Picking up where we left last week, today we take a look at one of the forgotten lores of vintage Star Wars collecting and that’s the unused concept of The Epic Continues which would have been a continuation of the Power of the Force toy line back in the 80s.
As we discussed last week, there was a fantastic pitch put together for action figures based off those seen in the original trilogy and the team at Kenner didn’t stop there. A whole array of vehicles and playsets were conceived.
Likewise, as was the case with the figures, prototypes were developed by kit-bashing together several toys from the years gone by. A new Tandem X-Wing was produced with a new paint scheme and a Cargo Hold toy was developed that would have been able to attach onto the existing Millenium Falcon toy. Kenner wanted something new that could also feel as if it had been there the whole time. The truly exciting toy that wasn’t put into prototype but was sketched out was a new Star Destroyer, dubbed The Annihilator, which was to be the ship of the main villain of the this new story, Atha Prime. The design was simple but bold, two Star Destroyers placed on top of one another. It would have been a massive toy.
Another vehicle was conceptualised, the Apex Invader, which was to be Prime’s personal starship and this was to go on top of The Annihilator. The idea was savvy. All these pieces were needed in order to tell the whole story was that being developed. A true world building toy experience.
A fun new toy was envisioned called The Scout and Retrieval Vehicle. The idea behind this was that it was a landship that could go on reconnaissance missions to bring back damaged X-Wings. Again, this proving the amount of thought and imagination that went into the concept. This had actually been presented to Lucasfilm by Kenner during the production of The Empire Strikes Back as one of the vehicles that were seen ‘just off-screen.’
There was a lone playset that was pitched also. It was to be called the Imperial Outpost and was a mash up of elements from the Death Star and the Endor Bunker. This was never made as a prototype and one final piece of the puzzle was a Bantha. Much like Tarkin, Kenner had never considered making one during the original run and felt they had to the tools to revisit the creature during this time period.
It finally came time to present the pitch to Lucasfilm. Over the years sources say that Lucasfilm were pleased and happy with the effort and care that Kenner designers had put into the concepts and original story but they ultimately felt that Lucasfilm just wasn’t interested in pursing the line without new movies.
Kenner Management cancelled the Star Wars toy line in 1986 after their own internal market research found that interest in the brand had waned.
The Epic Continues doesn’t end there, however. Over years, small elements from the Kenner story have found themselves in canon. Several vehicles, including the Scout and Retrieval vehicle, would become canon when they were mentioned in the 1995 short story by Bill Smith in The Battle of Cadinth in Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 2.
It’s been debated in the fandom, from a certain point of view, if the character Shadow Spawn, AKA Cronal from The Old Republic, was influenced or indeed intended to be Atha Prime himself. The stories are very similar and so are the designs.
Of course, with the canon overhauled after the Disney acquisition there’s room yet for this mastermind to make a reappearance.
It’s wonderful to see the amount of detail and love that went into The Epic Continues and a toy line like this, with its own unique story set in a galaxy far, far away is something that I know I’d love to see revisited.
Images from Reddit, SWCA and Wookieepedia.