Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Once upon a time, after we were introduced to a galaxy far… far away, Universal brought us a new saga from the stars. Was is a blatant rip-off of Star Wars? Not that I can tell. Sure there were similar beats but the tune was different. Starved as we were for any thing Sci-Fi there were some stinkers unleashed upon us, but that didn’t kill our desire for new adventures among the stars.

I watched Battlestar Galactica faithfully, every week. It was something to look forward to, and I did. While there was quite a bit of merch created for the show it didn’t come close to the amounts seen for Star Wars. My toys from the property were limited to a Viper and the Stellar Probe, and that was enough for me. Today I don’t own either, but I do have a Scarab.

As far as the Mattel toys are concerned, I think their biggest error was that they didn’t really focus on one scale. It should have been the 3¾” scale figures. The ships could have been made to that larger size and could have competed with the first run of Kenner’s figures. Perhaps if BSG went on another season or two they would have hit their stride, but alas that wasn’t to be. There are fan creators out there who now make 3¾” ships and playsets for the original figures. It was those creations that prodded me to write this little blog entry.