Star Wars Action Figure Print Ads

6/16/2026

Star Wars action figure print ads are a fun time capsule from a very different era of collecting. Long before livestream reveals, social media teasers, fan-site rumor roundups, and pre-order links became the norm, collectors often discovered upcoming Hasbro Star Wars action figures through magazines, comic books, and printed fan publications. This article takes a look at some of the fun "modern era" ads, from 1995 and later. 

During the late 1990s, throughout the 2000s, and even into the early 2010s, Hasbro promoted Star Wars action figures in a wide variety of print outlets. These Star Wars print ads could be found in places such as Star Wars Insider, ToyFare magazine, the backs of comic books, and other collector-focused publications. For many fans, flipping through those pages was part of the experience. You might be reading an article, checking out a price guide, or going through a comic book, and suddenly there it was: a full-page ad for new Star Wars figures.

What makes these ads so interesting today is that they captured the collecting hobby before everything moved online. A single print ad could introduce a new assortment, highlight a vehicle, promote a mail-away offer, or simply remind fans that more Star Wars action figures were on the way. In many cases, the ads were not just straightforward product shots either. Hasbro often used humor, character jokes, dramatic photography, or clever taglines to make the ads stand out.

Some of our personal favorites come from the 2001 and 2002 Power of the Jedi print ad campaign. Those ads had a very different tone from modern figure marketing. They were playful, sometimes silly, and clearly designed to grab the attention of collectors who were already familiar with the characters and the hobby. Looking back at them now, they feel very much like a product of their time, and that is exactly what makes them fun.

For Star Wars action figure collectors, original magazine ads are an interesting side category. Those print ads are easy to store, easy to frame, and often connected directly to a specific toy line, assortment, or collecting moment. For somebody who enjoys the history of Hasbro Star Wars action figures, these ads can be a neat way to collect the marketing side of the hobby.

They also help show how Star Wars toy collecting was presented to fans at the time. The design, photography, wording, logos, and character selection all tell a story. A Power of the Force ad feels different from a Power of the Jedi ad, and those feel different again from later Saga, Revenge of the Sith, The Legacy Collection, or The Vintage Collection era promotions. Each ad reflects the look and attitude of its particular moment in Star Wars collecting history.

The scans below are not meant to be a complete overview of every Star Wars action figure print ad ever produced. These are simply the ads we currently had access to, but it gives you a feeling of what these ads were like back in the days.

And there you have it, a look at some of the Star Wars action figure print ads from back in the days ... hopefully this gives you an idea of what collecting Star Wars action figures felt like during the magazine era and when online shopping was still in its infancy, before reveals appeared online, before official livestreams, and before pre-order links spread across social media within seconds ... we had fun putting this together and feel pretty nostalgic about it nowadays... thanks for reading and make sure to take a closer look at those print ads, there are some truly hilarious ones among them!