The History of Kenner's Star Wars toys - documentary

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Happy Little Toys In 1957, the space war had started with the Soviet Union successfully launching the first space satellite Sputnik. They also put the first human in orbit in 1961. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully touched down on Damun, igniting even more interest in outer space. Along came George Lucas in the year 1977, who unleashed a box office behemoth and created a franchise that is still going strong 45 years later. Of course, that movie was Star Wars, and along with it came Star Wars Fever, which included merchandise and toys for as far as the eye could see. In today's episode, we are taking a look at all those wonderful Star Wars toys that were produced to go along with the movie. Why did kids receive a piece of cardboard under their Christmas tree from Kenner in 1977? What is the holy grail of Star Wars figures? So set your blasters to stun and watch out for the Wookiees. This is the history of Kenner's Star Wars toys. The year is 1975, and up-and-coming filmmaker George Lucas has a script for a sci-fi classic entitled Star Wars. Compared to all the other low-budget space movies, this was going to be epic, but it was also shrouded in secrecy. Lucas had commissioned a series of designs for the film and thought these would be perfect toys for little boys everywhere. They shopped their pitch around to all the major toy companies at the time, including Mego, Hasbro, and Parker Brothers, but none of them were interested. They found a small company by the name of Kenner in Cincinnati, Ohio who met with Lucas and came to a handshake agreement to produce toys based on the movie. Ideally, toy production is started two years in advance of the movie's release, giving time for tooling and likeness approval which sometimes doesn't go all that well. The handshake deal was in April of 1976, and they knew they couldn't get the toys out in time for the film's premiere. Something else to contend with was the scale. At the time, the most popular line for a number of years was G.I. Joe with their 12-inch figures. There was no cost-effective way they could create an X-Wing or a TIE fighter to accommodate these large figures. Bernie Loomis, president of Kenner, held out two fingers and told his production team to measure the gap in between. They took out a ruler and measured exactly 3 and 3 quarter inches. This would be the scale for all Star Wars figures. The initial prototypes were cobbled together from truck drivers in the Fisher price line because they already had articulation. Kenner had Lucas over the barrel when it came to negotiations because no other company would produce the toys. Kenner received 95 cents of every dollar on every Star Wars toy that was sold with the other 5 cents being split equally between Lucas and 20th Century Fox. The contract Kenner made with Lucasfilm was forever, provided they paid $10,000 a year. If they failed to meet this requirement, the license would revert back to Lucasfilm. If you stop and consider that over 300 million action figures were sold between 1978 to 1985, Kenner definitely got the better deal. Due to the secrecy surrounding the designs and also the long tooling process, the figures would not be made available until the spring of 1978. To quench the thirst of rabid Star Wars fans everywhere, they did release some non-figure related toys such as board games, puzzles, and bop bags. Mr. Loomis came up with an ingenious plan to sell a certificate known as the Early Birds Certificate Package, which promised the first four figures including Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 provided you mail back in the certificate. You are also promised to receive these figures before they actually reach the stores, essentially being the cool kid on the block because you got yours first. [00:04:28] Speaker 2: After these messages, we'll be right back. [00:04:33] Speaker 3: It's the new Star Wars Landspeeder. [00:04:35] Speaker 2: Wow, looks like it's floating. The sand people are gonna accept Luke Skywalker and his Landspeeder to get us out. [00:04:42] Speaker 3: Action figures each sold separately. The Landspeeder has a snap-open space hatch, and Star Wars action figures R2-D2 and C-3PO fit right in back. [00:04:50] Speaker 4: Hurry, they're fancy. Activate spring glide wheels. The force goes with us. Yeah. [00:04:57] Speaker 3: Kenner's new Star Wars Landspeeder. Action figures each sold separately. [00:05:01] Speaker 1: As soon as the toys hit the store shelves in 1978, they were gone just as quick. The initial line consisted of 12 figures including everybody's favorites such as Princess Leia, Han Solo, Darth Vader, C-3PO, Chewbacca, and the Death Squad Commander. Curiously enough, we never got a Grand Moff Tarkin figure, which I always thought was a bit strange. Kids and parents alike would snatch these up immediately with sales of over $100 million in the first year alone. To go along with their 3 and 3 quarter inch scale figures, a number of vehicles and play sets were able to be produced such as the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Luke's Landspeeder, and of course, the vehicle everybody wanted, the Millennium Falcon. One of the many places they produced was the Star Wars Cantina, which included four figures including Snaggletooth, who was also the same size