Rocket Firing Boba Fett! Rocket Firing Boba Fett! Where?

Who is Boba Fett? Boba Fett is...

• A fearsome interplanetary bounty hunter.
• A threat to the Rebel Alliance, especially Han Solo!
• A new character in "Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back"
• Was introduced in the November 1978 Star Wars television special, "A Wookie Holiday." He pretended to befriend Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 while secretly plotting with Darth Vader to trap the rebel alliance.

This is all according to the blister card Boba Fett was originally released on. This all came to be known as true when The Empire Strikes Back was released, but the version of Boba Fett that was released was not how he was originally intended.

Originally, Boba Fett was released in the 2nd wave of Star Wars action figures before the release of Empire. He was offered as one of Kenner's famous proof of purchase mail away promotions and was announced that he would have a rocket firing feature. Unfortunately, do to a lawsuit filed against Mattel after a child choked on Battlestar Galactica toy with a similar rocket firing feature, Kenner quickly revised the Boba Fett action figure to have the rocket permanently affixed to Boba's jet pack.

For those who received there original Boba Fett in the mail, a note to consumers read:

Originally our STAR WARS Boba Fett action figure was designed to have a spring launched rocket. The launcher has been from the product for safety reasons. If you are dissatisfied with the product, please return it to us and we will replace it with any STAR WARS mini-action figure of your choice, Thank you for your support.

Now 33 years later, Hasbro has released the mold of the original Boba Fett action figure and this time it has the rocket firing mechanism as it was originally intended. The cool was that Hasbro released the figure as a proof of purchase mail away offer. Just like it was back in 1979.
I have began the search for items on my 10 Star Wars toys I want to add to my collection and the Rocket Firing Boba Fett was number ten on the list. I was able to pick this one up for $27 on eBay. For me, picking this up on eBay was the better way to go. Originally to aquire one of these it required 6 proof of purchase to be mailed to Hasbro and even with shipping, it still was cheaper for me to just buy it directly.

I promptly put mine in a acrylic case to keep it safe and sound.

It so cool to have this in my collection, but it baffles me why it is not considered a hazard today as it was 33 years ago.

Now they just need to come out with a flying jet pack version. Of course, I created my own flying version by attaching several bottle rockets to my original Boba Fett years ago. Now that was cool.

About the author: John Sholtz is an avid toy collector and the interim editor of the Batcave Toy Room due to the abrupt death of Bruce Wayne. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter at, Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin.