Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys Page #2

Here we are on kenner street

where the company got its name.

So 1947, when the company

originally got started out,

it was a spinoff of a soap

company, Cincinnati soap.

The soap company,

like any other company,

was looking for a way

to get people to use

more and more of their products

and to differentiate

from somebody else.

And they came up with the idea

for a gun that shot bubbles.

Procter and gamble at

that time was really wanting

to get into consumer

home-goods,

so they bought Cincinnati soap.

And the guys

from Cincinnati soap

called up and said, "well,

what about the bubble gun?"

Did you buy

the rights to that?"

Immediately, "no, no,

no interest in that."

And they said, "well, do you

mind if we run with it?"

And, uh, kenner toys

was on its way.

Colonel Steve Austin,

the six million dollar man,

and the new bionic

transporting repair-station.

Kenner had had a lot of success

with the six million dollar man,

and that started

to get them thinking

about doing other properties.

So I'm sure that's what kenner

saw in "star wars" partially.

And that's probably what, uh,

lucasfilm saw in kenner,

that they had

successfully done this

with the six million

dollar man.

(Boy) Bionic eye, a-okay.

Six million dollar man,

ready for action!

(Swearingen) It came into

the office as a script

and a series of

black and white photographs.

Different locales, there were

different vehicles,

there were different characters

waiting to be turned

into a toy.

Everyone, especially

in the design department

was very intrigued

and very excited

about working on "star wars"

as a property

because it was so different

and revolutionary from what

they'd worked on before.

We were foraging

into new territory,

and a lot of us didn't even know

where we were going with it.

Like, you know, what kind

of toys would we make,

what would sell,

what wouldn't sell.

(Troy) Up until that point in

time, "Star Trek" as a license,

everything was polished.

And almost all science fiction

was done that way.

When it came to "star wars,"

all of a sudden we've had

weathered effects on things.

And I thought that was neat.

And then to put

a brand-new form

under that kind of treatment

and then sell it as a product

would be really, really nice.

(Sansweet) Bernie loomis, who was

then the president of kenner

and became very well known

in the toy business,

said, "I thought it had

a 'toyetic' appeal."

It would make an interesting

line of toys."

And they literally

signed the contract

a month before

the movie came out

in April of 1977.

Bernie loomis called me

into his office,

and he said, um,

"I want you to take your staff

to a movie this weekend."

And I said,

"Bernie, it's, uh...

It's a holiday weekend."

And he says, "so what?"

"We just bought

the rights to this movie.

I want your staff to see this."

He didn't tell me

anything about the movie.

He didn't tell me what the name

of the movie was.

At least

they paid for the tickets.

They took the whole department,

all of the development

people over,

they rented a movie theatre,

and we all hauled in

cameras in there

so we could

take pictures of the screens

looking for all the elements

in that movie

that we could create into toys.

(Narrator) ...and George Lucas

bring you an adventure...

Everybody was just blown away

at the number of machines

and all the fighters

and the robots.

(R2-d2 bleeping)

Everybody that walked out

realized that we had

something here

that was incredible.

Not a product line,

it was probably a phenomenon

about to occur.

They went into it

thinking the movie

would be out there for,

you know, a decent

period of time.

And their original

product plan was,

"okay, well,

in the first year we'll have

"one or two board games,

you know, maybe some puzzles.

"In the second year

we'll have a vehicle.

And then maybe some figures."

But they weren't

over-promising.

("Star wars" theme)

(Lopez) "Star wars"

came out in may, 1977.

By mid-late summer, it was just

this amazing

blockbuster success.

(Sansweet) Everything

was about "star wars."

Everybody wanted

to know about "star wars."

The marketing and merchandising

plant at kenner

changed overnight.

How much can we have

and how fast can we have it?

You had to have something

by Christmas of 1977

or you're dead.

It's may, we need

product out for Christmas,

which means you have to have it

in the store by August.

I realized that there wasn't

enough time to make this work.

(Roars)

So, I was in a meeting,

I mentioned,

"what if we sell the right

to buy the product

when it becomes available?"

(Announcer) R2-d2, Chewbacca,

Luke, and princess Leia,

they're the "star wars"

early-bird set of figures.

These action figures

are not yet available,

but this "star wars" early-bird

certificate package

is in stores with this colorful

"star wars" picture

display stand

and certificate to send in

to get a set

of figures by mail.

They'll be sent to you at home

between February 1st

and June 1st.

The "star wars" early-bird

certificate package.

New from kenner.

So, this is what you'd see,

probably on a counter

advertising the early-bird

certificate package.

And if you were a lucky kid,

the parent would

pull out an envelope

and buy it for you

for Christmas.

This is the display

stand portion

of what would be inside

of the early-bird envelope.

It was just a cool-looking

piece of cardboard

until you got the figures

to put the on there.

And you can see

I put the figures on there.

That's how it would look once

you got them in the stores.

It sounds really lame today.

You hear it and you go,

"well, oh, my God,

you just gave these kids,

like, a slab of cardboard."

People pretty much

shook their head, going,

"how are they gonna do that?

How are you gonna

pull that off?"

Well, this was kind of

up there with the pet rock.

You know, where, what...

I'm... I'm spending

this much money

for an empty box.

This needed to sell

this to lucasfilm

and 20th century fox.

So what they did

is they created prototypes

of what the kids

would get in this package

and presented it

to George Lucas.

All the different people

who were in the meeting

filled them out

and gave them back to kenner

so they could get the toys

when they came out.

I hadn't been there that long.

And this was...

My idea.

And even though

it might have been embraced

by some of the top people,

it didn't necessarily mean

that they were going to

embrace it

if it didn't work.

It sounds like,

wow, they pulled

this amazing con game on kids

in Christmas, 1977.

But it was actually

a very successful campaign,

although a lot

of the sets went unsold.

As a kid going through it

at the time,

it was one of my favorite

"star wars" things

I ever bought.

And you had a little catalog

that came with it.

You saw the play set,

you were looking forward...

I actually loved the thing.

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