Star Wars Most Ridiculous Toy Commercial | Kenner Empire Strikes Back Wampa figure TV ad
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- Опубліковано 20 лют 2019
- Kenner Star Wars action figure classic TV commercial - the most ridiculous ad for the entire toy line! Feel the cringe!
The Kenner Star wars ad campaign and it's resulting TV ads/commercials are a fondly remembered bit of nostalgia for many of us, but I wonder if people still remember this Empire Strikes Back commercial ad for the Wampa, and the fan backlash that came from it. Yes - fan backlash, BEFORE the new trilogy, even before the prequels!
This obscure bit of Star Wars Kenner commercial & ad history goes back to the Empire Strikes back line of Kenner toys and action figures, and how they sold one specific action figure to kids - The Wampa. If you were around back then, you probably remember the goofiness of “Wampa, Wampa, Wampa!!!!”, and if you don’t, check out this video for the craziest Star Wars toy commercial for the Wampa action figure from the Empire Strikes Back movie from Kenner.
This classic bit of Star Wars TV commercial ad history is largely unknown by younger/newer fans, it’s a bit of an infamous moment (and yet fondly remembered) moment in Kenner action figure history in terms of Star Wars toys specifically. The Wampa figure from the Star Wars movie Empire Strikes Back had one of the goofiest, most ridiculous moments in Star Wars / Empire Strikes Back toy & action figure TV ad commercials in early history. Check out this video and see this moment in toy & action figure history, the infamous “Wampa, Wampa, Wampa” Star Wars action figure TV commercial.
Sources:
Kenner Wampa Action Figure commercial from the Empire Strikes Back section of the Star Wars Collection
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I love the sand crawler ad
“You can go in virtually any detection by simply moving forwards, backwards, and then forwards again!”
It sounds like it can only go two directions if you don’t have the image in your head
Ha ha, totally! In later years I would call that "the poor man's radio controlled car" - not the Sandcrawler specifically, but that cheaper method of doing a remote control car/vehicle, when they avoided having true steering control and would say "just back up to change direction"! In early days of remote controlled toys that was still pretty cool but I remember throughout the 80s (and maybe even into the 90s) seeing RC toys that still used this lamer/cheaper control configuration, it annoyed me so much!! Still, gotta love the classic Sandcrawler, ha ha - thanks for sharing!
All of the Empire Strikes Back toy commercials were like this. We had just been burned by the Star Wars Holiday Special and then these hokey commercials started up with that cheesy music. The only saving grace was the amazing yards that these kids played in. They had the perfect setting for toys.
yeah, that was a great setting; though tbh, I never brought my toys outside, lol, hated them getting dirty. But I lived in MN, and I was always tempted to recreate Hoth outside in the snow, lol. Unfortunately, I never had many of the figures/toys from Empire. Thanks for watching!
I remember playing with my TaunTaun! TaunTaun! TaunTaun! When I was a kid in the 80’s
Nice!!! Where were YOU when they were filming THAT commercial?!? Ha ha, you could've been a star!
Besides the obvious "Wampa Wampa", why are Han and Luke dressed in winter clothes, when this was obviously shot somewhere in Arizona?
Ha ha ha - I'm from MN, and trust me - the authenticity you get for playing with your figures in the snow aint' worth it
It wasn't just this commercial. Kenner did a few ads with the Wampa figure including one for the Micro Collection and in every commercial the the kid playing with the Wampa figure or Micro Wampa figure is yelling "Wampa Wampa Wampa!!'
ha ha, that's too funny - I found a couple variations on the Wampa toy commercial but didn't find/remember the Micro collection commercial, thx for the tip
Where is the snow?
Ruin/roundhead probably got beat by some nerd that said wampa,wampa, wampa
😂😂😂
I had seen Empire before I saw the associated toys in the Christmas catalog (asked for AT AT), that included the Wampa. Where I experienced disappointment was before I saw the commercial. I had perspective issues when I finally saw a classmate’s Wampa, because it was much smaller than I thought it would be. I thought it had to be a miniature. I don’t remember any backlash among peers over using the name as the Wampa roar, I mean they did the same thing in the toy Tauntaun commercial. I remember seeing the cool factor in the Wampa swipe action - perhaps a precursor to the He-Man snap-action battle waist.
Very cool, thanks for sharing your memories! Good call, I should've mentioned the Tauntaun commercials in this video! Yeah, that snap action also reminded me of the Kenner Super Powers figures. Thanks for watching!
"It came out in May but didn't make its way to Minnesota until winter"..... which is also may.
