This 1985 Kenner Star Wars Yak Face action figure was never available at the retail level in the U.S. Production started just before Kenner discontinued the Star Wars line. Some say that Kenner destroyed their overstock while others maintain that left over figures were sent to outlets in Europe and Canada. Some years later collectors realized the rarity of the Yak Face figure and started scooping them up. That sparked the search and surge in collecting.
Suddenly, especially in the ’90s, collectors were running over each other for the Yak Face Star Wars figure. It is sometimes referred to as the “Joe Camel” Star Wars figure. It turned out that the Camel brand of cigarettes reportedly had connections to Lucasfilm and parents were in an uproar over this figure. In any case, finding one of these is a great find and worthy of auction or as keepsakes for future investment. It’s definitely one of the must have figures for the ultimate and smart collector of Star Wars action figures.
There are two variations of the card that the Yak Face was packaged with. One, called the Tri Logo card has three Return of the Jedi logos in three different languages and was used in Europe while the other was used in Canada and is French and English. As you can see the tri logo card was not issued with the coin as the other card was. Because of this the tri logo card usually sells for less then the other.
A mint Yak Face with coin recently sold for nearly $3000.00 while a tri logo card sold for $1000.00. Even just the coin is worth quite a bit as a mint Yak Face coin alone sold for $462.00.
