Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys Page #2

of a billion

action figures.

Just wrap your head

around that.

That's a lot of toys.

There had never been

a successful toy license

based on a movie.

Movies came and went.

Plus, the licensing industry

at that point was fairly new.

(Lopez) There had been some

tie-ins of movies and toys.

So there are examples

of like "planet of the apes"

years after the films came out.

Nobody had really done

a massive toy line

at the release of a film.

You know, I think

somewhere in George's mind,

the feeling of "star wars"

was on the 1930s serials.

And they had been merchandised.

For its time

it was a good success.

And I guess that somewhere

in his mind he thought,

"well, you know, maybe

there's something like that

for "star wars."

Send away for a Luke Skywalker

decoder ring.

(20th century fox theme)

So, lucasfilm and fox,

you know, the sent out

the information

and a solicitation

to all of the major

toy companies in the us.

And that included

mattel and hasbro.

They decided, ah, you know,

by the time we would

get the toys out,

nobody's even gonna

remember this movie.

And so they all passed.

But there was this

second-tier toy company

in Cincinnati

called kenner products.

They were know for making toys

that kind of mimicked

real-world experiences.

So the easy-bake oven

was like a toy oven

that girls could mimic

what their mom's did

with a real oven.

They made a toy

that was like a miniature cow

and you could milk it.

They made a goat that

you could feed things to.

They became associated

with play-doh.

Activity-type toys.

Here we are on kenner street

where the company got its name.

So 1947, when the company

originally got started out,

it was a spinoff of a soap

company, Cincinnati soap.

The soap company,

like any other company,

was looking for a way

to get people to use

more and more of their products

and to differentiate

from somebody else.

And they came up with the idea

for a gun that shot bubbles.

Procter and gamble at

that time was really wanting

to get into consumer

home-goods,

so they bought Cincinnati soap.

And the guys

from Cincinnati soap

called up and said, "well,

what about the bubble gun?"

Did you buy

the rights to that?"

Immediately, "no, no,

no interest in that."

And they said, "well, do you

mind if we run with it?"

And, uh, kenner toys

was on its way.

Colonel Steve Austin,

the six million dollar man,

and the new bionic

transporting repair-station.

Kenner had had a lot of success

with the six million dollar man,

and that started

to get them thinking

about doing other properties.

So I'm sure that's what kenner

saw in "star wars" partially.

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