As someone who's been with Star Wars since 1977, the 90s were the "geekiest" time for Star Wars. It was not a geeky property during the original trilogy years, it was as mainstream as can be. In the 90s, especially the early 90s, you had to put some effort into being a fan.
The extended universe really kept things going during that period. The novels were amazing, like the Zahn trilogy and the x-wing series, as well as the computer games...and they were all tied in with each other. It really was a great time to be a Star Wars fan!
I was a fan since 1984 when I saw ROTJ in the theater when I was 4 I did watch ANH and ESB to prepare I remember crying when Anakin died first time I ever did that And the classic "Nub nub" ewoke song that I always sang 😂 I also had star wars insider still do ❤
@@gpeaselyeah as a 80s kid I would argue that the time 86-91 really was the hardest. After ROTJ and not so far after the final issue / shut down of the Marvel Star Wars comic Star Wars really faded from mainstream into… hiatus. I would say that even in 85 it had started to cool off. So when the Heir to the Empire book landed in 91 it felt geeky still it was the first REAL Star Wars stuff that had appeared for over 5-6 years
Yeah, I'm almost exactly 10 years younger than Greedo, and I look at all this nostalgia as "the stuff the big kids were into but I wasn't allowed to touch". I was just the dumb l'il toddler while all the big kids got to play with their Pokèmon cards and extremely loud backwards hats.
@@swishfish8858 that exact sense of 'the thing the big kids are into' is sort of how we (those of us being about Greedo's age) felt about *our* older sibs and cousins etc, which is also how things like the Original Trilogy and other slightly earlier pop culture was impressed on us too. It just keeps going on that way I guess
I was an 80 star wars kid .. I had the toys (mostly the empire) only had Obiwan, han and Leia as the good guys/rebels action figures , the death star and the boba Fett toy that shot the red laser , his slave one ship and many stormtroopers Darth Vader, The emperor, Tarkin and a few imperial senators Had so much fun Still a diehard fan to this day
Born in late 72, saw ANH in 78 and i still feel this cause I was a hopeless Star Wars stoner in the 90's, scouring the used bookstores for Timothy Zahn novels.
I was born in 96, but I’m in the same boat as you about Star Wars always being there, up to and including Episode 2. Episode 3 was the first “new” Star Wars movie for me, I saw it at the midnight premiere. It was a huge deal, a core memory.
Same here friend, i was born October 96, but since my father was and is a massive fan, it was only natural I was the heir to the empire. But the difference for me was, I do remember my father playing the OT many times as a 2 and 3 year old, so when the phantom menace released, it was my first true NEW star wars experience. I asked my dad recently if my memory was correct, and he said "damn, how do you remember all that" so I think my memory served me well 😂 But it wasn't until Ep. 2 that my hardcore Fandom sparked.
Yep yep the day I went to see Star Wars Episode 3 was one of the best days of my childhood. My mom picked me up from school early to go see it. I remember running around the yard swinging a stick around pretending I was reacting that final duel and being amazed at how much I loved that movie.
3 things I remember about Star Wars in the 90's... seeing that first Zhan book and feeling like a person who had been wandering lost in a desert for almost a decade, without water and then finding an oasis. Watching special editions in theatres as much as humanly possible. Downloading TPM trailer, on dial up, which took all day and was the size of a postage stamp but still glorious.
I was working at the local cinema when the Phantom Menace came out. Our manager was given a very strict letter about the procedure of building the movie and screening it. He was the only one allowed to watch it. I was so pissed because that was usually my job. But I opened for the first show and he gave me a special job. I had to watch the door to make sure no one snuck in. I just sat down and watched it from beginning to end. Epic memory. When revenge of the sith came out. Our boss was out of town and had the biggest after work party for the screening. Our parking lot was packed. Nobody knew anybody there and no one paid to get in. It was insane. My friend Steven (who was also an assistant manager) was $#!+faced drunk and when Yoda pulled out the lightsaber, all you could hear was him screaming WOOOOOOO!!! I got to work at the cinema when the TFA came out and that was a blast too. That was the first time in my small city that I got the Star Wars fandom experience. It was packed and a lot of people dressed up as characters. It was so great being a part of that magic.
I was slightly after this era, born in 93, where my Star Wars childhood was almost entirely encompassed by the releases of the prequels. My introduction to Star Wars was seeing phantom menace in theatres and playing Episode 1: Podracer on the N64 when I around 6. By the time Revenge of the Sith came out I was obsessed. That era also saw the rise of Lego Star Wars, and the OG Star Wars: Battlefront games. It was a great time to be a Star Wars kid, especially because I was completely oblivious to whatever discourse was going on among older fans at the time.
I was born in 94, pretty much same story, podracer on n64 was fun. I used to play the original 2005 starwars battlefront 2 religiously but only on the mos eisley hero battle mode, where I could play as any of the villains I wanted and I got to choose (unlike the new battlefront 2 where it picks for you, basically if you don’t pick fast enough…) and battle the jedi, Darth maul and Darth sidious were my favorite characters. I remember seeing episode 2 and 3 in theaters.
93 same. I remember going to my local library and finding novels from the early 1980s and into the 90s. Some of the old books when the original trilogy were a trip as the writers just kinda riffed whatever they wanted in terms of story and the force
I was born in 95 and was only in the 90s for a short time, and a very young time at that, but I completely feel the nostalgia in this video (from your perspective). Camping out for the Phantom Menace must have been an awesome experience. You also capture the fandom and heart of Star Wars super well, as well as the other super cool stuff that came out or was experienceing a resurgence at that time.
As a child of the 90s, growing up in Germany, I also experienced a lot of what you are talking about. The anticipation for new content was huge! I especially remember how incredibly exciting it was to see NEW cinematic scenes being filmed for the Rebel Assault II game.
You could say it was peak Star Wars. All the games were good, cool books, the market wasn't ridiculously oversaturated so it was big news when something SW came out. No major disappointmentsnor eggs.The franchise was still oriented around the retro-futuristic aesthetic. Pretty cool times.
The formative years of my youth were the entirety of the 90s. Star Wars, then was a completely different field, vibe, and aesthetic. You have to remember that nobody had seen anything new since return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace wouldn’t come out until 99. And the old expanded universe, the old“legends”, that was just the extended lore at the time. The big threat in the galaxy was the. Yuzahn vong. Boba Fett went on to become Mandalore and lead super commandos. Han and chewie had adventures and there were 3 solo kids. Also don’t forget the first time “somehow palps returned”. Maybe I’m just an aging nerd that is growing nostalgic, maybe I’m forgetting all the little annoying things, like arguing over which edition of the trilogy was best, and stupid stuff like Hawn shot first, or even just access to decent video games and comics. But either way , the sequels ended up expanding so much on the lore, and then the best way in my opinion. It was actually episode two attack of the clones, and the Republic commando game that got me borderline obsessive with the franchise. But I still remember and respect that original fascination, playing games like dark forces 2. Good times, thanks for the memory trip ❤
@@purefoldnz3070 times were good and we didn’t know it. We got so wrapped up in th prequels and then sequels, we forgot the simple pleasure of what we thought was a finished film series. Tbh the writing could be terrible sometimes, but it didn’t hurt back then like it does today.
This is such a goddamn good video. We need more Star Wars retrospectives on here because so much of the fanbase has completely forgotten or is missing context and history behind the property and what it was like to be a fan. The toxicity has overtaken any sense of logic and reason.
Star Wars in the '90s felt very big. Besides the special edition releases, most of Star Wars in that time was expanded universe in terms of books or games. There was a ton of imagination in those projects, lots of variety. The prequels resulted in way more uniformity among video games and books once they were starting to be released. It was exciting at first but it was like 5 years of Star Wars non-film content with nearly the same aesthetic. This Mandalorian/post-Rise of Skywalker era has the most comparable variety of Star Wars projects since the '90s, at least in my opinion.
Unlike HelloGreedo, my history with Star Wars is different. I didn't get into this galaxy far, far away until my Dad took me to see The Phantom Menace, way back in 1999 when I was just 6 years old. And oh boy, it changed my life forever from that point on. I was completely unaware of the hype surrounding the film at the time, so I went into it not knowing what to expect. Regardless what anyone thinks of the prequels, I still love them as much as the original trilogy. Even though my thoughts on the sequels are very mixed at best, it's never stopped me from continuing loving this franchise. Sure, there are some things better than others in canon or legends wise, but everyone is gonna have their own views on what Star Wars means to them. I really miss the 90s, and I personally prefer that time period compere to today's so called modern world. Not my cup of tea that's for sure, the last 3 years in all honesty haven't exactly been easy for me either. We all walk different paths in life for better or worse, and we each strive to achieve our goals. If I can get by without any hassle or drama, it's good enough for me.
We're the same age, and I feel you brother. I started with Greedo's same 1995 box when I was 10 years old (it was my uncle's though, not mine), so the original unaltered trilogy will always be my favorite. I did own the 04/06 DVDs with both the SE and originals, and while I've never hated the SEs (nor the prequels), I don't remember the last time I've seen one of the SEs. The sequels started promising but crashed hard with the third one... it's too bad, because had they stuck the landing, I'd take them very seriously. But I never watch them anymore and am not even sure if I consider them canon at this point. Never read Heir to the Empire or Shadows, but recently bought Splinter of The Mind's Eye and am planning on reading it soon. I agree that it's been a tough several years for both 90s babies and thirtysomething Star Wars fans in general... it's lost that "exclusive club" feeling that it had in the 90s and 00s, which Greedo refers to. Things are getting better though!
@@Austin7298 Thanks for your reply Austin! I agree on your thoughts about the Star Wars sequels. I don't necessarily hate them, I just have mixed feelings about them. Some aspects I loved, and some I didn't. When I mentioned about the last 3 years not being easy for me, I was referring to my personal life.
@@drmadstudio6441 Yes and I feel you there too. Covid lockdowns cost me a good job and then an injury a year later set me back further. Have a good job now though and am bouncing back. I don't care much for this modern world either... I miss the days of the Fall and Spring book fairs that Greedo mentioned. I clearly remember getting some books there that I had specifically seen on Between The Lions on PBS. There are plenty of benefits to the modern world though. Just recently I remembered that when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I had a specific wish that one day I could have a device that would let me select any episode of a TV show I wanted. Back then it seemed like just a pipe dream, but now we're living in the days of Netflix, Pluto, and Max.
@@Austin7298 If I could go back those simpler days with a snap of my finger I would. And if I was back in the 90s, I would certainly be able to live without things like the internet or streaming services. Most of my childhood was spend either playing video games, or watching TV channels like Cartoon Network, Toonami and Fox Kids. Haven't watched terrestrial television in 13 years now, nothing but soaps and reality shows. By the way, I'm British.
