Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys Page #5

a few blacked out, the ewoks.

So you wouldn't know

what they would look like.

And sitting there

and thinking, you know,

what was this about?

And who are these,

and why were they blacked out?

They must be really special.

Um... we didn't know

any better.

Really, people didn't

collect toys back then.

But they were actually

creating this whole culture

of kids trying to collect

all the toys.

The collect-all philosophy

is, I think,

a pretty important idea

behind the early success

of the toys.

Not that they wouldn't

have been successful anyway,

but I think most kids

at that time

definitely remember that whole

um... call to collect

all of these figures.

It is pretty insidious

when you think about it,

but, you know, it was fun...

it was a fun sort of insidious.

Now you can get this new

4-lom action figure free

for five proofs

of purchase from any

"star wars" action figures.

Details on specially

marked packages

at participating stores.

Offer expires...

you know, every year

they'd have a different

mail-away figure, just about.

And you'd have to collect

the proof of purchase from

the back of the blister card.

So you'd have to cut it out.

And you'd need, you know,

five proofs of purchase

or whatever it was to get

admiral akbar

or Anakin Skywalker.

When you went to the toy store,

you could look and see

all the action figures.

You could look

and see all the spaceships.

This wasn't something that

you could buy in a store,

so it was a new

"star wars" thing.

A lot of times they'd

do it as a carrot

to get you about

a new upcoming film,

a new, secret character.

They would try to kind of

keep it mysterious

and keep the mystique

of the new character there.

(Announcer) And now, boba fett,

"star wars" villain,

with his laser rifle.

Boba fett is not yet

available in stores,

but you can get him free

with four proofs

of purchase from any

"star wars" action figures.

Kenner, in late 1978,

began advertising

its first action figure

mail-away offer for boba fett.

And in those illustrations

and photography they showed

for this offer,

boba fett had

a rocket-firing backpack.

When we were kids,

we saw the rocket-firing

boba fett

on the back of the cards,

and we were totally

expecting to get this figure.

And when it came, it wasn't

what we thought it was.

(Lopez) Kenner had looked at

this rocket-firing mechanism,

and found that it was

a huge safety hazard.

They were never

shipped to kids.

But before the toy

went into production,

kenner had made

some prototypes of it.

So, the one on the left

is the...

what they call

the "I-slot version"

of rocket-firing boba fett.

There's a cavity that's

the shape of a backwards "I"

where the slider would go down

and then to the left,

lock in, and then

release a rocket.

Well, the problem

with this thing

was that because it was

this... this I-shape,

it'd be easy to

kind of knock the tab

and have the rocket

accidentally fire.

They then updated this

to the j-slot

rocket-firing boba fett.

And you can see the slot

is the shape of a "j."

And it would hook

around this "j,"

but the little

piece at the bottom

could break off very easily.

There are a few other styles

and differences

that have turned up

over the years.

Not very many, of course,

these are extremely rare,

but those are the major

design considerations they had.

Kids never got this toy.

There are countless

stories of people who remember

getting a rocket-firing

boba fett,

but that never happened.

They were never

shipped to kids.

One day, I come home

and I get off the school bus,

and my friend is waiting there,

and he's holding a landspeeder.

(Angelic choir)

And of course,

I just freak out.

"That's so cool! Wow!

Let me see it! Let me..."

he was there to play with

one of the other kids that day.

Really?!

Um, up here I have the original,

vintage tie fighter

that I received

when I was six years old.

You know, it has a cockpit,

you can put the figures in.

This is my childhood

millennium falcon

which I received

for Christmas of '81, I think,

or maybe 1980.

And it's a bit worse for wear,

it's fairly beat up, but it's...

this toy, I probably

played with more than anything.

I mean, the millennium falcon's

supposed to be beat up anyway.

Uh, this...

Is my original x-wing.

It has no cockpit,

most of the wings are gone,

there's hardly any

stickers left,

but I will...

Never part with it. (Chuckles)

When you pick up

that kenner x-wing,

and you push down on the r2-d2,

and the wings pop open,

you're in that.

These were a way for me

to feel like I was flying

around in that x-wing.

(Sansweet) Clearly, they

saw this rich universe

of "star wars"

that George had created

with all these environments

and ships,

and understood

that this was a line.

It was not just a few

eight-inch,

cloth covered dolls.

Yeah, I think it was cognizant

of the design department

to give the children

a world to play in...

With "star wars,"

as much as Lucas tried

to create one on camera.

I think, you know,

these are some of the...

some of the most playable and

best designed of the toys.

I mean, you know,

you got the rancor,

what's not to like?

A big monster you could play,

you know, on its own.

Had a lot of monster

battles in the backyard

with this particular guy.

The objective, always,

it was the word

that loomis used constantly

in his conversations

with all of us,

is show me the play-value.

What play-value are we

giving these kids?

Every product that became a toy

had to have child involvement

as part of the premise.

So, it wasn't a toy without it.

Otherwise, it was

a collectible.

It was a baseball card.

The ewok play-set was probably

the most fun play-set

that I did

while I was at kenner.

I wanted my model

to look exactly

like the movie set.

They had an artist do a picture

of what the ewok village

would look like.

And they gave that

to one of their...

their, uh, employees,

and he went and took

sticks and stones

and built a hand-made

prototype of the ewok village.

Every lunch break,

I would go out,

wander through the park.

I spent a lot of weekends

just wandering around the woods

looking for the exact,

right stick.

I'd just come

into work with a...

a bucket full of sticks

and bark,

and I just built it.

There was a passion there.

I mean, these guys weren't

just punching the clock.

They really loved

what they did,

and they loved making toys

that kids would get...

have exciting time with.

There came a day

that it was necessary

to come up with a product

that used a talking device

which was supplied

by ozen sound company.

It was used in a lot

of toys previously.

(Doll) Let's play house.

And they wanted to maintain

a relationship with this company

within the "star wars" line.

(Announcer)

The "star wars" imperial

troop transporter.

(Laser sounds)

What's that?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes