A New Hope - Chewbacca. You may not know it by looking at the vintage Kenner Chewbacca, but this bad boy has ripped the arms off of many a figure in his thirty-three year reign of supremacy. Unlike the modern line, today’s addition to the Kenner Photo Archive was only available like this. Back in the day, collectors had to use their imaginations to set Old Chewie on a mynock hunt or have him track Probe Droids with his pal on the icy plains of Hoth. appearance on the Star Wars 12 back card. During the Return Of The Jedi 65 back releases, the image on this figure's card was replaced with a shot from ROTJ. Though known examples indicate that the switch took place during the 65C production run, It is possible that earlier examples could exist. The original photo made its last appearance on the Return Of The Jedi 65C back. Note that the distinction of 65D and 65E cards is the Anakin figure offer stickers, the 65C was the last printed 65 back variation. The new image was used on all other cards after including The Power Of The Force and Tri-Logo cards. Though all vintage figures have minor variations, Chewbacca has no major variations. There is often talk of a green-limbed version of this figure, but it is popular belief that it is discoloring due to plastic deterioration. One of the minor variations that is interesting enough to note is the version with the iridescent green/brown pouch (pictured above). There are only a few specimens documented, but that cannot, and should not, conclude the rarity of this variation. There are a few variations in the colour of Chewbacca's weapon. One is very obvious, but the other two are near impossible to spot without holding it in front of light. The tough variation to spot was an early version moulded in dark green plastic. It was swapped out during the 12 Back production run with a new version moulded in dark blue/black plastic. The green version is commonly considered to have come only with the Early Bird Set figure, but it has never been proven to be exclusive to the set. The easy to spot variation was moulded in a lighter blue, not unlike many of the weapons included in the 30 Back debut figures. This version of Chewie’s Bowcaster is pretty tough to find, and while its believed to have been produced during the initial run of figures from The Empire Strikes Back it hasn’t been documented as such.