I feel bad for the ST kids that (I hope) they will completely ignore all the toxic gossip that affected anything after 2012 until today, I grew up with the original unaltered trilogy just before EP1 came out, I remember liking it even though I was confused by the dialogue, but as of 2023, I still agreed with Greedo and TPM is my favorite Prequel, out of nostalgia sake.
I'm a 70s kid so I appreciate your very personal association and fondness for the original trilogy. I remember when the first trailer for the Phantom Menace was released. People knew it was attached to certain movies and they'd buy tickets to that movie just to see the trailer. I did the same thing though at this point I don't remember what movie it was. Leading up to it I remember when Episode 1 (yet untitled) was announced in '96. The internet was new to most of us and browser-based discussion forums were taking off. I found my home on those places and cut my internet teeth in those wonderful mid to late 90s Star Wars discussions. There were two main forums that I remember, The Jedi Council, and The Force Net. They were sort of rivals. TFN eventually won out but I always loved the Jedi Council. But the hype and speculation was off the charts. I was so hyped and excited about this movie that I ignored the obvious glaring flaws with it that I went and saw it 19 times (yes, nineteen) in the theater. I wanted to eek out every last bit of new Star Wars excitement while I could. Am I ashamed of that? No! Only losers and fake fans saw it fewer times than I did.
I was privileged to be born in 95. As far back as I can remember I would watch Empire or Return of the Jedi every Saturday morning. Being 4 years old and watching Empire, then turning on the N64 and playing the Battle of Hoth in Shadows of the Empire was crazy. I’m jealous of my younger self
Wow biggest nostalgia hit ever. Hella good intro. What I remember about ep 4 special edition coming out was not understanding what rerelease of an old movie meant. Actually thought they reshot the whole movie somehow
Dude, the Book Fair.....man, what an event that was. It was pure magic for us. It was always set up in our school library and it was like that library morphed into some other awesome, fun toy store for a week. The Book Fair is easily one of my very favorite parts about elementary school.
Hey dude! We've talked about this before, but my memories start right back in 77! I do remember my first watch of TPM trailer. The agonising wait over several hours as it downloaded on our dial up connection. Several times I tried to play what I'd got so far, only to be more frustrated at the tiny, grainy image coughing and farting along. Eventually, to avoid a phone bill going into the 100s, I left it going overnight and watched it the following morning before work. It looked so cool. I was super excited for it! It came out right around my 28th birthday and a whole gang of us went to a private midnight showing a friend of mine arranged, as he ran the projection booth at the local multiplex. The Galaxy in Luton had a glass tunnel from the car park, and we had lightsabre duels in that tunnel, 3 stories above the road. A great night
LOL, dial up connections. Those were crazy times. I remember giving up trying to load even short videos of anything because it was just soooo slooooowwww....!
This was very enjoyable. A lot of your experiences mirrored my own in several ways. Phantom Menace was something I loved right away. The experience itself but the buzz, the merchandise and the kickoff that was that new era. Great video. Thanks for making it.
Regarding the question you asked about kids these days, I may not be that but there are a lot of tidbits about 2000s - early 2010s star wars I can give. Atleast where I was the OT was far overshadowed by prequel content for a multitude of reasons, be it the 2003 clone wars, the LEGO and Action figure stopmotion videos that exploded around this time, the LEGO sets and firues released around the time and later on the clone wars tv show. This isn't to say the OT was nonexistant but it was certaintly overshadowed by kids imagining giant battles of clones and jedi against the forces of the CIS. At the time I became a sort of lore junkie flicking through wookiepeida, watching lore videos and really wanting to get my hands on Star Wars games that released at the time. The aesthetics of that pre disney period are burned into my core be it the gritty look of something like Republic Commando or the Force Unleashed games and comics like the Republic/order 66 series. There was the more pure fantasy kind of look youd get out of Jedi Outcast/academy games and BF1. And theres just the sillyness of playing with figures and LEGO sets of the time and imagining sprawling setpieces with your friends. If theres one thing I look back on really foundly its the roleplay products, I owned this clone voice changer helmet and a clone trooper nerf gun and some of my friends would buy lightsabers, just the imagination is sparked when bringing it to a park or some local woods. I could go on and on about the things that went on as a star wars fan back then and like you said im not saying its better than anyone elses just a unique capsule. For all I know there are probably kids having the same experiences but pretending to be the Mandalorian or some of the sequel characters. And while im not too keen on the current state of the fanbase its still important to recognise that as long as you find something then alls well and good.
Just found this video. Born in '87. There isn't a single thing in this, mentioned or shown, that didn't connect with me personally. Deeply shared human experiences. Thanks for this.
Born in '95, I feel like I was among the last generation of kids to grow up in the age before information overload and overexposure, where your individual experience of Star Wars was only briefly punctuated with a magazine feature or new trailer for The Phantom Menace. I remember online fandom gaining more ground and slowly entering this whole new world that people are simply born into now. While it was cool to experience that transition, it is still useful to remind yourself from time to time that you don't constantly need to be plugged into the hivemind of talking heads. There is a lot of value in simply digesting your own experience for a while.
"I'm not saying the 90s were better than any other decade" I dunno man: I'm a bit older. By January 1990, I was already 12. I lived through the 80s like you lived through the 90s, and I even have personal memories of the very early 80s that were a bit like the 70s. The '90s really began when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989 and only truly ended on September 11th, 2001. It was America's vacation. I saw, very, very vaguely, the '70s. I absolutely saw the '80s. And I saw the 2000s, the 2010s, and beyond to today. The 90s? They were f'n cool, man. The absolute best.
I had a very similar experience growing up. My dad showed me the Original Trilogy (and especially his OT books, with computer audio/visual guides to back them up), and his old 80s action figure collection. I think the Clone Wars played a huge part in my interest in Star Wars; Anakin was relatable to me, and the clone troopers were something to aspire to--plus the vast interworkings of the Galactic Army, the Empire, the Rebel Alliance and the Separatists and just the world of the galaxy as a whole fascinated me to no end. There were thousands of toys, and millions of AMVs, toy reviews, LEGO MOCs, collector scene arrangements and stop motion animation videos to keep my young mind interested, inspired and engaged. Star Wars didn't change. It just evolved.
Wow, all I can say is…thank you for this. I’m one year older than you and you absolutely captured EVERY element of my childhood RE Star Wars. I can say with certainty that we would have been best buds ❤
Great video HG! I was born in 95 and surprisingly I do remember a little bit of 99. Star Wars was always there for me. We had the special edition 97 on VHS and we had A New Hope on a loop. Funny enough, The Phantom Menace was one of the first movie theater experiences I remember. Darth Maul scared the crap out of me! I remember that Christmas, my brother and I got so much Phantom Menace stuff. I had Qui Gon's lightsaber, a Naboo Straighter, action figures, etc. I even remember the Phantom Menace Pepsi Machines lol oh to be a kid again
Beautifully said and done, Greedo! As someone born the year of the Return of the Jedi, this video was my childhood. One of my fondest memories is living with my family at an apartment complex, and every weekend, my friends and I would play Super Star Wars on the SNES, not to beat the game (though we tried, without a game genie), but to see how far we could get.
It's neat to hear the perspectives of older fans and their reverance for the OT, sometimes i wish i shared the same reverance and grew up with that era of lore bc the asthetic and atmosphere of the old EU, to me, has this really neat rustic/grimy/open fronteir feeling, basically the idea of an endless outer rim sparsely patrolled by the oppressive empire, a swath of space where you could hop between remote planets and settle at stations or in the wilderness in your junky freightor or ship. Being born in 02 my introduction to star wars propper was return of the jedi and then ANH, EST , and the phantom menace. I remember liking ROTJ but even as a kid I found more wonder and awe in ANH and EST. Then sometime before or during kindergarten or first grade I saw AOTC and man did that one captivate me. The universe of star wars just seemed to have its borders expanded to an incomprehensible length, more specifically inward toward the core with politics and interplanetary relations, that's really where the franchise captivated my imagination and felt more real and a bit less mythic. My experience with older EU content was limited so my entirety of engagement and knowledge of star wars came from the movies and the clone wars TV show and some TH-cam amvs of the 2003 tartokovsky clone wars series. I still remember the first time seeing revenge of the sith, our neighbor lent us the DVD from his huge wall of movies, and I was still entertained but less captivated. There's something special about episodes 2 and 4 for me and I'm pretty sure it's the world building. Imo those two films due the majority of the legwork for expanding the universe while leaving a lot of room for imagination. The clone action figures also stimulated my imagination and head cannon, imagining what systems and environments these different clone legions and units were stationed on. What their battles or seizes were like, what unique gear or vehicles they used, what unique wildlife or citizens they encountered, what their rations and downtime looked like and how they regarded their jedi generals. It all felt very real but vague to me and that's what really captured me. I also had similar thoughts about stormtroopers and their deployments. I never had a friend growing up that was into star wars like I was so alot of the universe really was my head Canon and and I loved it. That's my small love letter to the franchise anyway. I'm sure there's others with similar experiences.
"the asthetic and atmosphere of the old EU, to me, has this really neat rustic/grimy/open fronteir feeling, basically the idea of an endless outer rim sparsely patrolled by the oppressive empire, a swath of space where you could hop between remote planets and settle at stations or in the wilderness in your junky freightor or ship" Oh man, you managed to nail perfectly what drew me to Star Wars and the EU at the time!
weird how you say attack of the clones is the one that capitvated you, that movie came out when i was 11 and i fucking hated it, saw it in the theater with my grandpa.
@@KySparkz yeah I was pretty young at the time of exposure, like 6 or 7 years old when I saw it on vhs. It probably also helped that the clone wars TV show would come out shortly after and I'd see bits and pieces of the 2003 tartakovsky clone wars series on TH-cam. The diolouge is abysmal for the most part and there's some plot holes or confusing decisions fs but I still really do enjoy the world building and spectacle of AOTC.
2000s here. I remember a lot of the same emotions. Secretly borrowing my friends copy of Battlefront 2 on the ps2, discussing whether or not Mace Windu survived at lunch with friends, whether Jango Fett was better or not than Boba. We loved doing massive lightsaber fights in the backyard and all over our neighborhood street, sometimes spanning acres of back and front yards! We all had an understanding that imaginary force powers totally counted. We also had rules for ranks and how to progress from "padawan" to "knight" to "master". Thanks for sharing the video. This was nice.
Ahh the nostalgia. POTF2, Star Wars insider, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, the Star Wars Encyclopedia on CD Rom.... I miss the good old days! Thanks for taking us back down memory lane!
As a fellow 90s Star Wars fan, I do sometimes miss that feeling of being one of the few. We were an endangered species. But the loneliness sometimes felt good.
