5p… a long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, British children thought they were rich if they were given 5p pocket money. Many children would then rush off to the local shops to purchase sweets, comics, trading cards or other goodies, and one such addictive snack had a Star Wars offer – the KP Outer Spacers and the Palitoy Fighter Kite offer.
As a kid I loved crisps, and still do – it’s a guilty pleasure, but me and kites don’t mix at all despite living in the windy north and spending many a holiday attempting to make them out of carrier bags, bin liners, and literally anything you can get your hands on.
KP Snacks Ltd are a veteran company, founded in 1853 who began to manufacture crisp snacks in the late 1960’s. Based in Ashby-De-La-Zouche, a mere stone’s throw away from the Palitoy factory, they leapt on the space craze frenzy witnesses since Star Wars with a wonderful range of products to promote their crisp snacks such as these awesome adverts and a range of Alien Battle Fleet Interceptor vehicles to purchase to defend our galaxy from the threat of aliens. They also tied into other franchises such as Disney’s The Black Hole, and Zoids.
Sadly, these awesome interceptors weren’t available to defeat the aliens in 1978, so children were encouraged to send off for a Fighter Kite at the princely sum of 95p and 3 empty crisp wrappers!
There were 3 flavours to choose from for the Star Wars offer, and although I probably did try all 3 at one time, pickled onion would have been the ones I enjoyed the most. Each corn snack featured raiders in very dubious space vehicle shapes flavoured as beefburger, chutney or pickled onion.
As with most promotions the late 1970’s, a wonderful arrange of store displays and headers were available to adorn those newsagents stocking the snacks.
The ultimate weapon in all its glory; I present to you The Fighter Kite!
Although that iconic image of the TIE Fighter chasing the X-Wing Fighter really pops on the kite, I highly doubt many children managed to get these into the air despite the “150 feet of ground control kite line!” As mentioned previously, the idea must have been a success as KP ran many other promotions well into the 1980’s, although chutney and beefburger flavours were dropped for beef and cheese flavours.
Photos (c) Andy Preston, thenostalgiashop.co.uk, eBay sales