Here we are, still waiting for the next Star Wars movie The Force Awakens, down to half a year before its release on December 18. While the anticipation is great, it will not compare to the fever pitch it will reach during the holidays. I plan to be there in the midst of all those brown robes, lightsabers, and general frenzy.
You cannot plan too early for such fun, so now is probably a good time to start thinking of strategies for a great Star Wars experience. I’m marking days on my calendar now so nothing gets planned on top of the event. I must make sure I will have vacation time from work saved up that may be needed for theater time (read: line-waiting time).
I’m speaking to my brother and long-distance friends about attending a showing together—something we did for the prequel movies which we thought had ended. But with a whole new trilogy of movies and spin-off movies, we can now carry it on as a tradition. We get together like this because we shared a love of the movie—it has connected us. These ideas are all good for personal plans but what are Lucasfilm and Disney planning before winter?
Lucasfilm is not in hiding. Even though the details of the upcoming movie are shrouded in secrecy, director J. J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy are not shy about appearing at events where there is a Star Wars presence. They both appeared at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim back in April and both have been interviewed several times over the past year.
They are both scheduled to appear at the San Diego Comic-Con International July 9–12. At the mega-event that is Comic-Con, they are sure to present some special looks at The Force Awakens all the while not revealing too much concerning the plot and its characters, of course. It seems that something of substance is revealed with each major appearance by Abrams. At Comic Con he could discuss a character in the film or perhaps bring a guest from the cast to speak with him and Kennedy. The higher-ups involved in the film continue to make plans: plans to appear to fans and keep the hype rolling.
Another of the many plans is the coming of new toys and merchandise to stores. Toys and merchandising of Star Wars comes as no surprise, but their impact cannot be underestimated. Star Wars and toys go hand in hand. While the movies are the most important aspects of the Star Wars world—it is how Star Wars began and from which everything spawned—coming second would be merchandising, and more specifically, toys.
The relationship of movies to its merchandise, like we know it today, was not a major factor before the original Star Wars movie. Even the movie studios of the day did not pay it much heed. George Lucas negotiated much of the merchandising and its profits for Lucasfilm when 20th Century Fox really didn’t care. Even the toy company that signed on, Kenner, was caught completely off-guard when the demand of the toys exploded after the movie became such a smash in 1977. Merchandising for popular movies was suddenly big business.
When the toys got into the stores and caught up with demand, they were a tremendous success. But put aside all the great business sense Lucasfilm had at the time, and consider how the toys really impacted children. Star Wars toys were awesome! I had an X-Wing fighter in my little hands and pretend I was in the climactic battle through the Death Star trenches; I would fire its proton torpedoes to destroy the space station and save the galaxy. Though I didn’t know it or understand it, having that toy caused me to have a profound connection to the movie.
This was a time before home video or premium television channels would have the movie available for home viewing right away. You wouldn’t see these movies anywhere except in the theater for a long time. As kids it wasn’t like we would go to the movies everyday, either. Star Wars was special, and it became a blockbuster because of word of mouth and multiple viewings. So while I was lucky to get to see it multiple times, there was no way to just push play and see it whenever I wanted.
With the toys, though, it was like the movie and its characters were with me. Being a kid and having a Luke Skywalker action figure meant I could take something of the movie and make it my own. I would take this colorful plastic thing and suddenly I was the one re-creating the movie or in most cases, creating my own stories.
You couldn’t get all the toys, but your friends and neighbors would have some of the figures and playsets, too. You would all come together, and collectively, play and set the characters out on adventures. You and your friends would discuss (or argue) about the strength of Hammerhead, the sneakiness of Jawas, whether the Death Star Droid was ever even on the Death Star, and what would happen if Luke and Vader would ever have a lightsaber duel (typical fanboy thinking before The Empire Strikes Back came out).
The point is we would get together and play all because we shared a love of the movie–it connected us. And the toys got us to talk to each other, include others, and create stories. To us, the toys were ubiquitous with the movie–there wasn’t one without the other. It made us more devout fans and the toys probably had much to do with our longevity as fans as simply watching the film.