Born in '96, I grew up the prequels I remember playing battlefront and battlefront 2 on the ps2 with friends, having lightsaber battles in the streets and in the school playgorund. I remember getting a 2 part "Every Star Wars Character" dvd in the newspaper just before ep3 came out and watching it to death, the second part had behinds the scene on ROTS and I devoured it all But my favourite memory, was going home for lunch on a Wednesday afternoon from school, and watching Attack of the Clones with my dad and baby brother
Wow, beautiful video. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Really similar experience to yours, but my major Star Wars media consisted of The Visual Dictionary, Dark Forces (and Jedi Knight: DF2), Rogue Squadron, and the Phantom Menace. Thank you for making such an eloquent window into an era long past. Awesome times indeed
Being a fan in the '90s was looking at The Jawa Trader in your latest Star Wars Insider, in total awe of all the neat decorations you could never afford (especially Han in carbonite).
Born in 2001 and I’ve been a Star Wars fan since 2004 after being introduced to it by my aunt. A year later, I became a die hard fan and bought a lot of the action figures. I never saw Revenge of the Sith in theaters but I did watch the hell out of it on a bootleg. Also, that same year I had a Star Wars birthday party.
Early to mid 90s were a blast. Super Star Wars on the SNES, widescreen VHS tapes, some great books, Euro Disney with its "Star Tours" ride, feeling like an outcast. Great stuff!
Hello Greedo, well said. For me, at 13 I saw “Star Wars” (that’s what we called Ep IV then) in the theatre. Yup, lined up for three hours to see it May 25, 1977 - and man was my Dad pissed! But, I saw it. I’m not sure how many times I saw it that summer, I think it’s like 15, but it was almost like a weekly ritual. And in terms of anticipation, that was “The Empire Strikes Back”. I remember seeing the first tailer at movies, and thought, man this is gonna be epic! There was no internet then, we had to go to the local comic store, or, better yet, Silver Snail in downtown Toronto. They had everything - Starlog, Fangora, Cinefex, and more. That’s how we learned of the Star Wars info. Later, I was a member of the LucasFilm Fan Club, and got the monthly magazine. In the mail. Talk about anticipation….
I was born in 1989 and my experience was almost identical to yours, despite the age gap. You really captured what 90's OT Star Wars was like. The head-cannons me and my friends would come up with pretending, playing with toys, or even video games felt so fun and grandiose. Growing up with that "personal" Star Wars was very special to me. Of course think it was also because I was a kid, and experiences like that aren't exclusive to me, Star Wars, or any time period as you said. I definitely saw the same thing with the kids who grew up with the prequels and The Clone Wars. I would be lying if I said it didn't annoy me a little bit that Disney owns Star Wars now, or that I liked the sequel trilogy; but outside of most of the movies the other things that have come out are stuff we would've gone bonkers for, and I enjoy them. And I certainly don't want to imply it means that the kids who are growing up with, and people who liked the sequels aren't "real" Star Wars fans. Great video. I appreciate that you see through the toxic bullshit, and I wouldn't worry too much about all the kids now growing up with it. Every generation has gross, toxic behavior and attitudes, and every generation has a lot of people who saw through it.
Born in 1992, watched the OT with the 1997 specials VHS set, and then the magic of the PT and the world expansion that was on full display made being a Star Wars fan at the time a really magical period
I may have never gotten a chance to experience the original movies or even all the prequels, except for episode 3. But I was also 3 when ROTS came out. I grew up watching Star Wars because of Legos and my brother got a DVD set of the original movies and I didn’t care at first, but when he showed me A New Hope. I felt the magic and love for Star Wars, while just sleeping on my dad’s legs as he’s asleep. My brother had wait a bit with Empire Strikes Back just because he wanted me to experience waiting for Star Wars. We just watched in a hotel on this big tv and I just loved it, then it happened again in Return of the Jedi. I was obsessed, playing Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, getting a bunch of Lego sets, action figures, and watching Clone Wars. I always wondered if they would do sequels and to my surprise I remember being in Sri Lanka and my brother showed me the first teaser of The Force Awakens and all the build up was worth it. Later on I was having a tough time in school and Rogue One was coming out and my aunt took me to the movie and it made me so happy. I made great friends watching The Last Jedi and it even cheered me up when I lost my grandma and a best friend that same year. I never went online until Rise of Skywalker, I never realized there was that much hate because to me I still loved them. I’m still more of an original trilogy Star Wars fan, but I will say for certain that The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi are special to me. Even the anticipation for TROS despite being a little disappointed for me anyways was special. I still eagerly wait for the movies and as much as I love the shows, the movies will always hold a deep meaning to my heart because they remind me of my childhood. Going from getting multiple Lego Star Wars sets, Lego Star Wars games, plastic lightsabers, playing the Fallen Order games, and buying a bunch of action figures and making new friends when dressing up and just discussing it all without the mention of Star Wars TH-cam channels. Star Wars still no matter what will always be a part of my heart. I’m excited for the Ahsoka show and I definitely Star Wars is slowly going into it’s more creative renaissance that hopefully we will get that feel again despite what the internet has been. Thank you HelloGreedo for reminding me more about why Star Wars is special to me.
Your ‘99, was my ‘05. 9 year old me, was so inundated with everything Star Wars. I got as much of the books, the games, and action figures leading up to the release of RotS. Replaying the old phantom menace PS1 game, and the Jedi games, and playing with “Attacktix” at school with my friends, after seeing RotS. So much nostalgia for that time in my life.
6:33 SAME!! I remember my dad had this one super shiny chrome flashlight that to me resembled a lightsaber and I would try to make “blades” for it using paper, markers, and tape. Toilet rolls were too thick for light from the flashlight to shine thru. When the Power of the Force ROTJ Luke lightsaber released, it was TOPS on my Christmas list! That said, Star Wars toys had JUST been taken off shelves when I became old enough to start playing with action figures. I didn’t even know Star Wars toys existed since I had never seen them. The VERY first Star Wars toys released were those Micro Machines vehicles and play sets that folded up into different character busts. My favorite was the Darth Vader/ Cloud City (Vader vs Luke plus Han in Carbonite chamber that had the frozen Han that raised and lowered and had the breakaway window you could hit Luke thru with a large debris chunk. When the Power of the Force figs were announced, EVERY other toy took a back seat. I stopped collecting X-men, Batman, Ninja Turtles, etc and focused EXCLUSIVELY on Star Wars figs from then until Attack of the Clones because I wasn’t a fan of the play gimmicks they had. Eventually only got two Revenge of the Sith figs, a promo emperor from a friend that worked at Toys r Us as well as the “battle damaged” (burned up) Anakin figure with removable limbs that was quickly discontinued due to parents being upset. That was the end of my Star Wars fig collecting until rather recently my acquisition of very selective Black Series figures. Currently only plan to acquire the new Vader, Luke, and R2 from the 40th anniversary vintage carded series releasing in a few months. Otherwise Kathleen Kennedy was able to make me completely give up on Star Wars with the introduction of Jake Skywalker and thus ignore most recent figure releases up until the Mandalorian actually brought Luke Skywalker back and slightly rekindled the love I’ve had for Star Wars all my life. I’m hopeful with KK’s recent situation but time will tell if Star Wars can be saved and truly bring me back.
I love a good HelloGreedo origin video. When I was about 11, I discovered TH-cam. One of the first channels I subscribed to was a little cozy community of about 100 HelloGreedo subscribers. His channel made me realize that I had the last official release of the theatrical cuts (laserdisc versions) in bonus discs of the saga. I know the quality of those suck, but they’re like gold to me-one of my most prized possessions. I’m actually rewatching the trilogy now, for the first time since Rise of Skywalker, so this video was so timely. I love how similar my childhood was to HG’s. It’s true, it’s so similar, but everything has a different name. The game I’ve logged billions of hours into is Spider-Man 2 for the original Xbox. I adopted a lot of early HG’s opinions because all that’s in my headcanon is the unaltered OT, and some other quality extended universe stories, like KOTOR and the Han Solo book trilogy by A.C. Crispin. Definitely recommend giving those a read, HG. They’re basically written for 90s OT purists like you! Love you, man. What a beautifully wonderful channel. I’m glad to still follow it after all these years.
In the early 90’s no one else knew about Star Wars at school unless they had an older brother or dad that introduced it. I was born in 85 and my dad bought the first VHS box set of the OT around 1990…I was hooked. I wanted anything Star Wars related but all that was out at the time were the Bend Em figures, SNES games, and Topps Star Wars Galaxy trading cards. So then me and my dad started going to an annual toy convention near us to try to find the original figures from the 70s /80s. We eventually got the whole set at an insanely low cost before the prices exploded when Star Wars made a huge comeback. It was an amazing time.
That was beautiful… though I was born in 2005 and never experienced that Star Wars buzz, you conveyed it beautifully, and it makes me want to experience that back in the 90s!
Great video! I also grew up with star wars in the 90s. I saw the OT over and over again. I remember the episode 1 trailer came out as a surprise at Will Smiths enemy at the gate. The time shadows of the empire came out was great. I played super star wars on the snes, shadows of the empire and rogue squadron on the N64 and dark forces 2 with mysteries of the sith expancion. And X wing alliance in 99. I think we are being spoiled with all the new stuff that comes out, i saw all the cut scenes in the games over and over again just to see a cool lightsaber battle or a new ship. But i dont think people now days have the patience to wait years for new content.
I was also a kid of the 90s and I can say that one of the earliest experiences I can remember with Star Wars was watching an old television airing of the original 1977 cut of A New Hope that my parents had recorded onto a VHS tape, but we eventually did own the official 1995 VHS boxset of the trilogy as well. I never owned the 1997 Special Editions on video at the time or really got to see them when they were in theaters. I can only remember catching a brief glimpse of '97 Return of the Jedi being played on one of the screenings while I was at a theater to see another movie (Disney's Hercules, possibly?), and I did catch them sometimes when they aired on TV. I've always known about the changes being made to the Original Trilogy since then, with only more and more with the various other re-releases over the years, so I can wholeheartedly agree when it comes to talking about the importance of wanting to preserve the original cuts of the trilogy since I'm all about preserving older media now and believe there should be no reason not to. Phantom Menace I did get to see in theaters with my mother back when it came out, and I guess I was about 11 by that point. I only missed one part of the movie in the theater when I had to go to the bathroom, and that was the scene when Qui-Gon was checking the midi-chlorians in Anakin's blood. I can say for a fact that the prequels were definitely that much hype from the start, and if I didn't already consider myself a Star Wars fan having watched the OG movies on VHS then I certainly was one during that particular period of the franchise. For me part of the hype really had to do with just how distinctly different Episode 1 looked and felt from those previous movies and wanting to see how they ultimately end up becoming them ("How is this little kid from Tatooine going to end up becoming Darth Vader?"). Phantom Menace holds the most nostalgia for me as well out of all the prequels, in part for having the most massive marketing and merchandising campaign out of all of them, and while opinions on them may have always been divisive that whole journey building up to Revenge of the Sith still felt like a special time to be in the Star Wars fandom.
