Star Wars Buddies Plush Characters, 1997-1999

Power of the Force 2

In 1997, Kenner released a line of beanie baby like toys called "Buddies". These small plush characters were filled with plastic pellets (beans) rather than conventional soft stuffing.

C-3PO
R2-D2
Chewbacca
Yoda
Jawa
Cantina Band Member
Wampa
Jabba the Hutt
Salacious Crumb
Max Rebo
Wicket

Early Conceptual Designs

Jawa

Yoda

Wicket (Ewok)

Conceptual items were developed to pitch the idea within Kenner. These early designs included a plastic tag, which was later replaced by a cardboard tag.

Unreleased Characters

The production release of the Power of the Force "Buddies" line only included droids and creatures. There were early designs of humans created for this line, however they never made it to production. The following samples represent the various developmental changes including face and clothing designs.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Han Solo

Luke Skywalker

X-Wing Pilot

Princess Leia

Organa

Sy Snootles

Tusken Raider

Wave 2

There were plans for a second wave of classic characters to be released at the same time as the Episode I release. This concept board offered a glimpse of these new characters including a sneak preview of the pod racer Ratts Tyerell from the upcoming film "Episode I - The Phantom's Menace". While some sample characters were created, this wave was cancelled and never made it into production.

Star Wars POTF2 Buddies Presentation Board

Wave 2 Unreleased Characters

Dewback

Stormtrooper

Darth Vader

Conceptual Development

Conceptual development often begins in the form of a design presentation board. This is an example of the conceptual design board for the Stormtrooper. During the development process, the character begins to transform into the final product. While this character was never actually released for production, you can see some of the design changes along it's short journey.