The eventual success of Timothy ZahnвЂ™s novel Heir to the Empire proved that there was still an audience for Star Wars, which helped motivate Lucas to release the special editions. вЂњHe should have dropped a few more hints that the Clone Wars just basically cloned every character in the Kenner line,вЂќ Taylor jokes.

As a boy Taylor resorted to imagining that the Emperor had been cloned, a plot twist that Lucas might have used to boost sales. After the Emperor was vanquished in Return of the Jedi, toy sales fell dramatically. TaylorвЂ™s book explores many of the financial concerns that shaped Star Wars, as well as some of the strategies that helped it succeed. вЂњAll he saw when he was first thinking about products that might emerge from Star Wars was an R2-D2 cookie jar.вЂќ вЂњHe didnвЂ™t even imagine action figures would be a big thing,вЂќ says Chris Taylor, author of the new book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. Even Lucas himself had no inkling about the public demand for Star Wars. The demand caught fledgling toymaker Kenner completely off guard, and they resorted to selling empty boxes stuffed with promissory notes in lieu of actual Christmas merchandise.

But as with Star Wars itself, no one expected the toys to be popular. Those toys played a major role in the filmвЂ™s success, and helped bankroll its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. вЂњIt feels like an indie flick that just happens to have the most amazing, eye-popping stuff in it,вЂќ says Brian Stillman, who recently directed a feature-length documentary about Star Wars toys called Plastic Galaxy.

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