Recently my family has been going through some spring cleaning to get rid of some clutter in our storage areas. It's actually been fun as I've found some things of my grandparents' that I've never seen or noticed before and I've come across some things that had otherwise had been largely forgotten. A few original Star Wars mini catalogs had been misplaced away from my old Star Wars toy collection and flipping through them brought back great memories! Back during the original merchandise line by Cincinnati based toy maker Kenner, these post card or smaller miniature catalogs were included inside many of the packaged of Star Wars toys. They gave a kid a glimpse of what was available in the highly sought after toy line, or what would be coming! This was like getting a Christmas catalog anytime of the year!
Star Wars was integral to my life. I thought about it 24/7 as a kid. Today it might be 24/6! I still have Star Wars items adorning my office and game room, so finding these little mini catalogs was like a trip back in time. Many of my favorites are here, mostly the action figures. My first two were R2 and Chewie, which my Dad bought me at Service Merchandise after seeing the movie. From this particular catalog I had the Land Speeder, X-Wing, and Tie Fighter as well as the Death Star play set which is one of the toys that somehow disappeared after moving from Ohio to Alabama as a kid. I loved beating the crap out of Vader with my vinyl Bop Bag! Besides the missing Death Star and busted bop bag I still have all of my Star Wars toys which has since been augmented with my son's childhood collection, and these catalogs will soon be rejoining them.
Since these mini catalogs were in such good shape I figured I'd scan them properly and share... a sort of Show and Tell for the rest of the class! Here is is a slide show below of a 1978 mini catalog, and after that the still images! Enjoy and May the Force Be With You!
The High Resolution Scans