The first two animated Star Wars TV series began 40 years ago on September 7, 1985, both produced by Nelvana, the studio that created the animated portion of the Holiday Special. Star Wars: Droids ran through 1986, chronicling early adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO (with Anthony Daniels voicing Threepio). Ewoks ran from ’85 to ’87 telling stories about young Wicket.

Droids was set years before the events of A New Hope, following C-3PO and R2-D2 on adventures with bounty hunters, pirates, gangsters, and other dangerous types from the Empire. Ewoks also takes place before the original trilogy with Wicket and his family navigating life, and surviving the wilderness and villains on the forest moon.

The short-lived animated shows were accompanied by a line of action figures that followed the main Star Wars figure lines. Since the shows were made for young audiences, the action figures came with brightly colored packaging images of the characters accompanying the figure on the card. A short character biography appeared on the back of the card and, similar to the Power of the Force figures, they also came with a collectible coin.

The Droids line was led by R2-D2 with a pop-up lightsaber and C-3PO with removable limbs, along with characters like Kea Moll and Thall Joben. The figures came with extra accessories and weapons and the Droids line also included the ships ATL Interceptor, Side Gunner, and A-wing Starfighter. The Ewoks line began with Wicket, Logray, King Gorneesh, and a few Duloks.

Both lines saw domestic and foreign releases. The Brazilian Glasslite company created Droids figures and vehicles, which were sold on different cards than in the US. They included characters from the US line, as well as the henchman Vlix, who was not issued in other countries. Kenner made a prototype figure of Vlix for US distribution, but it never went beyond a mock up, which makes it one of the rarest Star Wars action figures.