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IMPERIAL COMMANDER

Source:
(The Empire Strikes Back)

Date Stamp: 1980

Carded Availability:
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Tri-Logo

Assortment No. : 39389

Retail: $2.49

Weapons and Accessories:

Stormtrooper Blaster

Point of Interest:
This figure fist appeared on The Empire Strikes Back 41 back card.

Comments: As either a specific character -such as General Veers or Captain Piett- or as an army builder, the vintage Imperial Commander is an all around great action figure. Oddly enough, despite the fact that it was released with the 41 back The Empire Strikes Back assortment, it sports the black uniform from A New Hope. Colour discrepancy aside, this figure is one of the best sculpted Star Wars figures ever produced.

Major Variations: Though all vintage figures have minor variations, the Imperial Commander has only one major variation. The figure was produced with both a skinny head and a round head.

The Skinny Head Imperial Commander, which has a few minor variations in the length of the neck and sideburns, is the far more common of the two variations and is very easy to come across. The Round Head Imperial Commander on the other hand appears to have been released only as a Tri-Logo figure, as proven by its lack of COO* stamp. To date there are no documented examples of this version with a COO stamp. That being said, it cannot be ruled out that it was also released on other card backs.

Interestingly enough, the two head sculpts are just different enough to look like two different officers. The Skinny Head figure seems to resemble Captain Piett while the Round Head figure looks more like General Veers, who, judging by the photo on the card, the figure is based on. The chances of these likenesses being intentional are unlikely.

*COO is the commonly used term for ‘Country Of Origin’, which refers to the stamp usually spotted on a figure’s leg that states which country it was manufactured in.

Text & Photography by D. Martin Myatt.

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