as the other wacky space aliens. In reality, the photo that was given to Kenner for reference did not point out that he was smaller in stature than everybody else and wore a different colored jumpsuit. Kenner would later go on to make a corrected version of the figure. They also wanted a piece of that sweet, sweet 12-inch pie and decided to release a number of Star Wars figures in that scale to compete with G.I. Joe. I always loved these large ones. [00:06:30] Speaker 4: That's what she said. [00:06:32] Speaker 1: And thought they were really cool and came with some really neat accessories. For example, Boba Fett had a removable jetpack and cape. R2-D2 had a secret compartment to store his Death Star plans. Luke had his utility belt that held his lightsaber and grappling hook. And Princess Leia had her hairbrush and mirror so she could keep her hairstyle up even though her spirits were down. Plans were pretty far along into the second wave when it was canceled. Some of the reason had to do with the larger scale making it more costly to produce. Similar to Barbie and the $6 million dollar man line, they were going to release a number of outfits for the dolls. Luke has his X-Wing pilot uniform as well as his Yavin ceremony outfit seen at the end of the first movie. Princess Leia also had a number of different outfits that were brand new and not seen on the big screen. There was even a Lando Calrissian that was produced that featured an excellent likeness of actor Billy Dee Williams. If you're talking about Star Wars toys, the absolute holy grail would have to be the mail-away offer for a rocket-firing Boba Fett. After mailing in four proofs of purchase, a rocket-firing Boba Fett would be dispatched to you ASAP. The problem when he finally arrived was that the rocket did not fire. In 1978, there was a space-themed TV show by the name of Battlestar Galactica. This was an overnight hit and produced a number of toys and play sets, including the ship known as the Colonial Viper. This toy had the ability to shoot projectiles, but after a few close calls with children almost choking to death, a four-year-old was playing with it when it suddenly discharged and the rocket got lodged in his throat, ultimately killing him. It was around this time that the Boba Fett figure was getting ready to ship when Kenner decided against releasing it with this feature added. There are reportedly 30 or less prototypes that still exist, but some are in a bit of disarray. No matter what anybody tells you, they never made it to retail. Two different prototypes were produced, each one having a different rocket-firing mechanism. The more common is the L-shaped, but that was redesigned later on into a J-shape so that the launcher could lock into place. These prototypes typically sell for over $100,000 at auction. I have to quickly mention the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special just to point out the fact that Lucas was so positive that this was going to be a hit that they were going to produce figures based on the show. Luckily, cooler has prevailed and we were saved from the abomination, at least in plastic form. If you're curious how bad this thing actually is, it's up on YouTube, so watch it while you can. [00:09:29] Speaker 4: See you, part one! [00:09:31] Speaker 5: It's new AT-AT, the all-terrain armored transport from Kenner. Batteries not included. Action figures each sold separately. You can make AT-AT walk. Its legs are big enough to crush obstacles. You can move AT-AT's head and pretend to scan for rebels. AT-AT has a cockpit for Imperial Commander and AT-AT Driver and laser machine guns. When you push a button to fire the laser cannons, you activate battle lights and sounds. There's even a troop compartment. New AT-AT from Kenner's Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back collection. [00:09:58] Speaker 1: In 1980, when the Empire Strikes Back was released into theaters, Kenner was more than ready to meet the demand with brand new figures and playsets. 30 new figures were introduced, although some were just slight variations on the old ones, such as C-3PO with removable limbs and R2-D2 with his sensor scope. We also received brand new favorites, such as Lando Calrissian, Yoda, IG-88, Luke and Han in their Hoth outfits, Luke and his Bespin fatigues, and more. Some of the cool new vehicles we received were the Slave I, which included Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and also an AT-AT, which was huge and also expensive. My best friend Chris had this growing up, and I was extremely jealous. The new playsets available were Yoda's Dagobah set, the Hoth Ice Planet playset, Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, and the Sears-exclusive Cloud City, among others. Like many kids in the 70s, I can recall fondly looking over the Sears or JCPenney Christmas catalog and drooling like a 13-year-old boy in a cat house, looking at all the wonderful toys on display, especially the Star Wars line. In late 1981, figure sales had started to slow down, and with no new films on the horizon until 1983's Return of the Jedi, Kenner had looked to keep the line going by introducing the micro-collection. [00:11:49] Speaker 4: You and me, Ben Kenobi. What's this? Oh, no! The wall! Run for it! Made it! [00:11:56] Speaker 5: Death Star World from Star Wars micro-collection line. Playsets also sold separately. Figures included. New