I’m from Northern Kentucky and my grandma worked at Kenner: Some of my earliest memories is of my grandma bringing me a Star Wars figure straight from the factory; they wouldn’t be in a box, just in a small, sealed plastic bag. I miss that so much. Makes me feel so lucky.
@@cybergrindin haha. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it. She couldn't get away with that now. Back in the day it was easier to take a "little bonus" that you deserved, that your boss had neglected to reward you with.
Epic: "I'd take Han Solo and put him in a cup of water and freeze him over night"... I can't recall how many times me and my cousin (who just passed away in June of this year from Multiple sclerosis) did just that. This brought back my childhood and the fondest memories of my best friend and cousin. I thought we were the only ones freezing Han, it is fun to find out that many others were enjoying the Star Wars universe exactly as we were. Thank you.
Sorry for the loss of your cousin. Seems that you two had some awesome times together. Playing with the Star Wars figures were some of the greatest times of my life. My friends and I spent countless hours playing with them. I have so many, many wonderful, awesome memories of playing with them. May your cousin soar with the angels. 🙏
I lived in Loveland, Ohio at the time. (1975-1994) A lot of our neighbors worked for Kenner and General Mills. My friends whose fathers worked at Kenner got proto-types and other unreleased toys. Of course I was jealous but looking back it was still great just to touch a rocket firing Boba Fett as a 10 year old! Great memories of Children’s Palace, Gold Circle and Toys ‘r Us…friends, family and awesome times. Thank you, it’s much appreciated.
This was a awesome story. Thank you for sharing it with us. I lived a bit north west of you. Milwaukee, Wisconsin to be exact. I remember waiting in line to see the first Star Wars movie. It completely blew my mind! I was only 9 years old at that time. I remember later on when the figures FINALLY came out. I got the C3PO and R2-D2 figures. I thought that my parents had ordered the Christmas set, or the "Early Bird" special? Either way the next few years were absolutely amazing and exciting fun for kids! All of the figures, the playsets, the ships! I remember getting Luke's Landspeeder first, then the Cantina Playset, then the X-Wing fighter and the Tie Fighter. I really had wanted the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star Playset that year, but I could only have one of them. I chose the Death Star set. So many different toys. I got the Cloud City ship after the Empire Strikes Back came out and the Battle of Hoth playset. Wow thinking back I had some great memories of not just playing with the toys, but finding the figure that you've been searching for, or that one item you really wanted. For me it was the Jawa action figure. That little fella was so like Bigfoot. You'd hear about people seeing one, but when you got there, nothing. Toys R Us didn't have any, Target, K-Mart, none of the retailers on South 27th Street had them. However there was one other Toy Store called Toy Country USA. It was also on 27th Street, just past Ramsey Avenue and next to Red Carpet Lanes-South. Our 🎳🎳Bowling🎳🎳 center. Next to it was a family owned toy store. The owner was a wonderful man. He also had a family and kids who loved Star Wars too. One day after dinner my Mom and Dad said let's stop over at Toy Country and see what they have. Who knows you might find your little alien or whatever the name is....... My Mom never knew the names of the aliens. She called Chewbacca the big hairy thing...lol. Little did I know, but the owner had called my Mom and told her that they had come in. My Mom and Dad were so cool. They told him to save a couple and we'd be in after supper. I walked in and the owner looked at me and shrugged. Then he said that he had a new display stand for the figures and that I should check it out, especially the top row. Why I asked? He took me over to the display. It was one where each row spun around 360⁰ separately. I looked around and he nudged me again check the top row, and sure enough there hanging on the metal bar was a Jawa, no two Jawas, wait there were 5 Jawas! I was so excited! I remember hugging the owner, then my Mom and Dad! I had my allowance money ready to get two of them. My Mom told me she'd buy me one, and my Dad said he'd get me one. I had four of them for my playsets. I only got multiple figures on very few of them. The Stormtroopers was the biggest one. The Tusken Raider was another. Lastly was the Jawa. Later I got a couple Snowtroopers. Those little figures were my new fantasy world. Before that it was the Mego Superheroes that were my favorites. Whether it was Mego, Kenner, or Mattel those three companies had given me so many great memories! I recently learned that my health really took a potentially bad turn. I learned that my Bile Duct was inflamed and my blood wasn't "normal". I just had a colonoscopy and they found and removed 10 polyps during the test that they sent for a biopsy. Over the last couple of weeks my emotions have been a 🎢🎢rollercoaster🎢🎢 . Up and down, high and low. Now until I know 100% for sure about whether or not things have gotten worse. I already have emphysema and heart disease. I'm not going to freak out. These videos about childhood toys, bring back some wonderful memories. So again I want to thank you for sharing this with us. Whatever the outcome will be, I want to enjoy this opportunity for life. So thank you again and God Bless you all and your families as well. Take care of each other and have a blessed day.
HA! My grandparents lived in Loveland! I've lived in the Cincinnati area my entire life. It seems like there was always someone nearby somehow connected to Kenner (people at school...people at church...etc.). One of my teachers had a friend who worked at Kenner and she brought in a couple of prototype toys for us to play with and provide feedback on. Good times!
Greetings to all Star Wars Collectors out there! The Kenner Line means so much to me and this Movie brings it all up again. Stefan, 8thies Kid from Berlin
It's really hard to overstate just how HUGE Star Wars was when it first came out. It didn't just become a part of pop culture, it WAS pop culture (I consider 1977 to be the start of modern pop culture. Star Wars, the Atari 2600, the first adaptation of The Hobbit, the Apple II and PET computers). Until the mid 80's, every kid in the US was quoting the movies and everyone was talking about it. It gave us possibly the single greatest movie villain of all time, and all these years later, not only do the original films still hold up, they still make new ones along with live action and animated shows. It's kind of mind blowing really.
Yes, it was HUGE. I was born in 1970. Looking back on it now, I realize I came into this world at just the right time to get maximum enjoyment out of everything Star Wars. The movies were iconic but those Star Wars toys were really something so special. I still remember those huge store displays with dozens of action figures.
Great documentary. 51 year old nerd in northern sweden here. I became a hardcore Star Wars fan the second I saw pictures from the movie back in 77-78. My first figures were C3PO and Tusken Raider (then referred to as Sandpeople). Still have them in my collection which just grew over the decades. Kind of glad the prequels saturated my interest and I could leave collecting behind. Atari 2600, Star Wars, Jaws, E.T., and Raiders of the lost Ark defined my childhood and friendships. Our culture for better and worse :D
To a Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy as well as the Kenner toys, especially figures, I am always getting quite misty eyed when watching this - what I think is the most wonderful - videos on YT. Great memories, and I am immensely thankful that I was a kid during these times. The original Star Wars is burned in my heart. Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen working at Kenner, for creating and manufacturing such wonderful toys. Luckily, Custom toy makers like Stan Solo Creations, The Next 17, Trash Compactor and others keep the vintage Star Wars toy line alive, as does Hasbro with introduction of their Retro Collection. I bought and gifted out quite a few - originals, Hasbro Retro and Custom figures - to my younger brother and to friend who are also big SW fans.
One of my all time fav documentaries! Seen it about 20 times. I really hope you make a part 2 maybe start from 2000- all the way to 2023! I bought the first one and would be more than happy to buy a part 2!
I find it very difficult watching these sort of wonderful documentaries. Knowing that, like a lot of people my old age had damn near all of these and just gave them away 🥺
I remember getting the first 12 figures for Christmas and ended up having just about everything eventually. This was a great documentary and it brought back some great memories.
I had the toys before I ever saw a Star Wars movie. Without knowing the story, the action figures let my fantasy fly as a kid. Played with them for probably a decade, and my late grandmother supported me by getting every single figure for me and my cousin. Great to celebrate these toys here, love the content 😍
As a 50 year old Star Wars fan from the very beginning. I’m in love with psychological reasoning of collecting and staying connected to the absolute joy of what we knew in our youth. I’m guessing the main motivation behind this is the fact that being an adult and adult life is highly overrated!!! 🤣
I had most of these toys as a kid, I remember being told I was going to get the AT AT walker for Xmas, and I couldn’t sleep with excitement. I also remember ordering the emperor figure from a magazine, it was like the holy grail. So many of my great childhood memories are to do with these toys, maybe even more so than the movies
Agreed a much simpler time just worry about which Star Wars figure to get and what next adventure to have. I was fortunate enough to have all my figures from when I was a kid, those figures are 40+ yrs old.
