The History of Star Wars Action Figures

The immense success of the Star Wars movies spawned a line of licensed products. Chief among them was a series of action figures depicting various characters from the films. The figures became a huge hit in their own right and fostered in an entire new line of toys.

Kenner

Kenner Toys first received the license to create Star Wars action figures in 1977. By making the figures smaller than other dolls--3.75 inches each--they could charge less for them, letting kids afford them more easily.

Snafu

Production troubles prevented Kenner from getting the dolls out in time for Christmas 1977. Instead they issued "Early Bird Certificates" that let people pick up the first four figures when they were finally released.

Success

Despite the early misfire, Kenner's line was a huge success, and continued from 1978 until 1985.

Hasbro

Kenner was eventually bought up by Hasbro toys, which produced a new line of Star Wars figures starting in 1995. The "Power of the Force" line featured more muscular figures than those of the 1970s.

Prequels

Hasbro continued producing Star Wars figures through the re-release of the original trilogy in 1997, and created new figures to coincide with the three prequels released from 1999 to 2005.

References

• The Star Wars Toy Museum article on action figure history.