YAK FACE - The Offer That Never Was..... But Who Said There Was An Offer???

First lets look at a few things regarding Yak Face that are actual Fact...

- FACT : Yak Face was the 93rd and last figure released from the Kenner Star Wars line.
- FACT : Yak Face was never commercially released in the U.S.
- FACT : Yak Face was released on a bilingual POTF card in Canada by Kenner Canada & Irwin Toys.
- FACT : Yak Face was the ONLY POTF figure released in Canada by Kenner Canada & Irwin Toys.
- FACT : Yak Face had a short lived release in Canada and all stock was shipped to Australia.
- FACT : Yak Face was widely available across Europe along with the other 14 POTF characters on Tri-Logo cards.
- FACT : Yak Face could ultimately be purchased in the U.S. from Kay-Bee bargains bins after General Mills recalled stock from Europe.

Now lets take a quick look at one thing regarding Yak Face that isn't so actual fact...

- NOT SO FACT : Yak Face was not released in the U.S. because he was with held for a mail away that never happened.

- SOURCE 1 : Tomarts Price Guide To Worldwide Star Wars Collectables by Stephen J. Sansweet & T.N. Tumbusch (first published in 1994)

"Years later the figure count hit 115, counting the cartoon Droids and Ewoks, the Max Rebo Band, and Yak Face, which was never retailed in the United States, but was sold in Canada and on Tri-Logo cards."

- SOURCE 2 : Tomarts Price Guide To Worldwide Star Wars CollectablesSecond Edition by Stephen J. Sansweet & T.N. Tumbusch (first published in 1997)

" All figures were commercially available in the United States with the exception of the classic Yak Face. The figures were made available in Europe and the rest of the English speaking world by Palitoy of London."

- NOTE : This of course contains several inaccuracies, like Paltioy was not London based, didn't actually produce the figures and 'the rest of the English speaking world' is quite a claim

- SOURCE 3 : Star Wars The Action Figure Archive by Stephen J. Sansweet with Josh Ling (first published in 1999)

QUOTE 1 : "Intended to the ninety-third figure in a line that stopped at ninety-two, Yak Face was never sold in American stores. Tri-Logo versions were sold in Europe and carded Power Of The Force coin cards were sold only in Canada and Australia.

QUOTE 2 : "Yak Face was widely available in Europe. The figure apparently was being savedin the United States for a mail-in promotion that never took place after the line lost steam."

- NOTE : This is one of the earliest written mention of the apparent mail-in promotion that I am aware of.

- SOURCE 4 : Star Wars Vintage Action Figures A Guide For Collectors by John Kellerman (first published in 2003)

"Yak Face is generally considered by collectors to be the 93rd figure, and indeed it would have been, but because it was not issued on an American Kenner card it is not included in the listings. An American Kenner prototype card for Yak Face was designed and printed prior to Kenner abandoning it's Star Wars toy line in 1985."

Great question Alex! It will be interesting to see whether someone can provide any hard evidence to support the 'mail away' theory.

Not sure if this helps any.  But it's from my Irwin Toys: The Canadian Star Wars Connection book by James T. McCallum

If you need some clearer scans & I can scan the entire page for you, let me know.

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I'm not sure if he was ever released here in Canada either.  The only evidence of POTF figures to be sold in Canada were the 2 pack of Luke Stormtrooper and Han Carbinite through the 1985 Sears Canada Wishbook.

This also needs to be updated, as Paploo & Lumat were released on Canadian 77 backs, but not pictured on the back. I have the MOC Paploo, and the cardback for Lumat.

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Thanks for posting that Clint. It certainly is another talking point about wether YakmFace was even available in Canadian stores. I have heard some say never and others say for a very limited time?

The plot thickens!

Oh, and if you come across another copy of the Irwin Toys.... bag me a copy dude

Great article with an open end. Thanks Alex!

Hopefully we will get some answers in the future.

General Kahn wrote:Oh, and if you come across another copy of the Irwin Toys.... bag me a copy dude

I'll keep looking for another copy.  I should have bought a few copies back in 2013 when they were only $14.95.  I can't find one for under $115 CDN at the moment.

Great job on the article.  Hopefully we will find some more info.

What are you talking about??? I got mine from a US seller!

Seriously, nice write up man. I admit I never gave him that much thought, but it does express many questions.

