I haven’t written a “Star Wednesday” article in several months because all of my Star Wars collectibles are tucked away in a storage unit. “Out of sight, out of mind,” so to speak. Last weekend, my wife helped put together a fundraising garage sale for the Girl Scouts. While we were dropping off donations, I spied these two miniature X-Wing fighters in a bargain bin, and picked them up.
After doing a bit of research, I found that these X-Wings were released in McDonald’s Happy Meals back in 2010. There were eight toys in all: four figures (Anakin, Yoda, Darth Vader and R2-D2) and four ships (Jedi Starfighter, Republic Gunship, the Millennium Falcon, and X-Wing Fighter). Each of the character figures came with a temporary tattoo and a plastic clip to attach them to your belt loop.
As you can see, the toys I picked up mostly/kinda resemble an X-Wing fighter. These toys did not include the ship’s iconic laser cannons that normally extended from the wings, so while it doesn’t look exactly like the ones that appeared on screen, in a somewhat ironic way, it resembles many of the Kenner toys kids owned after the cannons fell off and were lost. Without those cannons and with no moving parts, there’s really nothing to break here. I do think a tiny dab of blue paint on the R2 unit would have gone a long way.
Originally each McDonald’s ship came with a small plastic key that, when inserted into the rear of the vehicle, would launch it into hyperspace. (With earth’s gravity, that equates to about four feet.)
I realize this is not the most exciting Star Wars toy in the world, but I do kind of enjoy the idea that a few angled pieces of plastic and a dash of orange is instantly recognizable as an X-Wing fighter.
I won’t be playing with this toy much. I’m not going to be rolling it around or running around the house making “pew-pew” noises while waving it through the air. What I will do, however, is set them near my computer — maybe next to my monitor, somewhere where I can see it. Even though it’s nothing more than a tiny little piece of plastic, it’s enough to remind me of my stuff, and some great movies, until I have the time and space to unpack and display everything the way it was.
