Toy links
George Lucas interviewed.
“I like Japan. I was going to shoot THX there and I spent some time over there. My wife says I am a reincarnated shogun, or at least a warlord. I’ll be fascinated to see what happens over there; Star Wars is slightly designed for Japan.” (See also.)
Tags: article, Interviews, Star Wars
Toy links
Kurosawa and Lucas.
“… Kurosawa himself was heavily influenced by the sweeping Westerns of John Ford. … The genius of Star Wars, by accident and/or by design, was to somehow fuse these disparate elements together – ancient mythology, samurai warriors and futuristic spacecraft …”
Tags: article, movie, Star Wars
Toy links
Cowboys and spacemen.
“By the time the first ‘Star Wars’ film was released, viewers were comfortable with the idea of robots and space explorers thrown into a desolate desert landscape or a lawless saloon like the Cantina.”
Tags: article, movie, Star Wars
Toy links
Toyetic stories.
“Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz claimed that Star Wars made three times as much on toys as it did on films … Toy Story 3 made nearly $10bn from its action figures and other merch – 10 times what it took at the global box office.”
Tags: article, movie, Star Wars
Toy links
Kenner and Star Wars.
“Kenner sold 22 million Star Wars toys annually during the run of the first three films. Supplies sold out in hours. The average kid owned 11 Star Wars toys …”
Tags: article, Kenner, Star Wars
Toy links
Action Man heads for space.
“The doll, owned by Rob Wisdom, of Essex, was launched from a field next to the old Palitoy Factory in Coalville, Leicestershire …”
Tags: Action Man, article, Palitoy
Toy links
Action Man and Star Wars.
“Retailers were offered discounts on the firm’s hugely popular soldier figures if they would take Star Wars toys.”
Tags: Action Man, article, Palitoy, Star Wars
Toy links
Bob Brechin on Palitoy history.
“… Star Wars revolutionised toys in many ways: marketing, the way kids play with toys …” and so the 12-inch Action Man became the 3¾-inch Action Force. (YouTube, 1:12:34)
Tags: Action Force, Action Man, G.I. Joe, Palitoy, Star Wars, video, YouTube
Toy links
Action Force history.
“Globally, Action Force is generally perceived as the British cousin of GI Joe, the Real American Hero, which in part is true, but its influences stretch beyond that …”
Tags: Action Force, article, G.I. Joe, Palitoy, site
Toy links
Star Wars and Action Force.
“… Palitoy used the tooling for the Millennium Falcon radar dish and applied it to the underbelly of the Satellite Defence mini-vehicle for Space Force.”
Tags: Action Force, Action Man, G.I. Joe, Interviews, Palitoy, Star Wars