Thanks for a great vid HelloGreedo! I've got around five years on you and share a lot of that same '90's Star Wars nostalgia. Heir to the Empire was the first regular novel I read and didn't finish it until my second try in sixth grade (tried first in fifth, my dad had bought the paperback at CVS) but was hooked after that. I devoured every Star Wars book I could find through the library, the old Technical Journal being a favorite. I do still have a bunch of my old SWCCG cards though I think I lost the binder with the rares during a move sometime (I miss you foil R2-D2 and the Emperor). I remember freaking out with some high school friends at the theater on Thanksgiving weekend when the Special Edition trailer played before our showing of Star Trek: First Contact (joked that it was a Lambda landing instead of the Vulcans at the end) and spending a whole Saturday at the theater with those same friends to see the whole trilogy in one go a few months later. My aunt got me my subscription to the SW Insider that Xmas and got free tickets to an early showing of Empire through it a couple months later. In high school I was the Star Wars guy in my circle of friends (we all liked Star Wars but I was THE Star Wars guy, we also had a James Bond guy [he even read the books]and an Aliens guy[who also read the novels and tech journals]). We kept trying to create a pen and paper galactic conquest game but could never agree on rules, my faction was pretty much the Galactic Empire with a different logo (got really good at drawing TIE fighters). I remember playing TIE Fighter on PC. I remember all the speculation of what the prequels were going to be towards the end of high school and seeing the Phantom Menace on two different first dates that summer before college. So many fond memories.
Born in 1989 but I watched the star wars trilogy vhs tapes so many times and I remember star wars still dominating pop culture at school. Even before the prequel announcement we were trading star wars cards and talking about star wars at school all the time as if the movies were still new.
I enjoyed your take on nineties Star Wars. You guys had it pretty good. As an OT fan, I was in my twenties in the nineties. A lot of people my age remember the nineties for the return of Star Wars and the return of KISS. There is a lot of overlap in those two fanbases.
I remember when I was little and I first saw Empire, it was absolutely stunning. It was so cool as the years went by, since I was an '05 I kind of was on the tail end of the whole "wild west" days of the internet, so I think I've at least got a glimpse of what you had. I grew up obsessing over the movies, my dad showing me his collectible figures of the original cast from the 1990s, and him introducing me to a little game called Knights of the Old Republic. It was that slow growth, that's where I felt Star Wars grew with me. As I grew up, I got to reading the old comics and books, I picked up the Obi-Wan book in my school library. Then YT Lore vids started to come into fashion, and I dove into those. It was a childhood fantasy I couldn't escape, and God do I wish I never did. The internet today has ruined a lot of that for me... and its sad to see a fandom that while somewhat divided over the prequels, be completely shattered by the post-2014 status quo of Star Wars. The last time I felt that same joy was when I got to go see The Force Awakens, and I can recall the feeling I got when I saw that first X-Wing show up. It's not perfect, hell its not very original tbh, but its a Star Wars movie I can call "mine." I grew up with it, I got to see it, and yeah its not the Star Wars I came to read about as a kid. But I don't care, it was fun and I think even with my changing opinion on TFA, that movie will still hold a place in my heart.
I do recall being able to download the Phantom Menace trailer from the Star Wars website not long after it became official, it was a relatively big deal to get the trailer in a downloadable format so quickly and in decent quality (for the time).
I was a 2000’s kid, and by the time I got into Star Wars, Episode 3 was coming out. I wouldn’t fully realize the hype Star Wars could bring until the hype Episode 7 had to it. I hope the Rey Skywalker movie brings that kind of hype for a new generation of fans (even with them growing up with the Disney+ shows).
Might as well share my memories. As a kid born in 1997, I was aware of what Star Wars was, but I didn't get into it until 2005, the year Revenge of the Sith came out in theaters. I remember seeing the TV spots, vividly remembering one of them saying, "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, Yoda vs. The Emperor, and the Wookiees vs. everything in their way." Seeing all the commercials for the toy lightsabers, including Anakin's color changing Lightsaber, commercials for color-changing Cheetos, Burger King toys, etc. Then, in the summer of 2005, My mom, my older sister and I went to a Rave Theater near the Riverchase Galleria and saw Revenge of the Sith. Seeing the Star Wars logo burst on the screen, accompanied by the iconic theme, and then seeing the words, "Episode III REVENGE OF THE SITH", it was amazing. I remember my mom shielding my eyes when Anakin became KFJ (Kentucky Fried Jedi), and then after the movie, we went home and plopped in Episode IV A New Hope on DVD that we rented from Netflix. Later that summer, when we went to my dad's house in Baltimore, she (my dad became a transgender female later on) had the Special Editions on VHS, and realized for the first time that the versions of the original trilogy that I had seen prior were altered, and I was curious to see the theatrical versions. Christmas that year was one of the best Christmases I ever had, I got Lego Star Wars The Video Game for Game Boy Advance, a generic green toy electronic lightsaber, Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Edition, and finally, Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith and the original trilogy on DVD. Later on, in 2006, Lucasfilm announced that the original trilogy would be re-released on DVD, as individual 2 disc sets, with each bonus disc containing the original theatrical versions, and I. Was. PUMPED! I actually managed to get all three of them before Christmas that year, though not at the same time. My mom got me A New Hope on the release date of September 12th. I remember waiting after school for my mom to pick me up, and when she did, I saw in my seat was A New Hope and Lego Star Wars II for GBA, as that had come out alongside the trilogy. I popped in the bonus disc in our DVD player in the car, and as I heard the opening fanfare I saw not the modern 20th Century Fox logo as I was so used to at this point, but the original Fox logo, complete with slanted zero. I then saw instead of the modern day (or at least back then) Lucasfilm logo that, again, I was so used to, the words in bright neon green, "A LUCASFILM LTD. PRODUCTION". It was pretty mind blowing to see at that age. I think I picked up Empire at a Best Buy some time later, and even more later picked up Jedi at a record store that also sold DVDs for some reason. Yes, I now know that the transfers of these films were awful, but back then, I didn't know or really cared, I just cared about the fact that I was watching the original Star Wars Trilogy in versions before the Special Editions. I remember recording Empire of Dreams back in 2005 when it re-aired on A&E, and then when I got the Original Trilogy on DVD that Christmas, and saw that the Bonus Disc had Empire of Dreams, I gave my mom the VHS tape of the A&E recording, and told her she can tape over it, because it was no longer necessary. I think she used that tape to record an episode ER. Those memories will always stick out in my mind when it comes to Star Wars. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!
I'm 7 years younger, but I remember a time before episode 1. I was still very young when it released, but I never forgot all that star wars was when it was first introduced to me as an even younger child. We had that exact same vhs box set, a few toys, and when I was 5 we went to disneyland where they had tomorrowland with star tours and space mountain. I remember my older brother would checkout a star wars novella at the library and my dad had comics from the 80s. It was just a trilogy with enough cultural impact to have a bunch of merchandise and barely canon offshoots.
I was about ten years old when “Star Wars” opened in 1977, and was lucky to be standing in the crowd just a few feet away as Darth, 3PO and R2 got their feet imprinted in cement at Graumann’s Chinese Theater, along with a few other Los Angeles neighborhood kids.
Can't remember first seeing the Phantom Menace trailer, can remember the Exchange server at work was short of disk space and somebody emailing the trailer to a mate meant it filled the disk and crashed Exhange...
My cousins possess the original Kenner Star Wars figures, and the toys that came out in the 80s and early 90s. One day they allowed me to play with them. They laid them all out in the basement living room. It was a wonderful day.
I remember seeing the re-release and TPM in a theater in California, by the time I saw the movie I was hooked, I still have the toys, comics, and games.
I was 5 when Phantom Menace came out and that is one my earliest memories seeing in the Theater. I think that was the perfect age for it to be honest. I love it even to this day.
Reminds me a lot of my time growing up with the Force Awakens. Back when a new Star Wars project felt more special because we weren’t getting something new all the time.
Born in 95 and AotC was my first Star Wars movie I saw. I know a lot people will say how unfortunate that is but as a 7 year old seeing it in IMAX, it was incredible. I never saw anything like it before. Jango Fett was my favorite Sci-Fi character and when I finally got a GameCube as my first console for Christmas 2003, Bounty Hunter was the first game I requested. Then I got 2004 box DVD of the trilogy and got hooked on it along with the Lego games. Adults who grew up with the originals won't understand it but as a kid, our first experience of anything is what carries with us.
As someone who's been with Star Wars since 1977, the 90s were the "geekiest" time for Star Wars. It was not a geeky property during the original trilogy years, it was as mainstream as can be. In the 90s, especially the early 90s, you had to put some effort into being a fan.
The extended universe really kept things going during that period. The novels were amazing, like the Zahn trilogy and the x-wing series, as well as the computer games...and they were all tied in with each other. It really was a great time to be a Star Wars fan!
I was a fan since 1984 when I saw ROTJ in the theater when I was 4 I did watch ANH and ESB to prepare
I remember crying when Anakin died first time I ever did that
And the classic "Nub nub" ewoke song that I always sang 😂
I also had star wars insider still do ❤
The 90's was really a time of uncertainty for Star Wars. We as fans were kind of marooned with the expanded universe to survive until 1999.
@@gpeaselyeah as a 80s kid I would argue that the time 86-91 really was the hardest. After ROTJ and not so far after the final issue / shut down of the Marvel Star Wars comic Star Wars really faded from mainstream into… hiatus. I would say that even in 85 it had started to cool off. So when the Heir to the Empire book landed in 91 it felt geeky still it was the first REAL Star Wars stuff that had appeared for over 5-6 years
And then the shock and dissapointment of TPM. @@SandmanGotBeer
As a 2000s kid I really enjoy your time capsule like memories may not have been completely into that lifestyle but amazing content how nostalgic .
Yeah, I'm almost exactly 10 years younger than Greedo, and I look at all this nostalgia as "the stuff the big kids were into but I wasn't allowed to touch". I was just the dumb l'il toddler while all the big kids got to play with their Pokèmon cards and extremely loud backwards hats.
@@swishfish8858 that exact sense of 'the thing the big kids are into' is sort of how we (those of us being about Greedo's age) felt about *our* older sibs and cousins etc, which is also how things like the Original Trilogy and other slightly earlier pop culture was impressed on us too. It just keeps going on that way I guess
I was an 80 star wars kid ..
