VINTAGE 1978 MATTEL BATTLESTAR GALACTICA COLONIAL STELLAR PROBE

I like Battlestar Galactica (the original series) a lot because the show looks similar to Star Wars. I only came to realise Battlestar Galactica's colorful history when I was a working adult. From one Sci-Fi magazine, I learnt that the original Battlestar Galactica was successfully sued by Lucasfilm (or was it Twentieth Century Fox?) for plagiarising Star Wars. And from another, I learnt that a kid had died when he choked on a missile from Mattel's Colonial Viper toy. This led to Kenner canceling the rocket firing feature of the mail-in Boba Fett figure. (Making the rare rocket-firing Boba Fett prototypes / samples as one of the holy grail of vintage Star Wars collecting!)

I got this mint in box BSG Colonial Stellar Probe for a very good price. This is a later release version that doesn't fire missile.

This is an interesting toy. It comes with inter-changing parts that allow you to make different types of space ship including the Colonial Viper.

First creation - The Colonial Viper. It is not screen accurate because of the wings, but still looks OK. Has an opening cockpit that fits a 2" pilot figure. The wings have 2 pop-out red missiles.

Next, you can make a satelite with opening vanes. There are glossy silver stickers on the vanes.

Then you can make the Colonial Stellar Probe. The body of the Viper and the Probe have wheels underneath which rolls pretty well...at least for my set. It is not just limited to this three design as you can see on the back of the box. And these parts can connect with other vehicles from the series too (except for Cylon raider)

The Colonial Viper toy (pic below) is the culprit that made Boba lost his rocket firing missile feature. Notice the sticker on the box saying that the toy had been redesigned and missiles cannot be launched.

Mint in box specimen is quite rare but loose ones can still be found in EBay for a relative cheap price.