

In fact, Kenner became overwhelmed by the demand.

Their 3 ¾-inch action figures, created to be small and affordable, became a runaway success. After Star Wars creator George Lucas initially had trouble finding a manufacturer for toys associated with the movie, the Kenner Products toy company signed on. Second, in addition to reviving the genre, Star Wars fundamentally changed how licensed toys and memorabilia were created and marketed. The success of science fiction and fantasy movies in the 1980s and beyond owes much to Star Wars. For instance, the planned television series Star Trek: Phase II was revamped and greenlit as Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). The unexpected success of the first Star Wars movie in 1977 inspired other production houses to rediscover space adventures as a bankable genre. But by the 1950s, space science fiction appeared mostly in alien monster movies or as children’s television programming that was cheaply produced and melodramatic. The toys from Buck Rogers even have a holiday story of their own. Space adventures had found wide audiences in the 1930s through characters such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon that began in short stories or comic strips and developed through movie serials and radio programs. So in honor of all of those threes, here are three ways that Star Wars changed the entertainment business.įirst, in the late 1970s, Star Wars revived the marketplace for space science fiction as a genre.