56:11 We can't say ROTJ was horrible... Jabba, the emperor, the bike chase, the big dogfight around the Death Star 2, the Rankor, etc. Just for these scenes alone it's great.
This documentary definitely took me back to a galaxy far, far away when I was excited to buy and play with my “Star Wars” toys. I remembered when I was young, Santa brought me two action figures, one being the Luke Skywalker X-Wing Pilot. Good times!!! 😃
Great documentary ,brought back fond memories even if I was not a Star Wars collector . But a general collector of other genres. Now a returning collector of Star Wars .
The prototypes for the figures were mock ups based on Fisher Price Adventure People, along with Micronauts, an established 3 3/4" scale before SW figures. Nobody ever held two fingers apart and measured it to establish the scale for the SW figures despite the appealing myth! When I first found out about the Blue Snag in the 90s, I couldn't help but think it was wearing Kiss boots, and the smaller version released on the card was based on the Red Snag in the Holiday Special, not the films Cantina scene. The thing most appealing to a kid like me was that they were so affordable; in the UK they used to retail at 99 pence (about $2 at the time) so 'Collecting them all' was a realistic goal, unlike Action Man (GI Joe) or Mego figures which were a lot more expensive. I used to get a UK comic called 2000AD and starting with Boba Fett, it used to have full page adverts for every mail away figure that was brought out. I got every single mail away they did by cutting the name cartouches out of the cards and saving them...if I had known then what I know now about card values would it have stopped me? Hell, no! As a closing note, I can't believe that you did an entire segment on international SW toys and completely failed to even mention the sublime Palitoy Death Star! Unforgivable...😡😂👍👍👍
I got the Sears Cantina set for Christmas, so I had the Blue Snaggletooth. I got a red one later on. As for Microman/nauts a toy that existed for several years before the SW figures came out, I'm still amazed how great they look. They made the SW figures look clunky in comparison.
This was amazing! For me, I grew up in the 70's. I was born in 1967. My early childhood memories were of the Mego Superheroes action figures. DC, Marvel, Planet of the Apes action figures, and even the Knight of the Round Table, Ivanhoe, the Black Knight, etc. Hot Wheels and Matchbox(Lesney), were also a huge part of my childhood. Then came Star Wars. For me this movie opened a potentially massive universe. The figures, the playsets, and the ships! There were so many different and unique things and every single one of them had a history, a home/planet, and some unique attributes. You had droids that could be whatever you wanted them to be, R5-D4, Power Droid, and the heroes, R2-D2 & C3PO. There were the aliens, Greedo, Hammerhead, Snaggletooth, Tusken Raiders, and the Jawas, then the Bounty Hunters, Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-Lom, Dengar, and the legendary Boba Fett! Then of course were the heroes and the villains. Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. Then came Yoda,and other versions of the characters. Then the Empire! Darth Vader! The Stormtroopers, Tie Fighter Pilots, Death Star Gunner, and even a Death Star Droid. Every "faction", every side had their own figures. Playsets were designed for certain scenes, areas, even planets. It truly was the most immersed "universe" a kid could experience. You truly could get lost in it and it was easily one of the most fun toys you ever had. You could follow the movies, or create your own stories or tales. The thing was like reality, the universe is massive, its infinitely huge, and the potential for creating your own stories and even characters was at your fingertips. That's what made Star Wars so fascinating for kids, at least it's one of the reasons I loved it. By the time the Return of the Jedi was released, the Ewoks, and those figures I was now 15-16 years old and in high school, and playing with toys had been changed to playing with girls and human sized cars. But Star Wars played a HUGE ROLE in my childhood and it's given me some of the best memories I have. Sadly my Mom gave my action figures away, but they again gave me some amazing memories and hundreds of hours of fun, excitement, and enjoyment! Even now, decades later, I have restarted my collecting of Star Wars figures. I have been collecting again since the early 2000's. The 3.75" and later the 6" Black Series figures. I have gotten a few of the ships, or transportation "devices" for the 6" line, like the Speeder Bike and the Tauntaun or however it's spelled. The creature that Han and Luke rode while on the Ice Planet Hoth. I wanted the Landspeeder but the scalpers had bought them all. One more major difference between Star Wars figures then and now. Scalpers, and they are terrible. It's incredible how this one franchise has captivated and enamored so many different people of all ages, races, genders. None of that mattered in Star Wars and the fans saw that, and they liked that fact. Star Wars got me back into reading books consistently. Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire series is phenomenal! Spector of the Past & Visions of the Future are phenomenal as well. I own over 200 different Star Wars novels, probably more. As well as many other Science Fiction books, and Espionage books, as well as quite a few Autobiographical novels too. All I can say is this Franchise as I said has given me so many wonderful childhood memories, experiences, and adventures growing up, and it continues to be a part of my life even now. I still read the older books, before Disney ruined the Expanded Universe. I'll even re-read some of those books that I may not have read in years. It still fascinates me today. It's so entertaining and just FUN! When your health deteriorates and you start getting tests to see if things have become increasingly serious potentially fatal, you start to reminisce more and more. So I want to thank you again for sharing this video with us. Take care and God Bless you all.
In the late fall of 1980, I worked a Toys R Us in Mesquite Texas (suburb of Dallas)...One night after hours, we spent over two hours hanging all the new Star Wars figurines for the new Empire Strike Back movie...the next day was Saturday morning, and we saw a blonde woman rushing with a cart to the figurine section...she immediately pulled ALL of the figures into the cart, and went to the register...I was told by Brandy (the cashier) that the woman paid over a thousand dollars for them (big money in 1980)...we figured she sold them for a big profit...
All? As in every single one? Wow. Yeah ur rite, she prolly made a buncha $$$! I had a similar experience. I worked in a grocery store in high school. These 2 dudes would come in at night and grab 2 carts and completely wipe out the baby formula section. Every last can/bottle. Like every other day.They were shipping it sumwhere out of the country making killer money.
This is a definitive documentary that really accurately captures what so many of us OG fans and collectors are about. Interviews with the Kenner staff is a superb touch.
Thankfully the Star Wars toy craze ended when it did because it was a perfect time to transition to GI Joe toys (Hasbro), for me. When it came to toys, kids in the 80s probably had the best childhoods ever! Star Wars, GI Joe, He-man, Transformers and Legos!! WOW!!
I. Collected a few different lines that were just as awesome as Star Wars, like buck Rogers ,lone ranger, A-team ,mash ,love boat and gi joe....if it was around that 3 3/4 figure size I figured I could cross universes with them..I remember GI JOE taking over and when I went to toys r us and wal mart seeing all Joe's and no star wars I was sad..I picked up a couple power of the force and was somewhat disappointed with the Han in Carbonite I thought he looked stupid and opened it and tossed it to the side ..and 2 months later at Christmas my grandmother got me the same Han...had it for a yr in my closet and mom donated it to the salvation army with alot of my other toys and clothes
I too went from SW toys to GI Joe, and the selection of figures, vehicles and play sets available for the latter, wasn’t even close. I remember asking for the Aircraft Carrier for Christmas, and you could not find one anywhere!!! There was a huge difference in quality though. After 40 years, all I have are leg less GI Joe action figures, while my Star Wars figures look brand new. Why on earth did they use cheap elastic bands to hold them together, is a mystery? I’ve even heard of them deteriorating in unopened boxes?
I remember seeing them in Woolworths, sometime in the Spring or early Summer, 1977. I think? I had introduced myself to Star Wars through the big comic book they sold, which was the first three "episodes"... I never actually saw the movie itself, until a few years later, on television. Im 55 years old, and at the time, (9-10 years my parentsdidn'tgo to movies, based on religious reasons?, but it was ok, to watch on TV)... Fortunately, they didn't cut anything out. But, I had rented, then bought the movies. With the toys, I played with them for years, collected most of the comics, and the original book, and even had a recording of the movie (on an LP record). I never thought it would have become this popular?