I had the toys (mostly the empire) only had Obiwan, han and Leia as the good guys/rebels action figures , the death star and the boba Fett toy that shot the red laser , his slave one ship and many stormtroopers
Darth Vader, The emperor, Tarkin and a few imperial senators
Had so much fun
Still a diehard fan to this day
@@swishfish8858 I'm 2000s and I relate to like 30% of what he mentioned in the beginning
God I miss this era of Star Wars. No bullshit Internet personalities, no rumors or lies. Simpler times man…
Born in late 72, saw ANH in 78 and i still feel this cause I was a hopeless Star Wars stoner in the 90's, scouring the used bookstores for Timothy Zahn novels.
The Thrawn Trilogy
I was born in 96, but I’m in the same boat as you about Star Wars always being there, up to and including Episode 2. Episode 3 was the first “new” Star Wars movie for me, I saw it at the midnight premiere. It was a huge deal, a core memory.
Same here friend, i was born October 96, but since my father was and is a massive fan, it was only natural I was the heir to the empire.
But the difference for me was, I do remember my father playing the OT many times as a 2 and 3 year old, so when the phantom menace released, it was my first true NEW star wars experience.
I asked my dad recently if my memory was correct, and he said "damn, how do you remember all that" so I think my memory served me well 😂
But it wasn't until Ep. 2 that my hardcore Fandom sparked.
i was born in 1990 so i was 9 when the phantom menace came out, pretty much the target age george had in mind as the audience for that movie haha
Yep yep the day I went to see Star Wars Episode 3 was one of the best days of my childhood. My mom picked me up from school early to go see it. I remember running around the yard swinging a stick around pretending I was reacting that final duel and being amazed at how much I loved that movie.
I didnt realize how badly I needed to see a video like this. 90's Star Wars hit different. Had to be there.
3 things I remember about Star Wars in the 90's... seeing that first Zhan book and feeling like a person who had been wandering lost in a desert for almost a decade, without water and then finding an oasis. Watching special editions in theatres as much as humanly possible. Downloading TPM trailer, on dial up, which took all day and was the size of a postage stamp but still glorious.
I was working at the local cinema when the Phantom Menace came out. Our manager was given a very strict letter about the procedure of building the movie and screening it. He was the only one allowed to watch it. I was so pissed because that was usually my job. But I opened for the first show and he gave me a special job. I had to watch the door to make sure no one snuck in. I just sat down and watched it from beginning to end. Epic memory. When revenge of the sith came out. Our boss was out of town and had the biggest after work party for the screening. Our parking lot was packed. Nobody knew anybody there and no one paid to get in. It was insane. My friend Steven (who was also an assistant manager) was $#!+faced drunk and when Yoda pulled out the lightsaber, all you could hear was him screaming WOOOOOOO!!!
I got to work at the cinema when the TFA came out and that was a blast too. That was the first time in my small city that I got the Star Wars fandom experience. It was packed and a lot of people dressed up as characters. It was so great being a part of that magic.
Born in '85! We were so blessed to experience being a child and a teenager in the '90s
I was slightly after this era, born in 93, where my Star Wars childhood was almost entirely encompassed by the releases of the prequels. My introduction to Star Wars was seeing phantom menace in theatres and playing Episode 1: Podracer on the N64 when I around 6. By the time Revenge of the Sith came out I was obsessed. That era also saw the rise of Lego Star Wars, and the OG Star Wars: Battlefront games. It was a great time to be a Star Wars kid, especially because I was completely oblivious to whatever discourse was going on among older fans at the time.
I was born in 94, pretty much same story, podracer on n64 was fun. I used to play the original 2005 starwars battlefront 2 religiously but only on the mos eisley hero battle mode, where I could play as any of the villains I wanted and I got to choose (unlike the new battlefront 2 where it picks for you, basically if you don’t pick fast enough…) and battle the jedi, Darth maul and Darth sidious were my favorite characters. I remember seeing episode 2 and 3 in theaters.
93 same. I remember going to my local library and finding novels from the early 1980s and into the 90s. Some of the old books when the original trilogy were a trip as the writers just kinda riffed whatever they wanted in terms of story and the force
I was born in 95 and was only in the 90s for a short time, and a very young time at that, but I completely feel the nostalgia in this video (from your perspective). Camping out for the Phantom Menace must have been an awesome experience. You also capture the fandom and heart of Star Wars super well, as well as the other super cool stuff that came out or was experienceing a resurgence at that time.
As a child of the 90s, growing up in Germany, I also experienced a lot of what you are talking about. The anticipation for new content was huge! I especially remember how incredibly exciting it was to see NEW cinematic scenes being filmed for the Rebel Assault II game.
You could say it was peak Star Wars. All the games were good, cool books, the market wasn't ridiculously oversaturated so it was big news when something SW came out. No major disappointmentsnor eggs.The franchise was still oriented around the retro-futuristic aesthetic. Pretty cool times.
The formative years of my youth were the entirety of the 90s. Star Wars, then was a completely different field, vibe, and aesthetic. You have to remember that nobody had seen anything new since return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace wouldn’t come out until 99. And the old expanded universe, the old“legends”, that was just the extended lore at the time. The big threat in the galaxy was the. Yuzahn vong. Boba Fett went on to become Mandalore and lead super commandos. Han and chewie had adventures and there were 3 solo kids. Also don’t forget the first time “somehow palps returned”.
Maybe I’m just an aging nerd that is growing nostalgic, maybe I’m forgetting all the little annoying things, like arguing over which edition of the trilogy was best, and stupid stuff like Hawn shot first, or even just access to decent video games and comics. But either way , the sequels ended up expanding so much on the lore, and then the best way in my opinion. It was actually episode two attack of the clones, and the Republic commando game that got me borderline obsessive with the franchise. But I still remember and respect that original fascination, playing games like dark forces 2.
Good times, thanks for the memory trip ❤
back when the EU ruled.
@@purefoldnz3070 times were good and we didn’t know it.
We got so wrapped up in th prequels and then sequels, we forgot the simple pleasure of what we thought was a finished film series.
Tbh the writing could be terrible sometimes, but it didn’t hurt back then like it does today.
@@sneedmando186 yeah, we didnt know how good we had it.
This is such a goddamn good video. We need more Star Wars retrospectives on here because so much of the fanbase has completely forgotten or is missing context and history behind the property and what it was like to be a fan. The toxicity has overtaken any sense of logic and reason.
Star Wars in the '90s felt very big. Besides the special edition releases, most of Star Wars in that time was expanded universe in terms of books or games. There was a ton of imagination in those projects, lots of variety. The prequels resulted in way more uniformity among video games and books once they were starting to be released. It was exciting at first but it was like 5 years of Star Wars non-film content with nearly the same aesthetic. This Mandalorian/post-Rise of Skywalker era has the most comparable variety of Star Wars projects since the '90s, at least in my opinion.
Unlike HelloGreedo, my history with Star Wars is different. I didn't get into this galaxy far, far away until my Dad took me to see The Phantom Menace, way back in 1999 when I was just 6 years old. And oh boy, it changed my life forever from that point on. I was completely unaware of the hype surrounding the film at the time, so I went into it not knowing what to expect. Regardless what anyone thinks of the prequels, I still love them as much as the original trilogy. Even though my thoughts on the sequels are very mixed at best, it's never stopped me from continuing loving this franchise. Sure, there are some things better than others in canon or legends wise, but everyone is gonna have their own views on what Star Wars means to them. I really miss the 90s, and I personally prefer that time period compere to today's so called modern world. Not my cup of tea that's for sure, the last 3 years in all honesty haven't exactly been easy for me either. We all walk different paths in life for better or worse, and we each strive to achieve our goals. If I can get by without any hassle or drama, it's good enough for me.
We're the same age, and I feel you brother. I started with Greedo's same 1995 box when I was 10 years old (it was my uncle's though, not mine), so the original unaltered trilogy will always be my favorite. I did own the 04/06 DVDs with both the SE and originals, and while I've never hated the SEs (nor the prequels), I don't remember the last time I've seen one of the SEs. The sequels started promising but crashed hard with the third one... it's too bad, because had they stuck the landing, I'd take them very seriously. But I never watch them anymore and am not even sure if I consider them canon at this point. Never read Heir to the Empire or Shadows, but recently bought Splinter of The Mind's Eye and am planning on reading it soon. I agree that it's been a tough several years for both 90s babies and thirtysomething Star Wars fans in general... it's lost that "exclusive club" feeling that it had in the 90s and 00s, which Greedo refers to. Things are getting better though!
@@Austin7298 Thanks for your reply Austin! I agree on your thoughts about the Star Wars sequels. I don't necessarily hate them, I just have mixed feelings about them. Some aspects I loved, and some I didn't. When I mentioned about the last 3 years not being easy for me, I was referring to my personal life.
@@drmadstudio6441 Yes and I feel you there too. Covid lockdowns cost me a good job and then an injury a year later set me back further. Have a good job now though and am bouncing back. I don't care much for this modern world either... I miss the days of the Fall and Spring book fairs that Greedo mentioned. I clearly remember getting some books there that I had specifically seen on Between The Lions on PBS. There are plenty of benefits to the modern world though. Just recently I remembered that when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I had a specific wish that one day I could have a device that would let me select any episode of a TV show I wanted. Back then it seemed like just a pipe dream, but now we're living in the days of Netflix, Pluto, and Max.
@@Austin7298 If I could go back those simpler days with a snap of my finger I would. And if I was back in the 90s, I would certainly be able to live without things like the internet or streaming services. Most of my childhood was spend either playing video games, or watching TV channels like Cartoon Network, Toonami and Fox Kids. Haven't watched terrestrial television in 13 years now, nothing but soaps and reality shows. By the way, I'm British.
I feel bad for the ST kids that (I hope) they will completely ignore all the toxic gossip that affected anything after 2012 until today, I grew up with the original unaltered trilogy just before EP1 came out, I remember liking it even though I was confused by the dialogue, but as of 2023, I still agreed with Greedo and TPM is my favorite Prequel, out of nostalgia sake.
I'm a 70s kid so I appreciate your very personal association and fondness for the original trilogy. I remember when the first trailer for the Phantom Menace was released. People knew it was attached to certain movies and they'd buy tickets to that movie just to see the trailer. I did the same thing though at this point I don't remember what movie it was.
Leading up to it I remember when Episode 1 (yet untitled) was announced in '96. The internet was new to most of us and browser-based discussion forums were taking off. I found my home on those places and cut my internet teeth in those wonderful mid to late 90s Star Wars discussions. There were two main forums that I remember, The Jedi Council, and The Force Net. They were sort of rivals. TFN eventually won out but I always loved the Jedi Council. But the hype and speculation was off the charts. I was so hyped and excited about this movie that I ignored the obvious glaring flaws with it that I went and saw it 19 times (yes, nineteen) in the theater. I wanted to eek out every last bit of new Star Wars excitement while I could. Am I ashamed of that? No! Only losers and fake fans saw it fewer times than I did.
