Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys Page #4

Synopsis: When Star Wars landed in the theaters, it introduced audiences to a galaxy filled with heroes and villains, robots and space ships, and a dizzying variety of alien life. But when the lights came up, they all disappeared... Unless you had all the toys. In which case, the adventure never had to end. In backyards, playgrounds, basements, and bedrooms, Star Wars toys helped kids re-enact scenes from their favorite movies, and create entirely new dangers for Luke Skywalker and his friends to face. They were lusted after on holidays and birthdays, swapped with great cunning out on the school yard, and carefully collected like fine treasures. Like no toys before them, the action figures, space ships, play sets, and props were a phenomenon that swept the nation with as much force as the film that inspired them. Along the way they transformed both the toy and movie industries, earned those behind them vast amounts of wealth, and ultimately created a hobby that, 30 years later, still holds sway
Director(s): Brian Stillman
Production: X-Ray Films
 
IMDB:
6.5
NOT RATED
Year:
2014
70 min
Website
29 Views


One of the big challenges with

the first "star wars" movie,

and working on

the very first one

was the lack of documentation

for the movie.

They had not

photographed every costume,

the models weren't shot

from every direction.

People that did

the set designs,

we would use their drawings.

We would use some photographs,

and interpolate

into our own turnarounds,

our own side and front

and back views.

The lack of reference material,

or the inadequate reference

material that kenner had

is probably responsible

for some of the...

the more famous, um...

Screw-ups known

in the "star wars" line.

For instance, the original

version of snaggletooth

which was designed for the sears

exclusive cantina play-set

was a large blue figure

with silver go-go boots.

(Dance music)

Lucasfilm decided

they didn't like that.

When the figure actually

appeared in stores,

it was a much shorter

figure in a red outfit

with hairy feet.

All you really saw

in the film was his head.

So, you know, how big he was

was kind of up to conjecture.

(Salvatore) When lucasfilm got

more in the business with kenner

and everything

became integrated,

they would actually send props

out the kenner,

and they had to be

kept in a locked cage.

So you really saw the toys

get better and better

in terms of design

as the line went on.

You can walk through

the history of an item

by looking at the pre-production

stages for that item.

It's kind of neat

to be able to go,

"look, here's

a whole progression

of how this thing was created."

Here we have several prototypes

which reveal quite a bit

of information

into how a figure

was developed at kenner.

First of all, we have

the original wax-sculpting,

and that is the actual

3d art for the figure.

The wax is specially formulated

to hold a lot of fine detail.

Next we have a hard copy,

which is made by taking molds

off the sculpt

and pouring into those molds

a two-part urethane material.

Often, some of those

hard-copy figures

will be painted so that

the designers at kenner

can use them in photography

or to test different

paint schemes

the actual production figures,

which you see an early

example of here,

are made by sending

a hard-copy figure

over to the orient

where they make a tooling master

that's used to cut

the final steel tools

that are made to make thousands

of these things.

One of the challenges

was the lightsaber.

(Lightsaber whooshes)

We were trying to figure out

how do you make

a lightsaber happen

without electronics

because we didn't have

anything that small.

I was a big proponent of a...

of the spring-loaded device

that would allow it to pop out.

Unfortunately, our friends

in the cost department

would not allow us to

spend three cents on a spring,

and it was a more difficult

product to manufacture.

I had the model shop

put a monofilament

down the arm of the figure

and it would come out

through his hand...

through the hand

and curl up

into a nice curlicue.

And ultimately, you know...

(Buzzing)

that was it.

(Boy) Now I know

the force is with us.

(Salvatore) The regular Luke

had a lightsaber in the arm

that slid out one time.

The earliest versions

had one that slid out

and then telescoped out

a second time.

So the early-bird set

is known for having that

early-bird Luke that has

the double telescoping

lightsaber.

These are all four-inch

darth vader prototypes.

What's notable

about a lot of these

are, of course, the double

telescoping sabers.

This particular example

is a prototype stage of that

at the very tip is

what we call the mushroom tip

because it has a small disc.

And the idea was that

it would give the person

that was manipulating

the inner saber,

like, you know,

something to grab onto

to help extend it.

(luttrull)

I think kenner really

bottled lightning

with those figure.

It's hard to explain

why these toys

became so important

to so many kids,

but they did.

(Sharp) The card-backs

to me were as neat

as the figures,

even as a child.

Not only did you get

the figure,

but you got

this big color image

of that character in the movie.

That was sort of

part of the toy.

When I was a kid, I don't think

finding a beat up card

would have been

acceptable to me

because you want to rip

through a fresh card.

You want to rip through

a fresh card.

I, nowadays, look for figures

that are in the best condition.

I wanted to be reminded of

actually seeing these figures

for the first time

at the toy store.

This is a early

conceptual sketch,

kind of the rough-out ideas

for the "star wars" packaging.

You see that the top

has the pyramidal logo

which you see in some early

"star wars" products.

It kind of looks

like it's "star wars"

fading into the background.

Some commentary

about the racetrack

piping around the figure,

which did make it's way

into the final product.

You'll see also that there's

a star behind the figure

rather than a rectangle,

a colored rectangle.

Obviously,

as things moved along

in the design process,

it got more

to the traditional look.

The distinctive double

silver-piping

is around the side.

The distinctive logo,

it's not the pyramidal

logo anymore.

Here, it looks though

like they're using

the hildebrandt Luke and Leia

rather than as

a small design element,

as the main card art.

It looks like this is,

like, an idea

for a unified card art

across the whole line.

Whereas the final

figures would have had,

if it was a darth vader

figure, you know,

has a picture of darth vader.

Kenner, unlike

any other toy line,

put at the back of the package

"collect all 77!" Or 65 or 92.

And really no other toy lines,

even though I was into

lots of other toys,

were really like that.

You know, they continued

to build

on the back of those packages

this idea that you could

get 'em all.

You could kind of see

where that would come from.

Like, hey, we have a line here

where you're not gonna want

your favorite character,

you're gonna

want every character.

It was...

It was like egging you on.

The back of the card-back says,

you know, "collect all 92."

It doesn't ask you to,

it tells you to.

You'd get,

kind of, this anxiety

if you don't have them all.

And that stayed with me

all through my childhood

collecting these things,

you know?

I can remember that's

how kids used to keep track.

You'd keep a spare card-back

around your house.

All the action figures

were pictured on the back,

and when you got one,

you'd "x" it off.

I would construct

lists of ones I wanted.

I actually constructed lists

of ones I didn't want.

So, you know, if I sent my dad

to the store for an ig-88,

he better not come home

with, you know, a bespin guard

or lobot or one of

those poor guys.

I remember, you know,

sitting in the toy aisle

with my brother, looking over

the back of the cards,

looking for figures that, um...

Did they have them yet?

"Return of the jedi," they had

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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