Mail-Away Toys.
An awesome trend from the yesteryear of toy collecting. As a kid, I must have mailed away for at least a dozen figures from Star Wars to GI Joe to Transformers.
Back then, there was nothing better than getting home from school and seeing that little white box sitting in the mailbox, or kitchen table or on your bed. To be the first kid to get a brand new figure that wasn't in stores yet (or ever) was a special event. It was magic.
Mail-Away offers were nothing new at the time. Many other toys had been offered in conjunction with larger store chains and even grocery brands, but Kenner really kick started the trend that would last all the way from the late 70's and into the the millennium, although the heyday was definitely the 80's and early 90's.
The last major mail-away figure that I can remember was the TVC Rocket-Firing Boba Fett, which I suppose is only proper, as the original is equally the most famous mail-away figure, and the most infamous.
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| Photo Courtesy of Star Wars Space Club |
For those who are in my age group, you also might also have memories of sending away for this figure, only have have him arrive and then sit for hours trying to figure out how to get the rocket to fire, Then you mom eventually read the note that came with the figure.
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| Photo Courtesy of Worth Point |
Other than him not firing the rocket, he also didn't look much like his promotional image. This was clearly a completely different figure than we though we were going to get, but regardless, he instantly became on the coolest figure in our collections.
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| Photo Courtesy of Hot Spot Collectibles |
The Kenner Star Wars line was full of mail-away figures. Collecting the "proof of purchases" on every package was the easy part. Then you had to go to your parents and ask them to write that check for shipping and handling, which at the time was somewhere from $1.00 to $1.75 at most.
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| Photo Courtesy of Hake's Auctions |
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| Photo Courtesy of Hake's Auctions |
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| Photo Courtesy of Star Was Space Club |
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| Photo Courtesy of We-R-Toys |
By the time Star Wars was wrapping up, GI Joe was coming into bloom. the first mail-away I remember getting was the "Mickey Mouse" Cobra Commander, then Duke, Major Bludd, Hooded Cobra Commander and so on...
It was a golden age of mail-away figures. With every new year, there were one or two new mail away figures.
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| Photo Courtesy of YoJoe.com |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
Some of the most coveted mail-away figures belong to the GI Joe line. These are figures that were only available via mail-away offers and never offered in stores. The top figures are Starduster (multiple versions), Steel Brigade (the "gold head" version being the most expensive), Cobra Ninja Viper and the Create-A-Cobra figure.
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
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| Photo Courtesy of Dallas vintage Toys |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
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| Photo Courtesy of 3DJoes.com |
But, some of the most popular among fans that grew up with the brand, like myself, are the celebrity figures of Sgt Slaughter and The Fridge [Perry]. Both of which were also not offered in the main line, although different versions of Sarge did show up later in the line at retail.
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
Hasbro eventually offered up a ton of mail away figures and vehicles throughout the line that were previously featured at retail, but were hard to find because their year of releases had since passed.
Some of the last exclusive mail-away figures in the line were the mail-away version of Deep-Six, which was a repaint of the '89 version, Super Trooper (which Hasbro did a commercial for) and Joe Colton in both a 3.75" scale as well as a 12" scale.
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| Photo Courtesy of Dallas Vintage Toys |
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| Photo Courtesy of TransformersLand |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
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| Photo Courtesy of Worth Point |
While GI Joe saw tons of success with their mail-away offerings, their sister brand, Transformers, did offer many mail-aways in the early days of the brand, but it quickly tapered off. I'm assuming that the production costs for Transformers were just too high to offer as "free" figures. However, we did get some cool figures in the line, including the Power Dashers, Omnibots and the Decepticon Reflector.
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| Photo Courtesy of Seibertron.com |
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| Photo Courtesy of Seibertron.com |
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| Photo Courtesy of TransformersLand |
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
During the early 80's after Star Wars died off for Kenner, they were looking for other licenses to replace it, and one of the ones the settled on was Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. They offered a "ceremonial" version of Indy's arch nemesis from the film-- Belloq.
While this one was never made available through any other means, it's not too pricey on the secondary market.
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
Kenner also did a mail away for their Super Powers line, which was successful for several years. Offered in 1986 was Superman in his alter-ego disguise Clark Kent.
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
Another popular figure that's still reasonably priced (although expect to pay a decent amount more for all of these mail-aways if they're still sealed in their baggies) is LJN's Mumm-Ra figure from the Thundercats line. like many other figures on this list, this one was also no made available through regular retail means.
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| Photo Courtesy of Collector Archive Services |
If you were a comic fan in the 80's you may remember this ad for the Gold Cylon Commander from Matter as part of their Battlestar Galactica line.
The early 90's saw the trend of mail-away figures go on life support. We did get a few cool ones from the king of mail-aways, Kenner, though.
In the Predator line, there was the clear Ambush Predator with chromed weapons. They also did a mail-away version of the glow-in-the-dark Robocop that did also get a retail release.
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| Photo Courtesy of Amok Time |
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| Photo Courtesy of Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation |
The mail-away figure market burst onto the scene with Star Wars, so it's only fitting that it was there to close things out, as well.
With Star Wars' triumphant return with Episode 1, we got the first mail-aay figure from the film-- Samuel L Jackson's purple lightsaber wielding Mace Windu-- although that wasn't established until Episode II, so this version of Mace comes with a blue bladed lightsaber.
Later on, we also got a much needed and never produced figure from Return of the Jedi with the B'Omarr Monk figure from Jabba's Palace.
The last mail-away that I can remember, although I'm sure there may have been others, even in recent years, is the Rocket-Firing Boba Fett that I mentioned earlier from the TVC line. I think I ended up ordering three of these at the time.
So, so many fond memories from my youth regarding mail-away figures. This list barely begins to scrape the surface, but hopefully is enough to bring back the fond memories for you as well.
Which were your favorite mail-away figures as a kid? Do you miss the old days? Do you know of more recent cool mail-away figures that I don't?
I hope you enjoyed reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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