Nice little coincidence seeing the Star Wars Insider at 4:40 say Revenge of the Sith on the front
I wasn’t even born in the 90s but you made me feel nostalgic lmao 😂
I was privileged to be born in 95. As far back as I can remember I would watch Empire or Return of the Jedi every Saturday morning.
Being 4 years old and watching Empire, then turning on the N64 and playing the Battle of Hoth in Shadows of the Empire was crazy. I’m jealous of my younger self
Wow biggest nostalgia hit ever. Hella good intro. What I remember about ep 4 special edition coming out was not understanding what rerelease of an old movie meant. Actually thought they reshot the whole movie somehow
Dude, the Book Fair.....man, what an event that was. It was pure magic for us. It was always set up in our school library and it was like that library morphed into some other awesome, fun toy store for a week. The Book Fair is easily one of my very favorite parts about elementary school.
Hey dude! We've talked about this before, but my memories start right back in 77! I do remember my first watch of TPM trailer. The agonising wait over several hours as it downloaded on our dial up connection. Several times I tried to play what I'd got so far, only to be more frustrated at the tiny, grainy image coughing and farting along. Eventually, to avoid a phone bill going into the 100s, I left it going overnight and watched it the following morning before work. It looked so cool. I was super excited for it! It came out right around my 28th birthday and a whole gang of us went to a private midnight showing a friend of mine arranged, as he ran the projection booth at the local multiplex. The Galaxy in Luton had a glass tunnel from the car park, and we had lightsabre duels in that tunnel, 3 stories above the road. A great night
LOL, dial up connections. Those were crazy times. I remember giving up trying to load even short videos of anything because it was just soooo slooooowwww....!
18:03. Grew up around the prequels and The Clone Wars animated series and you're ABSOLUTELY right with that point!
This was very enjoyable. A lot of your experiences mirrored my own in several ways.
Phantom Menace was something I loved right away. The experience itself but the buzz, the merchandise and the kickoff that was that new era.
Great video. Thanks for making it.
Regarding the question you asked about kids these days, I may not be that but there are a lot of tidbits about 2000s - early 2010s star wars I can give. Atleast where I was the OT was far overshadowed by prequel content for a multitude of reasons, be it the 2003 clone wars, the LEGO and Action figure stopmotion videos that exploded around this time, the LEGO sets and firues released around the time and later on the clone wars tv show. This isn't to say the OT was nonexistant but it was certaintly overshadowed by kids imagining giant battles of clones and jedi against the forces of the CIS. At the time I became a sort of lore junkie flicking through wookiepeida, watching lore videos and really wanting to get my hands on Star Wars games that released at the time. The aesthetics of that pre disney period are burned into my core be it the gritty look of something like Republic Commando or the Force Unleashed games and comics like the Republic/order 66 series. There was the more pure fantasy kind of look youd get out of Jedi Outcast/academy games and BF1. And theres just the sillyness of playing with figures and LEGO sets of the time and imagining sprawling setpieces with your friends. If theres one thing I look back on really foundly its the roleplay products, I owned this clone voice changer helmet and a clone trooper nerf gun and some of my friends would buy lightsabers, just the imagination is sparked when bringing it to a park or some local woods. I could go on and on about the things that went on as a star wars fan back then and like you said im not saying its better than anyone elses just a unique capsule. For all I know there are probably kids having the same experiences but pretending to be the Mandalorian or some of the sequel characters. And while im not too keen on the current state of the fanbase its still important to recognise that as long as you find something then alls well and good.
Just found this video. Born in '87. There isn't a single thing in this, mentioned or shown, that didn't connect with me personally. Deeply shared human experiences. Thanks for this.
Born in '95, I feel like I was among the last generation of kids to grow up in the age before information overload and overexposure, where your individual experience of Star Wars was only briefly punctuated with a magazine feature or new trailer for The Phantom Menace. I remember online fandom gaining more ground and slowly entering this whole new world that people are simply born into now. While it was cool to experience that transition, it is still useful to remind yourself from time to time that you don't constantly need to be plugged into the hivemind of talking heads. There is a lot of value in simply digesting your own experience for a while.
I’m a year ahead of you and this encapsulated that era perfectly. Great job.
"I'm not saying the 90s were better than any other decade"
I dunno man: I'm a bit older. By January 1990, I was already 12. I lived through the 80s like you lived through the 90s, and I even have personal memories of the very early 80s that were a bit like the 70s.
The '90s really began when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989 and only truly ended on September 11th, 2001. It was America's vacation. I saw, very, very vaguely, the '70s. I absolutely saw the '80s. And I saw the 2000s, the 2010s, and beyond to today.
The 90s? They were f'n cool, man. The absolute best.
tu mejor video hasta la fecha amigo, saludos de un tipo que también creció viendo también la trilogía del 1997 en el cine. un abrazo desde Paraguay.
I had a very similar experience growing up. My dad showed me the Original Trilogy (and especially his OT books, with computer audio/visual guides to back them up), and his old 80s action figure collection. I think the Clone Wars played a huge part in my interest in Star Wars; Anakin was relatable to me, and the clone troopers were something to aspire to--plus the vast interworkings of the Galactic Army, the Empire, the Rebel Alliance and the Separatists and just the world of the galaxy as a whole fascinated me to no end. There were thousands of toys, and millions of AMVs, toy reviews, LEGO MOCs, collector scene arrangements and stop motion animation videos to keep my young mind interested, inspired and engaged. Star Wars didn't change. It just evolved.
Wow, all I can say is…thank you for this. I’m one year older than you and you absolutely captured EVERY element of my childhood RE Star Wars. I can say with certainty that we would have been best buds ❤
When there was only one trilogy and that one was universally loved, it made things a lot simpler
Yeah, the more you expand a franchise… the more fans you attract… the more fans you attract, the bigger the discourse.
It's uncanny how much this video describes my childhood exactly. Thank you for being such a beacon of sanity within this fanbase.
Great video HG! I was born in 95 and surprisingly I do remember a little bit of 99. Star Wars was always there for me. We had the special edition 97 on VHS and we had A New Hope on a loop. Funny enough, The Phantom Menace was one of the first movie theater experiences I remember. Darth Maul scared the crap out of me! I remember that Christmas, my brother and I got so much Phantom Menace stuff. I had Qui Gon's lightsaber, a Naboo Straighter, action figures, etc. I even remember the Phantom Menace Pepsi Machines lol oh to be a kid again
Beautifully said and done, Greedo! As someone born the year of the Return of the Jedi, this video was my childhood. One of my fondest memories is living with my family at an apartment complex, and every weekend, my friends and I would play Super Star Wars on the SNES, not to beat the game (though we tried, without a game genie), but to see how far we could get.
It's neat to hear the perspectives of older fans and their reverance for the OT, sometimes i wish i shared the same reverance and grew up with that era of lore bc the asthetic and atmosphere of the old EU, to me, has this really neat rustic/grimy/open fronteir feeling, basically the idea of an endless outer rim sparsely patrolled by the oppressive empire, a swath of space where you could hop between remote planets and settle at stations or in the wilderness in your junky freightor or ship. Being born in 02 my introduction to star wars propper was return of the jedi and then ANH, EST , and the phantom menace. I remember liking ROTJ but even as a kid I found more wonder and awe in ANH and EST. Then sometime before or during kindergarten or first grade I saw AOTC and man did that one captivate me. The universe of star wars just seemed to have its borders expanded to an incomprehensible length, more specifically inward toward the core with politics and interplanetary relations, that's really where the franchise captivated my imagination and felt more real and a bit less mythic. My experience with older EU content was limited so my entirety of engagement and knowledge of star wars came from the movies and the clone wars TV show and some TH-cam amvs of the 2003 tartokovsky clone wars series. I still remember the first time seeing revenge of the sith, our neighbor lent us the DVD from his huge wall of movies, and I was still entertained but less captivated. There's something special about episodes 2 and 4 for me and I'm pretty sure it's the world building. Imo those two films due the majority of the legwork for expanding the universe while leaving a lot of room for imagination. The clone action figures also stimulated my imagination and head cannon, imagining what systems and environments these different clone legions and units were stationed on. What their battles or seizes were like, what unique gear or vehicles they used, what unique wildlife or citizens they encountered, what their rations and downtime looked like and how they regarded their jedi generals. It all felt very real but vague to me and that's what really captured me. I also had similar thoughts about stormtroopers and their deployments. I never had a friend growing up that was into star wars like I was so alot of the universe really was my head Canon and and I loved it. That's my small love letter to the franchise anyway. I'm sure there's others with similar experiences.
"the asthetic and atmosphere of the old EU, to me, has this really neat rustic/grimy/open fronteir feeling, basically the idea of an endless outer rim sparsely patrolled by the oppressive empire, a swath of space where you could hop between remote planets and settle at stations or in the wilderness in your junky freightor or ship"
Oh man, you managed to nail perfectly what drew me to Star Wars and the EU at the time!
weird how you say attack of the clones is the one that capitvated you, that movie came out when i was 11 and i fucking hated it, saw it in the theater with my grandpa.
@@KySparkz yeah I was pretty young at the time of exposure, like 6 or 7 years old when I saw it on vhs. It probably also helped that the clone wars TV show would come out shortly after and I'd see bits and pieces of the 2003 tartakovsky clone wars series on TH-cam. The diolouge is abysmal for the most part and there's some plot holes or confusing decisions fs but I still really do enjoy the world building and spectacle of AOTC.
Man we’re the same age and I also grew up in GA, just middle GA. This was my childhood to a T. Great job encapsulating the ‘90s for Star Wars fans.
2000s here. I remember a lot of the same emotions. Secretly borrowing my friends copy of Battlefront 2 on the ps2, discussing whether or not Mace Windu survived at lunch with friends, whether Jango Fett was better or not than Boba. We loved doing massive lightsaber fights in the backyard and all over our neighborhood street, sometimes spanning acres of back and front yards! We all had an understanding that imaginary force powers totally counted. We also had rules for ranks and how to progress from "padawan" to "knight" to "master".
Thanks for sharing the video. This was nice.
Ahh the nostalgia. POTF2, Star Wars insider, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, the Star Wars Encyclopedia on CD Rom.... I miss the good old days! Thanks for taking us back down memory lane!
This video released Serotonin levels in my brain I haven’t felt in a LONG TIME. thank you brother.
As a fellow 90s Star Wars fan, I do sometimes miss that feeling of being one of the few. We were an endangered species. But the loneliness sometimes felt good.
You just described my childhood. Thank you for taking me down Memory Lane.