Wampa, Wampa, Wampa!!!! That was so deliciously cheesy.
Ha ha ha, dude so glad you saw this (I was kicking myself for not having it out during our convo yesterday)! It was literally one of the only Star Wars things we balked at when we were kids!
You think the AT-AT was the only toy that required at least two people to use, ha h?
@@HeroJournalism Did you ever see the old Star Wars Underoos commercials? They were pretty bad as well.
@@RansomeStoddard oh man, I will look that UP! I wanted underoos so much when I was a kid in the late 70s but only remember the superhero ones. I hope you're not referring to the jingle though - "Underoos are fun to wear, yeah! something super new in undear wear!" That was dope!
It may be silly now but It did not bother me or my friends back in the day. We never knew there was a backlash of any kind and we went to a pretty large elementary school. Of course we were 8 and 9 years old. All the boys at that time seemed to love Star Wars. We got the Kenner Wampa and had fun and I do not recall the commercial having an affect on us pretending the Wampa was saying "Wampa, Wampa, Wampa!" We pretended it was a monster as shown in the movie.
Hey, thanks for sharing - I didn't mean to imply the "backlash" was against Star Wars itself, or even the Wampa toy, but against the Kenner marketing - it was one of the first times I remember me and my friends feeling the marketing to us was a little pandering. I still have fond memories of the action figure itself though!
As someone who grew up in the following decade and happen to watch these old commercials via youtube and various retrospectives, I did not think much of this commercial. I had a lot of cheesy toy commercials in my day, that make this one look very quaint in comparison. Watching a low rent Ninja Turtle puppet advertise the TMNT vehicles like a desperate car salesman is enough to kill that brand.
As for Wampa Wampa Wampa. Lucasfilm was notorious for keeping poor communication with the toymaker. Blue Snaggletooth and Death Squad Commander are huge examples. Kenner was given a brief synopsis of what each character was, black n white headshots and nothing else. In order to sell the toy, for which they had very little to work with, and were forced to make up traits as they went along. IT was probably a challenge to market this toy. Its fascinating really.
Thanks for sharing, Darren. I'm guessing I'm just a tad older than you, as I was out of toys by the time TMNT came on - but if I was at the right age as you were, I'd probably agree with you (though certainly TMNT itself was a much sillier property than Star Wars was, so your recollection rings true). However, didn't the cartoon come before the toys? Didn't they have the cartoon 'to go off of'?
Regardless, thank you for watching and chiming in!
@@HeroJournalism Yup, I'm probably about 15 years younger than you are. Although I did have some vintage Star Wars toys, they originally belonged to my uncle. What was silly to you, then was more than likely not as silly to me, because I had some wacky toy adverts my way.
As for TMNT. The cartoon aired its first 5 episodes prior to the release of the toyline, but they were being made simultaneously. The deals were struck at the same time. It just takes longer to release one wave of 10 toys than it does 5 episodes.
Thank you for your response!
@@darrenhood4033, you are welcome - I enjoyed hearing your thoughts and that data on TMNT toys. I was about 15 when TMNT came out; I was collecting comics (since '83) but had gotten out of toys a couple years before TMNT. I remember seeing the original TMNT comics in the shop - I actually bought Boris the Bear Slaughters the Radioactive Teenage Mutant Ninja Critters, which was a satire book on the craze of clones of TMNT that had come out in the wake of it's success, ha ha!
@@HeroJournalism Thank you, for the kind words! As for the TMNT ripoffs, nice!
@@darrenhood4033 - feel free to chime in anytime, pleasure talking!
But the toy itself looks so non-scary. It looks like how someone would draw a sad cat, or something.
Figure sculpts sure have come along way since this, lol! Ha ha, good point on the snow; I actually grew up in a winter climate with snow, but never brought out my Empire figures (or my GI Joe snow vehicles) out in the snow, ha ha
Kenner: doesn't tell kid what sound the animal makes for commercial
Kid: WAMPA WAMPA WAMPA!
Kenner: (between gasps for air) Write that down! Write that down!
You summed it up, not only perfectly, but hilariously! While anyone can look back and say "that's weird", one reason why I wanted to do this video was because it was something that I could actually provide historical context, simply because I remember me and my friends back then - all of whom thought the Wampa scene in Empire was totally badass (so, no haters here) - were so shocked by how campy the commercial was. Loved your sum-up of it in meme form, Pills - thanks so much for watching, if you're interested check out my vid on how the Marvel Star Wars comics gave me the Mandela Effect about the movie, but regardless of that thanks for the comment
Just seen this video and nowhere did anyone ever suggest that this was a silly commercial or even go around and saying "wanna wampa...." there was no backlash or joking about the commercial anywhere. I actually remember the commercial probably during my Saturday morning cartoon marathons and as a kid (about 8-9 yrs old at that time), it would have been inconceivable to be thinking, "Ewww, what a dumb commercial." At that age you're simply mesmerized by the toys coming out and not picking the commercials apart.
