Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys Page #7

This one was

a roll around quickie.

Tiny droid.

This guy was walking droid

like "silent running"

droids would be

other ones

would have maybe clamps.

Like this one, for instance.

I saw it having maybe

an over-center clamp

where it would just snap on

to whatever you put it around.

And this is another

just roll around thing.

Probably analogous to

this one with wheels.

I was just like drawing droid.

(Laughing)

(Announcer) And when you

see the "star wars" movie

at participating theaters,

you get kenner's

cash-refund booklet,

good for refund coupons

from 50 cents

up to two dollars each

on 14 different

"star wars" toys.

Offer expires December...

"Star wars" was really

the first one

to really grasp onto

marketing pop-culture in a toy.

There had been

certainly TV ads for toys,

um, before "star wars,"

but they really took that

and ran with that.

With their television

commercials, I think kenner

was trying to put the idea

into a kid's head

of how exactly

they could play with these toys.

They put across this idea that

if you have these figures,

you can create

a miniature play environment

right in your bedroom,

and it's like the movie.

(Boy) ...he's after the boat.

All troops report to base.

Glider attack, hit the dirt!

(Luttrull) The commercials

would sometimes have scenes

that didn't happen

in the movie.

And I would think,

"hm, I don't remember

that part of the movie..."

(Boy) We'll get you to safety!

"... But, wow, I want to

recreate that part."

(Lopez)

You're trying to teach kids

through the ads and through

the showing the playing

that you are part

of this "star wars" universe.

That was a big, big emphasis

at the time.

(Boy) Beep, beep, beep, beep!

(Second boy) It's okay, r2-d2,

I've got my laser pistol.

(Sharp) My dad took me to

see "empire strikes back"

when it hit theaters

in '80 or '81,

and I was five

or six years old.

I was pretty young.

And then immediately after

we saw the film,

he took me down to

kiddy city, the local toy store,

and he bought me my first

couple "star wars" toys.

And I remember

staring up at this wall,

this aisle full of toys.

It just looked like

a Mountain of "star wars" toys.

And my father said, "pick out

and action figure."

And I looked them over

and I picked out darth vader.

(Booth) I was a little

kid, so it just seemed

like this display

was towering over me.

Just this rack

of all the "star wars" figures

on the peg.

What a terrible choice

to have to make!

I've got 12 figures,

I can only get one.

(Salvatore)

The term that companies

generally use,

or at least kenner used

for setting up, like,

its toy aisle

in a coordinated way

was a "plan-o-gram."

Catalogs or brochures

that they sent to retailers

that told them this is they way

it's supposed to look.

Hopefully it actually looked

that way when they set it up,

but who knows if it really did?

(Cash register dings)

These shelves here

show some of the, uh,

"star wars" kenner

marketing campaigns,

stuff that they would have

sent to toy stores

to help push the line

and help decorate the aisles

that the toys were

displayed in.

That big "toy center" sign

is basically

what kenner would have used,

I believe, in about '79

to kind of brand a whole aisle.

I mean, that was kind of

their signature gondola display.

These here are shelf talkers.

And this would have just

gone over a shelf

to mask the front of the shelf

and kind of give it a different

"star wars" flavor.

Okay, what we have here is

a popai outstanding

merchandising achievement award

that kenner received in 1978

for their "star wars"

floor display.

A temporary, free-standing

display of action figures

with a bell sign

on top that said

"'star wars' action figures,"

and and had pictures of all 12.

And they kind of

did that throughout their line.

They had all kinds of different

merchandising kits

that you could buy that were

specific to "star wars,"

and made "star wars"

stand out in the toy aisle.

Roy frankenfield,

to my knowledge,

was the first

"star wars" photographer

because he'd been doing it

from the very beginning.

I took over for him

in 1981, basically doing...

Almost all of the shooting

of "star wars,"

if not all of it,

and never looked back.

How many people

get paid to go to work

and play with toys

and have fun?

(Camera shutter clicking)

I like having

the boxes with the toys

because that was what people

saw on the shelf.

I really love the way they did

the racetrack around the side

and the logo.

And then they always

used big, primary colors,

and they show the picture

of the actual toy.

(Sharp) It had, you know, started

off as a point of sale item.

It wasn't intended to be art.

I think it has become art,

the design of the box,

how each box

sort of has its own color,

how the toys are sort of

arranged on the box

I think has become,

in and of itself,

a piece of pop art.

Early stuff is attractive to me

because it more of

a retro look.

To me, these really

look '70s, you know?

You have this kid

in the bell-bottoms

and the pink shirt here...

I don't even know

if that's a girl

or a boy, but whoever it is,

the early "star wars" stuff

has a real flavor to it

that the later stuff

doesn't, packaging-wise.

I really like the early...

early photography.

It does have

a totally different feel.

And at that time,

everything was hot light,

minimal diffusion, if at all.

And I'd look at it and go,

"whoa!

"Couldn't we have softened

this down a little bit?

"Couldn't you have reflected

this this way?" You know.

That's why you'll see

a difference later on

when I came in.

This...

Is an 8x10 camera.

It is a...

They called it

a century camera.

That was the name of it.

And... hi, guys.

It's been a long, long time.

I used this one

uh, many times

for doing different...

different "star wars."

If anybody knows greta garbo,

this was probably

an old camera at that time.

(Laughs)

It's always the toy, you know,

sitting in a jungle

with four or five characters

around it that aren't

included in that toy,

but it's instantly

creating that,

"look, here's a story

you can create

when... if you buy this toy."

You're selling to kids

more than you are to adults.

The idea of showing a toy

in an action environment

appeals... it makes sense.

I think one of the things

that's really different

about "star wars"

is how international

the phenomenon was

from the beginning.

I think what the merchandising

of "star wars"

all over the world shows us

is that it was really

an international phenomena,

it caught on, and, you know,

to this day

there are collectors

who have, even recently,

started up, and try

to collect stuff

that was made

for their own countries.

There were Barbies

in other countries

there were other toys

in other countries,

but nothing captured everybody's

attentions simultaneously

the way "star wars" toys did.

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