After the first trickle of
Star Wars toys in 1978, the following year saw a burst of creativity from Kenner. Sadly the inspiration was a shallow pool - there weren't that many vehicles and accessories that could be made from Episode 4, so the toy designers had to turn to creating their own vehicles to fill the line. Thus the Expanded Universe was born.
To bring the existance of this unseen vehicle in to the story Kenner produced a small booklet (part
one,
two,
three,
four and
five supplied by
12back.com), describing how a squad of stormtroopers on Tatooine hunted for C-3PO and R2-D2. Though it was labelled and pictured as being a mover of Imperial forces, its catalogue description stated that it had "six side compartments [to] hold captured rebel prisoners" with a rear compartment to carry conviscated droids.
Aside from the innovation of non-movie toys, the Imperial Troop Transport also had the added bonus of being the first
Star Wars toy to have movie accurate sound with lines from C-3PO, R2-D2 and a Stormtrooper as well as some sound effects. These were stored on a 3" wide vinyl record housed within the vehicle. By pressing one of the buttons on the top, the arm of the record player would move on to the next preset position and play the sound clip. Nowadays the Imperial Troop Transport is hard to find with its talking fature in working order.
The Imperial Troop Transport was released in
Star Wars packaging first, followed by a short run in a
The Empire Strikes Back box before is was axed. After that Sears sold it as their exclusive "Imperial Cruiser" only without the talking feature.
VINTAGE SW IMPERIAL TROOP TRANSPORTER. MIB. The original concept of the Imperial Troop Transport was far more sinsiter - check out
Toys R Gus for a product shot. The only addition that might have improved the toy was a landspeeder hover-effect wheel base. This was originally planned for the Troop Transporter but was dropped to keep its costs down.
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