Born in '96, I grew up the prequels
I remember playing battlefront and battlefront 2 on the ps2 with friends, having lightsaber battles in the streets and in the school playgorund. I remember getting a 2 part "Every Star Wars Character" dvd in the newspaper just before ep3 came out and watching it to death, the second part had behinds the scene on ROTS and I devoured it all
But my favourite memory, was going home for lunch on a Wednesday afternoon from school, and watching Attack of the Clones with my dad and baby brother
That’s pretty much how it was for me as well growing up in the 90s as a Star Wars fan. Thanks for the nostalgia.
ahhh bro! you’re a couple of years older than me and this vid gave me SO many memories! Star Wars changed my life
Wow, beautiful video. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Really similar experience to yours, but my major Star Wars media consisted of The Visual Dictionary, Dark Forces (and Jedi Knight: DF2), Rogue Squadron, and the Phantom Menace.
Thank you for making such an eloquent window into an era long past. Awesome times indeed
Being a fan in the '90s was looking at The Jawa Trader in your latest Star Wars Insider, in total awe of all the neat decorations you could never afford (especially Han in carbonite).
Your intro was my childhood down to a tee. Born 84 raised in the 90s ❤
Man your video absolutely resonate with me, it was really the same for me in the 90s in france. I miss these days, maybe we just miss being a kid.
Born in 2001 and I’ve been a Star Wars fan since 2004 after being introduced to it by my aunt. A year later, I became a die hard fan and bought a lot of the action figures. I never saw Revenge of the Sith in theaters but I did watch the hell out of it on a bootleg. Also, that same year I had a Star Wars birthday party.
Early to mid 90s were a blast. Super Star Wars on the SNES, widescreen VHS tapes, some great books, Euro Disney with its "Star Tours" ride, feeling like an outcast. Great stuff!
Hello Greedo, well said. For me, at 13 I saw “Star Wars” (that’s what we called Ep IV then) in the theatre. Yup, lined up for three hours to see it May 25, 1977 - and man was my Dad pissed! But, I saw it. I’m not sure how many times I saw it that summer, I think it’s like 15, but it was almost like a weekly ritual. And in terms of anticipation, that was “The Empire Strikes Back”. I remember seeing the first tailer at movies, and thought, man this is gonna be epic! There was no internet then, we had to go to the local comic store, or, better yet, Silver Snail in downtown Toronto. They had everything - Starlog, Fangora, Cinefex, and more. That’s how we learned of the Star Wars info. Later, I was a member of the LucasFilm Fan Club, and got the monthly magazine. In the mail. Talk about anticipation….
I was born in 1989 and my experience was almost identical to yours, despite the age gap. You really captured what 90's OT Star Wars was like. The head-cannons me and my friends would come up with pretending, playing with toys, or even video games felt so fun and grandiose. Growing up with that "personal" Star Wars was very special to me. Of course think it was also because I was a kid, and experiences like that aren't exclusive to me, Star Wars, or any time period as you said. I definitely saw the same thing with the kids who grew up with the prequels and The Clone Wars.
I would be lying if I said it didn't annoy me a little bit that Disney owns Star Wars now, or that I liked the sequel trilogy; but outside of most of the movies the other things that have come out are stuff we would've gone bonkers for, and I enjoy them. And I certainly don't want to imply it means that the kids who are growing up with, and people who liked the sequels aren't "real" Star Wars fans.
Great video. I appreciate that you see through the toxic bullshit, and I wouldn't worry too much about all the kids now growing up with it. Every generation has gross, toxic behavior and attitudes, and every generation has a lot of people who saw through it.
Man, this really took me back in time. Great video HG!
Every post, every vid, always a banger thank you.
Born in 1992, watched the OT with the 1997 specials VHS set, and then the magic of the PT and the world expansion that was on full display made being a Star Wars fan at the time a really magical period
I may have never gotten a chance to experience the original movies or even all the prequels, except for episode 3. But I was also 3 when ROTS came out. I grew up watching Star Wars because of Legos and my brother got a DVD set of the original movies and I didn’t care at first, but when he showed me A New Hope. I felt the magic and love for Star Wars, while just sleeping on my dad’s legs as he’s asleep. My brother had wait a bit with Empire Strikes Back just because he wanted me to experience waiting for Star Wars. We just watched in a hotel on this big tv and I just loved it, then it happened again in Return of the Jedi. I was obsessed, playing Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, getting a bunch of Lego sets, action figures, and watching Clone Wars. I always wondered if they would do sequels and to my surprise I remember being in Sri Lanka and my brother showed me the first teaser of The Force Awakens and all the build up was worth it. Later on I was having a tough time in school and Rogue One was coming out and my aunt took me to the movie and it made me so happy. I made great friends watching The Last Jedi and it even cheered me up when I lost my grandma and a best friend that same year. I never went online until Rise of Skywalker, I never realized there was that much hate because to me I still loved them. I’m still more of an original trilogy Star Wars fan, but I will say for certain that The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi are special to me. Even the anticipation for TROS despite being a little disappointed for me anyways was special. I still eagerly wait for the movies and as much as I love the shows, the movies will always hold a deep meaning to my heart because they remind me of my childhood. Going from getting multiple Lego Star Wars sets, Lego Star Wars games, plastic lightsabers, playing the Fallen Order games, and buying a bunch of action figures and making new friends when dressing up and just discussing it all without the mention of Star Wars TH-cam channels. Star Wars still no matter what will always be a part of my heart. I’m excited for the Ahsoka show and I definitely Star Wars is slowly going into it’s more creative renaissance that hopefully we will get that feel again despite what the internet has been. Thank you HelloGreedo for reminding me more about why Star Wars is special to me.
8:38 “Do you remember the SW Collectable Card Game?”
_looks at the four decks sitting on the shelf next to my office desk_
“Perhaps.”
Your ‘99, was my ‘05. 9 year old me, was so inundated with everything Star Wars. I got as much of the books, the games, and action figures leading up to the release of RotS. Replaying the old phantom menace PS1 game, and the Jedi games, and playing with “Attacktix” at school with my friends, after seeing RotS. So much nostalgia for that time in my life.
6:33 SAME!! I remember my dad had this one super shiny chrome flashlight that to me resembled a lightsaber and I would try to make “blades” for it using paper, markers, and tape. Toilet rolls were too thick for light from the flashlight to shine thru. When the Power of the Force ROTJ Luke lightsaber released, it was TOPS on my Christmas list!
That said, Star Wars toys had JUST been taken off shelves when I became old enough to start playing with action figures. I didn’t even know Star Wars toys existed since I had never seen them. The VERY first Star Wars toys released were those Micro Machines vehicles and play sets that folded up into different character busts. My favorite was the Darth Vader/ Cloud City (Vader vs Luke plus Han in Carbonite chamber that had the frozen Han that raised and lowered and had the breakaway window you could hit Luke thru with a large debris chunk. When the Power of the Force figs were announced, EVERY other toy took a back seat. I stopped collecting X-men, Batman, Ninja Turtles, etc and focused EXCLUSIVELY on Star Wars figs from then until Attack of the Clones because I wasn’t a fan of the play gimmicks they had. Eventually only got two Revenge of the Sith figs, a promo emperor from a friend that worked at Toys r Us as well as the “battle damaged” (burned up) Anakin figure with removable limbs that was quickly discontinued due to parents being upset. That was the end of my Star Wars fig collecting until rather recently my acquisition of very selective Black Series figures. Currently only plan to acquire the new Vader, Luke, and R2 from the 40th anniversary vintage carded series releasing in a few months. Otherwise Kathleen Kennedy was able to make me completely give up on Star Wars with the introduction of Jake Skywalker and thus ignore most recent figure releases up until the Mandalorian actually brought Luke Skywalker back and slightly rekindled the love I’ve had for Star Wars all my life. I’m hopeful with KK’s recent situation but time will tell if Star Wars can be saved and truly bring me back.
3:57 I hear ya on that. I'm only a few years older than you. I was gestating when Return of the Jedi first came out in theaters. 90s kids!
As a late 2000's early 2010's Star Wars fan, it was interesting to see how different it was for you.
I love a good HelloGreedo origin video. When I was about 11, I discovered TH-cam. One of the first channels I subscribed to was a little cozy community of about 100 HelloGreedo subscribers. His channel made me realize that I had the last official release of the theatrical cuts (laserdisc versions) in bonus discs of the saga. I know the quality of those suck, but they’re like gold to me-one of my most prized possessions. I’m actually rewatching the trilogy now, for the first time since Rise of Skywalker, so this video was so timely. I love how similar my childhood was to HG’s. It’s true, it’s so similar, but everything has a different name. The game I’ve logged billions of hours into is Spider-Man 2 for the original Xbox. I adopted a lot of early HG’s opinions because all that’s in my headcanon is the unaltered OT, and some other quality extended universe stories, like KOTOR and the Han Solo book trilogy by A.C. Crispin. Definitely recommend giving those a read, HG. They’re basically written for 90s OT purists like you! Love you, man. What a beautifully wonderful channel. I’m glad to still follow it after all these years.
Same here man. 13 when Phantom Menace came out. That was a good time in my life. Thanks for the memories.
In the early 90’s no one else knew about Star Wars at school unless they had an older brother or dad that introduced it. I was born in 85 and my dad bought the first VHS box set of the OT around 1990…I was hooked.
I wanted anything Star Wars related but all that was out at the time were the Bend Em figures, SNES games, and Topps Star Wars Galaxy trading cards.
So then me and my dad started going to an annual toy convention near us to try to find the original figures from the 70s /80s. We eventually got the whole set at an insanely low cost before the prices exploded when Star Wars made a huge comeback. It was an amazing time.
I read Heir to the Empire on my way home from high school on the city bus every day. That was a great way to pass that time in ‘94.
That was beautiful… though I was born in 2005 and never experienced that Star Wars buzz, you conveyed it beautifully, and it makes me want to experience that back in the 90s!
Great video! I also grew up with star wars in the 90s. I saw the OT over and over again. I remember the episode 1 trailer came out as a surprise at Will Smiths enemy at the gate. The time shadows of the empire came out was great. I played super star wars on the snes, shadows of the empire and rogue squadron on the N64 and dark forces 2 with mysteries of the sith expancion. And X wing alliance in 99. I think we are being spoiled with all the new stuff that comes out, i saw all the cut scenes in the games over and over again just to see a cool lightsaber battle or a new ship. But i dont think people now days have the patience to wait years for new content.
This was excellent man, and freaking spot on. Thank you! Subscribed!
Thanks!
I was also a kid of the 90s and I can say that one of the earliest experiences I can remember with Star Wars was watching an old television airing of the original 1977 cut of A New Hope that my parents had recorded onto a VHS tape, but we eventually did own the official 1995 VHS boxset of the trilogy as well.
