Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Kenner Star Wars Large Size 12" Princess Leia

This is Kenner's Large Size Princess Leia Action Figure from 1978. Alright, to be fair, this is a dolly... plain and simple. Sometimes, it takes the manliest of men to succumb to buying a DOLL to complete a collection. Convinced, yet?

Princess Leia was one of the original four large sized action figures (dollys) that Kenner produced alongside Vader, Luke, and Chewie. However, she was marketed towards little girls and not the boys that were typically prowling action figure aisles in pursuit of "plastic gold."


As a kid, she was an easy pass. You could hide a 3 3/4 inch Leia at the bottom of your action figure case, if need be, but a ruler sized Leia was another thing altogether. If one of your buddies were to spot her in your collection, you could instantly become the target of constant ridicule and torture (having a Luke that looked like a Ken doll was bad enough, believe me). She didn't come with any kind of weapon or action feature. In fact, she came with a brush and comb set that allowed little girls to style her hair in several different hairdos. There was even a hairdo how-to booklet that came with Leia. Unfortunately (maybe fortunately), I do not own any of Leia's hair-styling accessories.

Again, Kenner came through with a great likeness that looks quite a bit like Carrie Fisher did at the time. Sure, it's a doll-like sculpt but it does a nice job of looking like the character. More so than many more recent attempts from companies producing six-scale version of Leia. Articulation is fairly limited... swivel hips, swivel shoulders, swivel neck, and maybe a tiny bit of "click" movement in the knees.

I picked this figure up in 1988 at the San Diego Comic Con. I've only recently discovered that she's wearing the wrong shoes. Oh, well....one more thing to track down. (If anyone has a spare pair, let me know.)

A complete Princess Leia should come with her white gown, two stockings, two white shoes, a belt, two donut-shaped rings (that are inside her ANH hairdo), a comb, a brush, and a hairstyling booklet.


I've always thought that Kenner should have included a blaster with Leia. That way, girls could join in the "action figure" fun and maybe, just maybe, a boy or two might have wanted to add Leia and her "Empire Crusher" blaster to their collection. Eh, probably not.

All in all, though, what Star Wars figure line would be complete without Leia? In that respect, I'm very glad that Kenner produced her and she makes a great addition to the Large Sized line-up.

11 comments:

  1. There's actually a pretty good likeness to Carrie Fisher there.

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  2. First I am totally surprised the Bubbashelby has not made a comment yet, he must be sick or something...

    I am going to agree that the likeness to Carrie Fisher (at the time) is very, very close here. I have to know when you bought her was the hair still in the buns or did you have to reconstruct the hairstyle, not making fun here, just curious because all the barbie type toys I have seen my niece play with the first thing to go is the hair style from the factory.

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  3. Someone really need to check on Bubba.

    Maybe he had a coronary when he saw this?

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  4. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. Chunky - The buns were in place when I got her but it looks like someone other than the factory did them.

    Bubba - Dirty pool, man. Glad you enjoyed my dolly post.

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  6. Didn't Kenner also produce a Princess Leia variant of those hair-and-makeup toys, consisting of only the head and shoulders?

    Or was that just some wonderful dream I had?

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  7. Sorry Brian (Hahahahahahaha) but in all (Hahahahahahaha) seriousness (Hahahahahahaha) my older sister (Hahahahahahaha) had this dolly when we (Hahahahahahaha) were kids.

    Hahahahahahaha!!!!!

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  8. Hahahahha one more thing: "The buns were in place when I got her but it looks like someone other than the factory did them."

    BWWWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

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  9. heh, heh :D
    Bubba, you are a Very Bad Boy

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  10. ..Not saying that ive read many blog articles but THIS blog article is my fave. The Kenner 1978,78 and 1980 Large Size action figures are the best the company had to offer...by far. These large format figures remained obscure for years but seem to have rocketted in popularity in the past three or four years. These action figures/dolls are serious works of art and its nice to see and read that so many other people agree. Keep up the great work gang. Any chance of an update./sequel to this entry? I'd love to learn more. Regards, J.Z.

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  11. I wonder if Paul Simon bought one at the time.

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