“He’d like to have a few words with you.”
This advertisement for the Star Wars Episode 1 action figures comes from the January 2000 issue of ToyFare magazine, showing us just how hard Hasbro was trying to sell a line of unpopular action figures. The flooded shelves of 1999 and 2000 were not forgotten in 2002, as this 2002 newspaper article proves. Still, it is nice to see that Hasbro didn’t quit on Star Wars after the disastrous oversupply of 1999 and instead found a way to keep the line in stores. Can you believe that Hasbro has been making new Star Wars toys for over two decades straight now?
Only in the past few years have I felt any desire not to hate the prequel trilogy. But I think we can all agree Darth Maul was pretty dope. This is about the best thing I can say about the two worst things about Star Wars–i.e., the PT and the awful toy wave of the 90s that led us into the 21st century–and this ad really encapsulates what would have been the one-hit wonder status of both those things except that Star Wars actually survived somehow, cuz Star Wars. Now both are kinda quaint.
@Dan N. – I still appreciate the 1995 to 1998 figures. I know the early sculpts are ridiculous, but they’re a snapshot of a very different age.