The Phantom Menace’s Toy Legacy
It’s hard to say that any other Star Wars toy launch since has reached the frenzy that Phantom Menace’s did. The closest equivalent, the 2015 launch of The Force Awakens merchandise, is the only that has held a candle to it, and even that could never reach both the sheer pervasive presence or merchandising might Phantom Menace represented.
It wasn’t just scale, either: Kenner’s Episode I figures would pave the way for the next generation of Star Wars toys, evolving the line beyond its nostalgic roots across Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and beyond into the Legacy and Vintage Collections, with better likenesses and more and more articulation. Even when Hasbro, now having fully subsumed the Kenner brand, launched the first ever six-inch Star Wars figures in 2013 with the Black Series, the legacy of those toys lived on—even if we got to the point that now, 25 years later, it’s crazy that Hasbro’s idea of a “Retro” Phantom Menace figure is a replication of those classic ‘70s Kenner toys, rather than the line that kicked the movie’s hype into overdrive.
