Dark Crystal toys

Here are a series of action figures that never were released. This comes from a discussion thread on RebelScum Forums- Vintage to Modern Star Wars Collecting thanks to Justin Kerns. An amazing collection of figures and prototypes.

In 1982 Jim Henson Studios and Aviva (division of Hasbro) began work on a line of 3-3/4" toys based on the upcoming movie The Dark Crystal. The line got to the point of limited prototyping and was canceled for a variety of reasons. The main 2 were that the development of the line was severely late, and the movie flopped at the box office so the plug was pulled.

The only public evidence of the existence of this work that I am aware of was a spread in the 1983 Aviva catalog:

There were 6 carded figures with accessories, and 3 larger deluxe figures. The deluxe figures were meant to have window box packaging, but to my knowledge none was ever made.

There is 1 known complete set of the carded figures, and a few duplicates floating around. There are 2 sets of the 3 deluxe figures that I know of.

The carded figures consist of the prototypes shown in the Aviva catalog put on proof cards with hand-made bubbles stapled on the cards.

Each carded figure was intended to come with a section of the crystal, so that when the entire set was purchased one could assemble a complete dark crystal. The cardback art showed how this would work: