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old kenner commercial reels

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probably 10 years ago I had a really bad generation-loss VHS of a compilation of the american kenner adverts. it included a marketing reel that (presumably) was never on telly but was shown to toyshops or distributors or whatever. in it, i'm sure there was reference to 12 star wars movies that would "send your sales out of this universe", or something similar. i'm sure Hamill made reference to 12 films during an early 1977ish interview.

the question is, did I create this memory all on my own, or is there anything out there that could corroborate (or not) this? does anyone else remember the talk of 12 movies (I suppose you could count episodes 1-6 then the holiday special and the two ewok films to make 9, with the remaining 3 being the ones that Lucas has said he won't make (thank goodness)).

[ oh wait, seems i'm not going mad - http://www.iesb.net/movies/movie90904.htm - whew! ]
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Bizarrely I have just dug out my copy of the Kenner showreel to copy for a friend.

Yes 12 movies was mentioned on more than one occasion way back near the start of the phenomonen. I think the first mention was in a very early edition of Bantha Tracks the Fan Club newsletter. 12 movies didn't last for too long and got cut down to 9 fairly quickly.

In all fairness I also have an interview (in print, Rolling Stone I think) where Lucas says he is only planning 6 films and that was from the seventies, so we can't blame him for not delivering 9 movies.
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He did say that he had nine planned at some point.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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If you search back a little bit, you'll find a thread about The Secret History of Star Wars, a book written by one of our forum members, zombie84. Not only is it a wonderful read in itself, but it details quite exhaustively the history of how many movies were planned at any given time. At one point, there were going to be twelve movies, with the original Star Wars being the first chapter (not the fourth) in that twelve movie series.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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must mean this:
http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/book.html
?

(man google rocks!)

looks interesting, will certainly give it a read. unauthorised stuff is generally the best ....
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Yep, that's exactly right. I'd forgotten he had a website for it. But, yes, you should definitely give it a read.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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By the way folks, there's a fantastic new Kenner Commercials DVD sourced mostly from 8mm and 16mm film, out now. Check it out here

It's worth mentioning that I helped make it but have never and will never accept any money for my involvement.

JD

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar
By the way folks, there's a fantastic new Kenner Commercials DVD sourced mostly from 8mm and 16mm film, out now. Check it out here

It's worth mentioning that I helped make it but have never and will never accept any money for my involvement.
Finally!

I have been waiting forever for someone to do a really good DVD of those in good quality. I recently compiled all the ones I have, and I believe I have every single one, but the quality is crap for most of them, and I couldn't find a better source.

I need to look into this further. Sounds like they may be trying to charge for it, though? If not, and they are making this freely available, then they have my full respect.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]