Glad I wasn't to only one to freeze Han Solo's figure. I used to use one of the Blister Bubbles from the figure packaging so that it was square when he was frozen.
Wish there was the same 'documentary' or more information about the 'Power of the Force 2' Series... thats when i got in to Star Wars Toys and collected almost every figure and vehicle available as a Kid. :D It was almost impossible to get your hands on all these 'Mail Order/Mail In' Figure here in Germany but since Kenner made SO MANY you could find them at 'small Independent comic/figure shops' I can also remember that we had a small store and they had all the 70/80's figures 'unboxed' for like 50cent or 1$..
I remember using BB guns as part of the SW play in the backyard. My poor stormtroopers took a lot of BB hits. And I also remember catapulting them over the house. One of the bounty hunters lived on the roof for half the summer until pops propped the ladder on the roof to clean the swamp cooler out... I moved the ladder, grabbed my sun-bleached bounty hunter and moved the ladder back before pops fell off the roof. I think Boba Fett probably got repainted 3 times. And my cousin always got the cool vehicles... Tie fighter, AT-AT.... I got the X-Wing finally and the last one I got was the AT-ST. I wish I still had them.
I'm 54 years old and I still own my Star Wars action figures from when I was a kid...!! From "Argentina", may the Force be with you, always, within that Child that we carry within us.
Now 51 years old, growing up with Star Wars was a blast. Still have my Darth Vader and C-3PO. I’m into that. And Transformers ™ BTW, I need an additional locker for my toys 😂
I can't believe in 77-78 I had 2 original Lukes 2 original Vaders and one Obi with the light sabers that went up the arm.A couple I melted with a magnifying glass and some I lost and I got knew ones.I also had one of those Gonk droids when it was new.
A question that has never been answered is why, oh, why did Kenner not market The Tantive IV rebel marine? The Death Squad commander hardly appears in the movie! As a teen, I tried to find this figure everywhere and had to settle with the Cloud City pilot for imaginative battles with my storm-troopers!
Damn, I wonder if I ever would have tried that, cool idea as a kid. I got in trouble for leaving my Buck Rogers figure in the freezer when grabbing an ice pop, and when I found him his O ring had broken, (they were like GI Joes if I remember correctly). I was a dumb 4 yr old kid and thought it would be better to hide a broken toy then say, whoops dropped this in freezer by accident after climbing on a chair to grab an ice pop on a summer day. After getting in trouble for hiding broken Buck, I didn’t want anything to do with action figures and the freezer.
Holy crap! That's exactly what I used to do with my Han Solo. The soap dish was perfect for carbon freezing. I made the mistake of freezing a few of mine too much, because their arms and legs got so loose, I couldn't pose them on my dresser, before I went to bed. I always set up a battle in my room, pretending they would fight while I slept.
Buck Rogers and Battlestar were my “fix” until Empire came out. Buck Rogers had not only hottie Colonel Wilma Dearing, but that Princess chick from the bad guys who had the hots for Buck. Even four and five year old me knew those two were good looking women back in the day. Then Battlestar had a bunch of cute women, and some flew the fighter ships (Colonial Vipers maybe??). One episode a lot of the male pilots were sick or something and Starbuck and Apollo had to train more women pilots and the women were wearing these black lingerie looking pressure suits under their other gear (that memory and image is stuck in my head, since it is raining out I may spend ten minutes on some internet sluering and see if I can figure out what episode and if my memory is correct or not. A flaw of the Buck Rogers and battle Star toys were that the faces of the human figures were not really detailed. I don’t think there were paint apps for eyes, eye brows etcZ. Where Star Wars had rudimentary paint apps but with the hair color and style along with outfits your brain knew who the figure represented
My parents were immigrants, so we only got toys for Xmas and my birthday, and the expensive toys. We werent poor, but my parents just couldnt be talked into spending money on their kids. (we got the Atari 400 instead of the 2600 b/c it was CHEAPER) I had FIVE action figures (2 i got from trading other toys), 1 ROTJ baseball hat, and a poster. Once i got my first job (Eckerd drug store), i bought the Thrawn books and a Darth Vader helmet and 2 complete sets of Topps baseball cards from a comic book convention (princely sum of $25 each). Later, my parents got the WRONG idea about my values. With so few SW merch, i wore that ROTJ baseball every single day for about 3 years. I still have it. It's so ratty. BUT.....my parents thought "I think he likes hats!" So, during all of our Griswald family vacations they'd let me get a HAT souvenir from every tourist attraction. At my parents home is "my" collection of hats: 57 brand new UNWORN tourist hats from all over the country (Sea World, Disneyland, Empire State Building, Statue of LIberty, Space Needle, etc...) Probably $1400 worth of UNWORN hats. Man, if ONLY they had spent that $1400 on Star Wars toys, they would have gotten ALL their money's worth and I would have played with those things till the wings fell off. "I think he likes hats!" No. mom. No, dad. No, i LOVE Star Wars.
This is GOLD!!! (I got my first in -78 and stopped collecting in -84. What I wish today was having taken lots and lots of photographs from my 2 favourite toy stores where I bought the most figures however when you are 5-10 years old you do not come across those thoughts, neither did anyone of my parents)
Beautiful documentary. So much history, personal stories, and creativity! I wish one day they could make a movie and a new line of figures. ''Star War the Creators'' and have all the designers, photographers, and artists in that line!
Awesome. I was a teenager in 1977 and loved the first movie in 1977 the original star wars movie and waited for the next of the trillogy to be created. I always wanted to collect the figures but never collected them.
There's so much that this doc could have been 2x the length easily. I do wish they touched on some of the more interesting parts like the fact that the R2D2 dome looked nothing like the actual character - even tho you see the prototype does. The remote R2 which so impressed Popular Mechanics that they had it as a cover story about robots. The Millenium Falcon being one of the most detailed playsets that it lasted for 3 generations, Hasbro's move to bigger more detailed ships etc. So much to cover and so little time.
I worked security for Cartamudi which now owns Hasbro. While I did see some figures in a lock up room I I did see pallets of the Operation Star Wars game with BB-8. I now enjoy collecting the vintage collection figures which came out in 2011.Worked a while at a Toys R Us building bikes and bought the vintage collection large AT AT which I still have, and it is still sealed in its shipping container.I think I paid $50.00 for it with my employee discount..
I just never got SW. I was born in 78 and the films were done by the time I was five. I was into Dukes of Hazzard, Superpowers, Secret Wars, Transformers, MASK , Star Trek, Voltron, and MOTU. I held the SW figures in my hand but I felt no connection. There was no backstory for how humans lived with aliens in a galaxy a long time ago and far far away. I liked a foundation the other toys gave (even MOTU depending on the version) for their mythos. On a plus side, I noticed how SW by Kenner resembled the Adventure People (which sold well into my time) and the Micronauts which were both the same scale. Good call on Kenner's part.
I begun collecting Star War action figures in 1.981 when i was 7... and 30 years after i became a Star War 4 books writer... STAR WARS SENIOR VETERAN FAN JOURNALIST AND WRITER (Spain - EUROPE)
I’m 53, I still have my Star Wars Han, Luke (minus yellow lightsaber) Storms, Death Star Guard, Jawa (fabric robe long lost) Slave 1 missing the hatch, Han, Luke, Snow Troopers, Bosk, Boba got lost, Snowspeeder missing parts, Tauntaun, Hoth Rebel, Hoth Han, Yoda. Why would I want to hold onto these after all these years?
Got my first Star Wars action figures in 1988... Two AT-AT Drivers. I thought they were some kind of astronauts. And when I watched the movies, I was very upset that they were only seen a short moment from behind 🤣
17:20 That is most definitely not "just a brown sock". It may have been constructed from a sock, but not a sock. It had individual arm holes, and a hood for the figure.
One thing that this (otherwise excellent) documentary sadly omits is Kenner's proposed 1986 "The Epic Continues" toy line, which would've seen the release of a Blockade Runner vehicle and a Tarkin figure, as the scowling Moff would've been one of the main villains in their new original post-ROTJ storyline, along with another Darth-esque baddie named Atha Prime (whose design later got recycled as the Imperial Sentinel for the '90's figures). Analog Toys has a great YT video showing the assorted sketches and mockups; my favorite was a little ship that would've fit neatly into the existing Millennium Falcon's wedge gap.
