-William Blake
"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
-William Blake
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I watched the first two episodes of this Netflix series recently. The show is in its second season now, but I'm just starting season one. Each episode examines the history of a classic or immensely popular toy in a lively and informative manner, and is frequently quite amusing. The first episode is about the Star Wars toys and memorabilia, which have made more money than the actual films in theaters. It was really interesting to see how, when George Lucas was making his first Star Wars film, it was next to impossible to get any toy company to take a gamble on him. All of the big name companies like Mattel and Hasbro turned Lucas down and he was forced to use a small virtually unknown toy company called Kenner. Kenner agreed to take on making the movie toys, but only if they retained 95% of the profits. Lucasfilm was desperate enough that they were forced to agree to these terms... and then of course, the movie was a bit of a hit. It would be years, though, before Lucas would be able to get a better deal. Some of the best parts of the Star Wars episode were interviews with some of the toy designers and builders. Their stories of trying to get prototype toys together on a shoestring budget before the first movie were interesting and often really funny. One describes how, when working on the Jawa action figure, he couldn't find any fabric in the workshop which looked like the Jawa cloaks. Then looking down, he realized that he was wearing brown socks so took one off and cut it up, fashioning a cloak out of it. The Jawa prototype was shipped off to be shown to the executives wearing his worn sock. I quite enjoyed seeing Star Wars on the ground floor, so to speak, before it was the money-making behemoth it became. After the movies became mega hits, they of course get more money to make bigger and better toys- like the model Millennium Falcon- but happily there are also a lot of really cheesy items, like the lightsaber toothpick holder. The show also interviews various collectors of Star Wars toys, from the casual nostalgic buyers to the dead serious collectors. The guy in this picture owns the biggest collection in the world; at one point he says that his collection has become the most important thing in his life. Which is really sad. The show, however, is light, fast paced, and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to watching more episodes in the series.
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About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
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