I admit I haven't seen a bagged Yak yet (haven't looked). I might have to look at one.

Nicely done!

Could have swore I had posted this.... obviously not!

Jay there is a picture a bagged Yak at the arse end of this guide:

SWCA Baggie Guide

@General Kahn wrote:
Could have swore I had posted this.... obviously not!

Jay there is a picture a bagged Yak at the arse end of this guide: (link removed so I could post the response)

]


The Baggie in that guide is a first shot or some sort of prototype piece according to the guide there. I seem to recall during the entire toy Toni debacle that Jason joiner was supposedly the guy who was selling a ton of the yak face baggies at a convention or something and that it was Jordan hembrough who tried to buy the lot of them for the company he was working for at the time. I want to say he was working for starlog or star something and was trying to get a bulk deal on the yak baggies but couldn't seal the deal. As far as I know from what I have read this was the only time any bagged yak face figures has been seen or found and with Jason joiner's past regarding the grey limbed snowtroopers and other things that it called these into question on wether they were real or not.

trappedtexan wrote:
The Baggie in that guide is a first shot or some sort of prototype piece according to the guide there.  I seem to recall during the entire toy Toni debacle that Jason joiner was supposedly the guy who was selling a ton of the yak face baggies at a convention or something and that it was Jordan hembrough who tried to buy the lot of them for the company he was working for at the time.  I want to say he was working for starlog or star something and was trying to get a bulk deal on the yak baggies but couldn't seal the deal.  As far as I know from what I have read this was the only time any bagged yak face figures has been seen or found and with Jason joiner's past regarding the grey limbed snowtroopers and other things that it called these into question on wether they were real or not.

Here's a thread with a pretty good read on this story.

I can't post the link because of new member status, so search on google for

yakface in kenner bag auction

and you'll find the RS thread.

I believe that these examples are the reason why the 90's Sansweet book mentioned Yakface being a mailer. As far as I know, no other examples have surfaced from another source or anything else to back up that claim, so I'm in the camp that it wasn't planned. At least not in the U.S. where there's no preproduction material for a figure that did make production. I think the next mailer was to be the unproduced coin album and there's plenty of evidence on that one. It does seem odd that one figure was held back, but I think it could have been just a delay. Lumat and Paploo for example were two figures introduced for the 79 back, so I don't think it is too far fetched that they would even update the card for one once Yakface would have been ready.

It'd be nice to hear where exactly Jason got these. I'd be more inclined to think they could have been planned for a European promotion of some sort rather than a U.S. one. It's probably one of those mysteries though that we'll probably never know for sure.

Shawn, I think the thread I read about the joiner connection was on swfuk, but honestly can't recall.

trappedtexan wrote:Shawn, I think the thread I read about the joiner connection was on swfuk, but honestly can't recall.  

Yeah, there's been a few threads about them over the years. I do remember one on swfuk as well. That thread I mentioned to Google though mentions the show that Joiner brought them to in the early 90's.

From my years in the hobby, I have always been of the understanding Yak was planned as a Canadian release, hence the cardback, but the line was canceled before it was released to retail and all product was unloaded to the Australian market.  For years, I was also of the understanding that no POTF figures were ever released in Canada at all, but a couple of years ago discovered the Han and Luke 2-pack at Sears existed.  As Clint says, Paploo and Lumat were released up here as well - but I am of the firm belief they are ROTJ figures and not the mythical "Last 17" which so many equate to being POTF only figures.  "Last 17" is convenient for European collectors, as those two Ewoks were released along with the other 15 POTF simultaneously on tri-logo cards (imagine FOUR Ewoks in the last ever wave ).

Jim McCallum and Scott Bradley are the two biggest experts on Kenner Canada items.  Sadly, Jim left the hobby a few years ago to attend to family matters, but Scott is still active and should be invited here.  He runs the most comprehensive Canadian Star Wars product site in existence. web.ncf.ca/cn333/starwars.htm

Ian

Ian, Scott has been invited, hopefully he will pop-in and check things out, as well.

Awesome, I hope Scott checks it out.

One thing I saw last night on his site, was a flyer for either Toys R Us Canada or Toy City (a defunct toy store chain), that clearly advertised Lando General and Luke Poncho as being available.  While not photographic evidence they actually hit store shelves, that's the first time I have ever seen evidence the other POTF were available at retail in Canada.  There was also an explanation that POTF never had a wide release because Kenner and Irwin Toys dissolved their relationship at that time.

