Arco toys out of Westbury, New York, were there and on the shelf in
early 1978 producing the Spacewar line of knock off Star Wars toys -
taking advantage of Kenner's slow response to the overwhelming demand
for Star Wars toys. The Arco Spacewar line was an offshoot of its
Playkid line which was very similar to the Playmobil, Airgam Boys, and
Fisher Price Adventure People lines. The Spacewar line was available in
many retail outlets thru America, especially 5 and dime stores (the 70s
equivalent of a "dollar" store) as well as Woolworths and K-Mart. The 6
Spacewar figures retailed for just under $1 each.
The human character (most commonly considered to be "Luke") in the
Spacewar line is the only one available on both a Playkid header card as
well as a Spacewar card. BOTH are exceedingly rare. The other major
variation on this line's packaging was that the (at the time) retail
giant Woolworth had Arco send them their version of the Spacewar line
with a slightly altered card. Gone was the die cut detailing and the
addition of the Woolworth logo at the bottom of the card to distinguish
the product for their stores. The Woolworth versions are ultra rare, and
in fact some figures have yet to publicly surface on a Woolworth card,
although they were produced. So far no examples of certain figures are
known to have survived.
Here are carded examples of the entire Arco Spacewar line.
R2-D2: Chewbacca:
