16 super-collectible 'Star Wars' toys your mom probably threw out (pictures)

Behold: The rarest, most collectible "Star Wars" toys in the galaxy. Do you still have them, or did they fall victim to deep cleaning?

For example: This is the holy grail of rare toys. Before "The Empire Strikes Back" came out, there was a mail-order ad for a Boba Fett figure that fired real rockets. Even though audiences hadn't met Fett yet (unless they watched "The Star Wars Holiday Special"), plenty of them placed orders for a Star Wars toy.

However, it was almost immediately recalled because of safety concerns over the tiny, just-right-for-choking rockets. Only a few ever made it to customers. In 2013, one of them sold for $22,500 at an auction.

In 1997, Target put out sets of 12-inch action figures. They decided the noble Wampa deserved a spot. They also decided to shake things up by adding a little color variation, since a wild animal probably wouldn't be all white. Unfortunately, it ended up looking like the Wampa had bladder problems. This furry guy is worth $300.

The Force was, ahem, a little too strong with this one. Known as the "vulgar" C-3PO trading card, a factory misprint gave everyone's favorite protocol droid an unusual appendage. Once you're done laughing at it, you can sell it for up to $300.

Toys'R'Us released a super-limited run of these guys: Just 1,000 were for sale in the Times Square store in 2013. Now they can snag $450 apiece. Some lucky members of the press were mailed a plastic cube with the Manhattan-loving Yoda inside, set against a Star Wars-themed Times Square backdrop. We're not sure what those are worth, because absolutely no one wants to part with one.

In 2007, Lego celebrated the 30th anniversary of "Star Wars" by making all the iconic characters into (what else?) Lego figures. The rarest was the gold chrome C-3PO. They only made 10,000 of them. The gold chrome is a sticker, but merits real-gold prices: They're worth $1,000.

In the original cantina scenes, a character named Zutton is short and rocks a red jumpsuit. But when Lucasfilm sent a toy manufacturer the instructions for the figurine, Zutton's photo was black and white, and didn't indicate how tall he was supposed to be. The manufacturer improvised, making him tall and giving him a blue suit. The figure is known as the "Blue Snaggletooth" and can snag (heh) $500 to $700 in auctions.

In the first run of figures from the movie in 1978, manufacturers gave everybody's favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder a blaster (with which to shoot first) and a curiously small noggin. (First time anyone's ever accused Han's head of not being big enough!) This humble guy is worth $1,000 in his box.

An early version of a "Star Wars" toy set featured some characters with double-telescoping lightsabers that didn't quite hang right. Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi all had the odd-looking, double-telescoping action. Later editions made the weapons one piece. A figure of Luke with a two-part lightsaber can fetch $1,000 nowadays.

Old Ben Kenobi is more valuable: A figure of him with a telescoping lightsaber is worth up to $7,000.

Vader with a floppy saber can also snag $7,000 at auction. Complete sets of all the figures have been known to go for $30,000.

Long before there were prequels, Anakin briefly appeared in "Return of the Jedi." Naturally, that warranted a toy. But unsurprisingly, kids weren't begging their parents to find an Anakin under the tree on Christmas morning. Out of the box, this toy is worth about $25; find one in box with the original "Star Wars" key art and it can fetch 10 times that.

The original line of "Star Wars" toys gave all the figurines a vinyl cape. Legend has it that the manufacturer was worried people would feel ripped off by paying the same price for the Jawa, since he was so much smaller. To compensate, they replaced the Jawa's vinyl cape with cloth to give it some extra value. Now, the rare vinyl-caped Jawas can earn you $18,000 in boxed mint condition.

"Return of the Jedi" started out with a different title: "Revenge of the Jedi." (George Lucas orchestrated the name change, asserting that a Jedi should not seek something as petty as revenge.) A few items came out with "Revenge" on them -- mostly proof packaging sheets for planned toys -- and they're highly sought by collectors, auctioning for up to $2,000.

At the height of the franchise frenzy, toymakers created figures of literally every character in the movies, including many who never even spoke.

In the Jabba the Hutt scenes in "Return of the Jedi," there's a character called Yak Face in the background. He got a toy in 1985, but the manufacturer had already flooded the market, and there wasn't much interest in buying figures of such obscure characters. So the company shipped them all to Australia, Asia, Canada and Europe, without ever selling them in the States. Yak Face is now worth up to $2,300.

Some of the most rare and sought-after figures are from offshoot series that weren't particularly popular in their time. In the late 1980s, there was an animated series called "Droids." It wasn't a big hit with the kids, but before the toymaker got wind of that, some toys ended up in Brazil. Somewhere in the back of a closet in South America, an original figure of Vlix is collecting dust -- and is worth $4,000.

If you're a big Star Wars fan, the droids you're looking for are probably C-3PO and R2-D2. But in the spirit of "every single thing that appears on screen in a Star Wars movie deserves a toy," British manufacturer Palitoy did an FX-7 medical drone, which we briefly see healing Luke on Hoth. These helpful little guys have scored more than $10,000 in auctions in recent years.