Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys DVD Review

Toady we’re taking a look at a documentary about the vintage Kenner Star Wars toy line called Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys.

Late one night, almost 2 weeks ago I was working an overnight shift and killing time on Facebook when I came across a status update announcing that this new documentary about vintage Star Wars toys was now available to buy on DVD. Apparently there had been a very successful kickstarter campaign that went completely under my radar 2 years ago. As I watched the documentary’s trailer I thought it seemed interesting, what sealed the deal for me and made me click the buy button was seeing interviews with Kenner employees talking about all the behind the scenes work and other anecdotes about working at Kenner.

Yesterday I received my copy of the Plastic Galaxy DVD. The case looks as professional as any other DVD you see on the market as does the DVD disc itself.

Even though it was already pretty late by the time I got home and opened my new DVD, I still wanted to at least give the documentary a try….I stayed up til almost 2AM watching the movie and all the special features!

The main movie runs an hour and seven minutes and starts with Star Wars collectors telling us what Star Wars toys mean to them. This was one of the aspects of the trailer I wasn’t too keen on at first, but watching it in the movie, it fits naturally and I find I enjoy it more than I thought I would. We then move on to a brief history of Kenner’s start into toys, the boom and eventual decline of the Star Wars phenomenon. There’s talk about prototypes, unproduced toys, how the figures are made (I didn’t realize they were sculpted on a 1:1 ratio instead of the 2:1 ratio GI Joes were sculpted as) There’s even a little bit of the Star Wars toys resurrection in the 90’s.

There’s four special features totaling 37 minutes talking about Prototypes, Mega Collector Steve Sansweet, The micro toy line (one of my favorites) and a funny special with info about the role play lightsaber toys.

When I ordered this DVD that late night, I figured it might be kinda cool and I hoped it’d have some nifty info I didn’t know. What I watched was really informative and just jam packed full of Star Wars toy history. I highly recommend this DVD to any Star Wars toy fan or anyone who enjoys learning about behind the scenes aspects of action figures.

The DVD can be ordered from the Plastic Galaxy website for $21