from Canada. [00:12:01] Speaker 1: These were a series of 1-1⁄4-inch scale figures that were the right size to fit in with playsets of the same scale that would have been too expensive to produce for the 3-3⁄4-inch line. Each playset included between 4 and 8 non-movable figures and were conceived to connect together with other playsets of the same world to make one large environment. As a kid, I loved these because we got miniature versions of the Millennium Falcon, Death Star playset, Hoth, and Bespin playset, which was my favorite in the series. This included the freeze chamber that allows you to lower Han Solo into the chamber and freeze him into carbonite. Very cool indeed. The line was canceled after only a year, which a lot of people believe parents did not want to start purchasing a new line of Star Wars toys, considering they had already purchased a 3-3⁄4-inch scale. Others claim it was a lack of posability when it came to the figures. Production was started on even more sets, including a Dagobah set, Bespin Torture Chamber, and more. They were even going to release the Slave I, which would have been way cool in my opinion. For the return of the Jedi, we were supposed to get Jabba's Throne Room and the Death Star set Number 2, among others. On a side note, Kenner was so confident in this line that they had intended to make micro-collections of Indiana Jones as well as the superpowers. [00:13:43] Speaker 6: Accessories and action figures all sold separately. [00:13:45] Speaker 2: Man, the catapult wicked fire! The bunkers did bad! Let's blow the four-field! We did it! The Empire's finished this time! [00:13:52] Speaker 6: Feeder bike, what combat glider, assault catapult, and action figures sold separately? Only from Kenner's [00:13:57] Speaker 1: Star Wars Return of the Jedi collection. 1983 saw the release of Return of the Jedi into theaters and along with it, lots of wonderful new toys. By this point, interest in the product had started to wane just a little bit thanks to competition from other brands such as Masters of the Universe and the entire video game phenomenon. A total of 31 new figures were released which included Luke in his Jedi Knight robes, Gamorrean Guard, Admiral Ackbar, Biker Scout, Biv Fortuna, and everyone's favorite Ewok wicket. We also got some new vehicles such as the Emperor's Imperial Shuttle, Speeder Bike, the B-Wing Fighter, and a Y-Wing Fighter. We also got some really cool playsets like the Ewok Village and Jabba the Hutt action playset. A giant Rancor monster was also released so you could recreate Luke killing that poor, helpless creature over and over in the comfort of your own living room. In 1984, Kenner released the Power of the Force line which featured figures that were not released in the regular original trilogy. We were treated to such delights as Han Solo in Carbonite, Imperial Dignitary, Luke Skywalker in his Imperial Stormtrooper outfit, Anakin Skywalker, and Yak Face among others. These also came with a collectible coin which was the first thing most kids lost, myself included. The rarest figure on the card in the series is Anakin because he was given away as a free mail-in offer. He is absolutely calm and loose but extremely hard to find on the card. There were a few unique vehicles released such as the Ewok Battle Wagon and also the Tatooine Skiff. In 1985, Star Wars returned to the small screen with a couple of different animated cartoons with the first one being droids which involves everyone's favorite duo R2-D2 and C-3PO. The other one being Ewoks which was obviously based on Wicket and his crazy wacky pals on the forest moon of Endor. Some of the figures included in the droids line were C-3PO and R2-D2 but they were colored more in line like the cartoon series. Uncle Gundy, Tig Fromm and Size Fromm. We also got an A-Wing fighter and a side gunner. The new Ewoks figures we received were King Gornish, Wicket and Duloc Shaman. All three lines would run until late 1985 to early 1986. Sales were decent but for some reason the Ewok line was really popular in Europe and not so much in America. Kenner had wanted to keep the line going but Lucas had said he wanted to give the brand a break and let it breathe. With every figure option exhausted and no new content coming from Lucasfilm, Kenner had no choice but to let the license laughs and it reverted back to Lucasfilm. George Lucas did get his revenge when it came to Kenner but that is another story for another day. Anytime I see a vintage Star Wars figure it takes me back to a simpler time in my childhood. It definitely gives me the warm fuzzies just thinking about it and a silly creepy smile upon my face. I have fond memories of creating these epic space battles in the middle of my parents' living room taking out Darth Vader and helping the Ewoks drop some boulders on a few stormtroopers. If you didn't even have any friends to play with you could let your imagination run wild and always play with yourself. I hope everyone enjoyed this retrospective on the history of Kenner's Star Wars. If you like this video please consider giving me a thumbs up commenting and subscribing. If you also want to learn about the history of video games check out my other channel Patman QC the history of arcade documentaries. Also if you would like to support me on Patreon please click the link below. Thank you everybody for watching. [00:18:19] Speaker ?: Thank you.