My very first Star Wars toys were a handful of action figures that I received on Christmas morning when I was about three years old. My parents had taken me to see the movie sometime before that, but I have to admit I really don’t remember that experience. I do remember those toys, though – Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C-3PO. Playing with those three on Christmas Day, I was hooked for life.
About a year later, in 1979, though I can’t remember if it was for Christmas or my birthday, I received my first Star Wars vehicle toy, the Imperial Troop Transporter. I didn’t recognize the toy from the movie, but I really didn’t care, because it was such a great toy. In fact, the Imperial Troop Transporter never appears in the movies; it was a product developed by Kenner to sell more products and to stay in the good graces of one of its manufacturing partners.
According to an article at banthaskull.com, Kenner had a relationship with the Ozen Sound Company and wanted to keep working with them, so they came up with an idea to incorporate Ozen’s technology into a Star Wars toy. Ozen had a speaker box that would activate at the press of a button, setting a tiny needle on a small, plastic record with sounds recorded onto it. I’ve watched a couple of Troop Transporter restoration videos on YouTube and I’m still not entirely sure how the technology worked. All I know is that five-year-old Rob loved being able to push the buttons and hear sound effects from the movie.
The Troop Transporter came with six sounds – a Stormtrooper, C-3PO, R2-D2, a small laser blast, a large laser blast (presumably from the top-mounted cannons), and a whooshing sound, presumably meant to be the transporter traveling across the dessert of Tatooine. Unfortunately, my sound effects don’t work anymore – not uncommon with this toy – but I’ve found a quick YouTube video so you can hear them:
Development
As I mentioned, the Troop Transporter wasn’t in the film and, really, it was never intended to be. Kenner developed the design in-house, though it originally looked different from the final product.
This design, showcased in the Star Wars toy documentary, Plastic Galaxy, only held four troopers (aside from the driver in the cockpit) and the speaker for the Ozen Sound system would be prominently featured on top, though disguised as a let engine of some kind. After a few revisions, a model was created showing six troopers, two drivers, and a center console that opened up to hold a black R2 unit:
Lucasfilm didn’t mind the concept of the Troop Transporter vehicle, but they didn’t feel the pointed nose of the vehicle fit the aesthetic of Star Wars. So, concept artist and co-creator of Boba Fett, Joe Johnston, sent back a slightly refined design that became the snub-nosed version that went into production.
Aside from Johnston’s changes, a few other modifications occurred, like swapping out the large speaker with a turning radar dish that also spun around the blaster cannons on the roof. In addition, while most of the interior of the Transporter was taken up by the Ozen Sound system, there was a small area in the back where you could store additional troops, droids, or prisoners. This is also where Kenner hid the switch that made the sound effects play at a faster or slower pace. I’m not sure why that was really an option, but it was.
The vehicle came with two odd accessories – “Prisoner Immobilization Units”. These small, black masks fit over your standard Star Wars figure’s head and were meant to sort of hypnotize them into compliance. Which, even as a kid I thought was kind of dark for Star Wars. As you can see on the box, Princess Leia is in one of the transport pods wearing one of these masks.
As you can probably imagine, these masks are pretty hard to come by nowadays, simply because not many little kids are going to keep track of such obscure, small pieces. I know I lost my masks a long, long time ago. They run about $20 – $30 for the pair on eBay, which is just a bit more than I’m willing to spend on my already-beat up Transporter just to make it complete. My sounds don’t work anyway, so it’s not like the immobilization masks are going to up the value all that much.
Mini-Comic
To justify the Troop Transporter as a toy that wasn’t seen in the film, Kenner included a mini-comic that showed the Transporter being used to track down C-3PO and R2-D2 on Tatooine. It’s kind of a cool little Rogue One-type story, filling in how the Stormtroopers found the Jawas that had the droids, which led them to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Note that this early version of the story mistakenly calls Uncle Owen, Owen Skywalker, rather than Owen Lars.
Variations
There are actually two different versions of the original Imperial Troop Transporter. The first, and most widely-available version, was released in 1979. However, in 1981, Kenner released a Sears Exclusive version that they renamed the Imperial Cruiser. While the overall design was the same, Sears was looking for a lower price point toy, so the Cruiser didn’t have the Ozen Sound system, though they left behind the non-working buttons on the roof.
The space that was taken up by the Ozen Sound system was left empty, giving the interior more cargo space than the Troop Transporter.
In addition, the Cruiser was a slightly lighter shade of gray and came with additional decals that went on the front doors to make it look like they were covered in panels and vents.
The Imperial Cruiser was available at Sears up through Return of the Jedi, but it apparently wasn’t a very big seller. They’re kind of rare on the collector’s market, however, they’re also not very sought-after because without the sound effects feature it just wound up being a boring toy.
Becoming Canon
While the Imperial Troop Transporter wasn’t in Star Wars, it has become a kind of cult favorite toy. To that end, it’s made quite a few appearances in Star Wars stories since its introduction.
It was first seen in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars #31, published in 1979. Because of the Universe reboot in 2014, this appearance is now considered part of the Legends grouping of stories.
However, it became canon in 2015 on the animated series Star Wars Rebels. The design was changed slightly – most notably the addition of two guns on the front of the vehicle – but it’s still clearly based on the 1979 toy.
The show even tweaked the design further to allow the Troop Transporter to haul cargo in the side transportation pods…
Since becoming canon, the Troop Transporter has also been seen on The Mandalorian…
The design has been changed even more with the side transportation pods serving more as doors that allow access to the interior of the vehicle where Stormtroopers ride inside. The official cross-section of the Troop Transporter shows this redesign in more detail…
Of course if you’re going to have a vehicle on-screen in a Star Wars show, you know they’re going to make a toy out of it. In fact, the Troop Transporter has been released as a toy more than once in the modern era.
The first release was the slightly renamed “Imperial Troop Transport” from the Rebels line of toys. Here’s a great side-by-side shot of the Rebels toy next to the original from 1979:
The Troop Transport has also been released as a LEGO set…
And The Mandalorian version was released as part of the Star Wars Vintage Collection…
Most recently, the Transport has been released as part of the pint-sized Micro Galaxy collection…
For a toy that was wholly the creation of Kenner in an effort to stay on good terms with one of their vendors, the Imperial Troop Transporter has quite a legacy. While mine is in pretty rough shape, I’m kind of proud that I was ahead of the curve in loving this thing back before it was cool.
A friend of mine had this toy when I was a kid. I loved pushing the “there’s one, set for stun” button over and over.
It really was a fun toy!