“Craze to collect movie’s toys leads to back-room deals”
There was a time when Kenner’s 1990s Star Wars: Power of the Force action figure line (Amazon.com search*) was in high demand. People chased down hard-to-find toys, focused on odd variants and paint errors, and scalpers bought out entire store stock just to flip the toys for double, triple, or more. It was a weird time.
And then the Special Edition films hit theaters and made things even stranger. As this Lawrence Journal-World newspaper article from January 26, 1997, tells us:
“It’s a world where rumored shortages of certain figures send diehard fans into hunting frenzies, where prices for 1977 originals can reach thousands of dollars, where bribing toy-store workers for favors is not uncommon.”
We’re unlikely to ever see days like this again.
Related articles
- Kenner’s Star Wars in Cincinnati Magazine in 1997 (battlegrip.com)
- 1996 Star Wars In-Store Video from Kenner (battlegrip.com)
- Star Wars Expanded Universe in the February, 1998 ToyFare (battlegrip.com)