Vintage X-Wing Toy from Kenner. © Lucasfilm Ltd.
Ever since that time, just about every movie with any hint of appeal to kids has made toys and other merchandise to coincide with it. This passion for movie toys just wasn’t happening like this before Star Wars, but it has certainly been an integral part of many movie properties since. It impacted the toy industry and the film industry which hadn’t seen much value in movie-tie-in products. But now that we’re in a world where these business really see the value in these endeavors, these kinds of toys are everywhere.
So it might be easy to simply dismiss the announcement of new Star Wars toys as inevitable, but for Star Wars fans, there is a deeper connection and a longer history between the movie and fan. For older fans, the connection is resident within us. For newer fans, they often find themselves in a vast world with room enough for everyone to find an interest. The coming blitz of toys—of which there will be many—will be met with a similar level of anticipation to the film itself.
It is beginning with the newly designed Stormtrooper (see it at Entertainment Weekly). The original Stormtrooper was already an iconic image of the saga, and the new look pays homage to the original design but updates it as well. Even with the changes it is already an easily recognizable image, inseparable from Star Wars. It is a good choice to start the line and it already gets me feeling nostalgic.
It was always exciting as a kid to go into a store with your family and hope you might find a new Star Wars figure in the toy section—and hope your parents might get it for you. With Hasbro present at Comic-Con, more toys will certainly be revealed. Most of the new toys will go on sale in stores on what is being called “Force Friday” on September 4. More dates to mark on the calendar.
The toys don’t start and stop with action figures and playsets (or even Legos). There are also the video games. The Disney Infinity game now includes characters from Star Wars.
Image © Disney Infinity.
With the recent announcement of Disney Infinity 3.0, an update to the “toys-to-life” video game featuring characters spanning all Disney-owned franchises, Comic-Con is also hosting a “pop-up shop” where attendees can play the game. The game will feature characters from the Star Wars universe including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo, and even Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars TV series. The character of Ahsoka has also crossed into the Disney-produced Star Wars Rebels along with some of its cast to the Disney Infinity realm, as well.
Image © Disney Infinity.
The game and its collectible figurines really make for quite a spectacle. Beyond the superhero crossover that The Avengers movies showcase, in Disney Infinity, you can bring together characters from across a wide spectrum of properties. For instance, you can play as Queen Elsa (from Frozen) while next to her cooperating on the same adventure can be someone like Wreck-It Ralph.
With the addition of Star Wars characters, Baymax can team up with Chewbacca, Ironman with Han Solo, and so on. The possible combinations are reaching for… (insert “Infinity” joke here). We could barely imagine such games when I was a kid but this is a new way of playing action figures—even though the setting is in a video game, the same principles of playing apply: bringing friends together and making memories by sharing interests. Furthermore, the game appeals to people of all ages from those who like video games, to those who like collecting figurines, and those just interested in Disney.
This brings us to the future. Virtual reality was supposed to be the wave of the future, according to the 1990s. Then in the 2000s it was a dated technology that never met its potential. Now in the mid-2010s (or whatever this decade is supposed to be called) virtual reality is going to be the wave of the future. The thing is, it could very well stick this time. Why? Because they've involved Star Wars, that's why. Well, the application of the virtual reality is interesting, as you can see in the video:
Youtube video of launch of ILMxLAB. © ILMVisualFX.
Visiting the Star Wars galaxy and interacting with its characters seems only to be the beginning of what you could do with virtual reality. The immediate application that comes to my mind would be gaming. Imagine taking a concept like Disney Infinity and being able to jump into the world itself through VR goggles. Perhaps in another game you could explore entire sets used in the movies, or fly the Millenium Falcon in the pilot seat and jump into hyperspace to get to Tatooine while shooting TIE Fighters from laser cannons just in time to help a lone toy X-Wing fighter piloted by some little kid to fire its proton torpedoes to destroy a space station and save the galaxy.
Do any MousePlanet readers have some Star Wars viewing traditions? Any memories of playing Star Wars toys you'd like to share?
