The Mystery of the Sandspeeder

The other day I was on Lego.com searching through the Star Wars sets, wondering if there was something from “The Last Jedi” that I wanted for my collection. It was then that I happened upon the “Sandspeeder”. It looked just like a snowspeeder, except it was sand-colored. I immediately racked my brain and attempted to figure out what corner of the Star Wars franchise a sandspeeder came from. Upcoming episodes of Star Wars Rebels? The second season of the Freemaker Adventures? The packaging held no clues, so I went to Wookiepeedia.

The first thing I noticed was that this wasn’t the first time that the Sandspeeder has appeared in Star Wars toy lines. Micro-machines released a Sandspeeder in 2008. A decade before, in 1998, it was featured on a card in the Star Wars Collectible Card Game. I even dug out my old Star Wars CCG collection and was able to locate the card. And then the trail went dead- A card from 1998, a Micro-Machine from 2008, and a 2018 Lego set. The Sandspeeder had appeared exactly 3 times, once in each decade, available to consumers, but never mentioned in the books, comics, games, or other various media. But when I dug further, I found something surprising. To get to the true origins of the Sandspeeder we have to wind back the clock, one decade further. We have to go back to 1986. We have to look at the Kenner toy company.

 You see- Kenner had been making bank in the 70s and 80s on Star Wars toys. The original trilogy released in 1977, 1980, and 1983 provided them with a steady stream of marketable Star Wars figures. But three years after “Return of the Jedi”, there was no new film in sight and Kenner needed a new plan for how to sell more toys.

Kenner’s solution was to create a new Star Wars storyline called ‘The Epic Continues”. This toy line was to be a sequel to “Return of the Jedi”. Kenner had a whole plotline mapped out- one that would see Luke Skywalker face off against a super villain “genetics master” named Atha Prime. Also Grand Moff Tarkin (having apparently survived the first Death Star) would have returned as leader of the Empire.

            Many fans complain that some aspects of Star Wars are added just to sell more toys, but “The Epic Continues” would have taken this concept to the extreme. Most of the “new” creatures and ships that were planned for the toy line were actually old creatures and ships. Take for example the Mongo Beefhead Tribesmen. These Tatooine dwellers look kind of interesting, but look closer. The head of this species is actually the head of a “Squid-Head” (Quarren) that has been turned upside down. The arms are from a “Hammerhead” (Ithorian) and the chest-piece is from 4-Lom. Then there is the All-Terrain Ion Cannon- which is a mash up between an AT-AT walker and an Ion Cannon. The Sandspeeder? It’s a Snowspeeder that’s sand-colored.

            When Kenner presented their ideas to Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm decided not to pursue the idea. And without the new toys, the future of Kenner looked dim. Demand slipped. In my lifetime Star Wars has always been a staple of American culture, but in the late 80s, it was a passing fad. So, instead of a new toy line and new storyline, Kenner was forced to stop producing Star Wars action figures altogether. In fact, Star Wars would not return to toy aisles until nearly a decade later. In 1991, Hasbro bought out Kenner, and it wasn’t until 1995 that Star Wars action figures returned to the toy shelves.

It’s amazing to me that I had never heard about “The Epic Continues” until this week. I guess that should serve as a reminder that there is always more to learn about Star Wars. There are always strange and obscure aliens and spaceships sneaking into canon- and the Sandspeeder happens to be one of those interesting oddities.