We have a pretty strict ban in my family about buying things for yourself that lasts from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day, which prevents people from buying things for themselves that might already be wrapped up and hidden away in a closet.
Recently, Star Wars released a line of 18″ figures, and I’ve been waiting for Christmas to come and go so I can pick one or two of them up. I’m getting too old and too broke to collect them all anymore, but one of my favorite figures of all time is the Biker Scout.
Now I gotta tell ya, as far as characters from Star Wars go, the Biker Scout isn’t a great one to fall in love with. In Return of the Jedi, one Biker Scout lets himself get distracted by Wicket the Ewok, another couple allow an Ewok to steal their speeder bike, another group allow themselves to get ambushed by Han Solo and his team, and two others allow themselves to get manhandled and outmaneuvered by Luke and Leia while riding speeder bikes. Again, Luke and Leia — two people who don’t appear to have ever even ridden speeder bikes before — outmaneuver two Biker Scouts, whose job it is to ride speeder bikes.
Despite all that, I love the guys. I love their armor and their weird looking blaster. And over the years, I’ve collected quite a few of them.
Just some of my Biker Scouts I rounded up for this quick photo. On the back row there’s my original Return of the Jedi cardback from the 80s (the price tag says $3.49 from Hyde Drugs), a vintage Speeder Bike w/Biker Scout, a Power of the Force Speeder Bike w/Biker Scout from the 90s, a 3 3/4″ Black Series Biker Scount and the “not for resale” Star Wars Battlefront Biker Scout. Loose and up front there are vintage (80s) and newer Biker Scouts, a couple of LEGO Biker Scouts on Speeder Bikes, a loose Power of the Force Scout on his bike and the 6″ Star Wars Black Biker Scout on his bike.
This isn’t all the Biker Scouts they’ve made (this isn’t even all the ones I own), but it’s most of them. (I really need to track down the couple of 12″ ones I’m missing.)
I had to wait until after Christmas to buy it, but today while we were out I ended up picking the newest Biker Scout, the 18″ edition.
Here’s a shot of the newest addition to the collection, with a vintage 3 3/4″ Biker Scout in front for comparison. The large scale lets you see lots of details in the figure’s costume. I can only assume he’s still dumb as a box of hair and I wouldn’t loan him the keys to my motorcycle anytime soon, but I’m glad to add him to the collection nonetheless.