Total Star Wars Toys: The Palitoy Saga
Total Star Wars Toys: The Palitoy Saga is an in-depth look at Palitoy’s role in the Star Wars toys phenomenon between 1977 and 1985.
Embark on an epic journey through the history of Palitoy, the UK toy company that brought the magic of Star Wars to generations of fans. Total Star Wars Toys: The Palitoy Saga delves into the intricate details of Palitoy’s significant contribution to the Star Wars franchise and popular culture.
Fans think of Palitoy and think of things like their cardboard Death Star Playset, but there’s much more to the tale. How do you bring toys to market from an unknown brand? How do you create a market months in advance with precious little information about what you’re going to be selling? How do you react to retailer shortages when you’d been pressing them to go that bit further with their orders in the first place? And How do you keep the phenomenon going in those years when there isn’t a movie to drive people to the cinema?
Author: Brian Hickey
Publisher: Total Toy Books
Publication date: 14 Jan. 2026
Page Count: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1738420965
ISBN-13: 978-1738420964
Last week I, along with many other backers, received a late Christmas/early New Year gift in the form of Total Star Wars Toys: The Palitoy Saga, a book which has been painstakingly and lovingly put together by Brian Hickey, Paddy Lennon and David McDonald. It’s a book that offers a comprehensive history on Palitoy’s pivotal place in the Star Wars pantheon, featuring new and exclusive interviews with those who there on the ground at the time, never before seen photos from collections and is told, most importantly, by people who care about this history.
The first thing to note is that I’d been excited for this book for a long, long time. It dates back to December 2024 when myself, along with Mark Newbold, got the chance to interview Brian Hickey about this forthcoming project when it was hours away from being announced. Brian radiated enthusiasm and professionalism, and I shall never forget the goosebumps that echoed over my body as he told us, privately at the time, that he’d been granted access to never-before-seen personal archives from Palitoy employees. There hadn’t quite been a project like it and we were very excited.
The backing campaign was a success, in all ways, and the project hit tier after tier and unlocked many new aspects to the book of which we’ll dive into later.
Bad weather before Christmas meant the book was delayed from getting into the hands of backers as expected but when one has waited over a year for something, what’s a week or so extra? It was worth the wait and from a serious collector’s standpoint, the shipment of the book was unparalleled. It was expertly packed and looked after in two protective boxes and touches like this go a long way in the confidence of the people who have paid money.
The photography included in the book is simply exquisite and lived up to the expectations that Brian himself set very high back on his announcement panel at Farthest From in December 2024.
Each new chapter begins with vintage Star Wars toys recreating moments that we all love and know and each one is, in itself, worthy of being framed and hung in pride of place on anyone’s wall. My personal favourites include Leia giving Artoo the plans which begins Chapter 2 of the book and an image that was never seen in the film but accompanies the chapter entitled – Dawn of the Jedi. There’s also an image on page 196 which is just utterly joyful.
It’s clear from those who have seen the pictures that nothing was phoned in here. Everything was done down to a meticulous artform and the fact that these images will now live forever is a thing to behold. Each new page offers new surprises and is incredibly detailed in its account of the complete Palitoy saga, as the book promises. No stone is left unturned in the writing and detailing of every aspect of the vintage Star Wars toy relationship with Palitoy.
While I wasn’t alive during the original trilogy era, the times and places and people and events and toys leap off the page as the story is told. When I was reading it, if I could have dived into the book, then I would.
It’s not just action figures whose stories are recounted here, its everything. From the die-cast series to 12-inch figures to masks, and vehicles and even later lines that incorporated aspects of some of the action figures, it’s all on display and told with such detail that the book delivers on its promise of being definitive.
Access to personal archives is prevalent throughout (I really don’t want to spoil that exclusive aspect here) and I suspect for any serious collector and Star Wars toy enthusiast out there, there will be new information on display for even the most seasoned of big kids. A real highlight is, of course, extended and new interviews with the legendary workers and minds of Palitoy including Bob Brechin and Roger Morrison.
An additional tier that was unlocked during the campaign was an extra chapter at the back which delves into the publishing side of things back in the day including the Marvel comics.
The pictures here in this article really don’t do the book justice to having it in your hands and the greatest compliment I can give this book is that it made me incredibly grateful that I’m a Star Wars fan and collector and now get to treasure this piece of history thanks to the Total Toy Books team. A book about collectables will itself become a collectable…such is the way of the Force.
