Just two months ago, one of rarest and most famous Star Wars toys ever made, Kenner’s prototype for a rocket-firing action figure of Boba Fett, made collecting history when it became the most valuable vintage toy ever sold, going for $525,000. Now, its record has been taken by an even rarer version of the figure, and the record itself has more than doubled.
Last night Goldin Auctions confirmed that they had sold an extremely rare iteration of the infamous prototype at public auction for a whopping $1.342 million dollars, making it far and away the new record holder for the most valuable vintage toy in the world. The version sold by Goldin was a “J-slot” iteration of the Kenner prototype, an even more-limited alternate version of the rocket-firing mechanism on Boba Fett’s backpack that never made it to release.
Approximately 100 prototypes of the rocket-firing Boba Fett are believed to remain in existence, after plans to release the figure as a free mail-away promotional bonus in 1979 were scuppered. During Kenner’s prototyping phase for the figure, Mattel made headlines when the rocket-firing mechanism on one of its Battlestar Galactica toys lead to the death of a child, sparking concerns that Boba’s included rocket was a potential choking hazard. While the Boba Fett figure still ultimately released–inspired by his debut the year prior in the similarly infamous Star Wars Holiday Special–it did so with the rocket-firing feature glued shut, alongside a warning about the change in functionality.
Of the surviving prototypes, roughly 70 had the initial “L-slot” version of the firing mechanism, while around 30 had a “J-slot”–a later iteration of the prototype designed to make the mechanism more difficult to misfire when Kenner started having concerns about the figure’s safety. The version that sold at Heritage Auctions for $525,000 back in June was one of the “L-slot” prototypes, but the one sold by Goldin was even rarer beyond being one of the remaining “J-slot” Boba Fetts. Hand-painted as a prototype for its sample mailer packaging, included in the auction alongside the rockets and Boba’s blaster rifle, just three of its kind are known to exist, with the sold prototype the only known “J-slot” mailer to have ever been publicly sold.
It’s unlikely a rarer sample of the rocket-firing Boba Fett is going to make it out of private collections any time soon, so for now, whoever snagged this one is going to hold quite a prestigious bounty.
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