The 4th article in my UK Fan Experience series arrives over at Jedinet.com as I take a look at some of the products released as Star Wars landed in Great Britain 39 years ago today.
As Star Wars blasted off across the planet, and the word grew that this was something very special indeed, marketing departments scrambled to get Star Wars products out of the factories and onto shelves as fast as possible. With action figures taking 12 – 15 months to design and sculpt there was a big – a very big – gap that needed to be filled.
Here in the UK it wasn’t quite the problem that it was in the States. With the film not arriving here until December 27th1977 and not rolling out nationwide until the spring of ’78, the gap between the viewing of the film and the arrival of the toys was far less. By March 1978, Palitoy began to roll out their products. Great news for UK kids, and those 12 original figures were soon sweeping across the country. In addition, licensees were smart enough to be designing and releasing products that were quick to design and produce. These ‘easy win’ products hit the market, giving fans the chance to own a small piece of the film.
