Wampa (1981), The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, by Kenner

The wampa is a yeti-like hairy creature that inhabits the icy planet of Hoth (the sixth planet of the Hoth System). It appears in the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), attacking Luke Skywalker and his tauntaun mount, dragging them back to his cave. Of course, Luke escapes, dismembering the poor hungry wampa in the process.

This vintage Wampa figure was first released on its own in a ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ box, originally printed “Wampa”. A slightly later release with slightly different box art was printed “Hoth Wampa”. The figure was subsequently released in Europe as part of an ‘Accessory Set’ box containing the wampa and a tauntaun, together with figures of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.

The head, torso, and arms, of my wampa figure have all yellowed over the years. I acquired it in the mid 90s and it was already a little yellowed then, but it has gotten worse. The yellowing is slightly more prominent around the seams. Yellowing plastic is common in Star Wars figures, especially the white plastics. It can be exacerbated by exposure to light, but my figures have been kept in a box for the better part of the last 25 years, so they can discolour regardless. Curiously, the legs in my figure haven’t yellowed at all, which suggests they are made of a different plastic – they do feel a bit waxier to the touch.

Steven Sansweet’s book ‘Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive’ from 1999 provides interesting images of four different wampa designs created for the film: two different suits – one with big bug-eyes, one with big blue eyes – and a hand puppet with sunken black eyes, were used in the filming of the original film. Plus a new suit that was used in the 1990s special edition. The hand puppet appears in the original release of The Empire Strikes Back in two brief shots, alongside some shots of an arm, presumably from one of the suits. But because the suits “just didn’t work”, there are no full-body shots of the wampa in the original film, only in the special edition.

The toy wampa’s face is loosely modelled after the hand puppet, while the rest of the body is modelled after the suits.

Although the movie puppet itself has nasty fangs, which are clearly visible in the film, the teeth aren’t present in the toy because its mouth is closed. Likewise, the puppet has eyeballs in sunken eye sockets, but the toy has dark unusually triangular sockets, with a raised boss in the middle. The nose is cute and ‘troll’-like. The toothless mouth and docile, almost dumb expression, makes the toy appear rather muppety with a touch of sad puppy about it! Not very scary. And the discolouration on the tip of the nose makes it look rosy, like Santa Claus! Or, should that be Santa Claws?

The toy also has two pointy ears, and two horns in separate brown plastic. These characteristics are much clearer in the suit designs than the hand puppet. In fact, I can’t make out the ears at all in the pictures of the hand puppet, and the horns are not obvious. So, I think the head of the toy was based partly on the suits as well.

The wampa has spring loaded “action arms” (according to the box) in ball and socket joints, which sort of spring back, but don’t really… maybe they did once. The arms are the most frightening part of the design, with huge hairy clawed hands with padded black palms. The legs are short and stumpy with no feet or claws to speak of, rather like hairy tree trunks. They articulate only at the hips. Each ‘foot’ has a bevelled underside with two flat surfaces, one at the front, one at the back.

The sculpting detail of the tufts of hair all over the body and hanging from the arms is fantastic. The back of the left leg is embossed with “LUCASFILM 1981”. The back of the right leg is embossed “MADE IN HONG KONG”

All in all, the toy doesn’t look that much like the wampa in the film, and the funny face lets this figure down. It’s not exactly the most creative monster design from Star Wars in the first place, but it’s still a firm classic from the original Kenner Star Wars line. It’s quite easy to find this figure cheap on Ebay.

I’ve been unsettled recently because someone else’s mistake recently led to all my other toy websites being accidentally deleted. The sites are still being restored days later, but its out of my hands This has left me fidgety and uncomfortable, with a blank stare, much like the expression on this wampa toy. I like to be in control. So, I decided to channel my nervous energy into this review, something I can control!