were solded in México in the 80's.

[@catalinnicolaevici2061]

I feel like somewhere in the us theres these things just chillin building dust waiting to be found.

[@akoww1000]

why not open the box and see what the paperwork inside says? All SW toys "expect figures" had some type of promo stuff inside of them, wouldn't it have said Revenge instead of Return?

[@jjdigitalvideosolutionsllc5343]

I have that ESB laser cannon, but I think it came with a Hoth playset that recycled a plastic base used for a Tatooine playset that I also have, both had cardboard backgrounds with and AT-AT for the Hoth set and a Sandcrawler for the Tatooine set, which came with the escape pod. Plenty of fun was had with both. I suppose they could have reused that base again for Endor or a Dagobah swamp. Was it used for anything else? I think the only "Revenge Of The Jedi" item I have from back in the day is a stitched patch, something from Star Wars fan club maybe, that came with Bantha Tracks.

[@THESLICKNESSEDM]

either way its a great find and addition to any collection

[@krushingbro6620]

Wear and tear is consistent with the age, the selotape is yellowed just as we have all seen on old carboard boxes we applied sellotape to from the 80's and im eyes the most important thing is the quality of the actual print on the box and its colors, they look 100% spot on especially in those zoomed in shots. The price tag is interesting but the fact there is loads of examples of differing price tags on all other toys that are around means this particualr tags differences it is not something to make me doubt this toys authenticity. verdict: 100% Authetic

[@stancartmankenny]

14:29 There were lots and lots and lots of toys with "revenge of the sith" on it, just not until about 2004 or so.

[@ThatJunkman]

but not kenner era :) maybe Hasbro era (using the kenner name) :)

[@Ed-eq5kd]

I think it’s authentic and your theory about the product being a sales sample is most likely. The lack of dollar sign on the price ticket is quite easily explained. The tickets were on a roll in a price gun and then the employee would set the information to print by print wheels that would be rotated to the correct character. It would be easy to forget to put the dollar symbol and then the gun print just the numbers. I believe the numbers in the top left are probably department numbers for the store, figures might be different to véhicule and so on. One question I do have is about revenge being used in retail. I live in the UK and whilst I don’t recall ever seeing revenge on boxes for sale, I do remember buying Star Wars which were overstickered, ie there was a sticker that said return of the Jedi, stuck over the revenge of the Jedi. As an inquisitive 9 year old, I remember peeling the stickers off to see that. I wonder if those were Palitoy produced though (as a lot of UK was) and they handled these thing differently?