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The Kenner Hoth Rebel Commander action figure sports a great 1980s moustache which has a touch of the major about it. Along with the Hoth Rebel Soldier it's important to remember that this was the first time that we had action figures for any sort of Rebel Alliance army. These were all we had to represent the struggle of the Rebellion against the Empire which essentially meant Hoth became the central focus of the ongoing war as we didn't have any other Rebel Soldier action figures that we could muster against the Empire. The Tantive IV Rebel Fleet Troopers came along much later (first in the bulky POTF2 toys), so aside from our X-Wing pilots the Hoth soldiers were it. They were our Rebel ground force. It's easy to forget that, at the time, this was quite limiting in terms of the flexibility of play.

Find Vintage Kenner Vintage Rebel Commander action figure on eBay

In compensation, Kenner provided a multitude of ships and vehicles to expand the possibilities of play on Hoth and your Rebel Commander figure and Rebel Soldiers had Tauntauns to ride, Radar Laser Canons to man, Vehicle Maintenance Energisers to run, Rebel Troop Transports to escape on and MLC-3 mini-rigs to drive. Kenner really did go all out on enabling us to get the most out of our Hoth action figures.

You can see that the Kenner Rebel Commander is prone to a little bit of discolouring with age, but he doesn't fayre too badly compared to many contemporary vintage Kenner action figures. The webbing above his boots is also quite susceptible to getting dirt ingrained. This can be removed gently with a clean toothbrush if you want to clean him up.

If you compare the shape and paintwork on the Rebel Commander figure's goggles on his helmet to the goggles painted on to the Luke Skywalker X-Wing Pilot you will see that it is significantly better on the Rebel Commander. Kenner were improving their craft as they went along and we got better figures with each new movie.

Kenner Rebel Commander Action Figure Versions

So far as I can tell there are two distinct versions of the Hoth Rebel Commander figure (aside from the more subtle variations): One with dark brown boots and one with light brown boots. The one with the darker boots seems to be by far the rarer of the two Rebel Commanders.

The Hoth Rebel Commander dark boots variant has a 1980 Hong Kong date stamp and the copyright symbol is further away from the rest of the writing than on any of my other versions. The ingisnia on the right of his jacket is also joined together (on some other variations this comes in two peices). Having done some research there is a very good possibility that this is a Lily Ledy variant but I'm far from an expert on this subject.

This Rebel Commander does also bare some resemblance to the Hong Kong second variant listed on the Vintage Action Figure Variation Guide where the paint for the boots strays on to the figure's leg, but that one has a separated insignia. And then again, the only variant shown with the copyright symbol so far away from the L.F.L. is on the Hong Kong variation three, and none of the variations shown have the darker boots. Both the Lily Ledy and Hong Kong version three Rebel Commander action figure have just the one central vertical line over the crotch area of the jacket, so this doesn't help narrow it down either. This figure is turning out to be a bit of an enigma.

At a guess this Rebel Commander might simply be a Hong Kong variation 3 with a different batch of paint. 1979 Hong Kong Taun Tauns (both split and solid belly) often turn up with horns in this darker shade, so it may simply be that some Hoth Rebel Commanders ended up getting that batch of paint also.

The comparison between the Kenner Rebel Commander figure and Major Bren Derling from the Saga Collection gives quite a good impression of how moulding, paintwork and articulation has improved between the intervening years.

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All Star Wars action figures, vehicles, collectibles and Star Wars toys shown on this website are the 3.75 inch scale and from my own private Star Wars collection unless otherwise stated. Where possible original vintage accessories have been used but in some instances I have placed Kenner Star Wars figures with either reproduction weapons and accessories or for Hasbro figures close approximations have been used. This is mostly the case for modern Star Wars lightsabers where the correct item can be very difficult to identify on some ocassions. Vintage Star Wars action figures are shown with their original weapon or accessory when I have them. When a vintage Kenner action figure is shown with an accessory which is not original I have tried to point this out where possible.

All of the Star Wars action figures shown were purchased second hand, usually incomplete, and in bulk. They have been reunited with their original weapons and accessories where we could get hold of them.

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