If I could have my toys from the late 70’s & early 80’s back in my life they’d hands down be my “Star Wars People” By 1983-84 it’d be my Dungeons & Dragons stuff. By 5th grade I was making my own modules & maps. But my brother, under advice from his Youth Pastor, burned up my box of D&D. In spite of losing an archive of my youth it was a gesture of love that leaps decades. I should mention that my brother just admitted to his arson project a few years ago when we were in our 40’s!
There’s an intangible imagination tryst between Gen X and the original Star Wars toys. Some of them resonate today exactly as they did in 1980 on Christmas morning. Like the Millennium Falcon. Others look a tad under-detailed. Like the Cloud City spacecraft. But one thing that everyone reading this in their late 40’s to mid 50’s remembers is how those toys came alive in our hands. How many professional Creatives today got started play-acting with the original Kenner toys? Many, many thousands. PS: I waited on George Lucas in 1993 at a Chevy’s Fresh Mex in Marin County. I said to him “man your creations ruled Christmases in my childhood. Absolutely ruled Christmas.” He was polite but not overly effusive. Nonetheless I saved the credit card envoy (which back then cost me the tip) His is the only autograph I possess after 23 years in media.
16:16 Jabba was originally going to be in the 1977/78 Star Wars line. He wasn't even in the finished movie. If they had made a figure of Jabba it would have been the Scottish guy from the deleted scenes. 16:11 You can also see on the list Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Wedge, Biggs, John D., Porkin, Grand Moff Tarkin, the Cantina band, General Motti, General Taggi, and several other characters that were never made in the vintage line. 16:19 The blockade runner was also on the list of rebel ships to be made.
They had come out with Jabba in the comic book. But, he didn't resemble anything like the movie. He was kind of a lizard faced bipedal alien. He popped up in the Star Wars comic series a few times.
Been wanting to see this for ages and it didn’t disappoint. Would love to see an updated cut with the new Disney trilogy to see the reactions of the designers and collectors. I’m sure that would have a completely different feel to it . Thanks for uploading this.
I was 5yrs old when Star Wars toys became available. I remember having Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker with the double telescoping lightsaber feature. I also remember... purposely chewing the ultra-thin tips off of their lightsabers. Because it was sooo thin and flimsy... they would bend, droop, and somewhat curl. And I wasn't having that!😂
I remember going into a Toys R Us in Ottawa, seeing so many Power Of The Force action figures. It was like... Star Wars is over. I don't and never did really like the packaging. Looking at them now, there is a pretty strong difference in the styles of the sculpts during the original 3 movies and Power of The Force. It's almost as if an entirely new group of people were doing the sculps.
A kid who lived around the corner from my house was the first kid i knew to have an extensive original Star Wars toy collection . Kisses spend all these screen time playing only Star wars games online have no idea what it's like to actually having a wonderful time playing with plastic figurines and creating your own stories. That is so sad😢.
I’m 49 and I remember coming out of the movie theater on Long Island and there were “people” handing out small catalogs of the Kenner toys that were coming out. If I only had that catalog now it would probably be worth a fortune. Anyway my life changed forever that night.
I am the same age as you, grew up mainly in upstate NY (though we lived in Tampa when Empire came out) and saw the first movie at a drive in. It rained halfway through and we had to leave. Only time I remember crying as a little kid that did not involve me crashing on my bike and smashing my face in the pavement or breaking a bone. I never got to see the second half of Star Wars until he early eighties when it was on HBO. It stuck in my head enough though that when I was 5 and saw trailer for Empire, i about shot my pants in happiness. I was buzzing around the house with my X wing and tie fighter for weeks until my dad took me to see it in a theater.
In the actual towns of Catskill/Cairo/ Hudson? Or a bit further south in Sullivan or Ulster county? I never realized as a kid that the Catskill my grandparents lived near was not the Catskill mountains area, that was further south, we had the foothills of it near us. My first duty station the NYSP was down in Liberty in Sullivan County, which is considered part of the Catskills. I would have seen it somewhere in Catskill/Cairo/palenville area, I can’t for the life of me remember where the couple of drive ins were exactly located. I am in the center of the state now, and there are two or three drive ins here. One re opened due to covid, owners took advantage of social distancing stuff and bought a drive in theater in unadilla.
I was in a K-Mart and wandered to the toy section and saw these very strange looking toys on a rack. In a side aisle was a wire basket full of action figures. Kids must have torn them out of the packets and they were gathered up and a stock clerk left them sitting on the shelf. Me and another kid were staring at the basket of loose figures and then he says, _"Get one!"_ Before I could say anything he reaches in, grabs a handful, slaps one into my hand and we shot out of there in opposite directions. I ran until I was in the parking lot, jumped into our car and hid in the back seat. I was terrified and stayed there until were went home. I finally worked up the nerve to look at the toy and it was a tiny brown figure in brown cloth cloak and I thought, "What the hell is this!" And that was my very first Star Wars action figure and introduction to the movie. A Jawa.
Personally I am just getting back all my old toys to play with again for when I become senile and child like. Or to give to a niece or nephew, or special needs cousin.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
I’m from Northern Kentucky and my grandma worked at Kenner: Some of my earliest memories is of my grandma bringing me a Star Wars figure straight from the factory; they wouldn’t be in a box, just in a small, sealed plastic bag. I miss that so much. Makes me feel so lucky.
I'm a star wars movies and games fan been playing star wars the old republic since 2011.
I still got the star wars figures.
5 finger discount Grandma for the win!
Damn bro, lucky af. That'd so cool😂
@@cybergrindin haha. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it. She couldn't get away with that now. Back in the day it was easier to take a "little bonus" that you deserved, that your boss had neglected to reward you with.
Epic: "I'd take Han Solo and put him in a cup of water and freeze him over night"... I can't recall how many times me and my cousin (who just passed away in June of this year from Multiple sclerosis) did just that. This brought back my childhood and the fondest memories of my best friend and cousin. I thought we were the only ones freezing Han, it is fun to find out that many others were enjoying the Star Wars universe exactly as we were. Thank you.
Sorry for the loss of your cousin. Seems that you two had some awesome times together. Playing with the Star Wars figures were some of the greatest times of my life. My friends and I spent countless hours playing with them. I have so many, many wonderful, awesome memories of playing with them. May your cousin soar with the angels. 🙏
I lived in Loveland, Ohio at the time. (1975-1994) A lot of our neighbors worked for Kenner and General Mills. My friends whose fathers worked at Kenner got proto-types and other unreleased toys. Of course I was jealous but looking back it was still great just to touch a rocket firing Boba Fett as a 10 year old! Great memories of Children’s Palace, Gold Circle and Toys ‘r Us…friends, family and awesome times. Thank you, it’s much appreciated.
