The Star Wars Action Fleet line originally consisted of scale replicas of starships, vehicles and locations found in the original three Star Wars movies, coupled with an assortment of one inch high figures that were related to the set. Each set featured many different play features that increased the value for the child consumer, and they appealed to the grown collector because they were in a close relative scale to each other and looked accurate to their onscreen appearance. Near the end of the Galoob run the company released several sets that were based on concepts from outside the traditional sources, which continue to be in high demand.
In 1998 or 1999 Galoob was purchased by Hasbro, who appeared to make a token effort of continuing with the line for Star Wars Episode I with a few minor changes such as eliminating one of the two figures from each vehicle set, and moving to more of a playset focus as opposed to a vehicle focus. The line quickly faltered, perhaps due to grossly overestimated demand for Episode I merchandise in general, or perhaps due to a perceived loss of value in the brand itself. Whatever the reason, the result was that the first waves of Episode I Action Fleet became "shelf-warmers" making it much more difficult to find the last wave, and the Action Fleet line was terminated due to what was deemed a lack of interest.
At Toy Fair in the spring of 2002, Hasbro unveiled plans to bring back the Action Fleet line because of overwhelming demand for the product. To the great disappointment of many long time fans, the decision was made to eliminate the figures from the vehicle line and the first toys released were merely re-packs of items released previously in great quantities. I believe that this decision to begin the line by releasing vehicles that had already been released previously, as opposed to releasing vehicles from the upcoming movie, resulted in the same "shelf-warming" situation as had happened previously. The line died very quickly this time and has never recovered since, though we continue to hold out hope for a great return.
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