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Finally finished this tonight! A replica of the Star Wars Palitoy Death Star playset for my kids.

A little back story and then some pics:

I love Star Wars. My kids (9 and 5 years old) love Star Wars (I have been grooming them both since birth ). I had (still have, actually...in the boxes) a pile of toys as a kid and I've made sure that my kids have a pile of toys as well. They cost a fortune these days ($8 for one freaking action figure!), so I tend to by them gently used lots on eBay for great prices. So, they have a lot of ships, figures, weapons, etc, but no playsets. They're aren't too many new (since the late '90s) playsets made and the vintage ones are expensive and fragile.

The other day my son saw my Death Star playset and just loved the idea of it...i.e. he wants one. Well, he's not getting mine as it's literally falling apart (2 parts broke just removing them from the box to show him) and he's not getting one from eBay because they're around $100 these days. But, I remembered the in the UK, the Death Star playset was different from the one here in the US. It wasn't made by Kenner, but by Palitoy and it was mostly cardboard. I wondered if anyone had ever scanned that whole thing in and guess what: someone did...and it was available for download!

So, after hours of Photoshop (cleaning stuff up) and printing on my wide format printer at work and hours of gluing and cutting, etc., my kids now have their own version of the Palitoy Death Star.

Here's what the US version looks like: Here's the Palitoy version: Here's mine...ready for action!

ROH73 wrote:I wondered if anyone had ever scanned that whole thing in and guess what: someone did...and it was available for download!

God bless the internet. Looks pretty sweet. Glad it came through for you and the kids.

Thanks!

You justnever know what you're going to find out there on the 'net. I bet there's even some lost security cam footage of you killing that guy with a screwdriver!

ROH73 wrote:I bet there's even some lost security cam footage of you killing that guy with a screwdriver!

Unfortunately those tapes were lost in a small contained fire involving just the film room at the guard station that night. Thousands of strange coincidences happen everyday in the U.S. Impossible to count them really...

Something tells me a lot of them are in Indiana...

ROH73 wrote:Something tells me a lot of them are in Indiana...

Only on race night.

Roh, that's awesome! That's what dad's are for, going the extra mile to "get it right'. I'm glad I'm not the only dad who likes toys! My son loves Lego Star Wars...almost as much as me .

Thanks!! I think Lego Star Wars is the next logical step for me and my kids .

I like Star Wars, but Spaceballs is good too.
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Great movie!!

Fanboys is a good one too.
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This US version? My kids have had my SW collection for years. It mostly sits now and will likely be boxed up for their kids pretty soon. We just were watching ESB on tv this evening.

I have the playsets that came with the cardboard backgrounds and luckily they mostly survived. I have a couple of the cardboard-only sets that Sears sold... I am thinking these were even more basic than you Palitoy set. There was the cantina and a Bespin set.

Fantastic job on the replica!!

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote:I like Star Wars, but Spaceballs is good too.
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No, SpaceBalls was great- StarWars was good

civilguy wrote: My kids have had my SW collection for years. It mostly sits now and will likely be boxed up for their kids pretty soon. We just were watching ESB on tv this evening.

I have the playsets that came with the cardboard backgrounds and luckily they mostly survived. I have a couple of the cardboard-only sets that Sears sold... I am thinking these were even more basic than you Palitoy set. There was the cantina and a Bespin set.

Fantastic job on the replica!!

Thanks!!!

I'm surprised how "dried out" and brittle some of my SW toys have become, especially the oldest polystyrene stuff from the late 70s. I'm guessing 10 years in my parents' boiling hot or freezing cold attic didn't help. Everything is stored in much better conditions now.

Yeah the cardboard Sears stuff was "exclusive" for a reason...no one else wanted to sell it . It's still cool to me, though. I have the plastic Kenner Cantina playset, but it too had a cardboard background.

The site that had the scan of the Death Star has almost all of the background to download for restorations, etc.: http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/backgrnd.htm

looks good robert.