logo Sign In

How big was Star Wars in the 70s 80s and 90s

Author
Time

I’m a 20 years old and of course I know Star Wars is big now but how huge was it in the 20th century

Author
Time

Starwarsrules said:

I’m a 20 years old and of course I know Star Wars is big now but how huge was it in the 20th century

The 20th century?

I’m not sure a post has ever made me feel older than this one.

Author
Time

TV’s Frink said:

Starwarsrules said:

I’m a 20 years old and of course I know Star Wars is big now but how huge was it in the 20th century

The 20th century?

I’m not sure a post has ever made me feel older than this one.

Yes, your life spans two centuries… millennia, even!

Author
Time

I can’t say for the 70s and early 80s, but during the late 80s and until 97, Star Wars was just… there. Three highly regarded films that people loved, but that’s about it.

I would even say that Star Wars kinda stagnated in the 90s. There were video games and novels, but they were really only for fans.

The Special Editions pumped life into it and then the prequels ignited the super franchise fire that we have today.

I also think that because people who grew up on the films are now adults has a lot to do with the superfandom it has today. They’re buying tickets and making their kids watch these movies who want to buy toys and dress up for Halloween…rince, repeat.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

Author
Time

Mavimao said:

making their kids watch these movies who want to buy toys and dress up for Halloween…rince, repeat.

Hahaha you make it sound like GET BACK IN YOUR ROOM AND STAY THERE UNTIL YOU LIKE STAR WARS!!!

Author
Time

Respectfully to the OP, shouldn’t this type of question be in the General Star Wars Random Thoughts Thread?

Author
Time

Mavimao said:

I can’t say for the 70s and early 80s, but during the late 80s and until 97, Star Wars was just… there. Three highly regarded films that people loved, but that’s about it.

I would even say that Star Wars kinda stagnated in the 90s. There were video games and novels, but they were really only for fans.

The Special Editions pumped life into it and then the prequels ignited the super franchise fire that we have today.

I also think that because people who grew up on the films are now adults has a lot to do with the superfandom it has today. They’re buying tickets and making their kids watch these movies who want to buy toys and dress up for Halloween…rince, repeat.

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Author
Time

GlastoEls said:

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Don’t forget the birth of LucasArts games, 90s was its prime.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

Author
Time

GlastoEls said:

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Before the Dark Times. Before the Special Editons and the Prequels.

It seems like people are really embracing the new characters. In fact, the big question people ask me now about Star Wars is, “Are Finn and Poe gay lovers?” And really how the f*ck would I know? My second husband left me for a man, so my gaydar isn’t exactly what you’d call Death Star level quality. ----Carrie Fisher

Author
Time

LexX said:

GlastoEls said:

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Don’t forget the birth of LucasArts games, 90s was its prime.

Yes!!!

Thinking about it, it was my all time favourite era.

Author
Time

LexX said:

GlastoEls said:

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Don’t forget the birth of LucasArts games, 90s was its prime.

Wasn’t that just a name change for Lucasfilm Games, founded in 1982? 😉


I’d love to see modern versions of ballblaxzer and Rescue On Fractalus.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

I can just see the OP now, thinking “what’s a disk?”

Author
Time
 (Edited)

SilverWook said:
Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!

Hah the jacked up figures, those were the days. Galoob made some great stuff too. That period was the height of Star Wars for me growing up with the 1995 video tapes. Looking back it was all clearly a big brand awareness push as they headed for Shadows of the Empire, the SEs and the PT.

Author
Time

And the really long lightsabers. 😉

I’ve long wondered what the actors thought of their buffed out likenesses.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

Mocata said:

I think the quote from Mark Hamill was “Good God, they’ve put me on steroids!” but here it’s “Me? I wish!” http://www.starwars.com/news/force-throwback-the-first-modern-star-wars-action-figures

I don’t remember the sabers being this long, but the extra blasters were way too big and the plastic was always bent.

Damn, I actually had all of those when I was a kid (though I assume there were more in that line than what’s in that article?).

Author
Time

Yeah there were more waves just like today. I remember picking up R2, Han, Chewbacca and Vader when they had just arrived. It was really funny to compare them to the originals I had collected where everyone was so thin, there was no middle ground.

Author
Time

Mocata said:

I think the quote from Mark Hamill was “Good God, they’ve put me on steroids!” but here it’s “Me? I wish!” http://www.starwars.com/news/force-throwback-the-first-modern-star-wars-action-figures

I don’t remember the sabers being this long, but the extra blasters were way too big and the plastic was always bent.

It was something Kenner corrected early on, making the long saber variants more valuable to collectors.

Pity we never got a buff Porkins. 😉

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

I remember I used to take the cloak of my vintage Bib Fortuna and put it on Luke to make him more a Jedi. Buff Farmboy first than Dagobah Luke.

It seems like people are really embracing the new characters. In fact, the big question people ask me now about Star Wars is, “Are Finn and Poe gay lovers?” And really how the f*ck would I know? My second husband left me for a man, so my gaydar isn’t exactly what you’d call Death Star level quality. ----Carrie Fisher

Author
Time

Classic Bib Fortuna’s cloak was missing, so I had to steal another one from Morgan Freeman out of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

Author
Time

SilverWook said:

LexX said:

GlastoEls said:

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Don’t forget the birth of LucasArts games, 90s was its prime.

Wasn’t that just a name change for Lucasfilm Games, founded in 1982? 😉

If you didn’t know they changed the name in 1990 and they made their first SW game in the 90s, hence the birth of LucasArts’ SW games at that point…

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Well I was born in ‘93 so those ‘buffed up’ Kenner toys was actually my intro to Star Wars toy wise, and the Collectors Series 12 inch figures. I also used to like the Star Wars Bend Em figures and I had some of the Micromachine sets. Video wise it was the 1995 Faces set.