This was a awesome story. Thank you for sharing it with us. I lived a bit north west of you. Milwaukee, Wisconsin to be exact. I remember waiting in line to see the first Star Wars movie. It completely blew my mind! I was only 9 years old at that time. I remember later on when the figures FINALLY came out. I got the C3PO and R2-D2 figures. I thought that my parents had ordered the Christmas set, or the "Early Bird" special? Either way the next few years were absolutely amazing and exciting fun for kids! All of the figures, the playsets, the ships! I remember getting Luke's Landspeeder first, then the Cantina Playset, then the X-Wing fighter and the Tie Fighter. I really had wanted the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star Playset that year, but I could only have one of them. I chose the Death Star set. So many different toys. I got the Cloud City ship after the Empire Strikes Back came out and the Battle of Hoth playset. Wow thinking back I had some great memories of not just playing with the toys, but finding the figure that you've been searching for, or that one item you really wanted. For me it was the Jawa action figure. That little fella was so like Bigfoot. You'd hear about people seeing one, but when you got there, nothing. Toys R Us didn't have any, Target, K-Mart, none of the retailers on South 27th Street had them. However there was one other Toy Store called Toy Country USA. It was also on 27th Street, just past Ramsey Avenue and next to Red Carpet Lanes-South. Our 🎳🎳Bowling🎳🎳 center. Next to it was a family owned toy store. The owner was a wonderful man. He also had a family and kids who loved Star Wars too. One day after dinner my Mom and Dad said let's stop over at Toy Country and see what they have. Who knows you might find your little alien or whatever the name is....... My Mom never knew the names of the aliens. She called Chewbacca the big hairy thing...lol. Little did I know, but the owner had called my Mom and told her that they had come in. My Mom and Dad were so cool. They told him to save a couple and we'd be in after supper. I walked in and the owner looked at me and shrugged. Then he said that he had a new display stand for the figures and that I should check it out, especially the top row. Why I asked? He took me over to the display. It was one where each row spun around 360⁰ separately. I looked around and he nudged me again check the top row, and sure enough there hanging on the metal bar was a Jawa, no two Jawas, wait there were 5 Jawas! I was so excited! I remember hugging the owner, then my Mom and Dad! I had my allowance money ready to get two of them. My Mom told me she'd buy me one, and my Dad said he'd get me one. I had four of them for my playsets. I only got multiple figures on very few of them. The Stormtroopers was the biggest one. The Tusken Raider was another. Lastly was the Jawa. Later I got a couple Snowtroopers. Those little figures were my new fantasy world. Before that it was the Mego Superheroes that were my favorites. Whether it was Mego, Kenner, or Mattel those three companies had given me so many great memories! I recently learned that my health really took a potentially bad turn. I learned that my Bile Duct was inflamed and my blood wasn't "normal". I just had a colonoscopy and they found and removed 10 polyps during the test that they sent for a biopsy. Over the last couple of weeks my emotions have been a 🎢🎢rollercoaster🎢🎢 . Up and down, high and low. Now until I know 100% for sure about whether or not things have gotten worse. I already have emphysema and heart disease. I'm not going to freak out. These videos about childhood toys, bring back some wonderful memories. So again I want to thank you for sharing this with us. Whatever the outcome will be, I want to enjoy this opportunity for life.
So thank you again and God Bless you all and your families as well. Take care of each other and have a blessed day.
HA! My grandparents lived in Loveland! I've lived in the Cincinnati area my entire life. It seems like there was always someone nearby somehow connected to Kenner (people at school...people at church...etc.). One of my teachers had a friend who worked at Kenner and she brought in a couple of prototype toys for us to play with and provide feedback on. Good times!
Lies.
@@TransformersTalkRAW lol YT shadowed my reply. 2nd and last attempt-I’m dying so I don’t care if believe me or not.
@SSG 🍔 USA I was just kidding around man. Sorry to hear that. In my prayers.
Greetings to all Star Wars Collectors out there! The Kenner Line means so much to me and this Movie brings it all up again. Stefan, 8thies Kid from Berlin
It's really hard to overstate just how HUGE Star Wars was when it first came out. It didn't just become a part of pop culture, it WAS pop culture (I consider 1977 to be the start of modern pop culture. Star Wars, the Atari 2600, the first adaptation of The Hobbit, the Apple II and PET computers). Until the mid 80's, every kid in the US was quoting the movies and everyone was talking about it. It gave us possibly the single greatest movie villain of all time, and all these years later, not only do the original films still hold up, they still make new ones along with live action and animated shows. It's kind of mind blowing really.
Very well said, it was seriously the start of the next evolution of our culture to get us to where we are now...
Yes, it was HUGE. I was born in 1970. Looking back on it now, I realize I came into this world at just the right time to get maximum enjoyment out of everything Star Wars.
The movies were iconic but those Star Wars toys were really something so special. I still remember those huge store displays with dozens of action figures.
Wow the memories, I am 53 and I had star wars toys as a kid , great times , great toys
Great documentary. 51 year old nerd in northern sweden here. I became a hardcore Star Wars fan the second I saw pictures from the movie back in 77-78. My first figures were C3PO and Tusken Raider (then referred to as Sandpeople). Still have them in my collection which just grew over the decades. Kind of glad the prequels saturated my interest and I could leave collecting behind.
Atari 2600, Star Wars, Jaws, E.T., and Raiders of the lost Ark defined my childhood and friendships.
Our culture for better and worse :D
I remember going into Hills as a kid and seeing the massive wall of Star Wars toys. Never could imagine anyone ever being able to own them all.
Thank you for an amazing childhood, this stuff literally was my life as a kid
These are the kind of people that should be helping make Star Wars films. 👍
To a Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy as well as the Kenner toys, especially figures, I am always getting quite misty eyed when watching this - what I think is the most wonderful - videos on YT. Great memories, and I am immensely thankful that I was a kid during these times. The original Star Wars is burned in my heart. Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen working at Kenner, for creating and manufacturing such wonderful toys. Luckily, Custom toy makers like Stan Solo Creations, The Next 17, Trash Compactor and others keep the vintage Star Wars toy line alive, as does Hasbro with introduction of their Retro Collection. I bought and gifted out quite a few - originals, Hasbro Retro and Custom figures - to my younger brother and to friend who are also big SW fans.
One of my all time fav documentaries! Seen it about 20 times. I really hope you make a part 2 maybe start from 2000- all the way to 2023! I bought the first one and would be more than happy to buy a part 2!
I find it very difficult watching these sort of wonderful documentaries. Knowing that, like a lot of people my old age had damn near all of these and just gave them away 🥺
I remember getting the first 12 figures for Christmas and ended up having just about everything eventually. This was a great documentary and it brought back some great memories.
So basically you were a spoiled child 😂
I had the toys before I ever saw a Star Wars movie. Without knowing the story, the action figures let my fantasy fly as a kid. Played with them for probably a decade, and my late grandmother supported me by getting every single figure for me and my cousin. Great to celebrate these toys here, love the content 😍
2:12 I remember being invited to see Star Wars on video at a slightly older kids' house. I thought it was the coolest thing to watch star wars on TV.
As a 50 year old Star Wars fan from the very beginning. I’m in love with psychological reasoning of collecting and staying connected to the absolute joy of what we knew in our youth. I’m guessing the main motivation behind this is the fact that being an adult and adult life is highly overrated!!! 🤣
Same…
You got that right! Way overrated! I wish I could stay 8yrs old forever.
I had most of these toys as a kid, I remember being told I was going to get the AT AT walker for Xmas, and I couldn’t sleep with excitement. I also remember ordering the emperor figure from a magazine, it was like the holy grail. So many of my great childhood memories are to do with these toys, maybe even more so than the movies
Agreed a much simpler time just worry about which Star Wars figure to get and what next adventure to have. I was fortunate enough to have all my figures from when I was a kid, those figures are 40+ yrs old.
Couldn’t agree more.
56:11 We can't say ROTJ was horrible... Jabba, the emperor, the bike chase, the big dogfight around the Death Star 2, the Rankor, etc. Just for these scenes alone it's great.
Yea not sure what he was thinking when he said that. I wasn’t a fan of the Ewoks but everything else in that movie was awesome!
@@8tiveeye he said "even IF it was a horrible film
@@froggytimmy8643 I stand corrected! I completely missed that, lol thanks!
@@8tiveeye no problem haha. I thoguht he was saying the movie was horrible too when i first saw this doco years ago
This documentary definitely took me back to a galaxy far, far away when I was excited to buy and play with my “Star Wars” toys. I remembered when I was young, Santa brought me two action figures, one being the Luke Skywalker X-Wing Pilot. Good times!!! 😃
Great documentary ,brought back fond memories even if I was not a Star Wars collector .
But a general collector of other genres.
Now a returning collector of Star Wars .
Still have the original 4 Kenner action figure set. Not in the best condition but they sure do bring back memories.
The prototypes for the figures were mock ups based on Fisher Price Adventure People, along with Micronauts, an established 3 3/4" scale before SW figures. Nobody ever held two fingers apart and measured it to establish the scale for the SW figures despite the appealing myth! When I first found out about the Blue Snag in the 90s, I couldn't help but think it was wearing Kiss boots, and the smaller version released on the card was based on the Red Snag in the Holiday Special, not the films Cantina scene. The thing most appealing to a kid like me was that they were so affordable; in the UK they used to retail at 99 pence (about $2 at the time) so 'Collecting them all' was a realistic goal, unlike Action Man (GI Joe) or Mego figures which were a lot more expensive.
