Hasbro Offers New Star Wars Toy: An Empty Box

Long, long ago, in a marketing department far, far away, a company named Kenner picked up the license for toys tied-in to the film "Star Wars." In 1977, no one knew how strong The Force would be in this franchise. Soon, though, Kenner discovered it had a hit on its hands, and it had no time to produce stuff to sell. In a stroke of marketing desperation/genius, the company shipped empty boxes that contained a voucher for action figures when they were available. Thus, many got their hands on Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2D2 and Chewbacca. Hasbro bought Kenner in 1992, and thanks to some fine institutional marketing memory, it seems a few lucky kids will once again be able to buy a Star Wars empty box.

Saturday morning, Wal-Mart will start selling 50,000 replicas of the 1977 empty box. The price will be $29.99. Inside is a voucher for the original four action figures. Analysts say that 50,000 is certainly not enough to slake the collectors' thirst for things Star Wars. But how much more glorious could it be from an Ebay, marketing and feature story-writer's point of view. And for those who resist opening the box, a decade from now, who knows what it will be worth? Mercifully, children aren't quite as foolish as some adults. It is hard to imagine a 7- or 8-year-old content to walk out of the store without a real toy but a mere promise of one (or four).

For those unable to get to Wal-Mart Saturday morning (are there such people in America any longer?), Target has its own gimmick, also from Hasbro, which will hit April 2-3 -- the "Lava Reflection Darth Vader" will retail for $15. And Toys 'R Us will have a midnight sale of its holographic Yoda with lightsabre at 12:01 am. Or if one can get to the Toys 'R Us store in Times Square, Manhattan, a $35 purchase of other Star Wars stuff gets the limited edition Yoda as a bonus.

Hasbro's' real genius lurks on the boxes, though. The company says that there are three hidden symbols, one on each box. They are part of a code that, if cracked, can lead to a "secret prize." Just visit the website, and don't rip the box if one is daft enough to actually open it. The "Revenge of the Sith" opens May 19, but the marketing debuts shortly. The toys are likely to succeed regardless of the film's quality, although a bad installment might harm the box office among repeat fans. Giving away the ending is harmless, though. Anakin Skywalker turns into the evil Darth Vader in this one.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home