The Nostalgia Awakens: Retro Kenner Star Wars Action Figure Toys

Embark on an intergalactic voyage to see The Nostalgia Awakens: Retro Kenner Star Wars Action Figure Toys, The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures’ exhibition featuring EVERY action figure toy made by Kenner Toys from 1978-1985 based on the original three Star Wars movies.

When Star Wars hit the movie theaters in 1977, it instantly became a box office smash, especially with children. Kids wanting to bring the action home from the theater with them could find their favorite heroes, villains, creatures, and spaceships in miniature size on the toy shelves. From 1978 to 1985, Kenner Toys manufactured hundreds of action figures, vehicles, and playsets featured in the movies Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1982). These toys today are as iconic as the movies themselves.

This project is supported in part by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund,  Commerce Bancshares Foundation, and Boulevard Brewing Company.

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Past Events

Meet the Experts: Jarrod Roll

Master the ways of the Force with Jarrod Roll, collector and curator behind the exhibition The Nostalgia Awakens: Retro Kenner Star Wars Action Figure Toys. Learn about collecting and the history behind the objects while enjoying refreshments and appetizers. Space Camper Cosmic IPA will be provided courtesy of Boulevard Brewing Company.

Attendees are invited to see every action figure toy made by Kenner Toys from 1978 to 1985 by viewing the exhibition before or after the program

Meet the Experts: Duncan Jenkins

The Force is strong at The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures. Buy Tickets at the speed of light for an intergalactic series of Star Wars talks with world-renowned collector Duncan Jenkins. Refreshments and appetizers will be provided, including Space Camper Cosmic IPA donated by Boulevard Brewing Company. Attendees are invited to see every action figure toy made by Kenner Toys from 1978 to 1985 by viewing The Nostalgia Awakens: Retro Kenner Star Wars Action Figure Toys before each talk.

Join Dr. Phong Nguyen and Dr. Jennifer Maritza McCauley for a creative writing workshop inspired by The Nostalgia Awakens: Retro Kenner Star Wars Action Figure Toys. Participants will view the exhibition and respond to writing prompts that are out of this world.

Return for a panel discussion featuring Dr. Nguyen and Dr. McCauley, joined by Michael Pritchett, MFA. These three award-winning authors will share their passion for the Star Wars universe and how this pop culture phenomenon has influenced them. The evening will include readings of their original work inspired by Star Wars. Light refreshments will be served.

May the Oxford comma be with you!

About the Panelists

Jennifer Maritza McCauley, PhD, is the author of SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (Stalking Horse Press), When Trying to Return Home (Counterpoint), Kinds of Grace (Flower Song) and the forthcoming NEON STEEL (Cornerstone) and VERSUS (Texas Review Press). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio and CantoMundo and her work has been a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Best Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and a Must-Read by Elle, Latinx in Publishing, Ms. Magazine and Southern Review of Books. She is fiction editor at Pleiades, faculty at Yale Writers’ Workshop and an assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Phong Nguyen, PhD, is a writer of historical fiction (Bronze Drum), experimental fiction (Roundabout: an Improvisational Fiction), spinoffs (The Adventures of Joe Harper), alternate history (Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History), dirty realism (Memory Sickness), and more. Nguyen teaches fiction-writing at the University of Missouri, where he is the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing. He has edited volumes including Nancy Hale: On the Life and Work of a Lost American Master and Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology. Nguyen grew up in Hightstown, New Jersey and has lived in nine different U.S. states, though he has called Missouri home for the last 15 years. He alternates summers traveling abroad and teaching for the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing.

Michael Pritchett, MFA, is the author of the 2020 novella Tania the Revolutionary, now available on Kindle/Amazon, The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis (Unbridled Books, 2007) and The Venus Tree, winner of an Iowa Short Fiction Award (the John Simmons Short Fiction Award) in 1988 and published by the University of Iowa Press. He is the winner of the 2000 Dana Award for a novel-in-progress for his novel, The Final Effort of the Archer. The title story from his collection appeared in the anthology The Iowa Award: The Best Stories from 20 Years, University of Iowa Press, 1990. He received Special Mention in the 2019 Pushcart anthology for his Pushcart-nominated novel excerpt “A Sort of Woman,” New Letters magazine. His work has recently appeared in The Laurel Review, Your Impossible Voice, Slippery Elm, ArLiJo, Solstice, New Letters and the I-70 Review. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing and Media Arts Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.