I used to get a UK comic called 2000AD and starting with Boba Fett, it used to have full page adverts for every mail away figure that was brought out. I got every single mail away they did by cutting the name cartouches out of the cards and saving them...if I had known then what I know now about card values would it have stopped me? Hell, no!
As a closing note, I can't believe that you did an entire segment on international SW toys and completely failed to even mention the sublime Palitoy Death Star!
Unforgivable...😡😂👍👍👍
I got the Sears Cantina set for Christmas, so I had the Blue Snaggletooth. I got a red one later on. As for Microman/nauts a toy that existed for several years before the SW figures came out, I'm still amazed how great they look. They made the SW figures look clunky in comparison.
This was amazing! For me, I grew up in the 70's. I was born in 1967. My early childhood memories were of the Mego Superheroes action figures. DC, Marvel, Planet of the Apes action figures, and even the Knight of the Round Table, Ivanhoe, the Black Knight, etc. Hot Wheels and Matchbox(Lesney), were also a huge part of my childhood. Then came Star Wars. For me this movie opened a potentially massive universe. The figures, the playsets, and the ships! There were so many different and unique things and every single one of them had a history, a home/planet, and some unique attributes. You had droids that could be whatever you wanted them to be, R5-D4, Power Droid, and the heroes, R2-D2 & C3PO. There were the aliens, Greedo, Hammerhead, Snaggletooth, Tusken Raiders, and the Jawas, then the Bounty Hunters, Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-Lom, Dengar, and the legendary Boba Fett! Then of course were the heroes and the villains. Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. Then came Yoda,and other versions of the characters. Then the Empire! Darth Vader! The Stormtroopers, Tie Fighter Pilots, Death Star Gunner, and even a Death Star Droid. Every "faction", every side had their own figures. Playsets were designed for certain scenes, areas, even planets. It truly was the most immersed "universe" a kid could experience. You truly could get lost in it and it was easily one of the most fun toys you ever had. You could follow the movies, or create your own stories or tales. The thing was like reality, the universe is massive, its infinitely huge, and the potential for creating your own stories and even characters was at your fingertips. That's what made Star Wars so fascinating for kids, at least it's one of the reasons I loved it. By the time the Return of the Jedi was released, the Ewoks, and those figures I was now 15-16 years old and in high school, and playing with toys had been changed to playing with girls and human sized cars. But Star Wars played a HUGE ROLE in my childhood and it's given me some of the best memories I have. Sadly my Mom gave my action figures away, but they again gave me some amazing memories and hundreds of hours of fun, excitement, and enjoyment! Even now, decades later, I have restarted my collecting of Star Wars figures. I have been collecting again since the early 2000's. The 3.75" and later the 6" Black Series figures. I have gotten a few of the ships, or transportation "devices" for the 6" line, like the Speeder Bike and the Tauntaun or however it's spelled. The creature that Han and Luke rode while on the Ice Planet Hoth. I wanted the Landspeeder but the scalpers had bought them all. One more major difference between Star Wars figures then and now. Scalpers, and they are terrible. It's incredible how this one franchise has captivated and enamored so many different people of all ages, races, genders. None of that mattered in Star Wars and the fans saw that, and they liked that fact. Star Wars got me back into reading books consistently. Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire series is phenomenal! Spector of the Past & Visions of the Future are phenomenal as well. I own over 200 different Star Wars novels, probably more. As well as many other Science Fiction books, and Espionage books, as well as quite a few Autobiographical novels too. All I can say is this Franchise as I said has given me so many wonderful childhood memories, experiences, and adventures growing up, and it continues to be a part of my life even now. I still read the older books, before Disney ruined the Expanded Universe. I'll even re-read some of those books that I may not have read in years. It still fascinates me today. It's so entertaining and just FUN! When your health deteriorates and you start getting tests to see if things have become increasingly serious potentially fatal, you start to reminisce more and more. So I want to thank you again for sharing this video with us. Take care and God Bless you all.
In the late fall of 1980, I worked a Toys R Us in Mesquite Texas (suburb of Dallas)...One night after hours, we spent over two hours hanging all the new Star Wars figurines for the new Empire Strike Back movie...the next day was Saturday morning, and we saw a blonde woman rushing with a cart to the figurine section...she immediately pulled ALL of the figures into the cart, and went to the register...I was told by Brandy (the cashier) that the woman paid over a thousand dollars for them (big money in 1980)...we figured she sold them for a big profit...
All? As in every single one? Wow. Yeah ur rite, she prolly made a buncha $$$!
I had a similar experience. I worked in a grocery store in high school. These 2 dudes would come in at night and grab 2 carts and completely wipe out the baby formula section. Every last can/bottle. Like every other day.They were shipping it sumwhere out of the country making killer money.
This is a definitive documentary that really accurately captures what so many of us OG fans and collectors are about. Interviews with the Kenner staff is a superb touch.
The Golden era, Worth a lot to me.
Thankfully the Star Wars toy craze ended when it did because it was a perfect time to transition to GI Joe toys (Hasbro), for me. When it came to toys, kids in the 80s probably had the best childhoods ever! Star Wars, GI Joe, He-man, Transformers and Legos!! WOW!!
I. Collected a few different lines that were just as awesome as Star Wars, like buck Rogers ,lone ranger, A-team ,mash ,love boat and gi joe....if it was around that 3 3/4 figure size I figured I could cross universes with them..I remember GI JOE taking over and when I went to toys r us and wal mart seeing all Joe's and no star wars I was sad..I picked up a couple power of the force and was somewhat disappointed with the Han in Carbonite I thought he looked stupid and opened it and tossed it to the side ..and 2 months later at Christmas my grandmother got me the same Han...had it for a yr in my closet and mom donated it to the salvation army with alot of my other toys and clothes
And the WWF’s large rubber figures by LJN
Do not 4get Volt Tron or Thunder Cats.
I too went from SW toys to GI Joe, and the selection of figures, vehicles and play sets available for the latter, wasn’t even close. I remember asking for the Aircraft Carrier for Christmas, and you could not find one anywhere!!!
There was a huge difference in quality though. After 40 years, all I have are leg less GI Joe action figures, while my Star Wars figures look brand new. Why on earth did they use cheap elastic bands to hold them together, is a mystery? I’ve even heard of them deteriorating in unopened boxes?
Great film. I remember this time fondly and have all the vintage line including the variants and rare Canadian figures. These are pure magic
this really took me back as an almost 52 year old that saw the original film with the handout program that was given in 77 at 6 yrs old
I remember seeing them in Woolworths, sometime in the Spring or early Summer, 1977. I think? I had introduced myself to Star Wars through the big comic book they sold, which was the first three "episodes"... I never actually saw the movie itself, until a few years later, on television. Im 55 years old, and at the time, (9-10 years my parentsdidn'tgo to movies, based on religious reasons?, but it was ok, to watch on TV)... Fortunately, they didn't cut anything out. But, I had rented, then bought the movies. With the toys, I played with them for years, collected most of the comics, and the original book, and even had a recording of the movie (on an LP record). I never thought it would have become this popular?
Watching this awesome documentary in honor of Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you all!
Excellent Documentary! Brought back so many found memories of growing up with my Star Wars toys!👍👍
Thanks for uploading this! Takes me right back to my childhood 1978-1985!
Glad I wasn't to only one to freeze Han Solo's figure. I used to use one of the Blister Bubbles from the figure packaging so that it was square when he was frozen.
Damn, that was a good idea! I wish that I would've thought about using a blister bubble for that.
Thank you Best Toys Ever EVER
Wish there was the same 'documentary' or more information about the 'Power of the Force 2' Series... thats when i got in to Star Wars Toys and collected almost every figure and vehicle available as a Kid. :D
It was almost impossible to get your hands on all these 'Mail Order/Mail In' Figure here in Germany but since Kenner made SO MANY you could find them at 'small Independent comic/figure shops'
I can also remember that we had a small store and they had all the 70/80's figures 'unboxed' for like 50cent or 1$..
