Like most countries around the world, the Kenner line of toys had a large influence on children in Canada. Kenner Canada, located in Toronto, Ontario, held the license for Star Wars toys in Canada from 1977 until 1985. Kenner Canada was actually a joint venture between Irwin Toy of Canada and General Mills/Kenner USA. Irwin Toy's mandate was to be the exclusive distributor of foreign toys in Canada. As a result, the Canadian market saw many foreign toys released in Canadian packaging under the Kenner Canada name in addition to the regular line that was released in the US. The Canadian Star Wars line ended abruptly in 1985 when the joint venture was terminated. As a result, Canada never saw the entire Power of the Force line in Canadian packaging, as well as several Return of the Jedi, Droids, and Ewoks items.
Canadian Star Wars items were only produced at about 10% of American volume levels. As a result, very few Canadian versions of vintage Star Wars items exist today. Canadian releases of Star Wars toys are unique in that their packaging is bilingual; consisting of English and French text in order to comply with bilingualism laws. This resulted in some very visually striking packaging designs over the course of the original run of Star Wars toys, especially with that of the Star Wars-era toys. It should be strongly noted that Canadian toys have only English and French writing on them; no other languages were ever printed on domestic Canadian-made Star Wars items. Many collectors confuse the multilingual European Star Wars items with Canadian items, especially the Meccano (France) releases. Canadian-made Star Wars items bear the Kenner logo with accompanying Kenner Canada address. In addition, Canada also received many other non-Kenner toy items that were exclusive to the Great White North, such as several plush toys made by Regal Toy Inc.
Here is a selection of Kenner toys released in Canada from 1977 - 1985 inclusive:
Although Canadian items have English printing on one side, and French printing on the other, the items presented below will mainly show the unique French side. The English side of the Canadian items hardly differ from the American versions. The items found here have been submitted by many different collectors, and are not for sale.
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Star Wars:
Action Figures
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The Empire Strikes Back:
Action Figures
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Return of the Jedi:
Action Figures
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| Power of the Force:
Action Figures
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| Droids:
Action Figures
Prototypes:
Kenner Canada Prototypes
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Ewoks:
Action Figures
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The Regal Toy Company, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was an affiliate of Kenner Canada, and produced several Star Wars-era plush toy items. Regal Toy Company was established in 1959. In 1976, Regal was sold to Parker Brothers (General Mills) in the United States and continued production in Canada without changing the Regal Toy Company name. The company was sold again in 1983 and went bankrupt the next year. All of these items are relatively difficult to find with their original tags and accessories.
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Plush Chewbacca (Small)
Plush Chewbacca (Large)
Chewbacca Hand Puppet
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Plush Jawa
Plush R2-D2
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