Plastic Galaxy - Star Wars documentary from 2014
Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars toys.
This was on SBS about a month ago and I finally got to watch it yesterday, and not only is it a must-see for Star Wars toy fans, it is very educational for all of us action figure toy collectors.
That's because the Star Wars toyline was not only revolutionary to the toy industry (1980s toylines like MOTU and Transformers probably wouldn't exist if there hadn't been a Star Wars toyline), but it was produced by the toy company Kenner, who ended up doing Transformers for a few years when Hasbro bought them in the 1990s.
So it gives us a history of the company that had a hand in the resurgence of Transformers during the Beast Wars era, as well as giving us a history of the Action Figure genre of toys in the late 1970s to early 1980s, plus, the processes they had to pioneer to create action figures styled toys.
As many people know, George Lucas offered to sacrifice most of his fee for the original Star Wars movie in exchange for all rights to licensing (including toys) and future movies... and the movie studio agreed because the proposed movie concept seemed too far out there to be successful.
But as we've seen, as successful as the Movie was, the revenue from the toys since then has been even greater, and it was all his.
If this show screens again on TV, make sure you watch it, otherwise, if you are a big Star Wars fan, track down the DVD or buy a copy on itunes.
It was great to see the insight of the surviving toy designers, who seem to be very similar to Transformers designers, and was amazing to see how similar the Star Wars collectors on the documentary are to Transformers fans, collecting rarities, prototypes and pre-production materials.
Not to mention, me recognising the old Kenner offices in Cincinnati from when I was there in 2008 (the pre-convention tour for BotCon drove past it and was pointed out).