I remember using BB guns as part of the SW play in the backyard. My poor stormtroopers took a lot of BB hits. And I also remember catapulting them over the house. One of the bounty hunters lived on the roof for half the summer until pops propped the ladder on the roof to clean the swamp cooler out... I moved the ladder, grabbed my sun-bleached bounty hunter and moved the ladder back before pops fell off the roof.
I think Boba Fett probably got repainted 3 times. And my cousin always got the cool vehicles... Tie fighter, AT-AT.... I got the X-Wing finally and the last one I got was the AT-ST. I wish I still had them.
Lol.. I don't have any toys left after destroying them all. When they ran out, you helped to dismantle your friends stuff.
Thank you God for letting me grow up in the late 70s and during the 80s. Seriously the best times of my life. Amen. :0)
I'm 54 years old and I still own my Star Wars action figures from when I was a kid...!! From "Argentina", may the Force be with you, always, within that Child that we carry within us.
Now 51 years old, growing up with Star Wars was a blast. Still have my Darth Vader and C-3PO.
I’m into that. And Transformers ™
BTW, I need an additional locker for my toys 😂
So hard seeing all these collections an the pieces I am missing.
I can't believe in 77-78 I had 2 original Lukes 2 original Vaders and one Obi with the light sabers that went up the arm.A couple I melted with a magnifying glass and some I lost and I got knew ones.I also had one of those Gonk droids when it was new.
That pointed edged troop transport looked wicked cool!
Excellent documentary/subject. Well done!! Thank you!
I love how almost 40 yrs later the troop transport was finally brought into star wars media😂
A question that has never been answered is why, oh, why did Kenner not market The Tantive IV rebel marine? The Death Squad commander hardly appears in the movie! As a teen, I tried to find this figure everywhere and had to settle with the Cloud City pilot for imaginative battles with my storm-troopers!
I used to freeze my Han Solo in a soap dish! Happy days 😊
Damn, I wonder if I ever would have tried that, cool idea as a kid. I got in trouble for leaving my Buck Rogers figure in the freezer when grabbing an ice pop, and when I found him his O ring had broken, (they were like GI Joes if I remember correctly). I was a dumb 4 yr old kid and thought it would be better to hide a broken toy then say, whoops dropped this in freezer by accident after climbing on a chair to grab an ice pop on a summer day. After getting in trouble for hiding broken Buck, I didn’t want anything to do with action figures and the freezer.
Holy crap! That's exactly what I used to do with my Han Solo. The soap dish was perfect for carbon freezing. I made the mistake of freezing a few of mine too much, because their arms and legs got so loose, I couldn't pose them on my dresser, before I went to bed. I always set up a battle in my room, pretending they would fight while I slept.
@@MrChristopoop I had Buck Rogers, too. I also had Tiger Man and a Draconian warrior, from the first season.
Buck Rogers and Battlestar were my “fix” until Empire came out. Buck Rogers had not only hottie Colonel Wilma Dearing, but that Princess chick from the bad guys who had the hots for Buck. Even four and five year old me knew those two were good looking women back in the day. Then Battlestar had a bunch of cute women, and some flew the fighter ships (Colonial Vipers maybe??). One episode a lot of the male pilots were sick or something and Starbuck and Apollo had to train more women pilots and the women were wearing these black lingerie looking pressure suits under their other gear (that memory and image is stuck in my head, since it is raining out I may spend ten minutes on some internet sluering and see if I can figure out what episode and if my memory is correct or not. A flaw of the Buck Rogers and battle Star toys were that the faces of the human figures were not really detailed. I don’t think there were paint apps for eyes, eye brows etcZ. Where Star Wars had rudimentary paint apps but with the hair color and style along with outfits your brain knew who the figure represented
@@MrChristopoop Yes, Colonel Deering and Princess Ardala were both smoking hot. I miss that show.
My parents were immigrants, so we only got toys for Xmas and my birthday, and the expensive toys. We werent poor, but my parents just couldnt be talked into spending money on their kids. (we got the Atari 400 instead of the 2600 b/c it was CHEAPER) I had FIVE action figures (2 i got from trading other toys), 1 ROTJ baseball hat, and a poster.
Once i got my first job (Eckerd drug store), i bought the Thrawn books and a Darth Vader helmet and 2 complete sets of Topps baseball cards from a comic book convention (princely sum of $25 each).
Later, my parents got the WRONG idea about my values. With so few SW merch, i wore that ROTJ baseball every single day for about 3 years. I still have it. It's so ratty.
BUT.....my parents thought "I think he likes hats!" So, during all of our Griswald family vacations they'd let me get a HAT souvenir from every tourist attraction. At my parents home is "my" collection of hats: 57 brand new UNWORN tourist hats from all over the country (Sea World, Disneyland, Empire State Building, Statue of LIberty, Space Needle, etc...) Probably $1400 worth of UNWORN hats.
Man, if ONLY they had spent that $1400 on Star Wars toys, they would have gotten ALL their money's worth and I would have played with those things till the wings fell off.
"I think he likes hats!"
No. mom. No, dad.
No, i LOVE Star Wars.
This is GOLD!!! (I got my first in -78 and stopped collecting in -84. What I wish today was having taken lots and lots of photographs from my 2 favourite toy stores where I bought the most figures however when you are 5-10 years old you do not come across those thoughts, neither did anyone of my parents)
Beautiful documentary. So much history, personal stories, and creativity!
I wish one day they could make a movie and a new line of figures.
''Star War the Creators'' and have all the designers, photographers, and artists in that line!
I always wanted the Millennium Falcon. But I got the miniature one. I was so bummed out. 😂
Don't feel bad, I never got one either. However, I was able to get the awesome, incredible AT AT though!
It was great seeing the card backs brought back some good memories !
Awesome. I was a teenager in 1977 and loved the first movie in 1977 the original star wars movie and waited for the next of the trillogy to be created. I always wanted to collect the figures but never collected them.
There's so much that this doc could have been 2x the length easily. I do wish they touched on some of the more interesting parts like the fact that the R2D2 dome looked nothing like the actual character - even tho you see the prototype does. The remote R2 which so impressed Popular Mechanics that they had it as a cover story about robots. The Millenium Falcon being one of the most detailed playsets that it lasted for 3 generations, Hasbro's move to bigger more detailed ships etc. So much to cover and so little time.
Great documentary! Thank you. I lived through that era and can relate to your content. Very informative video thanks! A ++++
Same here! What an amazing, wonderful time to be a kid!
Watching this while I am watching A New Hope. Double fun.
Emocionante documental. Gracias. Desde Argentina.
I worked security for Cartamudi which now owns Hasbro. While I did see some figures in a lock up room I I did see pallets of the Operation Star Wars game with BB-8. I now enjoy collecting the vintage collection figures which came out in 2011.Worked a while at a Toys R Us building bikes and bought the vintage collection large AT AT which I still have, and it is still sealed in its shipping container.I think I paid $50.00 for it with my employee discount..
I just never got SW. I was born in 78 and the films were done by the time I was five. I was into Dukes of Hazzard, Superpowers, Secret Wars, Transformers, MASK , Star Trek, Voltron, and MOTU. I held the SW figures in my hand but I felt no connection. There was no backstory for how humans lived with aliens in a galaxy a long time ago and far far away. I liked a foundation the other toys gave (even MOTU depending on the version) for their mythos. On a plus side, I noticed how SW by Kenner resembled the Adventure People (which sold well into my time) and the Micronauts which were both the same scale. Good call on Kenner's part.
Early bird idea was destined to be genius bcoz most genius ideas are never understood at genesis…
I begun collecting Star War action figures in 1.981 when i was 7... and 30 years after i became a Star War 4 books writer...
STAR WARS SENIOR VETERAN FAN
JOURNALIST AND WRITER (Spain - EUROPE)
Excellent documentary!
I’m 53, I still have my Star Wars Han, Luke (minus yellow lightsaber) Storms, Death Star Guard, Jawa (fabric robe long lost)
Slave 1 missing the hatch, Han, Luke, Snow Troopers, Bosk, Boba got lost, Snowspeeder missing parts, Tauntaun, Hoth Rebel, Hoth Han, Yoda.
Why would I want to hold onto these after all these years?