I won't post the photos without permission, but you can find them at this link. web.ncf.ca/cn333/yakface.htm

Ian

this is a very thorough and interesting read , thanks guys

Thanks for the input guys

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Good point on the Coin Album as been the next most likely mailer, I had completely forgotten about that, and like you say, there is evidence to back that up also

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I was just thinking about what you said about Yak planned release in Canada. Typically, one would expect a figure to make it's debute in the U.S. as opposed to Canada, but this wouldn't have been the first time this had happened, It's been a while since I've looked into it, but weren't the 'shrink wrap' figures that where packed with the Sears multipacks also deputed in Canada, which is why they lacked photo art and had different names because the actual cards for these figures hadn't been finished yet?

Correct me on that if I'm wrong.

Point, been it wouldn't be the first time that Canada had a figure before it's U.S. debut, even if in Yak's case he may never have seen the shelves of a Canadian store before hitting Oz.

Maybe it is possible that Yak's none U.S. release was just an unfortunate delay prior to the line ending.

Alex, from what I understand about the Sears Canada card figures, is they were extra stock left over from the Sears US play sets. And Sears Canada was asked to help sell them on cheap cards.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the timeline or reasoning for the shrink wrapped figures. Everything says they were a Sears thing, but I had a few of them as a kid (all opened ), and Sears was halfway across the city. My parents would have done their toy shopping at Eaton's and Woolco down the street (two former Canadian retail giants). An early release of them would seem to make sense, since they released the AT-AT Commander as General Veers.

Ian

Very interestring article ! But all that fuzz around Yakface! I agree not a very rare figure to me, at least in Europe. isn't EV-9D9 much rarer, especially in god condition? A friend of mine is an avid toy collector without being star wars collector and in 10 year he bought more than 10 yakfaces on fleamarkets but only 2 EV-9D9!

This is a question that aint ever gona get a complete answer

Here is some info I posted on the subject awhile back:

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and

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Thanks for that Scott.

General Kahn wrote:I was just thinking about what you said about Yak planned release in Canada. Typically, one would expect a figure to make it's debute in the U.S. as opposed to Canada, but this wouldn't have been the first time this had happened, It's been a while since I've looked into it, but weren't the 'shrink wrap' figures that where packed with the Sears multipacks also deputed in Canada, which is why they lacked photo art and had different names because the actual cards for these figures hadn't been finished yet?

Yak Face was to have been released at the tail end of the original POTF release. This spec sheet photo from the SWCA indicates that Yak Face was not ready (hence the cutout representation for Yak on the right) when the original POTF line was being marketed to prospective retailers lending credence that it was to come later in the line be it as a mailaway or a 2nd release figure:

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An individual from Kenner Canada who oversaw the vintage Star Wars line also confirmed the story to me that Yak Face was to have been a mailaway in the USA that was cancelled and was subsequently offered to Kenner Canada who also considered offering it as a mailaway, but packaged it on a card instead. See the link in my post above for the rest of the story.

As for the skinwrapped Canadian figures in 1980 and 1981, they didn't debut in Canada but were offered in Canada in multipack sets while being offered at the same time in the USA in the playsets as Sears exclusives. Given the lead time required back then to 'bilingualize' the box packaging, Canada would have missed the cutoff timeframe required to get these out to retailers for the Christmas season, so Kenner Canada chose to offer the figures only. The Cloud City playset was offered in Canada the year after the USA, but by then, the included figures were already widely available at all retailers so Kenner Canada chose to include older overstock figures to move the playsets. This was contrary to Kenner USA's thinking. In 1980, Kenner USA used the exclusive figures to move the cheap cardboard playset. In Canada, they used the cheap cardboard playset to move overstock figures. The Cloud City playset didn't move too fast in Canada (it was available for 3 straight years), so they passed on the Rebel Command Center. BUT, Kenner Canada recognized that the action figures were king and brought in the figures from the Rebel Command Center (General Veers/AT-AT Commander, Luke Hoth, R2-D2 Periscope/Sensorscope) and used them in yet more exclusive multipack sets the following year.

You can read more about them here:

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Commander Clint wrote:Thanks for that Scott.

Anytime!