I think looking back at it, as an adult, you can certainly see where it might seem silly, but I cannot fathom the thought that anyone was actually poking fun at the Wampa commercial, at all.
Makes for good dramatic flair, but not reality.
Avtually seems like just another reason to have made a video by someone.
I'm sure there are many that agree with you, so thanks for sharing your memories for them to see in the comments section. I'll admit I only have anecdotal data, but I remember clearly me and my group of friends really didn't like the commercial, so I know that some didn't like it. But in a sense you are right, it was just another reason to talk about memories and history of Star Wars. Thanks for watching, if you check out more videos, hope you think they're better!
HE SOUNDS LIKE A GODDAMN POKEMON
See how innovative George was? Delivering Pokemon 20 yrs before the fact!
HeroJournalism XD
I was already pre-sold on Star Wars toys from early summer of '78 when I got my very first figures (Luke R2, and 3PO), so cheesy commercials didn't affect me at all. "Wampa wampa wampa" was the same as "taun taun! taun taun!' I think the problem was that Kenner was thinking only younger kids were buying/receiving SW toys when many of us were still enjoying them in middle school (and some into high school).
I'm envious of you; I felt pressure to stop collecting toys and comics in my early and mid teens. But I love the hell out of SW adaptations into toys and statues, baby. "More Star Wars makes life better" is a rule I live by
HeroJournalism; I guess you could say that.
Whenever I take out my wampa I don't go Wampa wampa wampa over n over again I say it once then roar like how the actually creature was in the film except the creature on hoth didn't talk it growls but for me it's just: "I'm wampa..." then growls n roars.
I have 2 tauntauns except it's a little hard to create their Fx growls or the sound they make because you'll have to have a deep or high pitched vocal cord for that. I don't. The sounds the tauntauns make are the same ones the pod people made in invasion of the body snatchers. It's weird but the sounds the pod people make sound precisely like the tauntauns.
This commercial is recorded proof that before Pokémon was a franchise, Wampa is one of the first.
I'm lacking in my Pokemon knowledge; what's the connection?
@@HeroJournalism I was making a joke, as the commercial had the kid playing with the Wampa toy saying its name, which is what Pokémon do in the anime.
@@jeremyriley1238 Oh, that - ok, gotcha, sorry that went right over my head!
This deserves more views and love
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! Just a little anecdote from Star Wars history, but really great to hear you liked it!
I don't know if it's common, but one leg on my vintage Wampa is a tad shorter than the other leg.
It is, the leg on mine is shorter too!
@@libbycouch9923
I wonder if that was a design flaw or intentional.
I think they designed him to be slightly 'walking in stride' so one leg is at an angle, thus shorter?
@@HeroJournalism
Possibly!
Did you "Wampa, Wampa, Wampa!!!" as a kid? Share your Star Wars toys memories below!
Wampa is an Ice type pokémon
ha ha, now I wanna see that crossover
@@HeroJournalism 😂😂🤣
This must not have hit my area of Ohio. I think the most ridiculous thing I remember but loved at the time was Underoos!
@S2 Turbine oh man that's an awesome story! I watched old B&W Lone Rangers when I was a kid in the late 70s - primed my younger self for superheroes!
We said wampa wampa a bunch. Still do occasionally.
Love it! My best bud at that time isn't around anymore... I would love nothing more than to call him up and just say "Wampa Wampa Wampa!!!!"
We didnt have those cheesy commercials in the UK.
Interesting - wonder what the UK commercials were like. May have to do a search...
@@HeroJournalism whompa whompa whompa sounds much better. I love how they use the same music for ALL the adverts.
My goodness i thought i had a lot of games
Ah, most of it is from used game sales, but I've got a few gems!
That's hilarious! I agree that commercial is silly.
But ya gotta love all those crazy bits of Star Wars history, ha ha!
@@HeroJournalism totally 🤣
Hahaha
It's proof that "cringe" existed long before the internet...
Jar jar binks vibe
Hey grover from seasame street they stole your song
Can you provide a link, I'd love to hear it
@@HeroJournalism no but it's on UA-cam monster in a mirror I believe
@@HeroJournalism got it
@@HeroJournalism at the end of the song is the wompa part