Thursday, July 14, 2011

Kenner STAR WARS (1978) Toy Commercial


"Look, Artoo! It's a little you!" I believe this was the very first commercial that Kenner produced for their Star Wars toy line. It aired at the end of the Star Wars Holiday Special.

5 comments:

  1. oh man! you just took me back to 1978 with that.

    I really wanted that radio controlled R2 for xmas, but never got it.

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  2. Wow, I don't think I ever saw that one! And with C-3PO (actually voiced by Anthony Daniels no less!), R2-D2 and snippets of the actual John Williams score. WOW! All the Kenner Star Wars toy line ads I remember featured music that tried to sound dramatic, but was NOT the John Williams theme music, and the ads seemed shorter, perhaps 30 seconds. On the other hand, those ads tended to focus only one or two things at a time, instead of over half a dozen.

    I couldn't wait to get the 'Death Star Space Station' playset to go with my action figures! I played with all of that stuff for years, by the way--from recreating the movie scenes to making up my own adventures--and always had fun.
    CR

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  3. With the exception of the radio controlled Artoo, I owned EVERY toy in that commercial.

    Tex
    (Crom, but I miss the 70s!)

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  4. The Badger Kings Says:

    When I got a copy of the SWHA on video tape years ago, the guy who sent it to me included this at the end of the show. Always loved this ad. I, too, had everything in this ad, except for the "stock" TIE fighter (I had Vader's TIE), the radio-controlled Artoo, and the tabletop video game.

    And the Playdoh. 8)

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  5. Actually, this wasn't the very first commercial produced by Kenner for their Star Wars line. That distinction belongs to the Early Bird Certificate (aka, The Empty Box), seen prior to Christmas 1977. The above ad featuring Artoo and Threepio first aired during the Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978.

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