Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys Page #8

The most common

foreign variance

that you're gonna see

are most likely the tri-logos.

Now, the tri-logo cards

were actually produced

by palitoy,

which is a uk provider.

You had the logo in English,

you had the French,

and then Spanish.

All of the international

products, they were either

kenner direct subsidiaries

or affiliates of kenner

or they paid a fee,

because the... the...

with the exception

of the lili ledy toys in Mexico,

which were made in Mexico,

all of the toys

were made in

the kenner factories in Asia,

and then they were packaged

in a certain way

and then shipped

to the countries.

This is actually

an Obi-Wan Kenobi

made by French company meccano.

Meccano decided

to completely abandon

the normal sizing of a card

by using a more

perfectly squared card.

For "empire strikes back,"

a Japanese company called popy

picked just 15 of the figures,

used them in kenner baggies,

and then put them

in these cool boxes

as part of

the "world heroes" line.

So it mixed "star wars"

with others.

And you can see

it's just the, you know,

kenner baggie

of the boba fett, and...

oh, wait a second, this is

a rare, missile...

oh, no, no, sorry.

This right here is an original

hand-drawn package

that Italy,

under the brand harbor

sent to kenner in order to get

lucasfilm approval

of the package design.

They wanted to make sure

that lucasfilm

was okay

with the overall design

and layout of the package.

So this is all hand-drawn

and everything.

As you start to go

around the world and see

some of these other pickups,

there are some minor

variations on some figures,

and there are actually some huge

variations on others.

This is the Mexican

lili ledy line.

The Mexican ledy line had

a couple of variations.

The jawa actually has,

instead of a one-piece cloak,

the jawa actually has a hood

that you pull off,

revealing

the figure's head sculpt.

This is a Mexican

large-size r2d2,

which is interesting

because it's basically

just kenner's small r2d2 figure

blown up to larger size.

And you can see this is the...

the kenner version

is quite a bit different.

Japan even went so far

as to, you know,

articulate the figures

and build them up

to a larger size,

and use vinyl and,

in some cases, die cast,

which were more culturally

in the mainstream

over there at the time.

So there were some products

that were made

that probably

weren't supposed to be made.

George did not want

the "star wars" label

just slapped on things,

but up in Canada, um,

they put out these

utility belts, you know.

It was like Batman.

And they had the "star wars"

label on a rubber tip dart

and a plastic belt

and a cheesy lightsaber thing.

And as soon as lucasfilm saw

the first production samples,

they said, "uh-uh,"

and they made them

take it off the market.

So, of course, these are among

the rarest Canadian toys.

Unlike movies today,

which open day and date

all around the world,

"star wars" didn't open

in any other countries,

apart from the us and Canada,

until at a minimum

six months later,

and, in the case of Japan,

a year later.

And so there was time

for people to gear up

for the toys and all

of the related phenomenon.

So, unlike the us,

there was stuff available.

Most of which people didn't

find out about until,

you know, 15 or 20 years

after they were produced.

("Star wars" theme playing)

(Announcer) "Star wars."

The impact is staggering.

Never in the history

of motion pictures

has one film been so popular,

but the craze did not

stop at the box office.

In 1977, kenner launched

the "star wars" collection,

with a massive

advertising blitz.

And, thanks to your efforts

and faith in the force,

the response has shot sales

right off the ground.

I think they were totally

unprepared for...

The magnitude of the success,

and how sudden it hit them,

and how rapidly they had to

convert from a sort of

small-time toy company

to one of the major players.

For "empire," they were

a little more prepared.

They had the figures ready

actually even before

the film was out.

But they were still

fairly conservative.

No one had bet

on a sequel before.

People were like,

"well, I'm not sure about this."

(Announcer) The force is back.

The rebels won't tire till

they see the last of the empire.

And kenner's there

with star wars

"return of the jedi"

collection.

(Lopez) Return of the

jedi, they were ready.

They had a massive lineup

of action figures.

Lots of vehicles,

lots of toys planned.

Even if it was a horrible film,

they knew it was gonna

do very well.

But, really, it took them...

it took them even

till about '83

to really get...

build up the momentum,

and no one knew

what they were doing yet.

It was the first time

this had been done.

"Star wars" unfortunately

set off

an unfortunately

chain of dominoes,

where kenner went from this

little, charming toy company

to like this big kind of

entertainment-related company

that had a corporate face to it

and was kind of less...

Fun, I guess.

It became less fun.

"Star wars" had

an enormous impact

on not just the bottom line,

but the culture, per se.

Eight to ten hours a day.

We were asked to come in on

Saturdays for a while

to work on especially

"star wars."

I really lost the first two

years of my kids' growing up,

because I literally spent

most of my time

in my office or with my staff.

I had a cot in my office.

I slept there.

People put holes in the wall.

Broke out in psoriasis.

Tore their phones

out of the wall

and threw them across the room.

I know the managers were

under a lot of pressure,

but they seemed to try to keep

some of that pressure off of us

because, as long as they

saw that we were

doing the creative process

and getting the items done

as quickly as we could,

you know, they just kind of

gave us, uh,

yeah, say, "yeah, go work

on these three fighters."

Get 'em done as quick

as you can."

"That toy's your baby.

You're responsible for it."

But, to me, I really enjoyed

the pressure of it,

just because, you know,

it was the adrenaline.

"Oh, get it done," you know.

And you know

what the schedule was,

and, yeah, of course

everything's in a hurry.

If it wasn't in a hurry,

they wouldn't have you there

to do it, so...

Trying to keep "star wars" alive

past 1985 was just...

Not happening.

Lucasfilm was smart enough

to say,

"you know, guys,

we've had a great run.

"But we think we want

to give it a breather.

We... we... we think there's

not a market out there."

After "return of the jedi,"

when there was no more

anticipation

for another "star wars" movie,

it's not that I drifted away

from "star wars."

I never stopped being a fan.

But there just wasn't

that ongoing...

there wasn't ongoing things

kind of fueling that fandom.

People thought it was gonna be

three movies and out.

You just had a real feel that

that was there.

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