I'm 52, thanks for the flashbacks.
Got my first Star Wars action figures in 1988... Two AT-AT Drivers. I thought they were some kind of astronauts. And when I watched the movies, I was very upset that they were only seen a short moment from behind 🤣
17:20 That is most definitely not "just a brown sock". It may have been constructed from a sock, but not a sock. It had individual arm holes, and a hood for the figure.
One thing that this (otherwise excellent) documentary sadly omits is Kenner's proposed 1986 "The Epic Continues" toy line, which would've seen the release of a Blockade Runner vehicle and a Tarkin figure, as the scowling Moff would've been one of the main villains in their new original post-ROTJ storyline, along with another Darth-esque baddie named Atha Prime (whose design later got recycled as the Imperial Sentinel for the '90's figures).
Analog Toys has a great YT video showing the assorted sketches and mockups; my favorite was a little ship that would've fit neatly into the existing Millennium Falcon's wedge gap.
Always remember my mom in 1984 saying “only you could sell a box for £3”. It was a millennium falcon box and boy do I wish I’d kept it lol
A long time ago...in a childhood far, far away. I noticed there were no prequel or sequel trilogy Star Wars toys.
If I could have my toys from the late 70’s & early 80’s back in my life they’d hands down be my “Star Wars People” By 1983-84 it’d be my Dungeons & Dragons stuff. By 5th grade I was making my own modules & maps. But my brother, under advice from his Youth Pastor, burned up my box of D&D. In spite of losing an archive of my youth it was a gesture of love that leaps decades. I should mention that my brother just admitted to his arson project a few years ago when we were in our 40’s!
There’s an intangible imagination tryst between Gen X and the original Star Wars toys. Some of them resonate today exactly as they did in 1980 on Christmas morning. Like the Millennium Falcon. Others look a tad under-detailed. Like the Cloud City spacecraft. But one thing that everyone reading this in their late 40’s to mid 50’s remembers is how those toys came alive in our hands.
How many professional Creatives today got started play-acting with the original Kenner toys? Many, many thousands.
PS: I waited on George Lucas in 1993 at a Chevy’s Fresh Mex in Marin County. I said to him “man your creations ruled Christmases in my childhood. Absolutely ruled Christmas.” He was polite but not overly effusive. Nonetheless I saved the credit card envoy (which back then cost me the tip) His is the only autograph I possess after 23 years in media.
16:16 Jabba was originally going to be in the 1977/78 Star Wars line. He wasn't even in the finished movie. If they had made a figure of Jabba it would have been the Scottish guy from the deleted scenes. 16:11 You can also see on the list Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Wedge, Biggs, John D., Porkin, Grand Moff Tarkin, the Cantina band, General Motti, General Taggi, and several other characters that were never made in the vintage line. 16:19 The blockade runner was also on the list of rebel ships to be made.
The actor who played Jabba was Irish actor Declan Mulholland.
They had come out with Jabba in the comic book. But, he didn't resemble anything like the movie. He was kind of a lizard faced bipedal alien. He popped up in the Star Wars comic series a few times.
Been wanting to see this for ages and it didn’t disappoint. Would love to see an updated cut with the new Disney trilogy to see the reactions of the designers and collectors. I’m sure that would have a completely different feel to it . Thanks for uploading this.
My favorite Christmas gift as a kid was the Millennium Falcon my Aunt Jose gave me when it first came out.
Mine was the Darth Vader case. Waited every year for one. Never got one.
Love this!
Star wars toys were the first toys I brought a collectable at about 11old when Potf2 came out. Still trying to complete my vintage collection.
Very worthwhile presentation.
Great doc...laughed at "mushroom tip".
Thanks for this! Really enjoyed and related to it. What a time it was.
I was 5yrs old when Star Wars toys became available. I remember having Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker with the double telescoping lightsaber feature.
I also remember... purposely chewing the ultra-thin tips off of their lightsabers. Because it was sooo thin and flimsy... they would bend, droop, and somewhat curl. And I wasn't having that!😂
This documentary is as much about the people who collect these toys as it is about the toysa themselves ...interesting
Greatest toy series ever. Always.
This is a fantastic documentary. Conversely, I remember G.I. Joe following suit with listing figures on the back of their cards.
Thank you for posting this. It’s my comfort movie 😂
I remember going into a Toys R Us in Ottawa, seeing so many Power Of The Force action figures. It was like... Star Wars is over. I don't and never did really like the packaging. Looking at them now, there is a pretty strong difference in the styles of the sculpts during the original 3 movies and Power of The Force. It's almost as if an entirely new group of people were doing the sculps.
At 39:39 ...I almost threw up...from laughing so hard!!!!!!! A PEANUT!!!! BRILLIANT!!!!!!
Those guys seem so cool. Glad they were there at the right time. 🙏😊
They weren’t. They’re like late 30s. They dkwtf Star Wars was
A kid who lived around the corner from my house was the first kid i knew to have an extensive original Star Wars toy collection . Kisses spend all these screen time playing only Star wars games online have no idea what it's like to actually having a wonderful time playing with plastic figurines and creating your own stories. That is so sad😢.
I’m 49 and I remember coming out of the movie theater on Long Island and there were “people” handing out small catalogs of the Kenner toys that were coming out. If I only had that catalog now it would probably be worth a fortune. Anyway my life changed forever that night.
I am the same age as you, grew up mainly in upstate NY (though we lived in Tampa when Empire came out) and saw the first movie at a drive in. It rained halfway through and we had to leave. Only time I remember crying as a little kid that did not involve me crashing on my bike and smashing my face in the pavement or breaking a bone. I never got to see the second half of Star Wars until he early eighties when it was on HBO. It stuck in my head enough though that when I was 5 and saw trailer for Empire, i about shot my pants in happiness. I was buzzing around the house with my X wing and tie fighter for weeks until my dad took me to see it in a theater.
One of the times I saw Star Wars was at the drive in at Catskills/hudson- my family has upstate NY places-
In the actual towns of Catskill/Cairo/ Hudson? Or a bit further south in Sullivan or Ulster county? I never realized as a kid that the Catskill my grandparents lived near was not the Catskill mountains area, that was further south, we had the foothills of it near us. My first duty station the NYSP was down in Liberty in Sullivan County, which is considered part of the Catskills. I would have seen it somewhere in Catskill/Cairo/palenville area, I can’t for the life of me remember where the couple of drive ins were exactly located. I am in the center of the state now, and there are two or three drive ins here. One re opened due to covid, owners took advantage of social distancing stuff and bought a drive in theater in unadilla.
Ha! I had nearly ALL the toys AND saw A New Hope 8 times in the summer of 77. Amazingly my WWII vet father loved the movie almost as much as I did!
“A New Hope”. 🙄
Brilliant. Cut and paiste from the hockey/baseball card collectables idea and you got a lot of money coming in.
I sure wish I still had mind, as funny as some of them looked .. they all were awesome.
The Action Figures where as big as the movies.
It was a phenomenon.
I was in a K-Mart and wandered to the toy section and saw these very strange looking toys on a rack. In a side aisle was a wire basket full of action figures. Kids must have torn them out of the packets and they were gathered up and a stock clerk left them sitting on the shelf.
Me and another kid were staring at the basket of loose figures and then he says, _"Get one!"_ Before I could say anything he reaches in, grabs a handful, slaps one into my hand and we shot out of there in opposite directions.
I ran until I was in the parking lot, jumped into our car and hid in the back seat. I was terrified and stayed there until were went home. I finally worked up the nerve to look at the toy and it was a tiny brown figure in brown cloth cloak and I thought, "What the hell is this!"
And that was my very first Star Wars action figure and introduction to the movie. A Jawa.
I never had one. And when I got older I didn't want them. But I love this video. Because I know what I would have been like.
I'm 50. I still got my Star Wars toys displayed in my living room.
Personally I am just getting back all my old toys to play with again for when I become senile and child like. Or to give to a niece or nephew, or special needs cousin.
Hasbro buying Kenner...yep, that was the true death knell for Star Wars toys.
Hearing Steven Sansweet's delivery of "Oh, the satisfaction!" at 15:04 is worth the watch alone. 😂