I never owned the 1997 Special Editions on video at the time or really got to see them when they were in theaters. I can only remember catching a brief glimpse of '97 Return of the Jedi being played on one of the screenings while I was at a theater to see another movie (Disney's Hercules, possibly?), and I did catch them sometimes when they aired on TV. I've always known about the changes being made to the Original Trilogy since then, with only more and more with the various other re-releases over the years, so I can wholeheartedly agree when it comes to talking about the importance of wanting to preserve the original cuts of the trilogy since I'm all about preserving older media now and believe there should be no reason not to.
Phantom Menace I did get to see in theaters with my mother back when it came out, and I guess I was about 11 by that point. I only missed one part of the movie in the theater when I had to go to the bathroom, and that was the scene when Qui-Gon was checking the midi-chlorians in Anakin's blood. I can say for a fact that the prequels were definitely that much hype from the start, and if I didn't already consider myself a Star Wars fan having watched the OG movies on VHS then I certainly was one during that particular period of the franchise. For me part of the hype really had to do with just how distinctly different Episode 1 looked and felt from those previous movies and wanting to see how they ultimately end up becoming them ("How is this little kid from Tatooine going to end up becoming Darth Vader?"). Phantom Menace holds the most nostalgia for me as well out of all the prequels, in part for having the most massive marketing and merchandising campaign out of all of them, and while opinions on them may have always been divisive that whole journey building up to Revenge of the Sith still felt like a special time to be in the Star Wars fandom.
I’m the same age as you; that intro was perfect! You described life perfectly
Thanks for a great vid HelloGreedo! I've got around five years on you and share a lot of that same '90's Star Wars nostalgia. Heir to the Empire was the first regular novel I read and didn't finish it until my second try in sixth grade (tried first in fifth, my dad had bought the paperback at CVS) but was hooked after that. I devoured every Star Wars book I could find through the library, the old Technical Journal being a favorite. I do still have a bunch of my old SWCCG cards though I think I lost the binder with the rares during a move sometime (I miss you foil R2-D2 and the Emperor). I remember freaking out with some high school friends at the theater on Thanksgiving weekend when the Special Edition trailer played before our showing of Star Trek: First Contact (joked that it was a Lambda landing instead of the Vulcans at the end) and spending a whole Saturday at the theater with those same friends to see the whole trilogy in one go a few months later. My aunt got me my subscription to the SW Insider that Xmas and got free tickets to an early showing of Empire through it a couple months later. In high school I was the Star Wars guy in my circle of friends (we all liked Star Wars but I was THE Star Wars guy, we also had a James Bond guy [he even read the books]and an Aliens guy[who also read the novels and tech journals]). We kept trying to create a pen and paper galactic conquest game but could never agree on rules, my faction was pretty much the Galactic Empire with a different logo (got really good at drawing TIE fighters). I remember playing TIE Fighter on PC. I remember all the speculation of what the prequels were going to be towards the end of high school and seeing the Phantom Menace on two different first dates that summer before college.
So many fond memories.
Born in 1989 but I watched the star wars trilogy vhs tapes so many times and I remember star wars still dominating pop culture at school. Even before the prequel announcement we were trading star wars cards and talking about star wars at school all the time as if the movies were still new.
We had such similar childhoods. I was also 13 when TPM came out. The hype was unreal! 💖
I enjoyed your take on nineties Star Wars. You guys had it pretty good. As an OT fan, I was in my twenties in the nineties. A lot of people my age remember the nineties for the return of Star Wars and the return of KISS. There is a lot of overlap in those two fanbases.
Thank you for this video Greedo.It’s a nice nostalgia trip into my childhood
I remember when I was little and I first saw Empire, it was absolutely stunning. It was so cool as the years went by, since I was an '05 I kind of was on the tail end of the whole "wild west" days of the internet, so I think I've at least got a glimpse of what you had. I grew up obsessing over the movies, my dad showing me his collectible figures of the original cast from the 1990s, and him introducing me to a little game called Knights of the Old Republic. It was that slow growth, that's where I felt Star Wars grew with me. As I grew up, I got to reading the old comics and books, I picked up the Obi-Wan book in my school library. Then YT Lore vids started to come into fashion, and I dove into those. It was a childhood fantasy I couldn't escape, and God do I wish I never did. The internet today has ruined a lot of that for me... and its sad to see a fandom that while somewhat divided over the prequels, be completely shattered by the post-2014 status quo of Star Wars. The last time I felt that same joy was when I got to go see The Force Awakens, and I can recall the feeling I got when I saw that first X-Wing show up. It's not perfect, hell its not very original tbh, but its a Star Wars movie I can call "mine." I grew up with it, I got to see it, and yeah its not the Star Wars I came to read about as a kid. But I don't care, it was fun and I think even with my changing opinion on TFA, that movie will still hold a place in my heart.
I do recall being able to download the Phantom Menace trailer from the Star Wars website not long after it became official, it was a relatively big deal to get the trailer in a downloadable format so quickly and in decent quality (for the time).
I was a 2000’s kid, and by the time I got into Star Wars, Episode 3 was coming out. I wouldn’t fully realize the hype Star Wars could bring until the hype Episode 7 had to it. I hope the Rey Skywalker movie brings that kind of hype for a new generation of fans (even with them growing up with the Disney+ shows).
This was great! I love that drawing young you did of Link.
the introduction to the video was really well writen and edited
thanks man!
Dark Forces, Dark Forces II, Outcast played for hours during summer of ‘03 on a 56k modem… 😢 simpler times.
Might as well share my memories. As a kid born in 1997, I was aware of what Star Wars was, but I didn't get into it until 2005, the year Revenge of the Sith came out in theaters. I remember seeing the TV spots, vividly remembering one of them saying, "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, Yoda vs. The Emperor, and the Wookiees vs. everything in their way." Seeing all the commercials for the toy lightsabers, including Anakin's color changing Lightsaber, commercials for color-changing Cheetos, Burger King toys, etc. Then, in the summer of 2005, My mom, my older sister and I went to a Rave Theater near the Riverchase Galleria and saw Revenge of the Sith. Seeing the Star Wars logo burst on the screen, accompanied by the iconic theme, and then seeing the words, "Episode III REVENGE OF THE SITH", it was amazing. I remember my mom shielding my eyes when Anakin became KFJ (Kentucky Fried Jedi), and then after the movie, we went home and plopped in Episode IV A New Hope on DVD that we rented from Netflix. Later that summer, when we went to my dad's house in Baltimore, she (my dad became a transgender female later on) had the Special Editions on VHS, and realized for the first time that the versions of the original trilogy that I had seen prior were altered, and I was curious to see the theatrical versions. Christmas that year was one of the best Christmases I ever had, I got Lego Star Wars The Video Game for Game Boy Advance, a generic green toy electronic lightsaber, Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Edition, and finally, Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith and the original trilogy on DVD. Later on, in 2006, Lucasfilm announced that the original trilogy would be re-released on DVD, as individual 2 disc sets, with each bonus disc containing the original theatrical versions, and I. Was. PUMPED! I actually managed to get all three of them before Christmas that year, though not at the same time. My mom got me A New Hope on the release date of September 12th. I remember waiting after school for my mom to pick me up, and when she did, I saw in my seat was A New Hope and Lego Star Wars II for GBA, as that had come out alongside the trilogy. I popped in the bonus disc in our DVD player in the car, and as I heard the opening fanfare I saw not the modern 20th Century Fox logo as I was so used to at this point, but the original Fox logo, complete with slanted zero. I then saw instead of the modern day (or at least back then) Lucasfilm logo that, again, I was so used to, the words in bright neon green, "A LUCASFILM LTD. PRODUCTION". It was pretty mind blowing to see at that age. I think I picked up Empire at a Best Buy some time later, and even more later picked up Jedi at a record store that also sold DVDs for some reason. Yes, I now know that the transfers of these films were awful, but back then, I didn't know or really cared, I just cared about the fact that I was watching the original Star Wars Trilogy in versions before the Special Editions. I remember recording Empire of Dreams back in 2005 when it re-aired on A&E, and then when I got the Original Trilogy on DVD that Christmas, and saw that the Bonus Disc had Empire of Dreams, I gave my mom the VHS tape of the A&E recording, and told her she can tape over it, because it was no longer necessary. I think she used that tape to record an episode ER. Those memories will always stick out in my mind when it comes to Star Wars. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!
I'm 7 years younger, but I remember a time before episode 1. I was still very young when it released, but I never forgot all that star wars was when it was first introduced to me as an even younger child. We had that exact same vhs box set, a few toys, and when I was 5 we went to disneyland where they had tomorrowland with star tours and space mountain. I remember my older brother would checkout a star wars novella at the library and my dad had comics from the 80s. It was just a trilogy with enough cultural impact to have a bunch of merchandise and barely canon offshoots.
I was about ten years old when “Star Wars” opened in 1977, and was lucky to be standing in the crowd just a few feet away as Darth, 3PO and R2 got their feet imprinted in cement at Graumann’s Chinese Theater, along with a few other Los Angeles neighborhood kids.
"I remember being scared of IG-88"
Oh man, I actually shuddered when you said that. Same, dude.
This is incredible! THANK YOU!!
Good old 90s
Love your video on the subject. Hit the nail on the head 🔨
Ps nice tk bucket 😊
This is absolutely crazy. My story? Is absolutely identical to his! Down to the age, everything. This was my exact story too
Can't remember first seeing the Phantom Menace trailer, can remember the Exchange server at work was short of disk space and somebody emailing the trailer to a mate meant it filled the disk and crashed Exhange...
My cousins possess the original Kenner Star Wars figures, and the toys that came out in the 80s and early 90s. One day they allowed me to play with them. They laid them all out in the basement living room. It was a wonderful day.
I can relate to so much of this. Excellent video.
I remember seeing the re-release and TPM in a theater in California, by the time I saw the movie I was hooked, I still have the toys, comics, and games.
I was 5 when Phantom Menace came out and that is one my earliest memories seeing in the Theater. I think that was the perfect age for it to be honest. I love it even to this day.
Reminds me a lot of my time growing up with the Force Awakens. Back when a new Star Wars project felt more special because we weren’t getting something new all the time.
Glad to see Gen Z fans of the series!
Growing up with Force Awakens? Jesus, what are you, 12?
@@adriantrusca1245 17
@@adriantrusca1245If they were 12 when the Force Awakens came out, they’d be 20 now. Soon 21. 🤷🏼♂️
This was a really special video. Thank you.
Born in 95 and AotC was my first Star Wars movie I saw. I know a lot people will say how unfortunate that is but as a 7 year old seeing it in IMAX, it was incredible. I never saw anything like it before. Jango Fett was my favorite Sci-Fi character and when I finally got a GameCube as my first console for Christmas 2003, Bounty Hunter was the first game I requested. Then I got 2004 box DVD of the trilogy and got hooked on it along with the Lego games. Adults who grew up with the originals won't understand it but as a kid, our first experience of anything is what carries with us.