Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys (2014)

The new Star Wars movie won’t be out for a couple of months, but the expectations are already very high. Fans are slowly fed new information and the merchandising machine has already kicked into high gear. So in stores you can already buy new action figures, lego and clothing which all are linked to the new movie. It’s an industry which really didn’t exist and this documentary shows how it came into existence and very quickly grew to something huge.

Collectors, designers and other enthousiasts are interviewed in this film about the figures. The collectors tell how their passion started and people who worked at the company which produced the toys, Kenner, talk about the design process and how they dealt with not making the deadline before Christmas, but still being able to presell a lot to parents. Not every aspect of collecting is discussed, for example the high prices people are willing to pay and the newer movies are hardly mentioned. It makes Plastic Galaxy a documentary that is very focussed, showing the love people have for the toys and what it did to those who played with it: It made them lifelong fans. It is something they share with their kids and grandkids.

Although I belong to the generation that was around when Star Wars was released, both the movies and the toys were never part of my world. One of my friends did collect the action figures and still regrets selling them when he was a kid.

When I watched the movies at a later age I never really understood the hype around them. What makes these movies so special? Probably because I had seen so many other science fiction movies before the impact of the moment the original movies came out was lost on me. The documentary does manage to make that clear, what it did to kids back then through clever marketing. It makes it an interesting documentary, even if you aren’t a fan of Star Wars.