What is the nature of the enduring popularity of Star Wars?
Before the release of The Force Awakens, Star Wars as an entertainment property had roughly generated $20 billion in revenue. The Force Awakens as a movie alone, the first of many more, has broken $2 billion already and counting.
I saw A New Hope in 1977, I was 5, my previous movie experiences were all Disney cartoons and Herbie, which I loved at the time. Star Wars just took root in my core being in a way thats hard to explain but is obviously a global phenomenon. I had to get every single Kenner figure and play set, trips to the super market were a fraught affair for my mother having to listen to my begging as I spied a new figure hanging on the racks it that iconic packaging which when you turned over showed you exactly which figures you were missing. Not only were the next ten years a golden age for movies — Empire, Ghostbusters, Raiders, ET, Gremlins, to name but 5 (I still hate Ewoks.) but also for toys with Star Wars dominating the world — amazing play sets like the Cantina and the Death Star, amazing figures like Bib Fortuna and the Gamorrean Guard.
Cut forward to the late 80’s my mom gives all of my Star Wars treasures to my cousin to probably blow up with fireworks, what did I care, I had just discovered girls!
Cut forward to 2014, I am walking past my local charity shop and I see an amazing Incedible Hulk figure (yep its not Star Wars but the big guy was my enabler), its only £5 so I buy it for my office, I am a head hunter for technology companies.
Cut Forward one month, I have re bought every single Kenner Star Wars figure from my youth from MULTIPLE sources and have actually started collecting other lines. Not only this but because I want to share this collection and geek out with others in the same place as I host and will buy and sell my collections, I have come up with www.clect.com.
Cut forward 2 years Clect is in the App Store and my collecting mania is at its height again. I am 43 with two kids!
So what is the power of this myth created by George Lucas, well its nostalgia, its basic story telling — the hero’s journey, its a fall and a redemption. But most of all its just totally awesome to look at my shelves of 3.5" plastic figures and drift away to a galaxy far far away….
