1979 Kenner Rocket Firing Boba Fett 3 ¾” Prototype action figure featuring the J-slot latching configuration with long stem variant
By now most people know the Rocket Firing Boba Fett was “never” released. So when someone calls claiming to have had one as a child, you either think Kenner connection – as Kenner Employees were known to take samples home - or false memory – think Mandela Effect, or call it Rocket Fett Syndrome. Only this once in my 30 years career, that was not the case.
Frankly this Rocket Fett was a headscratcher having originated in either California or Oklahoma; far from Kenner’s home in Cincinnati Ohio. Best we can figure this Rocket Firing Boba Fett – along with one other, was gifted to the client’s father back in 1979 from someone directly involved with the Toy trade in Hong Kong!
This figure has been painstakingly compared to a genuine example sourced back in 1995; everything checks out down to the uniqueness of the slot. The figure is light gray similar to the static, non-firing mail-a-way examples, and shows the expected purplish age-spot speckling under magnification. The orange paint is more yellowish than used on the mail-a-way figures. The grove forming the J-slot is precisely indicative of the long stem variant, which differs significantly from the short stem type. The tooling inside the grove is also what you’d expect from a genuine Kenner example. The red plunger has the appropriate break lines on the lever and dimpled indentation a top the drum. The spring, dusty as it is, also appears authentic.
The feet are unmarked, furthering the assertion that this figure was acquired outside the Kenner sphere, as most of those figures were marked at the testing lab. Roughly five long-stem variants are known with similar clean feet, mostly associated with the baggied examples which would explain those figure’s pristineness.
This figure is currently out for grading, so please contact us for more details. The other Rocket Fett from this same source got an AFA 85 and can be viewed in our archive section.
