Rancor Monster (1984), Return of the Jedi, Star Wars, by Kenner

Star Wars counts, right? Oh yes, Star Wars counts!

This is an impressively faithful depiction of the rancor from Return of the Jedi (1983). The Cambridge Dictionary defines “rancor” as “a feeling of hate and continuing anger about something in the past”. I mean, if you’ve seen Return of the Jedi (if – haha!), you’ll probably agree the rancor monster does seem rather angry about *something*. I wonder, what could have caused such hostility in a living organism enslaved for years in a cave under a palace? Oh.

The rancor was marketed as “Rancor Monster” on the toy box, even though it is just referred to as the “rancor” in the film. It’s a fantastic size, about 23cm tall and 22cm long, almost perfectly in scale with the “3.75 inch” scale vintage action figure line. As much as we may have liked to see, say, an AT-AT model as big as a room, the sets and vehicles in the vintage Star Wars line would often deviate from the correct scale for practical reasons. So, it was always satisfying to see the rancor at the correct scale – the hands are just the right size and pose to hold a Gamorrean Guard or Luke Skywalker figure.

This rancor toy’s huge gangly arms have ball-and-socket shoulder joints offering an impressive range of motion. The wrists also rotate 360 degrees for maximum playability and poseability The hip joints rotate forwards/back a limited degree, but the underside of the feet are completely flat so the figure only stands comfortably in one set position.

In my action figure there is some discoloration in the shoulder joints, where they have been rubbing over the years. But they still hold firm after decades of play.

The figure has a pleasing and rather subtle action feature activated by pulling on one of the humps on the creature’s spine. This causes a lever mechanism to opens and closes the jaws. The figure is hollow, and you can see inside through the mouth, but the jaws don’t open quite wide enough the fit an action figure inside. That said, I’m sure many an enthusiastic child has tried, and probably succeeded feeding the rancor a wide range or legos and other small toy treats.

The colour is a monochrome brown. This is the base colour of the plastic, which is unpainted except for some white on the teeth and eyes. But it doesn’t matter, the detailed wrinkles and warty bumps of the sculpture catch light and throw shadows and it looks superb. This it also means no paint scratches or blemishes, and helps explain why my figure (bought second hand in the mid 90s) looks almost as good as new. This is a good example of how sometimes “less is more” when it comes to painting toys.

Other rancor action figures were released later, but this one, the original, is still my favourite by a mile. To my knowledge this sculpt was never re-released. It balances perfectly on two feet, but I bring the left arm in my figure down when it is on display to support the model and stop it potentially toppling forward if it gets knocked.

This action figure is marked under its right armpit with the following details: “[Copyright Symbol] LUCASFILM LTD (LFL) 1984 G.M U.K LTD”. The rancor is a memorable monster from the Star Wars franchise and this fantastic vintage toy comes highly recommended. Obviously it has been out of production for 40 years, but Star Wars toys were so popular and mass produced it isn’t too difficult to find one in good condition on Ebay without breaking the bank.